Andr. Marvell Esq. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS BY ANDREW MARVELL Esq Late Member of the Honourable House of Commons LONDON Printed for Robert Boulter at the Turks-Head in Cornhill M. DC LXXXI TO THE READER THese are to Certifie every Ingenious Reader that all these Poems as also the other things in this Book contained are Printed according to the exact Copies of my late dear Husband under his own Hand-Writing being found since his Death among his other Papers Witness my Hand this 15th day of October 1680. Mary Marvell A DIALOGUE BETWEEN The Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure COurage my Soul now learn to wield The weight of thine immortal Shield Close on thy Head thy Helmet bright Ballance thy Sword against the Fight See where an Army strong as fair With silken Banners spreads the air Now if thou bee'st that thing Divine In this day's Combat let it shine And shew that Nature wants an Art To conquer one resolved Heart Pleasure Welcome the Creations Guest Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir Lay aside that Warlike Crest And of Nature's banquet share Where the Souls of fruits and flow'rs Stand prepar'd to heighten yours Soul I sup above and cannot stay To bait so long upon the way Pleasure On these downy Pillows lye Whose soft Plumes will thither fly On these Roses strow'd so plain Lest one Leaf thy Side should strain Soul My gentler Rest is on a Thought Conscious of doing what I ought Pleasure If thou bee'st with Perfumes pleas'd Such as oft the Gods appeas'd Thou in fragrant Clouds shalt show Like another God below Soul A Soul that knowes not to presume Is Heaven's and its own perfume Pleasure Every thing does seem to vie Which should first attract thine Eye But since none deserves that grace In this Crystal view thy face Soul When the Creator's skill is priz'd The rest is all but Earth disguis'd Pleasure Heark how Musick then prepares For thy Stay these charming Aires Which the posting Winds recall And suspend the Rivers Fall Soul Had I but any time to lose On this I would it all dispose Cease Tempter None can chain a mind Whom this sweet Chordage cannot bind Chorus Earth cannot shew so brave a Sight As when a single Soul does fence The Batteries of alluring Sense And Heaven views it with delight Then persevere for still new Charges sound And if thou overcom'st thou shalt be crown'd Pleasure All this fair and cost and sweet Which scatteringly doth shine Shall within one Beauty meet And she be only thine Soul If things of Sight such Heavens be What Heavens are those we cannot see Pleasure Where so e're thy Foot shall go The minted Gold shall lie Till thou purchase all below And want new Worlds to buy Soul Wer 't not a price who 'ld value Gold And that 's worth nought that can be sold. Pleasure Wilt thou all the Glory have That War or Peace commend Half the World shall be thy Slave The other half thy Friend Soul What Friends if to my self untrue What Slaves unless I captive you Pleasure Thou shalt know each hidden Cause And see the future Time Try what depth the Centre draws And then to Heaven climb Soul None thither mounts by the degree Of Knowledge but Humility Chorus Triumph triumph victorious Soul The World has not one Pleasure more The rest does lie beyond the Pole And is thine everlasting Store On a Drop of Dew SEe how the Orient Dew Shed from the Bosom of the Morn Into the blowing Roses Yet careless of its Mansion new For the clear Region where 't was born Round in its self incloses And in its little Globes Extent Frames as it can its native Element How it the purple flow'r does slight Scarce touching where it lyes But gazing back upon the Skies Shines with a mournful Light Like its own Tear Because so long divided from the Sphear Restless it roules and unsecure Trembling lest it grow impure Till the warm Sun pitty it's Pain And to the Skies exhale it back again So the Soul that Drop that Ray Of the clear Fountain of Eternal Day Could it within the humane flow'r be seen Remembring still its former height Shuns the sweat leaves and blossoms green And recollecting its own Light Does in its pure and circling thoughts express The greater Heaven in an Heaven less In how coy a Figure wound Every way it turns away So the World excluding round Yet receiving in the Day Dark beneath but bright above Here disdaining there in Love How loose and easie