do testifie the least unto me and that by reason of my affection but I chuse rather to be little obedient to them to be the more faithful to you Live you then in this assurance if you will not that I die and become assured likewise that my life shall sooner be extinct then that fair flame that dayly does consume it Divine Mistress your humble creature happy to serve you A. S. A Maid or Widow having afforded her Suiter a final answer perhaps contemned and affronted him may upon change of thoughts seek toregain his love thus Worthy Sir IF there be no greater Cor'sive unto the mind of one then that which forceth us despight of our selves to seek to those whom we have before and that without just cause notoriously offended then certainly am I the most wretched creature living for as now there is no means left for me to escape from ruine but onely by thy help sweet friend alone who hast more reason to wish my overthrow then my good fortune or health any way at all in that thou hast found such extream and barbarous discourtefie in me Nevertheless if thygenerous and gentle mind cannot feel this injury done unto thee by a silly Maid then I beseech thee think no more upon my offence but burying it deep under thy feet do that for my sake which the bearer hereof shall make thee privy to and then shalt thou quickly perceive what great satisfaction I will make thee for my fault committed granting unto thee that which thou shalt most desire Give credit unto this Messenger assuring thy self that I am Thine most obliged M. L. A Captain Colonel or common Souldier falling in love with some gentlewoman thus manifests his passions Fair gentlewoman IF it be an irrevocable doom that men be they never so valiant or couragious shall be subject unto a braver and more livelier force then their owne I hope you will not marvel overmuch that I humbly yeild to your divine graces and as a captive your to beauty prostrate my self a prisoner at your feet But as mortal men deserve no countenance from the heavens until they have by many proofs testified their faithful and dutious service towards them so I will not presume to importune you to affect me at all much less to yeild me any guerdon for my paines until that by my dutious service I show my self in some part worthy your gratious smiles Mine onely request to you is that it would please you to have me in your lively remembrance and not to entertaine another as your loyal Servant before you shall have just occasion to discard and give me over for as no doubt it will be little pleasing unto you hereafter to repent you that you have made a worse choice then of my self so it will be far more bitter unto me then a most desperate death to be discharged from serving her whom I love more then my owne heart and cherish more then my owne life yea then my owne soul which is now wholly yours seeing that he that is the owner of the same is the inviolable slave to your incomparable self A. R. LETTERS in Verse With other curious Conceits and fine Fancies To the Reader Behold Apollo doth invite thee Yet a third time to delight thee A pleasant Tempe planted well With Flowers of odoriferous smell In the midst whereof do chill Aganippe waters drill The Muses whose sweet melody Drawes Jove down from the arched Sky Charm Pluto's self and all the Fiends To heaven climbes to hell descends Hand in hand now in a Ring Invite thee for to hear them sing Enter and take thy free delight And ' cause perhaps thy Appetite Cannot with one dish sated be I give thee here Varietie The Lover being forced from his Mistress presence Mistress BAnisht from you I charg'd the nimble wind My unseen messenger to speak my mind In am'rous whispers to you but my Muse Lest the unruly spirit should abuse The trust repos'd in him said it was due To her alone to sing my love to you Hear her then speak bright Lady from whose eye Shot lightning to his heart who joys to dye A Martyr in your flames O let your love Be great and firm as his then nought shall move Your setled faiths that both may grow together Or if by Fate divided both may wither Be constant as y' are faire for I foresee A glorious Triumph waits o' th' victorie Your love will purchase shewing us to prize A true content there onely love hath eyes Divine Lady yours more then his owne c. The Lover being anxious of his Mistress constancy Faire SWeet if you like and love me still And yeild me love for my good will And do not from your promise start When your fair hand gave me your heart If dear to you I be As you are dear to me Then your I am and will be ever Nor time nor place my love shall sever But faithful still I will persever Like the constant marble-stone Loving but you alone But if you favour more then me Who loves thee still and none but thee If others do the harvest gaine That 's due to me for all my paine If that you love to range And often for to change Then get you some new-fangled mate My doating love shall turne to hate Esteeming you though too too late Not worth a pebble-stone Loving not me alone The Lover being transported in his fancy complements in an high stile with his Mistress FOrsake with me the earth my fair And travel nimbly through the aire Till we have reacht th' admiring skies Then lend sight to those heav'nly eyes Which blind themselves make creatures see And taking view of all When we Shall find a pure and glorious sphere We 'll fix like stars for ever there Nor will we still each other view We 'll gaze on lesser stars then you See how by their weak influence they The strongest of mens actions sway In an inferiour orbe below We 'll see Calipso loosely throw Her hair abroad as she did weare The self-same beauty in a Beare As when she a cold Virgin stood And yet inflam'd Joves lustful blood Then look on Leda whose faire beams By their reflection gild those streams Where first unhappy she began To play the wanton with a Swan If each of these loose beauties are Transform'd to a more beautious star By the adulterous lust of Jove Why should not we by purer love Life of my life a devoted servant to your excellent perfections c. Dearest Let one griefe harme us Let one joy fill us Let one love warme us Let one death kill us A Maid or widow returnes this merry answer to her hot Lover whom she affect not I See thee gentle Franke most merry Though firm thy faith and sound as berry Love gave me joy and fortune gave it As my desire could wish to have it What didst thou wish tell me sweet lover Whereby thou mightst such joy recover To love where
thee I beg some help to have In thee it lies to kill or save The dying Lover NOw that Boreas with his cold Doth this County round infold And his Isicles displaies Whilst the verdure green he slayes I must end my life ere long With a sad and mournsul song Now that more then cruel pain Makes my hopes to be but vain And that love makes me distil Salt tears signes of my kind will Needs now must my lives term end Unto the heavens to ascend Now that such is my sad care That I 'm droven to dispaire That cross Fates me strive to greive Why shòuld I desire to live Better 't is to dye then still Follow us what works more ill Now that sighs and sobs and teares The subject of my verses bears And whilst this plague usurps my heart I 'll try if I can make it smart By a death that one day may Make me victor every way Now that skies with lightning blast Force my pleasures not to last And that the sun no more doth shine I must yeild to tempest Time Loyally I lay me down And go willing to my Tomb. Now that cold and chilly fear Still doth dog me everywhere Seek I must by cruelty For to end my misery For an end to every thing Gentle death none else doth bring Now that burning fire o'r-bright Hath my sense consumed quite Leaving nought with me but groanes Thus I do rid all at once The Lover to his Mistress LUckloss and lucky both at once am I With fear and hope I tremble as a reed Luckless by beauty thine by destiny Lucky because I am thy slave indeed For then thy face there 's nothing is more faire Then thy sweet eyes nought more divine or rare One while I hope another while I fear Nor can there any thing my fancy please It grieves me to see the heavens though clear So much I doubt thy favour to displease Then thy fair face there 's nothing is more fair Then thy sweet eyes nought more divine or rare The united Lovers WHo ever saw so faire a sight Love and Vertue met aright And that wonder Constancy Like a comet to the eye Sound aloud so rare a thing That all the Hills and Vales may ring Look lovers look with passion see If that any such there be As there cannot