Wardship to thine Angels be Native in heavens faire Palaces Where we shall be but denizen'd by thee As th' earth conceiving by the Sunne Yeelds faire diversitie Yet never knowes which course that light doth run So let mee study that mine actions bee Worthy their sight though blinde in how they see VII The Patriarches And let thy Patriarches Desire Those great Grandfathers of thy Church which saw More in the cloud then wee in fire Whom Nature clear'd more then us grace and law And now in Heaven still pray that wee May use our new helpes right Be sanctified and fructifie in mee Let not my minde be blinder by more light Nor Faith by Reason added lose her sight VIII The Prophets Thy Eagle-sighted Prophets too Which were thy Churches Organs and did sound That harmony which made of two One law and did unite but not confound Those heavenly Poëts which did see Thy will and it expresse In rythmique feet in common pray for mee That I by them excuse not my excesse In seeking secrets or Poëtiquenesse IX The Apostles And thy illustrious Zodiacke Of twelve Apostles which ingirt this All From whom whosoever do not take Their light to darke deep pits throw downe and fall As through their prayers thou'hast let mee know That their bookes are divine May they pray still and be heard that I goe Th' old broad way in applying O decline Mee when my comment would make thy word mine X. The Martyrs And since thou so desirously Did'st long to die that long before thou could'st And long since thou no more couldst dye Thou in thy scatter'd mystique body wouldst In Abel dye and ever since In thine let their blood come To begge for us a discreet patience Of death or of worse life for Oh to some Not to be Martyrs is a martyrdome XI The Confessors Therefore with thee triumpheth there A Virgin Squadron of white Confessors Whose bloods betroth'd not marryed were Tender'd not taken by those Ravishers They know and pray that wee may know In every Christian Hourly tempestuous persecutions grow Tentations martyr us alive A man Is to himselfe a Dioclesian XII The Virgins The cold white snowie Nunnery Which as thy mother their high Abbesse sent Their bodies backe againe to thee As thou hadst lent them cleane and innocent Though they have not obtain'd of thee That or thy Church or I Should keep as they our first integrity Divorce thou sinne in us or bid it die And call chast widowhead Virginitie XIII The Doctors Thy sacred Academie above Of Doctors whose paines have unclasp'd and taught Both bookes of life to us for love To know thy Scriptures tells us we are wrought In thy other booke pray for us there That what they have misdone Or mis-said wee to that may not adhere Their zeale may be our sinne Lord let us runne Meane waies and call them stars but not the Sunne XIV And whil'st this universall Quire That Church in triumph this in warfare here Warm'd with one all-partaking fire Of love that none be lost which cost thee deare Prayes ceaslesly ' and thou hearken too Since to be gratious Our taske is treble to pray beare and doe Heare this prayer Lord O Lord deliver us FroÌ„ trusting in those prayers though powr'd out thus XV. From being anxious or secure Dead clods of sadnesse or light squibs of mirth From thinking that great courts immure All or no hâ—ppinesse or that this earth Is only for our prison fram'd Or that thou art covetous To them whom thou lovest or that they are maim'd From reaching this worlds sweet who seek thee thus With all their might Good Lord deliver us XVI From needing danger to bee good From owing thee yesterdaies teares to day From trusting so much to thy blood That in that hope wee wound our soule away From bribing thee with Almes to excuse Some sinne more burdenous From light affecting in religion newes From thinking us all soule neglecting thus Our mutuall duties Lord deliver us XVII From tempting Satan to tempt us By our connivence or slack companie From measuring ill by vitious Neglecting to choake sins spawne Vanitie From indiscreet humilitie Which might be scandalous And cast reproach on Christianitie From being spies or to spies pervious From thirst or scorne of flame deliver us XVIII Deliver us for thy descent Into the Virgin whose wombe was a place Of midle kind and thou being sent To'ungratious us staid'st at her full of grace And through thy poore birth where first thou Glorifiedst Povertie And yet soone after riches didst allow By accepting Kings gifts in the Epiphanie Deliver and make us to both waies free XIX And though that bitter agonie Which is still the agonie of pious wits Disputing what distorted thee And interrupted evennesse with fits And through thy free confession Though thereby they were then Made blind so that thou might'st from theÌ„ have gone Good Lord deliver us and teach us when Wee may not and we may blinde unjust men XX. Through thy submitting all to blowes Thy face thy clothes to spoile thy fame to scorne All waies which rage or Justice knowes And by which thou could'st shew that thou wast born And through thy gallant humblenesse Which thou in death did'st shew Dying before thy soule they could expresse Deliver us from death by dying so To this world ere this world doe bid us goe XXI When senses which thy souldiers are Wee arme against thee and they fight for sinne When want sent but to tame doth warre And worke despaire a breach to enter in When plenty Gods image and seale Makes us Idolatrous And love it not him whom it should reveale When wee are mov'd to seeme religious Only to vent wit Lord deliver us XXII In Churches when the'infirmitie Of him which speakes diminishes the Word When Magistrates doe mis-apply To us as we judge lay or ghostly sword When plague which is thine Angell raignes Or wars thy Champions swaie When Heresie thy second deluge gaines In th' houre of death the'Eve of last judgement day Deliver us from the sinister way XXIII Heare us O heare us Lord to thee A sinner is more musique when he prayes Then spheares or Angels praises bee In Panegyrique Allelujaes Heare us for till thou heare us Lord We know not what to say Thine eare to'our sighes teares thoughts gives voice and word O Thou who Satan heard'st in Jobs sicke day Heare thy selfe now for thou in us dost pray XXIV That wee may change to evennesse This intermitting aguish Pietie That snatching cramps of wickednesse And Apoplexies of fast sin may die That musique of thy promises Not threats in Thunder may Awaken us to our just offices What in thy booke thou dost or creatures say That we may heare Lord heare us when wee pray XXV That our eares sicknesse wee may cure And rectifie those Labyrinths aright That wee by harkning not procure Our praise nor others dispraise so invite That wee get not a slipperinesse And senslesly decline
ANNO DNI 1591 AETATIS SVAE 18 ANTES MVIâ—TO QVE MVDADO This was for youth Strength Mirth and wit that Time Most count their golden Age but t' was not thine Thine was thy later yeares so much refind From youths Drosse Mirth wit as thy pure mind Thought like the Angels nothing but the Praise Of thy Creator in those last best Dayes Wimes this Booke thy Embleme which begins With Love but endes with Sighes Teares for sins Will Marshall sculpsit IZ WA POEMS By J. D. WITH ELEGIES ON THE AUTHORS DEATH LONDON Printed by M. F. for IOHN MARRIOT and are to be sold at his shop in St Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street 1633. INFINITATI SACRUM 16. Augusti 1601. METEMPSYCOSIS Poêma Satyricon EPISTLE OThers at the Porches and entries of their Buildings set their Armes I my picture if any colours can deliver a minde so plaine and flat and through light as mine Naturally at a new Author I doubt and sticke and doe not say quickly good I censure much and taxe And this liberty costs mee more then others by how much my owne things are worse then others Yet I would not be so rebellious against my selfe as not to doe it since I love it nor so unjust to others to do it sine talione As long as I give them as good hold upon mee they must pardon mee my bitings I forbid no reprehender but him that like the Trent Councell forbids not bookes but Authors damning what ever such a name hath or shall write None writes so ill that he gives not some thing exemplary to follow or flie Now when I beginne this booke I have no purpose to come into any mans debt how my stocke will hold out I know not perchance waste perchance increase in use if I doe borrow any thing of Antiquitie besides that I make account that I pay it to posterity with as much and as good You shall still finde mee to acknowledge it and to thanke not him onely that hath digg'd out treasure for mee but that hath lighted mee a candle to the place All which I will bid you remember for I will have no such Readers as I can teach is that the Pithagorian doctrine doth not onely carry one soule from man to man nor man to beast but indifferently to plants also and therefore you must not grudge to finde the same soule in an Emperour in a Post-horse and in a Mucheron since no unreadinesse in