hence to go How girt and ready to ascend Moving but on a point below It all about does upwards bend Such did the Manna's sacred Dew destil White and intire though congeal'd and chill Congeal'd on Earth but does dissolving run Into the Glories of th' Almighty Sun Ros. CErnis ut Eoi descendat Gemmula Roris Inque Rosas roseo transfluat orta sinu Sollicitâ Flores stant ambitione supini Et certant foliis pellicuisse suis. Illa tamen patriae lustrans fastigia Sphaerae Negligit hospitii limina picta novi Inque sui nitido conclusa voluminis orbe Exprimit aetherei quâ licet Orbis aquas En ut odoratum spernat generosior Ostrum Vixque premat casto mollia strata pede Suspicit at longis distantem obtutibus Axem Inde languenti lumine pendet amans Tristis in liquidum mutata dolore dolorem Marcet uti roseis Lachryma fusa Genis Ut pavet motum tremit irrequieta Cubile Et quoties Zephyro fluctuat Aura fugit Qualis inexpertam subeat formido Puellam Sicubi nocte redit incomitata domum Sic in horridulas agitatur Gutta procellas Dum prae virgineo cuncta pudore timet Donec oberrantem Radio clemente vaporet Inque jubar reducem Sol genitale trahat Talis in humano si possit flore videri Exul ubi longas Mens agit usque moras Haec quoque natalis meditans convivia Coeli Evertit Calices purpureosque Thoros Fontis stilla sacri Lucis scintilla perennis Non capitur Tyria veste vapore Sabae Tota sed in proprii secedens luminis Arcem Colligit in Gyros se sinuosa breves Magnorumque sequens Animo convexa Deorum Sydereum parvo fingit in Orbe Globum Quam bene in aversae modulum contracta figurae Oppositum Mundo claudit ubique latus Sed bibit in speculum vadios ornata rotundum Et circumfuso splendet aperta Die Qua Superos spectat rutilans obscurior infra Caetera dedignans ardet amore Poli. Subsilit hinc agili Poscens discedere motu Undique coelesti cincta soluta Viae Totaque in aereos extenditur orbita cursus Hinc punctim carpens mobile stringit iter Haud aliter Mensis exundans Manna beatis Deserto jacuit Stilla gelata solo Stilla gelata solo sed Solibus hausta benignis Ad sua quâ cecidit purior Astra redit The Coronet WHen for the Thorns with which I long too
Nay others bolder hence esteem Joy now so much her Master grown That whatsoever does but seem Like Grief is from her Windows thrown VII Nor that she payes while she survives To her dead Love this Tribute due But casts abroad these Donatives At the installing of a new VIII How wide they dream The Indian Slaves That sink for Pearl through Seas profound Would find her Tears yet deeper Waves And not of one the bottom sound IX I yet my silent Judgment keep Disputing not what they believe But sure as oft as Women weep It is to be suppos'd they grieve Daphnis and Chloe I. DAphnis must from Chloe part Now is come the dismal Hour That must all his Hopes devour All his Labour all his Art II. Nature her own Sexes foe Long had taught her to be coy But she neither knew t' enjoy Nor yet let her Lover go III. But with this sad News surpriz'd Soon she let that Niceness fall And would gladly yield to all So it had his stay compriz'd IV. Nature so her self does use To lay by her wonted State Left the World should separate Sudden Parting closer glews V. He well read in all the wayes By which men their Siege maintain Knew not that the Fort to gain Better 't was the Siege to raise VI. But he came so full possest With the Grief of Parting thence That he had not so much Sence As to see he might be blest VII Till Love in her Language breath'd Words she never spake before But then Legacies no more To a dying Man bequeath'd VIII For Alas the time was spent Now the latest minut's run When poor Daphnis is undone Between Joy and Sorrow rent IX At that Why that Stay my Dear His disorder'd Locks he tare And with rouling Eyes did glare And his cruel Fate forswear X. As the Soul of one scarce dead With the shrieks of Friends aghast Looks distracted back in hast And then streight again is fled XI So did wretched Daphnis look Frighting her he loved most At the last this Lovers Ghost Thus his Leave resolved took XII Are my Hell and Heaven Joyn'd More to torture him that dies Could departure not suffice But that you must then grow kind XIII Ah my Chloe how have I Such a wretched minute found When thy Favours should me wound More than all thy Cruelty XIV So to the condemned Wight The delicious Cup we fill And allow him all