but be such Who do feel this noble touch Sound aloud so rare a thing That all the hills and vales do ring The Lover to his Mistress upon her apparelling her self in black SInce that thou hast victory Ore my dearest liberty Why with black that form of thine Dost thou cloath so rich and fine If thou wear'st it for to witness As a friend my sad distress Happy I since for my sake Thou the colour sad dost take Sweet my life content be thou That this black weed I bear now Hapless was my life and so Sad my life i' th' end should show To me these sad cloaths alone Appertain as signes of mone Nature in one body ne'r Black and white at once doth bear From my black all hate be wide With which I my crosses hide He that in despair doth rest Black doth bear for colour best Cruel this not colour 's thine Since thine eyes bright and divine Sacred as the hallowed day Chase the gloomy night away My heart wounded thou dost make The habit of a conquerour take And let me alone with this Since my fitting colour ' t is Live thou in eternal glory While I dye as desp'rate sory Whilst this dye thou put'st on thee Thou depriv'st of comfort me Change then this same weed of dole Fit for a departing soul Give to me the colour black With it the flitting Ghosts to track The forsaken Lovers complaint 1 UNto the soundless vaults of hell below I 'll with my greifes remediless amaine Whilst frighted Ghosts as pitiful shall show And flinty rocks remorse take of my paine Yea death it self my bitter paines shall know To witness that my life in hell hath lame For Lovers true can never dye indeed Whose loyal hearts a heavenly fire doth feed 2 My body laid along within my grave Shall show its tears its torment and its love And for my mind did never change nor wave Far brighter then the sun the same shall prove By me my Ladies picture I will have Which though being dead afresh will make me love Like to the fire in ashes covered Which though it show no flame yet is not dead 3 Love is not tam'd by death but still doth live Although that life doth flit and pass away Then Lady think not though by death thou grieve My body that thou love canst make decay As long as fancy doth by beauty drive Into my soul no this will ' bide for aye Within my heart the beauty printed is Love in my Tombe to harbour will not miss 4 Thinkst thou I 'll leave to love thee being dead When thy faire portraicture revives my sight Voices from Tombs they say have some men lead Restoring them unto their senses right Then how much more ought love be honoured Whom then the greatest Gods is more of might Then think not when my corps bury'd you see That from thy love as thou wouldst I am free 5 List to my monument and thou shalt hear How I will sigh for without soul thy fire Shall hold me up whilst living I appear Being dead as 'fore my death I did desire Nor deadly pangs thereof will I once fear Nor part from thee as thou wouldst fain require For in thy life so cruel th' hast not been But in my death as loyal I 'll be seen 6 Yet is my fortune better far then thine For without breach of saith as thou hast done I shall have leave to plaine those Ills of mine Thou thinkst in killing me a martyrdome More tedious then before me to assigne But th' art deceiv'd a wrong race hast thou run For whilst I liv'd thy rigour was my bane But being dead I am freed from my pain The despairing Lover ELsewhere declare Thy wosul care And leave the skies Thy wosul plaints Thy heart that taints They do despise See they look red With rage o'respread And horror too 'T is they in griefe Without reliefe That us undoo He is a sot That thinketh not That from that place Through destiny Most wretchedly Comes our disgrace Then better 't is For death to wish And end our daies Then still in strife Lead such a life So plagu'd alwaies For death 's our friend When he doth end Our bitter smart And through the same Doth rid our paine With his keen dart A Knell GOme list and hark The bell doth toul For some but new Departing soul And was not that Some ominous fowle The Bat the Night Crow or Skreech-owle To these I hear The wild wolfe howle In this black night That seems to scowle All these my black Book shall inrowle For hark still still The bell doth towl For some but now
She strait and tall her tresses trail'd to ground Amaz'd I stood thinking my Dear had been Turn'd Goddess ev'ry sense to Sight was gone With bashful blush she fled I once be'ng seen Left me transformed almost into stone Yet did I wish so ever t' have remained Had she but stay'd and I my sight retained Song 27. The Insatiate Lover AS soon may water wipe me dry And fire my heat allay As you with favour of your eye Make hot desire decay The more I have The more I crave The more I crave the more desire As piles of wood increase the fire The Authors conclusion REst good my Muse and give me leave to rest We stive in vain Conceal thy skill within thy sacred brest Though to thy pain The honour great which Poets wont to have With worthy deeds lye in oblivions grave Each man will hide his name Thereby to hide his shame And silence is the praise their vertues crave 2. To praise is flattery malice to dispraise Hard is the choice What cause is left for thee my Muse to raise Thy heavenly voice Delight thy self on sweet Pernassus hill And for a better time reserve thy skill There let thy silver sound From Cyrrha-wood rebound And all the vale with pleasing musick fill 3. Then shall those fools that now preser each Rime Before thy skill With hand and foot in vaine assay to clime Thy sacred hill There shalt thou sit and scorne them with disdain To see their fruitless labour all in vain And they shall fret with spight To see thy glory bright And know themselves thereto cannot attain EMBLEMATICAL FANTASTICKS More emphatical and numerous then all ever yet printed To the Reader Search thou all upon earths Lee Heelme and ride the Astrolobe Such Fancies here I hold to view Can nowhere else be seen by u. 2 2 1 is oddes i c 6 2 6 most even b. 1 2 2 and 2 2 6 At Barly-break may play fine tricks 2 2 6 and 6 2 1 May b in hell when u are gone Dis-joy'd can't be If Love do say Amen I c. For where love mutually There the Affections bb Put in thy Or pay 't is no To strive for u were drunk to day Thus 't is with to play be his good luck Well branched such as wears Whose staring ever b Upon The Crest of Cuckoldry A yâ—llow field a pair of horns a key is Musick I would wish A Carp me thinks is finest and a And good Canary for my money U Drawer wash the So that each man may see When he looks on them Next bring hither Tobacco and together Beneath 2 lovers sat from heaven pointed at U must imagine none But would have run 't is 10 2 1. But them I sit still dally 1000 kisses on the Tally They carv'd and rose up Meaning to drink a spiced No or or can thwart Those are slue'd by Cupids What that flies in heav'ns Whose chirps not Loves melody A Song A Shepherd sat beneath Quoth he My fears and doubts B Lest Cupid with his and Should freshly wound my wounded Why should the lustre of or prevail That I must doat to my disgrace While Cupid doth my force assail His his his His lay broken at his feet The that on the trees did wag In mournful quires did sing full sweet No nor durst there appear Sylvanus did command them thence No saucie Huntsman durst come there To chase the from their residence The gods by their almighty power For this sweet Shepherd kept this Bower O Why should u so captious b No fault I would have lovers c In their beloveds Those 2 nice Me thinks are still yy Question GOod Sir how came you lose your Answer With walking in those mists arose In Pric-ardy Question Indeed 't is true The French many makes to rue Whenas thy once go down Hold fast thy upon thy Answer No matter 't is but a French Jig And I can buy untwin'd can't b. make 1 i c. r great brags deeds or can he be True 2 1 hath broke with 3 He 's knavish yy and ne'er was true Besides in means he doubles u. An l of Pudding can't suffize His gut that is of III size Ever in a wand'ring Maze Are those that do on Beautie gaze Still perplexed full of Feares Their houres are months their months are yeares Lovers see more wonders then Mad-men when they are alone If once possest fourty to ten If love leav them til life is gone Round about all in a Ring A Lovers Obiit set us sing Strow red Roses Lillies Fine The Hyacinth and Iassamine Bring green Tyme and Eglansine yea and Vervain most Divine about about With nimble pace While This holy Ground We Trace lo Peans sing we all To Cupids bow Aethâ—â—â—â— Broken sleeps tormenting nights Such as Death it self