the soule but an indisposition in the organs workes this And therefore though this soule could not move when it was a Melon yet it may remember and now tell mee at what lascivious banquet it was serv'd And though it could not speake when it was a spider yet it can remember and now tell me who used it for poyson to attaine dignitie How ever the bodies have dull'd her other faculties her memory hath ever been her owne which makes me so seriously deliver you by her relation all her passages from her first making when shee was that aple which Eve eate to this time when shee is hee whose life you shall finde in the end of this booke THE PROGRESSE OF THE SOULE First Song I. I Sing the progresse of a deathlesse soule Whom Fate which God made but doth not controule Plac'd in most shapes all times before the law Yoak'd us and when and since in this I sing And the great world to his aged evening From infant morne through manly noone I draw What the gold Chaldee or silver Persian saw Greeke brasse or Roman iron is in this one A worke t'outweare Seths pillars bricke and stone And holy writs excepted made to yeeld to none II. Thee eye of heaven this great Soule envies not By thy male force is all wee have begot In the first east thou now begins to shine Suck'st early balme and Iland spices there And wilt anon in thy loose-rein'd careere At Tagus Po Sene Thames and Danon dine And see at night thy Westerne land of mine Yet hast thou not more nations seene then shee That before thee one day beganne to be And thy fraile light being quench'd shall long long out live thee III. Nor holy Ianus in whose soveraigne boate The Church and all the Monarchies did floate That swimming Colledge and free Hospitall Of all mankinde that cage and vivarie Of fowles and beasts in whose wombe Destinie Us and our latest nephewes did install From thence are all deriv'd that fill this All Did'st thou in that great stewardship embarke So diverse shapes into that floating parke As have beene moved and inform'd by this heavenly sparke IV. Great Destiny the commissary of God That hast mark'd out a path and period For every thing who where wee of-spring tooke Our wayes and ends seest at one instant Thou Knot of all causes thou whose changelesse brow Ne're smiles nor frownes O vouch-safe thou to looke And shew my story in thy eternall booke That if my prayer be fit I may ' understand So much my selfe as to know with what hand How scant or liberall this my lifes race is spand V. To my sixe lusters almost now outwore Except thy booke owe mee so many more Except my legend be free from the letts Of steepe ambition sleepie povertie Spirit-quenching sicknesse dull captivitie Distracting businesse and from beauties nets And all that calls from this and to others whets O let me not launch out but let mee save Th' expence of braine and spirit that my grave His right and due a whole unwasted man may have VI. But if my dayes be long and good enough In vaine this sea shall enlarge or enrough It selfe for I will through the wave and fome And shall in sad love wayes a lively spright Make my darke heavy Poëm light and light For though through many streights lands I roame I launch at paradise and I saile towards home The course I there began shall here be staid Sailes hoised there stroke here and anchors laid In Thames which were at Tigrys and Euphrates waide VII For the great soule which here amongst us now Doth dwell and moves that hand and tongue brow Which as the Moone the sea moves us to heare Whose story with long patience you will long For 't is the crowne and last straine of my song This soule to whom Luther and Mahomet were Prisons of flesh this soule which oft did teare And mend the wracks of th' Empire and late Rome And liv'd when every great change did come Had first in paradise a low but fatall roome VIII Yet no low roome nor then the greatest lesse If as devout and sharpe men fitly guesse That Crosse our joy and griefe where nailes did tye That All which alwayes was all every where Which could not sinne and yet all sinnes did beare Which could not die yet could not chuse but die Stood in the selfe same roome in Calvarie Where first grew the forbidden learned tree For on that tree hung in security This Soule made
never tast deaths woe But let them sleepe Lord and mee mourne a space For if above all these my sinnes abound 'T is late to aske abundance of thy grace When wee are there here on this lowly ground Teach mee how to repent for that 's as good As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood V. If poysonous mineralls and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortall us If lecherous goats if serpents envious Cannot be damn'd Alas why should I bee Why should intent or reason borne in mee Make sinnes else equall in mee more heinous And mercy being easie and glorious To God in his sterne wrath why threatens hee But who am I that dare dispute with thee O God Oh! of thine onely worthy blood And my teares make a heavenly Lethean flood And drowne in it my sinnes blacke memorie That thou remember them some claime as debt I thinke it mercy if thou wilt forget VI. Death be not proud though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull for thou art not soe For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not poore death nor yet canst thou kill mee From rest and sleepe which but thy pictures bee Much pleasure then from thee much more must flow And soonest our best men with thee doe goe Rest of their bones and soules deliverie Thou art slave to Fate chance kings and desperate men And doth with poyson warre and sicknesse dwell And poppie or charmes can make us sleepe as well And better then thy stroake why swell'st thou then One short sleepe past wee wake eternally And death shall be no more death thou shalt die VII Spit in my face you Jewes and pierce my side Buffet and scoffe scourge and crucifie mee For I have sinn'd and sinn'd and onely hee Who could do no iniquitie hath dyed But by my death can not be satisfied My sinnes which passe the Jewes impiety They kill'd once an inglorious man but I Crucifie him daily being now glorified Oh let mee then his strange love still admire Kings pardon but he bore our punishment And Iacob came cloth'd in vile harsh attire But to supplant and with gainfull intent God cloth'd himselfe in vile mans flesh that so Hee might be weake enough to suffer woe VIII Why are wee by all creatures waited on Why doe the prodigall elements supply Life and food to mee being more pure then I Simple and further from corruption Why brook'st thou ignorant horse subjection Why dost thou bull and bore so seelily Dissemble weaknesse and by'one mans stroke die Whose whole kinde you might swallow feed upon Weaker I am woe is mee and worse then you You have not sinn'd nor need be timorous But wonder at a greater wonder for to us Created nature doth these things subdue But their Creator whom sin nor nature tyed For us his Creatures and his foes hath dyed IX What if this present were the worlds last night Marke in my heart O Soule where thou dost dwell The picture of Christ crucified and tell Whether his countenance can thee affright Teares in his eyes quench the amasing light Blood fills his frownes which from his pierc'd head fell And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell Which pray'd forgivenesse for his foes fierce spight No no but as in my idolatrie I said to all my profane mistresses Beauty of pitty foulnesse onely is A signe of rigour so I say to thee To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assign'd This beauteous forme assumes a pitious minde X. Batter my heart three person'd God for you As yet but knocke breathe shine and seeke to mend That I may rise and stand o'erthrow mee ' and bend Your force to breake blowe burn and make me new I like an usurpt towne to'another due Labour to'admit you but Oh to no end Reason your viceroy in mee mee should defend But is captiv'd and proves weake or untrue Yet dearely'I love you and would be lov'd faine But am betroth'd unto your enemie Divorce mee ' untie or breake that knot againe Take mee to you imprison mee for I Except you'enthral mee never shall be free Nor ever chast except you ravish mee XI Wilt thou love God as he thee then digest My Soule this wholsome meditation How God the Spirit by Angels waited on In heaven doth make his Temple in thy brest The Father having begot a Sonne most blest And still begetting for he ne'r begonne Hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption Coheire to'his glory ' and Sabbaths endlesse rest And as a robb'd man which by search doth finde His stolne stuffe sold must lose or buy'it againe The Sonne of glory came downe and was slaine Us whom he'had made and Satan stolne to unbinde 'T was much that man was made like God before But that God should be made like man much more XII Father part of his double interest Unto thy kingdome thy Sonne gives to mee His joynture in the knottie Trinitie Hee keepes and gives to me his deaths