he will For his last and short Delight XV. But I will not now begin Such a Debt unto my Foe Nor to my Departure owe What my Presence could not win XVI Absence is too much alone Better 't is to go in peace Than my Losses to increase By a late Fruition XVII Why should I enrich my Fate 'T is a Vanity to wear For my Executioner Jewels of so high a rate XVIII Rather I away will pine In a manly stubborness Than be fatted up express For the Canibal to dine XIX Whilst this grief does thee disarm All th' Enjoyment of our Love But the ravishment would prove Of a Body dead while warm XX. And I parting should appear Like the Gourmand Hebrew dead While he Quailes and Manna fed And does through the Desert err XXI Or the Witch that midnight wakes For the Fern whose magick Weed In one minute casts the Seed And invisible him makes XXII Gentler times for Love are ment Who for parting pleasure strain Gather Roses in the rain Wet themselves and spoil their Sent. XXIII Farewel therefore all the fruit Which I could from Love receive Joy will not with Sorrow weave Nor will I this Grief pollute XXIV Fate I come as dark as sad As thy Malice could desire Yet bring with me all the Fire That Love in his Torches had XXV At these words away he broke As who long has praying ly'n To his Heads-man makes the Sign And receives the parting stroke XXVI But hence Virgins all beware Last night he with Phlogis slept This night for Dorinda kept And but rid to take the Air. XXVII Yet he does himself excuse Nor indeed without a Cause For according to the Lawes Why did Chloe once refuse The Definition of Love I. MY Love is of a birth as rare As 't is for object strange and high It was begotten by despair Upon Impossibility II. Magnanimous Despair alone Could show me so divine a thing Where feeble Hope could ne'r have flown But vainly flapt its Tinsel Wing III. And yet I quickly might arrive Where my extended Soul is fixt But Fate does Iron wedges drive And alwaies crouds it self betwixt IV. For Fate with jealous Eye does see Two perfect Loves nor lets them close Their union would her ruine be And her Tyrannick pow'r depose V. And therefore her Decrees of Steel Us as the distant Poles have plac'd Though Loves whole World on us doth wheel Not by themselves to be embrac'd VI. Unless the giddy Heaven fall And Earth some new Convulsion tear And us to joyn the World should all Be cramp'd into a Planisphere VII As Lines so Loves oblique may well Themselves in every Angle greet But ours so truly Paralel Though infinite can never meet VIII Therefore the Love which us doth bind But Fate so enviously debarrs Is the Conjunction of the Mind And Opposition of the Stars The Picture of little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers I. SEE with what simplicity This Nimph begins her golden daies In the green Grass she loves to lie And there with her fair Aspect tames The Wilder flow'rs and gives them names But only with the Roses playes And them does tell What Colour best becomes them and what Smell II. Who can foretel for what high cause This Darling of the Gods was born Yet this is She whose chaster Laws The wanton Love shall one day fear And under her command severe See his Bow broke and Ensigns tom Happy who can Appease this virtuous Enemy of Man III. O then let me in time compound And parly with those conquering Eyes Ere they have try'd their force to wound Ere with their glancing wheels they drive In Triumph over Hearts that strive And them that yield but more despise Let me be laid Where I may see thy Glories from some Shade IV. Mean time whilst every verdant thing It self does at thy Beauty charm Reform the errours of the Spring Make that the Tulips may have share Of sweetness seeing they are fair And Roses of their thorns disarm But most procure That Violets may a longer Age endure V. But O young beauty of the Woods Whom Nature courts with fruits and flow'rs Gather the Flow'rs but spare the Buds Lest Flora angry at thy crime To kill her Infants in their prime Do quickly make th' Example Yours And ere we see Nip in the blossome all our hopes and Thee Tom May's Death AS one put drunk into the Packet-boat Tom May was hurry'd hence and did not know 't But was amaz'd on the Elysian side And with an Eye uncertain gazing