affrights Leanness roving idle praises Curses blessings strange Fantasies Fevers Agues and Despair First built Loves Castle in the Air. Foolish Mortals do not post To enter here unto your cost Cupid's Messengers will come DESIRE and INCLINATION You need not fear Will bring you here To taste those Ills That thousands kills Force not your selves Yee foolish Elves To dote Upon a Note is sung By her is yong For know one time or other you shall prove Maugre your wills there is a god of love Additional amorous Discourses Poems Dialogues Letters c. A Young Gentleman being taken with the love of a Lady thus accosteth her Suppose the name to be FORTUNATUS and ADRASTINA For. ALl hail thou model of divine perfections may all the blessings heavens can send to mortals showre down upon your head Vouchsafe to cast one favourable look upon a creature wholly devoted to your service and let not rigour steer your actions to play the tyrant over him whose heart is vow'd a Sacrifice to your love Adrast Pardon Sir a womans weakness if she take the boldness to say her shallow capacity cannot apprehend the height of your Oratory yet must I render thanks for your wishes and wish that I could be so thankful as to meet you in an equal affection but since affection cannot be forced you must pardon me if I say I cannot love Fortu. Not love heavens forbid that so great cruelty should reside in so divinely faire a creatrue Let not such harsh speeches proceed from so sweet a mouth unless it be out of a Maiden bashfulness whose very strongest negatives do but affirm a grant such I both hope and wish is your denial Adrast I must confess Sir your thoughts I cannot hinder yet would I gladly perswade you to believe the truth that my denial is unfeigned however I shall willingly submit my weaker judgment to the government of your better understanding Fortu. Divinest Lady to whose beauty I am be holding for whatever I have since you have been pleased to honour me with so high a title as is that of your governour give me leave to command but alas 't is impossible or
spots thou graced be The morning-air perfum'd in May The glory of the clearest day The first-born Rose of all the Spring The Down beneath the Turtles wing A Lute just reaching to the ear Whatere is soft or sweet or fair Are but her shreds who fills the place And sum of every single grace As in a childe the Nurse descries The mothers lips the fathers eyes The uncles nose and doth apply An owner unto every part so I In her could analyze the store Of all the choice ere Nature bore Each private piece to minde may call Some worth but none may match it all Poor emblems they can but express One element of Comeliness None are so rich to shew in one All simples of perfection Nor can the Pencil represent More then the outward lineament Then who can limn the Portraicture Of Beauties live behaviour Or what can figure ev'ry kinde Of Jewels that adorn her minde Thought cannot draw her picture sull Even thought to her is gross and dull A Song 1. KEep on your Mask and hide your eye For with beholding you I die Your fatal beauty Gorgon-like Dead with astonishment will strike Your piercing eyes if them I see Are worse then Basilisks to me 2. Shut from mine eyes those hills of snow Their melting valley do not show Those Azure paths lead to despair O vex me not forbear forbear For while I thus in torments dwell The sight of heav'n is worse then hell 3. Your dainty voice and warbling breath Sounds like a sentence pass'd for death Your dangling tresses are become Like Instruments of final doom Oh if an Angel torture so When life is done where shall I go A Poet to his Mistress THat I do love it comes to me by kinde That I love much it much delights my minde That I love you it is my choice of heart That I love you alone 't is your desert I love yea much yea you yea you alone By kinde minde heart desert and all in one Another HEr Face her Tongue her Wit So fair so sweet so sharp First drew then bent last knit Mine eye mine ear my heart On his Mistress IF any do desire to know Where the flow'rs of Vertue grow Where content delight or mirth Doth inhabit upon earth Let them resort to me and I The place thereof will soon descry Where 's Piety without deceit Where Love without Strife or debate Where Beauty 's mixt with comely grace Vertue resideth in that place And in my Love all these do meet No marvel then if she be sweet The Question 1. I Ask thee whence those ashes were Which shrine themselves in plaits of hair Unknown to me Sure each morn dies A Phoenix for a Sacrifice 2. I ask thee whence those ruddy blooms Perch'd on her cheek in scarlet gowns Unknown to me Sure that which flies From fading Roses her cheek dyes 3. I ask thee whence those Airs which flie From birds in sweetest harmony Unknown to me But sure the choice Of accents ecchoes from her voice 4. I ask thee of the Lily whence It gain'd the type of innocence Unknown to me Sure Nature's deck Was ravisht from her snowie neck 5. I ask thee whence those active fires Take light which glide through burnisht air Unknown to me unless there flies A flash of lightning from her eyes The Answer explicatory 1. O No heav'n saw mens fancy stray To idolize but dust and clay That embleme gave that they might see Your beauties date but dust should be 2. O no that Rose when June is past Looks pale as with a poyson'd blast And such your beauty whenas time Like winter shall o'rtake your prime 5. No Philomel when Summer 's gone Hasts to the woods her rape to mone Unwilling hers asham'd to see Your unlike hers unchastity 4. O no the Phoenix shuns that place And fears the lustful sires embrace Of your hot brest and barren womb As death or some perpetual Tomb. 5. O no those stars that flie but the sight Of what you act in dead of night Asham'd themselves should Panders prove To your insatiate beastly love The affirmative Answer 1. ASk me no more whither do stray The golden atomes of the day For in pure love heav'n did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair 2. Ask me no more whither doth haste The Nightingal when Summer's past For in your sweet dividing throte She winters and keeps warm her note 3. Ask me no more where those storms light Which downward stoop in dead of night For in your eyes they set and there Fixed become as in their Sphere 4. Ask me no more where Jove bestows When June is past the fading Rose For in your beauties orient deep All flow'rs as in their beds do sleep 5. Nor ask me more if East or West The Phoenix builds her spiced nest For unto you at last she flies And in your fragrant bosome dies The Moderatrix 1. I 'Ll tell you where 's another Sun That sets as rising it begun It is my self who keep one sphere And were the same if men so were 2. What need I tell that life and death May pass in sentence from one breath So issue from mine equal heart Both love and scorn on mens desert 3. I 'll tell you in what heav'nly hell An angel and a fiend do dwell It is mine eye whose glassie book Sends back the gazers divers look 4. I 'll tell you in a divers scale One weight can up and downward hale You call me Thistle you a Rose I neither am yet both of those 5. I 'll tell you where both frost and fire In peace of common seat conspire My frozen brest the flint is like Yet yeelds a spark if well you strike Conclusion Then you that love and you that loath With one respect I answer both For round about me glows a fire Can melt and harden cross desire A Dialogue between a Maid and a young Youth Maid STay lovely boy why flee'st thou me That languish in these flames for thee I 'm black 't is true and so is Night And Love doth in dark shades delight The whole world do but close thine eye Will seem to thee as black as I Or ope't and view what a dark shade Is by thine own fair body made That follows thee where-ere thou go Ah who allow'd would not do so Let me for ever dwell so nigh And thou shalt need no other shade but I. Boy Black maid complain not that I flie Since Fate commands antipathie Prodigious will that union prove Where night and day together move And the conjunction of our lips Not kisses make but an eclips In which the mixed black and white Portend more terrour then delight Yet if my shadow thou wilt be Enjoy thy dearest wish but see Thou take my shadows property Which hastes away when I come nigh Else stay while death hath blinded me And then I will bequeathe my self to thee Epigram in Amorem LOve is all eyes admits of no delay