conquest This Lambe whose death with life the world hath blest Was from the worlds beginning slaine and he Hath made two Wills which with the Legacie Of his and thy kingdome doe thy Sonnes invest Yet such are these laws that men argue yet Whether a man those statutes can fulfill None doth but thy all-healing grace and Spirit Revive againe what law and letter kill Thy lawes abridgement and thy last command Is all but love Oh let this last Will stand EPIGRAMS Hero and Leander BOth rob'd of aire we both lye in one ground Both whom one fire had burnt one water drownd Pyramus and Thisbe Two by themselves each other love and feare Slaine cruell friends by parting have joyn'd here Niobe By childrens births and death I am become So dry that I am now mine owne sad tombe A burnt ship Out of a fired ship which by no way But drowning could be rescued from the flame Some men leap'd forth and ever as they came Neere the foes ships did by their shot decay So all were lost which in the ship were found They in the sea being burnt they in the burnt ship drown'd Fall of a wall Under an undermin'd and shot-bruis'd wall A too-bold Captaine perish'd by the fall Whose brave misfortune happiest men envi'd That had a towne for tombe his bones to hide A lame begger I am unable yonder begger cries To stand or moue if he say true hee lies A selfe accuser Your mistris that you follow whores still taxeth you 'T is strange that she should thus confesse it though'it be true A licentious person Thy sinnes and haires may no man equall call For as thy sinnes increase thy haires doe fall Antiquary If in his Studie he hath so much care To'hang all old strange things let his wife beware Disinherited Thy father all from thee by his last Will Gave to the poore Thou hast good title still Phryne Thy flattering picture Phryne is like thee Onely in this that you both painted be An obscure writer
come Full of the common joy I utter'd some Reade then this nuptiall song which was not made Either the Court or mens hearts to invade But since I 'am dead and buried I could frame No Epitaph which might advance my fame So much as this poore song which testifies I did unto that day some sacrifice I. The time of the Mariage THou art repriv'd old yeare thou shalt not die Though thou upon thy death bed lye And should'st within five dayes expire Yet thou art rescu'd by a mightier fire Then thy old Soule the Sunne When he doth in his largest circle runne The passage of the West or East would thaw And open wide their easie liquid jawe To all our ships could a Promethean art Either unto the Northerne Pole impart The fire of these inflaming eyes or of this loving heart II. Equality of persons But undiscerning Muse which heart which eyes In this new couple dost thou prize When his eye as inflaming is As hers and her heart loves as well as his Be tryed by beauty and than The bridegroome is a maid and not a man If by that manly courage they be tryed Which scornes unjust opinion then the bride Becomes a man Should chance or envies Art Divide these two whom nature scarce did part Since both have th'enflaming eye and both the loving heart III. Raysing of the Bridegroome Though it be some divorce to thinke of you Single so much one are you two Let me here contemplate thee First cheerfull Bridegroome and first let mee see How thou prevent'st the Sunne And his red foming horses dost outrunne How having laid downe in thy Soveraignes brest All businesses from thence to reinvest Them when these triumphs cease thou forward art To shew to her who doth the like impart The fire of thy inflaming eyes and of thy loving heart IIII. Raising of the Bride But now to Thee faire Bride it is some wrong To thinke thou wert in Bed so long Since Soone thou lyest downe first t is fit Thou in first rising should'st allow for it Pouder thy Radiant haire Which if without such ashes thou would'st weare Thou which to all which come to looke upon Are meant for Phoebus would'st be Phaëton For our ease give thine eyes th'unusuall part Of joy a Teare so quencht thou maist impart To us that come thy inflaming eyes to him thy loving heart V. Her Apparrelling Thus thou descend'st to our infirmitie Who can the Sun in water see Soe dost thou when in silke and gold Thou cloudst thy selfe since wee which doe behold Are dust and wormes 't is just Our objects be the fruits of wormes and dust Let every Jewell be a glorious starre Yet starres are not so pure as their spheares are And though thou stoope t o'appeare to us in part Still in that Picture thou intirely art Which thy inflaming eyes have made within his loving heart VI. Going to the Chappell Now from your Easts you issue forth and wee As men which through a Cipres see The rising sun doe thinke it two Soe as you goe to Church doe thinke of you But that vaile being gone By the Church rites you are from thenceforth one The Church Triumphant made this match before And now the Militant doth strive no more Then reverend Priest who Gods Recorder art Doe from his Dictates to these two impart All blessings which are seene Or thought by Angels eye or heart VII The Benediction Blest payre of Swans Oh may you interbring Daily new joyes and never sing Live till all grounds of wishes faile Till honor yea till wisedome grow so stale That new great heights to trie It must serve your ambition to die Raise heires and may here to the worlds end live Heires from this King to take thankes you to give Nature and grace doe all and nothing Art May never age or error overthwart With any West these radiant eyes with any North this heart VIII Feasts and Revells But you are over-blest Plenty this day Injures it causeth time to stay The tables groane as though this feast Would as the flood destroy all fowle and beast And were the doctrine new That the earth mov'd this day would make it true For every part to dance and revell goes They tread the ayre and fal not where they rose Though six houres since the Sunne to bed did part The masks and banquets will not yet impart A sunset to these weary eyes A Center to this heart IX The Brides going to bed What mean'st thou Bride this companie to keep To sit up till thou faine wouldst sleep Thou maist not when thou art laid doe so Thy selfe must to him a new banquet grow And you must entertaine And doe all this daies dances o'r againe Know that if Sun and Moone together doe Rise in one point they doe not set so to Therefore thou maist faire Bride to bed depart Thou art not gone being gone where e'r thou art Thou leav'st in him thy watchfull eyes in him thy loving heart X. The Bridegroomes comming As he that sees a starre fall runs apace And findes a gellie in the place So doth the Bridegroome hast as much Being told this starre is falne and findes her such And as friends may looke strange By a new fashion or apparrells change Their soules though long acquainted they had beene These clothes their bodies never yet had seene Therefore at first shee modestly might start But must forthwith surrender every part As freely as each to each before gave either eye or heart XI The good night Now as in Tullias tombe one lampe burnt cleare Unchang'd for fifteene hundred yeare May these love-lamps we here enshrine In warmth light lasting equall the divine Fire ever doth aspire And makes all like it selfe turnes all to fire But ends in ashes which these cannot doe For none of these is fuell but fire too This is joyes bonfire then where loves strong Arts Make of so noble individuall parts One fire of foure inflaming eyes and of two loving hearts Idios As I have brought this song that I may doe A perfect sacrifice I 'll burne it too Allophanes No Sr. This paper I have justly got For in burnt incense the perfume is not His only that presents it but of all What ever celebrates this Festivall Is common since the joy thereof is so Nor may your selfe be Priest But let me goe Backe to the Court and I will lay'it upon Such Altars as prize your devotion Epithalamion made at Lincolnes Inne THe Sun-beames in the East are spred Leave leave faire Bride your solitary bed No more shall you returne to it alone It nourseth sadnesse and your bodies print Like to a grave the yielding downe doth dint You and your other you meet there anon Put forth put forth that warme balme-breathing thigh Which whē next time you in these sheets wil smother There it must meet another Which never was but must be oft more nigh Come glad from thence goe gladder then you came To day put