wide Could not determine in what place he was For whence in Stevens ally Trees or Grass Nor where the Popes head nor the Mitre lay Signs by which still he found and lost his way At last while doubtfully he all compares He saw near hand as he imagin'd Ares Such did he seem for corpulence and port But 't was a man much of another sort 'T was Ben that in the dusky Laurel shade Amongst the Chorus of old Poets laid Sounding of ancient Heroes such as were The Subjects Safety and the Rebel's Fear But how a double headed Vulture Eats Brutus and Cassius the Peoples cheats But seeing May he varied streight his Song Gently to signifie that he was wrong Cups more then civil of Emilthian wine I sing said he and the Pharsalian Sign Where the Historian of the Common-wealth In his own Bowels sheath'd the conquering health By this May to himself and them was come He found he was translated and by whom Yet then with foot as stumbling as his tongue Prest for his place among the Learned throng But Ben who knew not neither foe nor friend Sworn Enemy to all that do pretend Rose more then ever he was seen severe Shook his gray locks and his own Bayes did tear At this intrusion Then with Laurel wand The awful Sign of his supream command At whose dread Whisk Virgil himself does quake And Horace patiently its stroke does take As he crowds in he whipt him ore the pate Like Pembroke at the Masque and then did rate Far from these blessed shades tread back agen Most servil wit and Mercenary Pen. Polydore Lucan Allan Vandale Goth Malignant Poet and Historian both Go seek the novice Statesmen and obtrude On them some Romane cast similitude Tell them of Liberty the Stories fine Until you all grow Consuls in your wine Or thou Dictator of the glass bestow On him the Cato this the Cicero Transferring old Rome hither in your talk As Bethlem's House did to Loretto walk Foul Architect that hadst not Eye to see How ill the measures of these States agree And who by Romes example England lay Those but to Lucan do continue May. But the nor Ignorance nor seeming good Misled but malice fixt and understood Because some one than thee more worthy weares The sacred Laurel hence are all these teares Must therefore all the World be set on flame Because a Gazet writer mist his aim And for a Tankard-bearing Muse must we As for the Basket Guelphs and Gibellines be When the Sword glitters ore the Judges head And fear has Coward Churchmen silenced Then is the Poets time 't is then he drawes And single fights forsaken Vertues cause He when the wheel of Empire whirleth back And though the World disjointed Axel crack Sings still of ancient Rights and better Times Seeks wretched good arraigns successful Crimes But thou base man first prostituted hast Our spotless knowledge and the studies chast Apostatizing from our Arts and us To turn the Chronicler to Spartacus Yet wast thou taken hence with equal fate Before thou couldst great Charles his death relate But what will deeper wound thy little mind Hast left surviving Davenant still behind Who laughs to see in this thy death renew'd Right Romane poverty and gratitude Poor Poet thou and grateful Senate they Who thy last Reckoning did so largely pay And with the publick gravity would come When thou hadst drunk thy last to lead thee home If that can be thy home where Spencer lyes And reverend Chaucer but their dust does rise Against thee and expels thee from their side As th' Eagles Plumes from other birds divide Nor here thy shade must dwell Return Return Where Sulphrey Phlegeton does ever burn The Cerberus with all his Jawes shall gnash Megaera thee with all her Serpents lash Thou rivited unto Ixion's wheel Shalt break and the perpetual Vulture feel 'T is just what Torments Poets ere did feign Thou first Historically shouldst sustain Thus by irrevocable Sentence cast May only Master of these Revels past And streight he vanisht in a Cloud of pitch Such as unto the Sabboth bears the Witch The Match I. NAture had long a Treasure made Of all her choisest store Fearing when She should be decay'd To beg in vain for more II. Her Orientest Colours there And Essences most pure With sweetest Perfumes hoarded were All as she thought secure III. She seldom them unlock'd or us'd But with the nicest care For with one grain of them diffus'd She could the World repair IV. But likeness soon together drew What she did separate lay Of which one perfect Beauty grew And that was Celia V. Love wisely had of long fore-seen That he must once grow old And therefore