Departing soul A warning to the Grave HArk now every think is still The Skreech-owle and the whistler shrill Call upon our Dame aloud And bid her quickly d'on her shrowd Much you had of Land and Rent Your length in clay 's now competent A long war disturb'd your mind Here your perfect peace is sign'd Of what is' t Fooles make such vain keeping Sin their conception their birth weeping Their life a general mist of error Their death a hideous storm of terror Strew your haire with powder sweet D'on clean linen bathe your feet 'T is now full tide tween night and day End your groan and come away A mournful Ditty on the death of a drowned friend FLow streams of Equid salt from my sad eyes To celebrate his mournful obsequies R. S. is dead he 's dead and I remain To draw my poor life in continual pain Till it hath paid to his sad memory Duty of love O then most willingly Drown'd with my teares as he with waves I dye Of women in general THere are some holy but some apt to sin Some tractable but some that none can win Such as are vertuous gold nor wealth can move Some vicious of themselves are prone to love Some grapes are sweet and in the garden grow Others unprun'd turn wild neglected so The purest oare containes both gold and dross The one all gain the other nought but loss The one disgrace reproach and scandal taints The other Angels and sweet featur'd Saints DUst is lighter then a feather And the wind more light then either But a womans fickle mind More light then feater dust or wind A Dialogue between ENDYMION EXPENDITION Ex. WHat ho Endymion how the Dormouse sleeps A wake for shame open thy wink a peeps End What stir you make I come with speed I can And too much speed for I have tyr'd my man Expe. Who Dulman End Yes I thought the Knave would shame us And play us one horse trick for Ignoramus Anagrams A good Patron 's Anagram is PATREN Anag PARENT An evil ones PATRONE Anag ROPEAN'T CHEATER Anag TEACHER Teacher you are for you have taught me more Then I was taught in all my life before Bliss or Bale No medium in love IF you reward my love with love again My bliss my life my heaven I will deem you But if for love you render me disdain My bale my death my hell I must esteem you A Madrigal WHosoever longs to try Both love and Jealousie My fair unconstant Lady let him see And he will soon a jealous lover bee The Lovers Letany FRom a fair face and a false heart From the force of Cupids forked dart From a wagtail'd wench with an wart Libera me From an oiled skin and a false hair From towsed fullied and o'er-jaded ware From a painted Fro of St. James his faire Libera me From a wanton hag and a noseless Jone From ent'ring the pass a Frenchman has gon From her that will for a shilling be won Libera me From a City-decoy and a suburb-Bawd From a Panders gripe and a courtesans fraud From a parcht Parachito whose face is flau'd Libera me From a drunken female who spreads her thies From an old woman that hath lust in her eyes From a common strumpet who seems to be nice Libera me The Bride-maids Song FRom the Temple to the Boord From the Boord unto the Bed We conduct your maidenhead Wishing Hymen to afford All the pleasures that he can 'Twixt a woman and a man A Song to be sung the marriage-night by two in parts The first THine O Hymen thine O shee Whose beauties verse Caliope Sing to marriage-rites an Io. Io to Hymen The second To thee Apollo is my sute Lend me a while thy silver Lute O what a wo it is to bring A Bride to bed and never sing Io to Hymen Ambo When she 's old still seem she young When she 's weak to her be strong Be Cyprus both and Paplos here Love sing with merry cheere Io to Hymen Ad eundem the bridegroom being wanting at bed-time DRop golden showers gentle sleep And all the Angels of the night Which do us in protection keep Make the Bride dream of delight Morpheus be kind a little and be Deaths true Image for 't will prove To this poor bride that then th art he Her lord is absent from her love Thus with sweet sweets can heaven mix gall Come quickly Bridegroom or not at all Song SIng sweetly that our notes may cause The heav'nly orbes themselves to pause And at our musick stand as still As at Joves amorous will So now release them as before Th 'ave waited long enough no more The description of a matchless beauty written at the request of the most brave and gallant Lady the Lady L. S. during my residence at Winchester 1648. HEr haire like hemlocks careless fall To deck her amorous eyes withall As fiery as the evening where We read the next day will be fair Her curious forehead well doth show Where Carbuncles in number grow But the beauty of her nose Would fright a man out of his clothes To dance a naked round-delay When on the tobacco-pipe you play And the pale brightness of her lips Doth force the Sun to an eclipse Her cheeks of fat and soggy stuff Like the running dropsey swell and puff But oh the apples on them grow I think were rotten long ago Her precious neck and brests display Her skins antiquity for they Like a dri'd dunghil chop and break Until her snout begins to leak Her parched fists defie the Sun For all the malice he hath don Can't change her hide nor any stain Corrupt it for it 's dy'd in grain Her spacious belly and her waste Have grease sufficiently to baste A herd of swine they have such store A Shambles cannot purchase more Her thighes like two Colossus seem Proportion'd with her bodies teem And those which bear her pond'rous betch Are mighty columns full of itch But some that have her hoofes espi'd With fear the fooles fell down and di'd Yet all this while I have forgot Her tongue as still as Cannon-shot All parts of her I can't display The rest unseen the Devil may She is the wonder of our age Nor lacks she ought but a large cage Englands Elyzium An Heroick Poem intended THou fertil Island seated in the sea Whose waves do dance by musick of the Moon That on thy banks pretty Lavolta's play As if they would intreat thee take a boon Receive all fish that 's food and bless the store For never monster shall come neer thy shore Thou little world yet all without the world Thou second Eden seated in the west From thee thy fountains in seven mouths are hurl'd Such as from Nile the garden door so blest Humber ware Tine Dee four so have their names Severn and Owze the last and richest Thames No beasts of danger live upon thy earth No Panther Tyger ought procuring harms To Lyons Dragons thou
great content as in the fulfilling your commands which are so repleat with vertue that I cannot but admire nay adore the person in whom so much good resides What then are all my services even not worthy to be taken notice of by so great vertuous deserts Should I not adore should I not serve should I not with a most constant affection love your dear self I might well be branded with the base stain of stupidity I protest were the place of my being a Paradise and were my company all Saints yet without you should I receive little pleasure in the one and less comfort in the society of the other You are always present in my heart and thoughts and as I walk alone in the fields heaven can bear me witness how often it has heard me record your name and with what joy I was wrapt when the solitary woods with a pleasing eccho reiterated the same c. A Letter suing for Love Dear Madam I Cannot but in all humble reverence by these as much as they can manifest that affection which my stammering tongue knows not how to express nor my unable pen to delineate Oh that my heart were transparent there would you see a Seat ordained for your vertuous and sweetest self a Palace of Love where affection daily waits to do you service a Castle altogether impregnable till 't was over-pow'red by darts of love shot from your eyes by the string of vertue How then to express a gratitude sufficient to answer your goodness is a thing altogether impossible your vertue being as unlimitable as my affection but such as I can I willingly offer my self my love yea my whole fortunes I humbly present you withal You have taken me out of my self and my thoughts are not so often in mine own brest as where you are You are the Loadstar of my thoughts and the life of my desires with whom alone I desire to pass my life No marvel if all love if all desire if all affect you for worth and desert cannot lie unregarded I resigne my self as your prisoner and as a Trophee of your victories to remain Yours in life and even in death A Letter of complement from one friend to another Sir I Doubt not nay I am confident that you will wonder that after the ungrate silence of so many by-past yeers I should now begin to make an apologie but I hope my negligence acknowledged will obtain a parden Desiring therefore that you will think