tide Of thy pride Now a flowing growes to turning Victor now shall then be thrall And shall fall To as low an ebbe of mourning X. Happy he who shall thee waste As thou hast Us without all mercy wasted And shall make thee taste and see What poore wee By thy meanes have seene and tasted XI Happy who thy tender barnes From the armes Of their wailing mothers tearing ' Gainst the walls shall dash their bones Ruthlesse stones With their braines and blood besmearing Resurrection imperfect SLeep sleep old Sun thou canst not have repast As yet the wound thou took'st on friday last Sleepe then and rest The world may beare thy stay A better Sun rose before thee to day Who not content to'enlighten all that dwell On the earths face as thou enlightned hell And made the darke fires languish in that vale As at thy presence here our fires grow pale Whose body having walk'd on earth and now Hasting to Heaven would that he might allow Himselfe unto all stations and fill all For these three daies become a minerall Hee was all gold when he lay downe but rose All tincture and doth not alone dispose Leaden and iron wills to good but is Of power to make even sinfull flesh like his Had one of those whose credulous pietie Thought that a Soule one might discerne and see Goe from a body ' at this sepulcher been And issuing from the sheet this body seen He would have justly thought this body a soule If not of any man yet of the whole Desunt caetera An hymne to the Saints and to Marquesse Hamylton VVHither that soule which now comes up to you Fill any former ranke or make a new Whither it take a name nam'd there before Or be a name it selfe and order more Then was in heaven till now for may not hee Bee so if every severall Angell bee A kind alone What ever order grow Greater by him in heaven wee doe not so One of your orders growes by his accesse But by his losse grow all our orders lesse The name of Father Master Friend the name Of Subject and of Prince in one are lame Faire mirth is dampt and conversation black The household widdow'd and the garter slack The Chappell wants an eare Councell a tongue Story a theame and Musicke lacks a song Blest order that hath him the losse of him Gangred all Orders here all lost a limbe Never made body such hast to confesse What a soule was All former comelinesse Fled in a minute when the soule was gone And having lost that beauty would have none So fell our Monasteries in one instant growne Not to lesse houses but to heapes of stone So sent this body that faire forme it wore Unto the spheare of formes and doth before His soule shall fill up his sepulchrall stone Anticipate a Resurrection For as in his fame now his soule is here So in the forme thereof his bodie 's there And if faire soule not with first Innocents Thy station be but with the Paenitents And who shall dare to aske then when I am Dy'd scarlet in the blood of that pure Lambe Whether that colour which is scarlet then Were black or white before in eyes of men When thou rememb'rest what sins thou didst finde Amongst those many friends now left behinde And seest such sinners as they are with thee Got thither by repentance Let it bee Thy wish to wish all there to wish them cleane Wish him a David her a Magdalen SIR I Presume you rather try what you can doe in me then what I can doe in verse you know my uttermost when it was best and even then I did best when I had least truth for my subjects In this present case there is so much truth as it defeats all Poetry Call therefore this paper by what name you will and if it bee not worthy of you nor of him we will smother it and be it your sacrifice If you had commanded mee to have waited on his body to Scotland and preached there I would have embraced your obligation with much alacrity But I thanke you that you would command me that which I was loather to doe for even that hath given a tincture of merit to the obedience of Your poore friend and servant in Christ Jesus I. D. An Epitaph upon Shakespeare REnowned Chaucer lie a thought more nigh so rare Beaumond and learned Beaumond lie A little nearer Spencer to make roome For Shakespeare in your threefold fourefold tombe To lie all foure in one bed make a shift For untill doomesday hardly will a fift Betwixt this day and that be slaine For whom your curtaines need be drawne againe But if precedency of death doth barre A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre Under this curled marble of thine owne Sleepe rare Tragedian Shakespeare sleepe alone That unto Vs and others it may bee Honor hereafter to be laid by thee Sapho to Philaenis VVHere is that holy fire which Verse is said To have is that inchanting force decai'd Verse that drawes Natures workes from Natures law Thee her best worke to her worke cannot draw Have my teares quench'd my old Poetique fire Why quench'd they not as well that of desire Thoughts my mindes creatures often are with thee But I their maker want their libertie Onely thine image in my heart doth sit But that is waxe and fires environ it My fires have driven thine have drawne it hence And I am rob'd of Picture Heart and Sense Dwells with me still mine irksome Memory Which both to keepe and lose grieves equally That tells me'how faire thou art Thou art so faire As gods when gods to thee I doe compare Are grac'd thereby And to make blinde men see What things gods are I say they' are like to thee For if we justly call each silly man A litle world What shall we call thee than Thou art not soft and cleare and strait and faire As Down as Stars Cedars and Lillies are But thy right hand and cheek and eye only Are like thy other hand and cheek and eye Such was my Phao awhile but shall be never As thou waâ—t art and oh maist be ever Here lovers sweare in their Idolatrie That I am such but Griefe discolors me And yet I grieve the lesse least Griefe remove My beauty and make me'unworthy of thy love Plaies some soft boy with thee oh there wants yet A mutuall feeling which should sweeten it His chinne a thorny hairy unevennesse Doth threaten and some daily change possesse Thy body is a naturall Paradise In whose selfe unmanur'd all pleasure lies Nor needs perfection why shouldst thou than Admit the tillage of a harsh rough man Men leave behinde them that which their sin showes And are as theeves trac'd which rob when it snows But of our dallyance no more signes there are Then fishes leave in streames or Birds in aire And betweene us all sweetnesse may be had All all that Nature yields or Art can adde My two
lips eyes thighs differ from thy two But so as thine from one another doe And oh no more the likenesse being such Why should they not alike in all parts touch Hand to strange hand lippe to lippe none denies Why should they brest to brest or thighs to thighs Likenesse begets such strange selfe flatterie That touching my selfe all seemes done to thee My selfe I embrace and mine owne hands I kisse And amorously thanke my selfe for this Me in my glasse I call thee But alas When I would kisse teares dimme mine eyes and glasse O cure this loving madnesse and restore Me to mee shee my halfe my all my more So may thy cheekes red outweare scarlet dye And their white whitenesse of the Galaxy So may thy mighty amazing beauty move Envy ' in all women and in all men love And so be change and sicknesse farre from thee As thou by comming neere keep'st them from me The Annuntiation and Passion TAmely fraile body'abstaine to day to day My soule eates twice Christ hither and away She sees him man so like God made in this That of them both a circle embleme is Whose first and last concurre this doubtfull day Of feast or fast Christ came and went away Shee sees him nothing twice at once who'is all Shee sees a Cedar plant it selfe and fall Her Maker put to making and the head Of life at once not yet alive yet dead She sees at once the virgin mother stay Reclus'd at home Publique at Golgotha Sad and rejoyc'd shee 's seen at once and seen At almost fiftie and at scarce fifteene At once a Sonne is promis'd her and gone Gabriell gives Christ to her He her to John Not fully a mother Shee 's in Orbitie At once receiver and the legacie All this and all betweene this day hath showne Th' Abridgement of Christs story which makes one As in plaine Maps the furthest West is East Of the'Angels Ave ' and Consummatum est How well the Church Gods Court of faculties Deales in some times and seldome joyning these As by the selfe-fix'd Pole wee never doe Direct our course but the next starre thereto Which showes where the'other is and which we say Because it strayes not farre doth never stray So God by his Church neerest to him wee know And stand firme if wee by her motion goe His Spirit as his fiery Pillar doth Leade and his Church as cloud to one end both This Church by letting those daies joyne hath shown Death and conception in mankinde is one Or 't was in him the same humility That he would be a man and leave to be Or as creation he hath made as God With the last judgement but one period His imitating Spouse would joyne in one Manhoods extremes He shall come he is gone Or as though one blood drop which thence did fall Accepted would have serv'd he yet shed all So though the least of his paines deeds or words Would busie a life she all this day affords This treasure then in grosse my Soule uplay And in my life retaile it every day Goodfriday 1613. Riding Westward LEt mans Soule be a Spheare and then in this The intelligence that moves devotion is And as the other Spheares by being growne Subject to forraigne motion lose their owne And being by others