stor'd a Magazine To save him from the cold VI. He kept the several Cells repleat With Nitre thrice refin'd The Naphta's and the Sulphurs heat And all that burns the Mind VII He fortifi'd the double Gate And rarely thither came For with one Spark of these he streight All Nature could inflame VIII Till by vicinity so long A nearer Way they sought And grown magnetically strong Into each other wrought IX Thus all his fewel did unite To make one fire high None ever burn'd so hot so bright And Celia that am I. X. So we alone the happy rest Whilst all the World is poor And have within our Selves possest All Love's and Nature's store The Mower against Gardens LUxurious Man to bring his Vice in use Did after him the World seduce And from the fields the Flow'rs and Plants allure Where Nature was most plain and pure He first enclos'd within the Gardens square A dead and standing pool of Air And a more luscious Earth for them did knead Which stupifi'd them while it fed The Pink grew then as double as his Mind The nutriment did change the kind With strange perfumes he did the Roses taint And Flow'rs themselves were taught to paint The Tulip white did for complexion seek And learn'd to interline its cheek Its Onion root they then so high did hold That one was for a Meadow sold. Another World was search'd through Oceans new To find the Marvel of Peru. And yet these Rarities might be allow'd To Man that sov'raign thing and proud Had he not dealt between the Bark and Tree Forbidden mixtures there to see No Plant now knew the Stock from which it came He grafts upon the Wild the Tame That the uncertain and adult rate fruit Might put the Palate in dispute His green Seraglio has its Eunuchs too Lest any Tyrant him out-doe And in the Cherry he does Nature vex To procreate without a Sex 'T is all enforc'd the Fountain and the Grot While the sweet Fields do lye forgot Where willing Nature does to all dispence A wild and fragrant Innocence And Fauns and Faryes do the Meadows till More by their presence then their skill Their Statues polish'd by some ancient hand May to adorn the Gardens stand But howso'ere the Figures do excel
bestows To Her the Meadow sweetness owes Nothing could make the River be So Chrystal-pure but only She She yet more Pure Sweet Streight and Faâ— Then Gardens Woods Meads Rivers are LXXXVIII Therefore what first She on them spent They gratefully again present The Meadow Carpets where to tread The Garden Flow'rs to Crown Her Head And for a Glass the limpid Brook Where She may all her Beautyes look But since She would not have them seen The Wood about her draws a Skreen LXXXIX For She to higher Beauties rais'd Disdains to be for lesser prais'd She counts her Beauty to converse In all the Languages as hers Nor yet in those her self imployes But for the Wisdome not the Noyse Nor yet that Wisdome would affect But as 't is Heavens Dialect LXXXX Blest Nymph that couldst so soon prevent Those Trains by Youth against thee meant Tears watry Shot that pierce the Mind And Sighs Loves Cannon charg'd with Wind True Praise That breaks through all defence And feign'd complying Innocence But knowing where this Ambush lay She scap'd the safe but roughest Way LXXXXI This 't is to have been from the first In a Domestick Heaven nurst Under the Discipline severe Of Fairfax and the starry Vere Where not one object can come nigh But pure and spotless as the Eye And Goodness doth it self intail On Females if there want a Male. LXXXXII Go now fond Sex that on your Face Do all your useless Study place Nor once at Vice your Brows dare knit Lest the smooth Forehead wrinkled sit Yet your own Face shall at you grin Thorough the Black-bag of your Skin When knowledge only could have fill'd And Virtue all those Furrows till'd LXXXXIII Hence She with Graces more divine Supplies beyond her Sex the Line And like a sprig of Misleto On the Fairfacian Oak does grow Whence for some universal good The Priest shall cut the sacred Bud While her glad Parents most rejoice And make their Destiny their Choice LXXXXIV Mean time ye Fields Springs Bushes Flow'rs Where yet She leads her studious Hours Till Fate her worthily translates And find a Fairfax for our Thwaites Employ the means you have by Her And in your kind your selves preferr That as all Virgins She preceds So you all Woods Streams Gardens Meads LXXXXV For you Thessalian Tempe's Seat Shall now