of me with favour and impute my fault not to a willing ingratitude but to a too great distance But why speak I of distance it was not that could make me hold back my due respects but an incertainty nay I may truely say an impossibility to send was my chief nay my onely reason yet I hope a good occasion will now ere long bring us together and afford us that opportunity of renewing friendship which I have long wished and shall in no mean measure rejoyce at last to enjoy then shall be a time of more real and full expressions of my respects towards you then can finde compass within this narrow page then shall be a time when by a return of courtesies for received obliging favours I shall endeavour to repay that friendship which I well understand I owe unto you And till I can be happie in the fruition of this time know that I study gratitude and shall ever seriously endeavour to seem as I am and be as I seem SIR Your most obliged servant A Gentleman thus writes to his dispeased uncle SUch and so great has been my former unhappiness that those which should have been the tenderers of my service and respects could have no intercourse but seeing that it hath pleased God that the mutual love which should before have proceeded from one to another to the comfort of both hath again received a new birth I hope that all injuries and by-past discontents laid aside you will look upon me with a favourable eye You know worthy Sir that I have a long time sayled in a deep Sea of affliction and sorrow which still has increased and flowed in upon me and will continue unless your love and favour extend it self not onely to the pacifying the impetuousness of its waves but also to the bringing it to so lowe an ebbe as I may safely come to the solong-look'd for shore c. To a friend for a received courtesie THere hath no one experiment or occurrence happened in my time which hath more commended and confirmed my judgement and skill of inspection into a man then this performance of yours for I must ingenuously confess at the first acquaintance I had with you I read that same reality and civility in you which now I see lively acted by you so that I know not whether I should applause my judgement more or congratulate my happiness in your acquaintance from whom I have received a courtesie of that nature as cannot be expressed without a due consideration of and reflexion on the high consequence and concernment of it together with a ready thankfulness to you the author thereof of whom I may justly say that it hath not been so truely occasioned by some that Forgetfulness commonly waits upon Absence but that you will have it falsified of your self which not onely augments but heightens the courtesie beyond the attempt of requital And if you have any occasions wherein I may serve you command me freely as Your friend and servant Another I Have hourly before me so many Monitors and Remembrancers of my engagement to you as is sufficient to convert Ingratitude in which respect how am I troubled to discharge this debt which is so great that you must not expect an entire payment but to take it out in several acknowledgements as opportunity shall favour me And since the best way to cross out the score of your merit is to begin early to make payment I cannot omit to give you hearty thanks for your favours which have perpetually engaged Your very friend A Letter of Complement Sir MY unwilling errour of not answering your Letter I am confident your sweet indulgence will readily pardon I could wish you were truely sensible how happie I conceived my self in this fortunate opportunity as literally to present you with these best of wishes I have oft with no small ambition sought personally to neliver That the choicest of all joy and happiness may be showred down upon you And for that I yet remain in your remembrance is my singular happiness and your meer goodness for from my own worthlesness and the strong conceit I had of your change I could not but collect a total eclipse of your favourable aspect And that you will be pleased to bear with this my conceited prolixity is the earnest desire of Sir Your very humble servant A Letter to his Mistress GO happie Paper by command Take liberty to kiss a hand More white then any part of thee Although with
your pastures and come neer me Come away you need not fear By my soul as I affect you I have nought that can infect you O then come Hear a tongue That in discord keeps a part With a wo-surcharged heart Ne'r was Swain on plain more loved Or could do more feats then I Yet one griefe hath now removed All my whilome Jollity All my layes be quite forgotten Sheep-hook broken pipe bag rotten O then come Hear a tongue That with flatt'ring speech doth call To take long farewel of all I am not as once I was When my Chloris first did suite me Nor when that same red-hair'd Lass Fair Bellina did invite me To a garden there to play Cull kiss clip and toy all day O then come Hear a tongue That in wooing termes was flowing But through wo hath spoyl'd his wooing All I can or will desire you When my breath of life is spent That in love you would inter me For it will my soul content Near unto my Father herse And bestow some comely verse On my Tombe Then my tongue Shall throb out this last adieu Ne'r were truer Swain then you A Dialogue between two Lovers Question WEre ever chaste and honest hearts Expos'd unto so great distresses Answer Yes they that have the worthiest parts Most commonly have worst successes Great fortunes follow not the best It 's Vertue that is most distrest Then Fortune why do we admire The glory of thy great excesses Since by thee what men acquire Thy works and not their worths expresses Nor dost thou raise them for their good But t' have their ills more understood The Authors suit to Cupid I Will not love I love to rest Cupid is an ungentle guest Except without his weapon's he Will lodge in my tyr'd Phantasie Better stand the shock of thunder Which cleaves hardest Rocks in sunder Then oppose the sturdy blow When the blind Boy bends his Bow Prethee Cupid cease to smile 'T is a courtship base and vile To laugh and stab unto the heart I will praise thee and thy dart While at others thou dost throw it I love to hear on 't not to know it A Salyrical Description of Love LOve is of man the fatal rock On which his ship of ease doth knock And splits him with the sturdy shock He never yet felt any pain That hath not known the lovers vain Whose greatest griefe is greatest gain No Ill so nigh the heart doth sit As doth this fierce tormenting fit Death is more pleasing far then it Our souls with hope it doth torment Whilst nought but massacres are sent To dye is better far content Love then most cruel void of grace Ought to be curst in every place No God but Devil in this case The Changes Or all think not of love alike Worthi's hee the bright of day Who doth loyal love obey CVpid onely I do love Him I worship still above Happi's he that by the same Wisdome to himself doth gain Worthi's he the bright of day Who doth loyal love obey O how sweet is that warm fire Which our hearts heats with desire To our souls no sweetness is Halfe so dulcet as is this Worthi's he c. Blessed love without all crime Two souls pleaseth at one time Then doth love his lover right When his love he doth requite Worthi's he c. Of two souls he makes but one In two bodies all alone Love more happy cannot bee Then when we loving couples see Worthi's he c. Pleasure none upon the ground Like to love is to be found Pleasures pass as transitory Love doth still remain in glory Worthi's he c. The answer being a contradiction of the former assertion Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid doth delight NOthing in this world can be Sweeter then our libertie Which love often takes away And then all our joyes decay Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid doth delight Love doth never sorrow miss Who grieves male-contented is But love thus doth Lovers sting Doth not love then sorrow bring Worthi's he c. Who that soul hath ere seen eas'd Upon whom fierce love hath ceaz'd The Mistress and the Servant both Oft through love their lives do loath Worthi's he c. Gods from heaven have chas'd and sent This vile Boy us to torment Nor are we him to indure That such plagues doth us procure Worthi's he c. Then most wretched him I deem That of this blind Boy doth esteem Worser plague there 's not of Ills That consumes still yet ne'er kills Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid takes delight A Farewel to Love To my most courteous Friend Mr. John