hurried every day Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey Pleasure or businesse so our Soules admit For their first mover and are whirld by it Hence is 't that I am carryed towards the West This day whē my Soules forme bends toward the East There I should see a Sunne by rising set And by that setting endlesse day beget But that Christ on this Crosse did rise and fall Sinne had eternally benighted all Yet dare I'almost be glad I do not see That spectacle of too much weight for mee Who sees Gods face that is selfe life must dye What a death were it then to see God dye It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke It made his footstoole crack and the Sunne winke Could I behold those hands which span the Poles And tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes Could I behold that endlesse height which is Zenith to us and our Antipodes Humbled below us or that blood which is The seat of all our Soules if not of his Made durt of dust or that flesh which was worne By God for his apparell rag'd and torne If on these things I durst not looke durst I Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye Who was Gods partner here and furnish'd thus Halfe of that Sacrifice which ransom'd us Though these things as I ride be from mine eye They' are present yet unto my memory For that looks towards them thou look'st towards mee O Saviour as thou hang'st upon the tree I turne my backe to thee but to receive Corrections till thy mercies bid thee leave O thinke mee worth thine anger punish mee Burne off my rusts and my deformity Restore thine Image so much by thy grace That thou may'st know mee and I 'll turne my face THE LITANIE I. The FATHER FAther of Heaven and him by whom It and us for it and all else for us Thou madest and govern'st ever come And re-create mee now growne ruinous My heart is by dejection clay And by selfe-murder red From this red earth O Father purge away All vicious tinctures that new fashioned I may rise up from death before I 'am dead II. The SONNE O Sonne of God who seeing two things Sinne and death crept in which were never made By bearing one tryed'st with what stings The other could thine heritage invade O be thou nail'd unto my heart And crucified againe Part not from it though it from thee would part But let it be by applying so thy paine Drown'd in thy blood and in thy passion slaine III. The HOLY GHOST O Holy Ghost whose temple I Am but of mudde walls and condensed dust And being sacrilegiously Halfe wasted with youths fires of pride and lust Must with new stormes be weatherbeat Double in my heart thy flame Which let devout sad teares intend and let Though this glasse lanthorne flesh do suffer maime Fire Sacrifice Priest Altar be the same IV. The TRINITY O Blessed glorious Trinity Bones to Philosophy but milke to faith Which as wise serpents diversly Most slipperinesse yet most entanglings hath As you distinguish'd undistinct By power love knowledge bee Give mee a such selfe different instinct Of these let all mee elemented bee Of power to love to know you unnumbred three V. The Virgin MARY For that faire blessed Mother-maid Whose flesh redeem'd us That she-Cherubin Which unlock'd Paradise and made One claime for innocence and disseiz'd sinne Whose wombe was a strange heav'n for there God cloath'd himselfe and grew Our zealous thankes wee poure As her deeds were Our helpes so are her prayers nor can she sue In vaine who hath such titles unto you VI. The Angels And since this life our nonage is And wee in
And makes me end where I begunne The good-morrow I Wonder by my troth what thou and I Did till we lov'd were we not wean'd till then But suck'd on countrey pleasures childishly Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den T' was so But this all pleasures fancies bee If ever any beauty I did see Which I desir'd and got t' was but a dreame of thee And now good morrow to our waking soules Which watch not one another out of feare For love all love of other sights controules And makes one little roome an every where Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone Let Maps to other worlds on worlds have showne Let us possesse one world each hath one and is one My face in thine eye thine in mine appeares And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest Where can we finde two better hemispheares Without sharpe North without declining West What ever dyes was not mixt equally If our two loves be one or thou and I Love so alike that none doe slacken none can die Song Goe and catche a falling starre Get with child a mandrake roote Tell me where all past yeares are Or who cleft the Divels foot Teach me to heare Mermaides singing Or to keep off envies stinging And finde What winde Serves to advance an honest minde If thou beest borne to strange sights Things invisible to see Ride ten thousand daies and nights Till age snow white haires on thee Thou when thou retorn'st wilt tell mee All strange wonders that befell thee And sweare No where Lives a woman true and faire If thou findst one let mee know Such a Pilgrimage were sweet Yet doe not I would not goe Though at next doore wee might meet Though shee were true when you met her And last till you write your letter Yet shee Will bee False ere I come to two or three Womans constancy NOw thou hast lov'd me one whole day To morrow when thou leav'st what wilt thou say Wilt thou then Antedate some new made vow Or say that now We are not just those persons which we were Or that oathes made in reverentiall feare Of Love and his wrath any may forsweare Or as true deaths true maryages untie So lovers contracts images of those Binde but till sleep deaths image them unloose Or your owne end to Justifie For having purpos'd change and falsehood you Can have no way but falsehood to be true Vaine lunatique against these scapes I could Dispute and conquer if I would Which I abstaine to doe For by to morrow I may thinke so too I Have done one braver thing Then all the worthies did And yet a braver thence doth spring Which is to keepe that hid It were but madnes now t' impart The skill of specular stone When he which can have learn'd the art To cut it can finde none So if I now should utter this Others because no more Such stuffe to worke upon there is Would love but as before But he who lovelinesse within Hath found all outward loathes For he who colour loves and skinne Loves but their oldest clothes If as I have you also doe Vertue ' attir'd in woman see And dare love that and say so too And forget the Hee and Shee And if this love though placed so From prophane men you hide Which will no faith on this bestow Or if they doe deride Then you have done a braver thing Then all the Worthies did And a braver thence will spring Which is to keepe that hid The Sunne Rising BUsie old foole unruly Sunne Why dost thou thus Through windowes and through curtaines call on us Must to thy motions lovers seasons run Sawcy pedantique wretch goe chide Late schoole boyes and sowre prentices Goe tell Court-huntsmen that the King will ride Call countrey ants to harvest offices Love all alike no season knowes nor clyme Nor houres dayes moneths which are the rags of time Thy beames so reverend and strong Why shouldst thou thinke I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke But that I would not lose her sight so long If her eyes have not blinded thine Looke and to morrow late tell mee Whether both the'India's of spice and Myne Be where thou leftst them or lie here with mee Aske for those Kings whom thou saw'st yesterday And thou shalt heare All here in one bed lay She 'is all States and all Princes I Nothing else is Princes doe but play us compar'd to this All honor's mimique All wealth alchimie Thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee In that the world 's contracted thus Thine age askes ease and since thy duties bee To warme the world that 's done in warming us Shine here to us and thou art every where This bed thy center is these walls thy spheare The Indifferent I Can love both faire and browne Her whom abundance melts and her whom want betraies Her who loves lonenesse best and her who maskes and plaies Her whō the country form'd whō the town Her who beleeves and her who tries Her who still weepes with spungie eyes And her who is dry corke and never cries I can love her and her and you and you I can love any so she be not true Will no other vice content you Wil it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers Or have you all old vices spent and now would finde out others Or doth a feare that men are true torment you Oh we are not be not you so Let mee and doe you twenty know Rob mee but binde me not and let me goe Must I who came to travaile thorow you Grow your fixt subject because you are true Venus heard me sigh this song And by Loves sweetest Part Variety she swore She heard not this till now and that it should be so no more She went examin'd and return'd ere long And said alas Some two or three Poore Heretiques in love there bee Which thinke to stablish dangerous constancie But I have told them since you will be true You shall be true to them who'are false to you Loves Vsury FOr every houre that thou wilt spare mee now I will allow Usurious God of Love twenty to thee When with my browne my gray haires equall bee Till then Love let my body raigne and let Mee travell sojourne snatch plot have forget Resume my last yeares relict thinke that yet We'had never met Let mee thinke any rivalls letter mine And at next nine Keepe midnights promise mistake by the way The maid and tell the Lady of that delay Onely let mee love none no not the sport From country grasse to comfitures of Court Or cities quelque choses let report My minde transport This bargaine 's good if when I 'am old I bee Inflam'd by thee If thine owne honour or my shame or paine Thou cover most at that age thou shalt gaine Doe thy will then then subject and degree And fruit of love Love I submit to thee Spare mee till then I 'll beare it though she bee One that loves