be scorn'd as obsolete Aranjeuz as less disdain'd The Bel-Retiro as constrain'd But name not the Idalian Grove For 't was the Seat of wanton Love Much less the Dead's Elysian Fields Yet nor to them your Beauty yields LXXXXVI 'T is not what once it was the World But a rude heap together hurl'd All negligently overthrown Gulfes Deserts Precipices Stone Your lesser World contains the same But in more decent Order tame You Heaven's Center Nature's Lap. And Paradice's only Map LXXXXVII But now the Salmon-Fishers moist Their Leathern Boats begin to hoist And like Antipodes in Shoes Have shod their Heads in their Canoos How Tortoise like but not so slow These rational Amphibii go Let 's in for the dark Hemisphere Does now like one of them appear On the Victory obtained by Blake over the Spaniards in the Bay of Sanctacruze in the Island of Teneriff 1657. NOW does Spains Fleet her spatious wings unfold Leaves the new World and hastens for the old But though the wind was fair they slowly swoome Frayted with acted Guilt and Guilt to come For this rich load of which so proud they are Was rais'd by Tyranny and rais'd for War Every capatious Gallions womb was fill'd With what the Womb of wealthy Kingdomes yield The new Worlds wounded Intails they had tore For wealth wherewith to wound the old once more Wealth which all others Avarice might cloy But yet in them caus'd as much fear as Joy For now upon the Main themselves they saw That boundless Empire where you give the Law Of winds and waters rage they fearful be But much more fearful are your Flags to see Day that to those who sail upon the deep More wish't for and more welcome is then sleep They dreaded to behold Least the Sun's light With English Streamers should salute their sight In thickest darkness they would choose to steer So that such darkness might suppress their fear At length theirs vanishes and fortune smiles For they behold the sweet Canary Isles One of which doubtless is by Nature blest Above both Worlds since 't is above the rest For least some Gloominess might stain her sky Trees there the duty of the Clouds supply O noble Trust which Heaven on this Isle poures Fertile to be yet never need her showres A happy People which at once do gain The benefits without the ills of rain Both health and profit Fate cannot deny Where still the Earth is moist the Air still dry The jarring Elements no discord know Fewel and Rain together kindly grow And coolness there with heat doth never fight This only rules by day and that by Night Your worth to all these Isles a just right brings The best of Lands should have the best of Kings And these want nothing Heaven can afford Unless it be the having you their Lord But this great want will not along one prove Your Conquering Sword will soon that want remove For Spain had better Shee 'l ere long confess Have broken all her Swords then this one Peace Casting that League off which she held so long She cast off that which only made her strong Forces and art she soon will feel are vain Peace against you was the sole strength of Spain By that alone those Islands she secures Peace made them hers but War will make them yours There the indulgent Soil that rich Grape breeds Which of the Gods the fancied drink exceeds They still do yield such is their pretious mould All that is good and are not curst with Gold With fatal Gold for still where that does grow Neither the Soyl nor People quiet know Which troubles men to raise it when 't is Oar And when 't is raised does trouble them much more Ah why was thither brought that cause of War Kind Nature had from thence remov'd so far In vain doth she those Islands free from Ill If fortune can make guilty what she will But whilst I draw that Scene where you ere long Shall conquests act your present are unsung For Sanctacruze the glad Fleet takes her way And safely there casts Anchor in the Bay Never so many with one joyful cry That place saluted where they all must dye Deluded men Fate with you did but sport You scap't the Sea to perish in your Port. 'T was more for Englands fame you should dye there Where you had most of strength and least of fear The Peek's proud height the Spaniards all admire Yet in their brests carry a pride much higher Onely to this vast hill a power is given At once both to Inhabit Earth and Heaven But this stupendious Prospect did not neer Make them admire so much as as