Phillipson Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow ILl betide him that love seeks He shall live but with lean cheeks He that fondly falls in love A slave still to griefe shall prove Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow What an Ass and fool is he That may and yet will not go free I can love her that is fair But so as if I grasp'd the aire Love fare thee well c. I like not these Dames so smooth As would have men court and love For as constant I them find As the Sea is or the wind Love fare thee well c. Once I lov'd one that was kind But she did what pleas'd her mind Better 't is ne'r to be born Then live as anothers scorn Love fare thee well c. To lovers what good doth the Sun If by his beams they be undon Love 's as bitter as is Rue Blest are those that ne'er it knew Love fare thee well c. A fond Lover doth not merit Name or fame of man t' inherit Since he is foe to his own health And huggs diseases as his wealth Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow A Rhapsody Now must the Gods above And all the heavens that move Of my Mistress praises sing Such as through the earth may ring Now must we frame chaplets fine And with the Lawrel green combine The fruitful Olive that our haire May yeild a persume through the aire My Love maist thou alwaies flourish Although my self do die and perish To the same If nothing faire I see but what 's thy face If thy bright look is loadstone to my eyes If thy rare parts as blessings I embrace Have I not reason then in dutious wise Thy gracious self for to implore Since thee a Goddess I adore He that finds salve to cure him of his griefe By a fair hand of that shall he not make Account when he thereby may get reliefe Whereby his sickness from him he may shake The wounded Deer to herbs doth go Love wounds us love must cure our wo. So then in this my worse then captive state These lines I offer to thy deity Not doubting but though hapless be my fate I from my self shall find some remedy Of
be told Mel. Yet I have heard thee heretofore Thy joys in open songs report Erg. I said I had of joy some store But not how much or in what sort Mel. Yet when a joy is in excess It self it will unfold Erg. Thus then my joies I do express I clip my Arnageld Sonnet VII SHe that denies me I would have Who craves me I despise Venus hath power to rule my heart But not to please my eyes Temptations offer'd still I scorn Deny'd I wish them still I 'll neither glut my appetite Nor seek to starve my will Diana double cloath'd offends So Venus naked quite The last begers a surfet and The other not delight That crafty girl shall please me best That No for Yea can say And ev'ry wanton willing kiss Can season with a Nay Song 17. 1. WHen to her Lute Althea sings Her voice revives the leaden strings And doth in highest notes appear As any chaleng'd eccho clear But when she doth of mourning speak Ev'n then her sighs the strings do break 2. And as her Lute doth live or die Led by her passions so must I For when of pleasure she doth sing My thoughts enjoy a sudden spring But if she do of sorrow speak Ev'n fresh my heart the strangs do break Sonnet VIII 1. LIke the Violet which alone Prospers in some happie shade My dear Mistress lives unknown To no looser eye betray'd For she 's to her self untrue Who delights i' th' publike view 2. Such her beauty as no arts Hath enrich'd with borrow'd grace Her high birth no pride imparts For she blushes in her place Folly boasts a noble blood She is noblest being good 3. She 's cautious and ne'er knew yet What a wanton courtship meant Nor speaks loud to boast her wit In her silence eloquent Of her self survey she takes But 'tween men no diff'rence makes Song 18. A Country-Courtship written during my abode at S.r. E. D's house in Wilishire 1. CHloris my onely Goddess and my good Whiter then is th' untrodden snowie way And redder then the rose but late a bud Half blown and pluckt with dew by break of day To view more comely then the Plane-tree's shape And sweeter then the ripe and swelling grape More pleasant then the shade in summer-time Or the sun-beams in winters coldest prime 2. More fresh then any cool and trembling winde Morenoble then the fruit that Orchards yeeld More jocund then the tender Kid by kind When full it skips and traverseth the fields More flowry then the rich and pleasant mead With painted flowers in midst of May bespread More sost then spotless down on Cygnets brest Or the sweet milk and cheese-curds yet unprest 3. Clusters of Grapes do beautify my Vines Some golden purple-red all fair and full Of part whereof I make most dainty wines And part of them I keep for thee to pull And with thy hands most delicate and fair Gather thou may'st ripe Plums by goodly pairs Under the shadow of thy boughes to ease thee 4. Here I have Damsens Nuts and colour'd Peares With Peaches fine that would each eye invite And every tree and fruit this Island bears All for thy service pleasure and delight And as my heart to please thee I have bowed So have all these the self-same office vowed In Autumn if thy husband I might be Chesnuts and Medlers I would keep for thee Sonnet IX The Lover imbracing his Mistress A Bout the husband-Oak the Vine Thus wreaths to kiss his leavy face Their streams thus Rivers joyn And lose themselves in the mbrace But Trees want sense when they infold And waters when they meet are cold Thus Turtles bill and groan Their loves into each others eare Two flames thus burn in one When their curl'd heads to heaven they reare But Birds want soul though not desire And flames material soon expire Song 19. Sung by three Beggers IRUS BRUNELLO FURBO IRUS BRight shines the Sun play Beggers play Here 's seraps enough to serve to day What noise of Vials is so sweet As when our merry clappers ring What mirth doth want where Beggers meet A Beggers life is for a King Eat drink and play sleep when we list Go where we will so stocks be mist Bright shines the Sun play Beggers play Here 's scraps enough to serve to day BRUNELLO The world is ours and ours alone For we alone have world at will We purchase not all is our own Both fields and streets we Beggers fill Nor care to get nor fear to keep Did ever break a Beggers sleep Bright shines the Sun c. FURBO A hundred head of black and white Upon our downes securely feed If any dare his Master bite He dies therefore as sure as creed Thus Beggers lord it as they please And none but Beggers live at ease Bright shines the Sun c. Sonnet X. DIsdain that so doth fill me Hath surely sworn to kill me And I must die Desire that still doth burn me To life again will turn me And live must I. O kill me then Disdain That I may live again 2. Thy looks are life unto me And yet those looks undo me O death and life Thy smile some rest doth shew me Thy frown doth soon o'erthrow me O peace and strife Nor life nor death is either Then give me both or neither 3. Life onely cannot please me Death onely cannot case me Change is delight I live that death may kill me And die that life may fill me Both day and night If once Desire decay Despair will wear away Song 20. Sung by a Shepherd and a Shepherdess AMYNTAS AMARILLIS Amynt THe cause why that thou dost deny To look on me sweet Fo impart Amar. Because that doth not please the eye Which doth offend and grieve the heart Amynt What woman is or ever was That when she looketh was not mov'd Amar. She that resolves her life to pass Neither to love nor to be lov'd Amynt There is no heart so fierce or hard That can so much torment a soul Amar. Nor Shepherd of so small regard That Reason will so much controul Amynt How falls it out love doth not kill Thy Cruelty with some remorse Amar. Because that Love is but a Will And Free-will doth admit no force Amynt Behold what reason now thou hast To remedy my loving smart Amar. The very same bindes me as fast To keep such danger from my heart Amynt Why dost thou thus torment my minde And to what end thy beauty keep Amar. Because thou call'st me still unkinde And pitiless when thou dost meet Amynt Is it because thy cruelty In killing me doth never end Amar. No but because I mean thereby My heart from sorrow to defend Sonnet XI 1. Amphion O thou holy shade Bring Orpheus with thee That wonder may you both invade To hear my melody You who are soul not rudely made Up with material ears Are fit to hear the musick of these spheares 2. Hark when my Mistress Orbes do move By my