to aspire That this her feaver might be it And yet she cannot wast by this Nor long beare this torturing wrong For much corruption needfull is To fuell such a feaver long These burning fits but meteors bee Whose matter in thee is soone spent Thy beauty ' and all parts which are thee Are unchangeable firmament Yet t' was of my minde seising thee Though it in thee cannot persever For I had rather owner bee Of thee one houre then all else ever Aire and Angels Twice or thrice had I loved thee Before I knew thy face or name So in a voice so in a shapelesse flame Angells affect us oft and worship'd bee Still when to where thou wert I came Some lovely glorious nothing I did see But since my soule whose child love is Takes limmes of flesh and else could nothing doe More subtile then the parent is Love must not be but take a body too And therefore what thou wert and who I bid Love aske and now That it assume thy body I allow And fixe it selfe in thy lip eye and brow Whilst thus to ballast love I thought And so more steddily to have gone With wares which would sinke admiration I saw I had loves pinnace overfraught Ev'ry thy haire for love to worke upon Is much too much some fitter must be sought For nor in nothing nor in things Extreme and scattring bright can love inhere Then as an Angell face and wings Of aire not pure as it yet pure doth weare So thy love may be my loves spheare Just such disparitie As is twixt Aire and Angells puritie 'Twixt womens love and mens will ever bee Breake of day 'T Is true 't is day what though it be O wilt thou therefore rise from me Why should we rise because 't is light Did we lie downe because 't was night Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether Should in despight of light keepe us together Light hath no tongue but is all eye If it could speake as well as spie This were the worst that it could say That being well I faine would stay And that I lov'd my heart and honor so That I would not from him that had them goe Must businesse thee from hence remove Oh that 's the worst disease of love The poore the foule the false love can Admit but not the busied man He which hath businesse and makes love doth doe Such wrong as when a maryed man doth wooe The Anniversarie ALL Kings and all their favorites All glory of honors beauties wits The Sun it selfe which makes times as they passe Is elder by a yeare now then it was When thou and I first one another saw All other things to their destruction draw Only our love hath no decay This no to morrow hath nor yesterday Running it never runs from us away But truly keepes his first last everlasting day Two graves must hide thine and my coarse If one might death were no divorce Alas as well as other Princes wee Who Prince enough in one another bee Must leave at last in death these eyes and eares Oft fed with true oathes and with sweet salt teares But soules where nothing dwells but love All other thoughts being inmates then shall prove This or a love increased there above When bodies to their graves soules from their graves remove And then wee shall be throughly blest But now no more then all the rest Here upon earth we' are Kings and none but wee Can be such Kings nor of such subjects bee Who is so safe as wee where none can doe Treason to us except one of us two True and false feares let us refraine Let us love nobly and live and adde againe Yeares and yeares unto yeares till we attaine To write threescore this is the second of our raigne A Valediction of my name in the window I. MY name engrav'd herein Doth contribute my firmnesse to this glasse Which ever since that charme hath beene As hard as that which grav'd it was Thine eye will give it price enough to mock The diamonds of either rock II. 'T is much that Glasse should bee As all confessing and through-shine as I 'T is more that it shewes thee to thee And cleare reflects thee to thine eye But all such rules loves magique can undoe Here you see mee and I am you III. As no one point nor dash Which are but accessaries to this name The showers and tempests can outwash So shall all times finde mee the same You this intirenesse better may fulfill Who have the patterne with you still IIII. Or if too hard and deepe This learning be for a scratch'd name to teach It as a given deaths head keepe Lovers mortalitie to preach Or thinke this ragged bony name to bee My ruinous Anatomie V. Then as all my soules bee Emparadis'd in you in whom alone I understand and grow and see The rafters of my body bone Being still with you the Muscle Sinew and Veine Which tile this house will come againe VI. Till my returne repaire And recompact my scattered body so As all the vertuous powers which are Fix'd in the starres are said to flow Into such characters as graved bee When these starres have supremacie VII So since this name was cut When love and griefe their exaltation had No doore'gainst this names influence shut As much more loving as more sad 'T will make thee and thou shouldst till I returne Since I die daily daily mourne VIII When thy inconsiderate hand Flings ope this casement with my trembling name To looke on one whose wit or land New battry to thy heart may frame Then thinke this name alive and that thou thus In it offendst my Genius IX And when thy melted maid Corrupted by thy Lover's gold and page His letter at thy pillow'hath laid Disputed it and tam'd thy rage And thou begin'st to thaw towards him for this May my name step in and hide his X. And if this treason goe To an overt act and that thou write againe In superscribing this name flow Into thy fancy from the pane So in forgetting thou remembrest right And unaware to mee shalt write XI But glasse and lines must bee No meanes our firme substantiall love to keepe Neere death inflicts this lethargie And this I murmure in my sleepe Impute this idle talke to that I goe For dying men talke often so Twicknam garden BLasted with sighs and surrounded with teares Hither I come to seeke the spring And at mine eyes and at mine eares Receive such balmes as else cure every thing But O selfe traytor I do bring The spider love which transubstantiates all And can convert Manna to gall And that this place may thoroughly be thought True Paradise I have the serpent brought 'T were wholsomer for mee that winter did Benight the glory of this place And that a grave frost did forbid These trees to laugh and mocke mee to my face But that I may not this disgrace Indure nor yet leave loving
justly proud and gladly safe that thou dost dwell with me She that Oh broke her faith would soon breake thee Negative love I Never stoop'd so low as they Which on an eye cheeke lip can prey Seldome to them which soare no higher Then vertue or the minde to'admire For sense and understanding may Know what gives fuell to their fire My love though silly is more brave For may I misse when ere I crave If I know yet what I would have If that be simply perfectest Which can by no way be exprest But Negatives my love is so To All which all love I say no. If any who deciphers best What we know not our selves can know Let him teach mee that nothing This As yet my ease and comfort is Though I speed not I cannot misse The Prohibition TAke heed of loving mee At least remember I forbade it thee Not that I shall repaire my'unthrifty wast Of Breath and Blood upon thy sighes and teares By being to mee then that which thou wast But so great Joy our life at once outweares Then least thy love by my death frustrate bee If thou love mee take heed of loving mee Take heed of hating mee Or too much triumph in the Victorie Not that I shall be mine owne officer And hate with hate againe retaliate But thou wilt lose the stile of conquerour If I thy conquest perish by thy hate Then least my being nothing lessen thee If thou hate mee take heed of hating mee Yet love and hate mee too So these extreames shall ne'r their office doe Love mee that I may die the gentler way Hate mee because thy love is too great for mee Or let these two themselves not