first moving eyes How great 's the Symphonie of love But 't is the destinie Will not so far my pray'rs approve To bring you hither here Is a true heaven and Elizium there Song 20. LOose your lids unhappy eyes From the sight of such a change Love hath learned to despise Self-conceit hath made him strange Inward now his sight he turneth With himself in love he burneth If abroad he beauty spie As by chance he looks abroad Or it is wrought by his eye Or forc'd out by Painters fraud Save himself none fair he deemeth That himself too much esteemeth Coy disdain hath kindness place Kindness forc'd to hide his head True desire is counted base Hope with hope is hardly fed Love is thought a fury needless He that hath it shall dye speedless Then mine eyes why gaze you so Beauty scornes the tears you shed Death you seek to end my woe O that I of death were sped But with love hath death conspired To kill none whom Love hath fired Sonnet XII LEt the silence of the night At my will her duty show Harken to me every wight Or be still or speak but low Let no watching dog with spight Bark at any to or fro Nor the Cock of Titan bright The foreteller once to crow Let no prying Goose excite All the Flock to squeak a-vow Let the windes retain their might Or a little while not blow Whil'st all eares I do invite To hear the Ditty I bestow In the which I nill recite Her deserts which ever grow Nor her beauties so bedight Fairer then the Rose or snow Nor her vertues exquisite Which no man deserves to know For into Seas infinite With a small Bark it were to go I will onely sing and write In what miseries I flow That in sorrows I delight Praising Love's all-conqu'ring bow Wishing to eternal night To end my sorrows I might go Song 22. THine eyes so bright Bereft my sight When first I view'd thy face So now my light Is turn'd to night I stray from place to place Then guide me of thy kindness And I will bless my blindness Sonnet XIII NOw do the birds in their warbling words Welcome the year With sugred notes they chimup through their throtes To win a Phear Sweetly they breathe the wanton love That Nature in them warms And each to gain a mate doth prove With sweet inchanting charms He sweetly sings and stays the nimble wings Of her in the aire She hov'ring stays to hear his loving lays Which wooe her ther. She becomes willing hears him woo Gives ear unto his song And doth as Nature taught her do Yeelds su'd unto not long But my Dear stays she feeds me with delays Hears not my mone She knows the smart in time will kill my heart To live alone Learn of the birds to chuse thee a Phear But not like them to range Have they their mate but for a year Yet let us never change Song 23. A Riddle I Saw a hill upon a day Lift up above the air Which watered with blood alway And tilled with great care Herbs it brought forth Of mickle worth Pulling a handful from that ridge And touching but the same Which leaving neer unto a bridge Doth cause much sport and game A thing scarce of belief Lamenting without grief Sonnet XIIII IN heav'n the blessed Angels have their being In hell the Fiends appointed to damnation To men and beasts earth yeilds firm habitation The wing'd Musitians in the aire are fleeing With fins the people gliding Of water have th' enjoyning In fire all else destroying The Salamander findes a strange abiding But I O wretch since I did first aspire To love a beauty beauties all excelling Have my strange adverse dwelling In heaven hell earth water aire and fire Song 25. Loves Labyrinth to Mistress Mary Loe. LOvers do make themselves like conquer'd slaves Sometimes themselves most valiant they do fain Sometimes great Lords with many other braves Sometimes throwne down and vanquished again Their wounds their joys their pains their pleasures make And happy comfort in their prisons take A thousand times they curse their hapless stars Despising life and happy death Implore Yet in the end so valiant in those wars Of life and death and other passions more That thousand deaths they say they pass and try And yet they never make an end to dye They give They gain They heal They wound They ply Their soul Their life Their harms Their hearts Their tears They joy They live They burn They plain They dy With hap With hope With heat With griefe With fears And so in all their lives and what they say There is a strange confusion every day Epithalamium Or A nuptial-song LEet now each field with flowers be painted Of sundry colours sweetest odours glowing Roses yeild forth your smell so finely tainted Calm windes the green leaves move with gentle blowing The Christal rivers flowing With waters be increased And since each one from sorrow now hath ceased From mournful plaints and sadness Ring forth fair Nimphs your joyful songs for gladness Of that ' sweet joy delight you with such measure Between you both fair issue to ingender Longer then Nestor may you live in pleasure The Gods to you such sweet content surrender That may make milde and tender The Beasts in every mountain And glad the fields and woods and every fountain A bjuring former sadness Ring forth fair Nymphs your joyful songs for gladness Let amorous birds with sweetest notes delight you Let gentle winds refresh you with their blowing Let Ceres with her best of goods requite you And Flora deck the ground where you are going Roses and Lilies strowing The Jasmine and the Gillow-flower With many more and never in your bower Taste of houshold-sadness Ring forth fair Nymgps your joyful songs for gladness Sonnet XV. ANother Cupid raigns within my brest Then Venus son that blind and frantick boy Divers his work intent and interest His fashions sports his pleasures and his joy No sleights deceits nor woes he doth inspire He burns not like to that unseemly fire From Reason Will cannot my love entice Since that it is not pleased in this vice Song 26. In praise of the Country-life to my noble friend Mr. Jennings AMbition here no snares nor nets regards Nor Avarice for Crowns doth lay her baits The people here aspire not to etates Nor hunger after favours and rewards From guile and fraud and passions as we see Their hearts are ever free Their faith 's not vain Both good and plain Their malice small They just to all Which makes them live in joy and quiet peace And in a mean sufficient for their ease Sonnet XVI ONce early as the ruddy bashful morn Did leave Apollo's Purple-streaming bed And did with Scarlet-streams the East adorn I unto my dear Mistress chamber sped She Goddess-like stood kombing of her hair Which like a sable veil did cloathe her round Her Iv'ry Komb was white her hand more fair
at least to beg which is most sutable one salve from those Srar-shining eyes which have shot forth their conquering darts at my love-sick heart making me acknowledge the conquest yours my self happy in your being victorious O heavenly Adrastina govern and direct me for I am wholly given over unto thee Adra. Sir Were I but ascertained of the truth and reality of your affection I might perhaps meet your love with an equal burning but Fortu. Pardon sweet soul my interrupting you If my love be not real let me be an object of all mens scorn and let the heavens as a just guerdon of my dissembling showre down upon me their most horrible plagues but if it be love chaste and real love let our souls meet in a reciprocal affection and be imparadized into fruition of each other Adrast As far as a Virgins modesty will permit her hereafter I shall be ever ready to accomplish your desires and obey your commands and in the mean time be confident that I am entirely yours But time calls me away All happiness attend you Fortu. And as in you all vertues shine so upon you may all the blessings both of heaven and earth wait A Letter to a Gentlewoman requesting Love COnsidering with my self most divine Lady the many vertues wherewith nature hath in a superabundant measure adorned you and then weighing the insufficiency of any service I can do you my trembling hand is scarce able to hold the pen and my stammering tongue dare hardly express that which my afflicted heart desireth to manifest unto you yet love which holds in his dominion my enflamed heart forceth me to lay open to your sweetest self the secrets of my love-tormented brest Excuse then I humbly beseech you these humble lines that invisibly present to your sair hands an humbler suit then can be expressed I beseech you to extend a gratious hand to stay a fainting soul from sinking that without you is as nothing whose worth and remembrance gives me being for I desire not to be where your being is not It is that only that betters my joy and makes me sensible of content there being no content equal to the enjoying a companion of so great worth To conclude I shall expect the sentence of my