me decay So shall I live thy stay not triumph bee Lest thou thy love and hate and mee undoe To let mee live Oh love and hate mee too The Expiration SO so breake off this last'lamenting kisse Which sucks two soules and vapors Both away Turne thou ghost that way and let mee turne this And let our selves benight our happiest day Wee aske none leave to love nor will we owe Any so cheape a death as saying Goe Goe and if that word have not quite kil'd thee Ease mee with death by bidding mee goe too Oh if it have let my word worke on mee And a just office on a murderer doe Except it be too late to kill me so Being double dead going and bidding goe The Computation FOr the first twenty yeares since yesterday I scarce beleev'd thou could'st be gone away For forty more I fed on favours past And forty'on hopes that thou would'st they might last Teares drown'd one hundred and sighes blew out two A thousand I did neither thinke nor doe Or not divide all being one thought of you Or in a thousand more forgot that too Yet call not this long life But thinke that I Am by being dead Immortall Can ghosts die Elegie LAnguage thou art too narrow and too weake To ease us now great sorrow cannot speake If we could sigh out accents and weepe words Griefe weares and lessens that tears breath affords Sad hearts the lesse they seeme the more they are So guiltiest men stand mutest at the barre Not that they know not feele not their estate But extreme sense hath made them desperate Sorrow to whom we owe all that we bee Tyrant in the fift and greatest Monarchy Was 't that she did possesse all hearts before Thou hast kil'd her to make thy Empire more Knew'st thou some would that knew her not lament As in a deluge perish th' innocent Was 't not enough to have that palace wonne But thou must raze it too that was undone Had'st thou staid there and look'd out at her eyes All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies For they let out more light then they tooke in They told not when but did the day beginne She was too Saphirine and cleare to thee Clay flint and jeat now thy fit dwellings be Alas shee was too pure but not too weake Who e'r saw Christall Ordinance but would break And if wee be thy conquest by her fall Th' hast lost thy end for in her perish all Or if we live we live but to rebell They know her better now that knew her well If we should vapour out and pine and die Since shee first went that were not miserie Shee chang'd our world with hers now she is gone Mirth and prosperity is oppression For of all morall vertues she was all The Ethicks speake of vertues Cardinall Her soule was Paradise the Cherubin Set to keepe it was grace that kept out sinne Shee had no more then let in death for wee All reape consumption from one fruitfull tree God tooke her hence lest some of us should love Her like that plant him and his lawes above And when wee teares hee mercy shed in this To raise our mindes to heaven where now she is Who if her vertues would have let her stay Wee'had had a Saint have now a holiday Her heart was that strange bush where sacred fire Religion did not consume but'inspire Such piety so chast use of Gods day That what we turne to feast she turn'd to pray And did prefigure here in devout tast The rest of her high Sabaoth which shall last Angels did hand her up who next God dwell For she was of that order whence most fell Her body left with us lest some had said Shee could not die except they saw her dead For from lesse vertue and lesse beautiousnesse The Gentiles fram'd them Gods and Goddesses The ravenous earth that now woes her to be Earth too will be a Lemnia and the tree That wraps that christall in a wooden Tombe Shall be tooke up spruce fill'd with diamond And we her sad glad friends all beare a part Of griefe for all would waste a Stoicks heart Elegie to the Lady Bedford YOu that are she and you that 's double shee In her dead face halfe of your selfe shall see Shee was the other part for so they doe Which build them friendships become one of two So two that but themselves no third can fit Which were to be so when they were not yet Twinnes though their birth Cusco and Musco take As divers starres one Constellation make Pair'd like two eyes have equall motion so Both but one meanes to see one way to goe Had you dy'd first a carcasse shee had beene And wee your rich Tombe in her face had seene She like the Soule is gone and you here stay Not a live friend but thother halfe of clay And since you act that part As men say here Lies such a Prince when but one part is there And do all honour and devotion due Unto the whole so wee all reverence you For such a friendship who would not adore In you who are all what both was before Not all as if some perished by this But so as all in you contracted is As of this all though many parts decay The pure which
are blowne up Could you but reach this height you should not need To make each meale a project ere you feed Nor walke in reliques clothes so old and bare As if left off to you from Ennius were Nor should your love in verse call Mistresse those Who are mine hostesse or your whores in prose From this Muse learne to Court whose power could move A Cloystred coldnesse or a Vestall love And would convey such errands to their eare That Ladies knew no oddes to grant and heare But I do wrong thee Donne and this low praise Is written onely for thy yonger dayes I am not growne up for thy riper parts Then should I praise thee through the Tongues and Arts And have that deepe Divinity to know What mysteries did from thy preaching flow Who with thy words could charme thy audience That at thy sermons eare was all our sense Yet have I seene thee in the pulpit stand Where wee might take notes from thy looke and hand And from thy speaking action beare away More Sermon then some teachers use to say Such was thy carriage and thy gesture such As could divide the heart and conscience touch Thy motion did confute and wee might see An errour vanquish'd by delivery Not like our Sonnes of Zeale who to reforme Their hearers fiercely at the Pulpit storme And beate the cushion into worse estate Then if they did conclude it reprobate Who can out pray the glasse then lay about Till all Predestination be runne out And from the point such tedious uses draw Their repetitions would make Gospell Law No In such temper would thy Sermons flow So well did Doctrine and thy language show And had that holy feare as hearing thee The Court would mend and a good Christian bee And Ladies though unhansome out of grace Would heare thee in their unbought lookes face More I could write but let this crowne thine Urne Wee cannot hope the like till thou returne Vpon Mr J. Donne and his Poems VVHo dares say thou art dead when he doth see Unburied yet this living part of thee This part that to thy beeing gives fresh flame And though th' art Donne yet will preserve thy name Thy flesh whose channels left their crimsen hew And whey-like ranne at last in a pale blew May shew thee mortall a dead palsie may Seise on 't and quickly turne it into clay Which like the Indian earth shall rise refin'd But this great Spirit thou hast left behinde This Soule of Verse in it's first pure estate Shall live for all the World to imitate But not come neer for in thy Fancies flight Thou dost not stoope unto the vulgar sight But hovering highly in the aire of Wit Hold'st such a pitch that few can follow it Admire they may Each object that the Spring Or a more piercing influence doth bring T' adorne Earths face thou sweetly did'st contrive To beauties elements and thence derive Unspotted Lillies white which thou did'st set Hand in hand with the veine-like Violet Making them soft and warme and by thy power Could'st give both life and sense unto a flower The Cheries thou hast made to speake will bee Sweeter unto the taste then from the tree And spight of winter stormes amidst the snow Thou oft hast made the blushing Rose to grow The Sea-nimphs that the watry cavernes keepe Have sent their Pearles and Rubies from the deepe To deck thy love and plac'd by thee they drew More lustre to them then where first they grew All minerals that Earths full wombe doth hold Promiscuously thou couldst convert to gold And with thy flaming raptures so refine That it was much more pure then in the Mine The lights that guild the night if thou did'st say They looke like eyes those did out-shine the day For there would be more vertue in such spells Then in Meridians or crosse Parallels What ever was of worth in this great Frame That Art could comprehend or Wit could name It was thy theme for Beauty thou didst see Woman was this faire Worlds Epitomie Thy nimble Satyres too and every straine With nervy strength that issued from thy brain Will lose the glory of their owne cleare bayes If they admit of any others praise But thy diviner Poëms whose cleare fire Purges all drosse away shall by a Quire Of Cherubims with heavenly Notes be set Where flesh and blood could ne'r attaine to yet There purest Spirits sing such sacred Layes In Panegyrique Alleluiaes Arth. Wilson In memory of Doctor Donne By Mr R. B. DOnne dead 'T is here reported true though I Ne'r yet so much desir'd to heare a lye 'T is too too true for so wee finde it still Good newes are often false but seldome ill But must poore fame tell us his fatall day And shall we know his death the common way Mee thinkes some Comet bright should have foretold The death of such a man for though of old 'T is held that Comets Princes death foretell Why should not his have needed one as well Who was the Prince of wits ' mongst whom he reign'd High as a Prince and as great State maintain'd Yet wants he not his signe for wee have seene A dearth the like to which hath never beene Treading on harvests heeles which doth presage The death of wit and learning which this age Shall finde now he is gone for though there bee Much graine in shew none brought it forth as he Or men are misers or if true want raises The dearth then more that dearth Donnes plenty praises Of learning languages of eloquence And Poësie past rauishing of sense He had a magazine wherein such store Was laid up as might hundreds serve of poore But he is gone O how will his desire Torture all those that warm'd them by his fire Mee thinkes I see him in the pulpit standing Not eares or eyes but all mens hearts commanding Where wee that heard him to our selves did faine Golden Chrysostome was alive againe And never were we weari'd till we saw His houre and but an houre to end did draw How did he shame the doctrine-men and use With helps to boot for men to beare th' abuse Of their tir'd patience and endure th' expence Of time O spent in hearkning to non-sense With markes also enough whereby to know The speaker is a zealous dunce or so 'T is true they quitted him to their poore power They humm'd against him And with face most sowre Call'd him a strong lin'd man a Macaroon And no way fit to speake to clouted shoone As fine words truly as you would desire But verily but a bad edifier Thus did these beetles slight in him that good They could not see and much lesse understood But we may say when we compare the stuffe Both brought He was a candle they the snuffe Well Wisedome's of her children justifi'd Let therefore these poore fellowes stand aside Nor though of learning he deserv'd so highly Would I his booke should save him Rather slily I should advise
comparison The onely measure is and judge opinion HOLY SONNETS La Corona 1. DEigne at my hands this crown of prayer and praise Weav'd in my low devout melancholie Thou which of good hast yea art treasury All changing unchang'd Antient of dayes But doe not with a vile crowne of fraile bayes Reward my muses white sincerity But what thy thorny crowne gain'd that give mee A crowne of Glory which doth flower alwayes The ends crowne our workes but thou crown'st our ends For at our end begins our endlesse rest The first last end now zealously possest With a strong sober thirst my soule attends 'T is time that heart and voice be lifted high Salvation to all that will is nigh ANNVNCIATION 2 Salvation to all that will is nigh That All which alwayes is All every where Which cannot sinne and yet all sinnes must beare Which cannot die yet cannot chuse but die Loe faithfull Virgin yeelds himselfe to lye In prison in thy wombe and though he there Can take no sinne nor thou give yet he'will weare Taken from thence flesh which deaths force may trie Ere by the spheares time was created thou Wast in his minde who is thy Sonne and Brother Whom thou conceiv'st conceiv'd yea thou art now Thy Makers maker and thy Fathers mother Thou'hast light in darke and shutst in little roome Immensity cloysterd in thy deare wombe NATIVITIE 3 Immensitie cloysterd in thy deare wombe Now leaves his welbelov'd imprisonment There he hath made himselfe to his intent Weake enough now into our world to come But Oh for thee for him hath th'Inne no roome Yet lay him in this stall and from the Orient Starres and wisemen will travell to prevent Th' effects of Herods jealous generall doome Seest thou my Soule with thy faiths eyes how he Which fils all place yet none holds him doth lye Was not his pity towards thee wondrous high That would have need to be pittied by thee Kisse him and with him into Egypt goe With his kinde mother who partakes thy woe TEMPLE 4 With his kinde mother who partakes thy woe Ioseph turne backe see where your child doth sit Blowing yea blowing out those sparks of wit Which himselfe on the Doctors did bestow The Word but lately could not speake and loe It sodenly speakes wonders whence comes it That all which was and all which should be writ A shallow seeming child should deeply know His Godhead was not soule to his manhood Nor had time mellowed him to this ripenesse But as for one which hath a long taske 'T is good With the Sunne to beginne his businesse He in his ages morning thus began By miracles exceeding power of man CRVCIFYING 5 By miracles exceeding power of man Hee faith in some envie in some begat For what weake spirits admire ambitious hate In both affections many to him ran But Oh! the worst are most they will and can Alas and do unto the immaculate Whose creature Fate is now prescribe a Fate Measuring selfe-lifes infinity to span Nay to an inch loe where condemned hee Beares his owne crosse with paine yet by and by When it beares him he must beare more and die Now thou art lifted up draw mee to thee And at thy death giving such liberall dole Moyst with one drop of thy blood my dry soule RESVRRECTION 6 Moyst with one drop of thy blood my dry soule Shall though she now be in extreme degree Too stony hard and yet too fleshly bee Freed by that drop from being starv'd hard or foule And life by this death abled shall controule Death whom thy death slue nor shall to mee Feare of first or last death bring miserie If in thy little booke my name thou enroule Flesh in that long sleep is not putrified But made that there of which and for which 't was Nor can by other meanes be glorified May then sinnes sleep and death soone from me passe That wak't from both I againe risen may Salute the last and everlasting day ASCENTION 7 Salute the last and everlasting day Joy at the uprising of this Sunne and Sonne Yee whose just teares or tribulation Have purely washt or burnt your drossie clay Behold the Highest parting hence away Lightens the darke clouds which hee treads upon Nor doth hee by ascending show alone But first hee and hee first enters the way O strong Ramme which hast batter'd heaven for mee Mild lambe which with thy blood hast mark'd the path Bright torch which shin'st that I the way may see Oh with thy owne blood quench thy owne just wrath And if thy holy Spirit my Muse did raise Deigne at my hands this crowne of prayer and praise Holy Sonnets I. AS due by many titles I resigne My selfe to thee O God first I was made By thee and for thee and when I was decay'd Thy blood bought that the which before was thine I am thy sonne made with thy selfe to shine Thy servant whose paines thou hast still repaid Thy sheepe thine Image and till I betray'd My selfe a temple of thy Spirit divine Why doth the devill then usurpe on mee Why doth he steale nay ravish that 's thy right Except thou rise and for thine owne worke fight Oh I shall soone despaire when I doe see That thou lov'st mankind well yet wilt'not chuse me And Satan hates mee yet is loth to lose mee II. Oh my blacke Soule now thou art summoned By sicknesse deaths herald and champion Thou art like a pilgrim which abroad hath done Treason and durst not turne to whence hee is fled Or like a thiefe which till deaths doome be read Wisheth himselfe delivered from prison But damn'd and hal'd to execution Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned Yet grace if thou repent thou canst not lacke But who shall give thee that grace to beginne Oh make thy selfe with holy mourning blacke And red with blushing as thou art with sinne Or wash thee in Christs blood which hath this might That being red it dyes red soules to white III. This is my playes last scene here heavens appoint My pilgrimages last mile and my race Idly yet quickly runne hath this last pace My spans last inch my minutes latest point And gluttonous death will instantly unjoynt My body and my soule and I shall sleepe a space But my'ever-waking part shall see that face Whose feare already shakes my every joynt Then as my soule to'heaven her first seate takes flight And earth borne body in the earth shall dwell So fall my sinnes that all may have their right To where they' are bred and would presse me to hell Impute me righteous thus purg'd of evill For thus I leave the world the flesh the devill IV. At the round earths imagin'd corners blow Your trumpets Angells and arise arise From death you numberlesse infinities Of soules and to your scattred bodies goe All whom the flood did and fire shall o'erthrow All whom warre death age agues tyrannies Despaire law chance hath slaine and you whose eyes Shall behold God and