life or death in your answer and remain so perfectly yours that I can say nothing neer it when I say I am Madam your most faithful most obedient and most affectionate servant Another to a Gentlewoman desiring his forbearance to visit her c WIth what words sufficiently to set forth my affection and with what expressions high enough to manifest the constancy of my love because I cannot tell I shall appeal to your self whether the sincerity of my actions and the integrity of my words be not able to justify me And I dare appeal to heaven whether or no my words have in the least manner tended to dissimulation swerving from professed truth or my actions digressed from nature but since your rigor pleases to command I shall withdraw my person yet in lieu of return will leave my heart with you and maugre fate subscribe my self Mistress ever thine in an unalterable affection A Gentleman debarred the society of his Mistress thus writes to her SInce my misfortunes are so great that those most happy opportunities we formerly enjoyed by a mutual intercourse and converse are at present vanished I cannot but by these manifest the constancy of my affection which shall remain even to my latest gaspe I hope nay am confident that you will not now after the heaping on me so many and so great favours estrange your self and for my part I am and even will be wholly thine And since my endeavours have been so happy to win your favour they will double in length and redouble in goodness the remainder of my daies All my right in all things is yours and your demand my content you are my joy and my greatest height of happiness is to enjoy you Your person is the food of my thoughts the relief of my wishes and the repast of my desires Your love to me is a continual hunger after which I daily earnestly more and more long your absence my extreme famine which makes me pine away with grief And if any poor endeavours of mine may be but pleasing to your most vertuous self I shall esteem my self most happie when most serviceable to you And in the mean while shall rest assured of your love as you may of having his heart who is Yours inseparably A Gentleman having made his suit by speech thus seconds it by writing THat I should begin my Letter with the declaration of my love seems to me altogether preposterous and unnecessary sith I manifested it to you so long since But I may well bemoan my ill fortune that cannot yet gain your good opinion of me to credit your words but that you still think me one of those who are altogether faithless Is it my lot for Love to reap Disdain Let me but know wherein I have offended and my life shall answer my misdemeanour All I desire is love your love because nothing can satisfie love but love I could enlarge but lest I be too troublesome I will say no more but that I am Your affectionate servant Her Answer Sir I Received a Paper from you which I here answer to clear my self of that accusation of being scornful which you cast upon me That I do not forget you witness this but yet I am so far from being pleased with your Letters that I can hardly bear the reading them especially since they proceed from a deceitful heart as I believe yours is If then you love me as you profess shew it in this That you trouble me no more with your Letters in hopes whereof I remain Sir Your c. His Reply My Dearest THat you do not forget me is my onely my chief happiness but that to think of me should move you to impatience is my greatest misery What greater torment then to love and not to be loved again Heaven and earth are not able to parallel so great cruelty But your words that you cannot believe my seigned vows carry with them a killing accent O heavens bear ye witness of my reality and sincere affection I love you as I profess but by obeying your command a breach might be made into the love of Yours while he lives and even in death Another ACcording to my duty and the obligements that lic upon me for the manifestation of my loyal constancie I do hereby humbly kiss your hands protesting that my love increases and renews with the day more and more The Sun in its greatest splendor hath been over-pow'red with clouds and darkned with mists and sometimes even the most constant affection has been scandalized with disloyalty Let Envie then pine it self to death and let Malice burst it self with rage yet will I remain constant yet will I be unremoveable never to be altered from my
love should be inspired Since there 's no more to be desired In this great glory and great gladness Thinkst thou to have no touch of sadness Good fortune gave me not such glory To mock my love or make me sory If my firm love I were denying Tell me with sighs wouldst thou bedying Those words in jest to hear thee speaking For very griefe my heart is breaking Yet wouldst thou change I pray thee tell me In seeing one that doth excell me O no for how canst thou aspire To more then to thy owne desire Such great affection thou dost bear me As by thy words thou seemst to swear me Of thy desert to which a Debter I am thou maist demand this better Sometimes me thinks that I should swear it Sometimes me thinks thou shouldst not hear it Onely in this the pip doth greive me And thy desire not to believe me Sir yours very dubiously affectionated not to be cammanded or waited on by you c. The Lover being discontented at the absence of his Mistress he being in the City she in the Countrcy Dearest THe lesser people of the aire conspire to kep thee from mee Philomel with higher And sweeter notes wooes thee to weep her rape Which would appease the gods change her shape The early Larke preferring for soft rest Obsequious duty leaves his downy nest And doth to thee harmonious duty pay expecting from thy eyes the break of day From which the Owle is frighted and doth rove As never having felt the warmth of love In uncouth vaults and the chill shades of night Not ' biding the great lustre of thy sight With him my Fate agrees not viewing thee I 'm lost in mists at best but Meteors see Soul of sweetness thy humble creature c. The Lover angry at his Mistress unsufferable contempt may if he will thus vent himself in an invective manner Scornful Tit SInce just disdaine began to rise And cry revenge for spiteful wrong What once I prais'd I now despise And think my love was all too long I tread to durt that scornful pride Which in thy looks I have descride Thy beauty is a painted skin For fooles to see their faces in Thy eyes that some as stars esteeme From whence themselves they say take light Like to the foolish fire I deeme That leads men to their death by night Thy Words and Oaths are light as wind And yet far lighter is thy mind Thy friendship is a broken reed And thou a gigling maukes indeed My owne and can command my self H. D The Lover betwixt hope and despaire to attaine his Mistress love she telling him she hath vowed never to marry Dearest mistress EVen as my hand my pen to paper laies My trembling hand my pen from paper staies Lest that thine eys which shining made me love you Should frowning on my suit bid cease to love you So that my nurfing murth'ring pen affords A grave a cradle to my new-born words But whilst like clouds tofs'd up and down by aire I wracked hang 'twixt hope and sad despaire Dispaire is beaten vanquisht from the feild And unto conqu'ring hope my heart doth yeild If of my eyes you also could bereave me As you already of my heart deceive me Or could shut up my ravisht ears through which You likewise did my inchanted heart bewitch To root out love all means you can invent Were all but labour lost and time ill spent For as these sparks being spent which fire procure The fire doth brightly burning still indure Though absent so your sparkling eyes remove My heart still burnes in endless flames of love Then strive not gainst the stream to no effect But let due love yeild love a due respect Nor seek to ruine what your self begun Or loose a knot that cannot be undon Why were you fair to be sought of so many If you live chaste not to be lov'd by any For if that Nature love to Beauty offers And Beauty shun the love that Nature proffers Then either unjust Beauty is to blame With scorne to quench a lawful kindled flame Or else unlawfully if love we must And be unlov'd then Nature is unjust A marble heart under an amorous look Is of a flattering bait the murth'ring hook For from a Ladies shining frowning eyes Death's sable dart with Cupids arrow flies Since then from chastity and beauty spring Such various streams where each a bide as kin Let Tyrant Chastitie's usurped throne Be made the seat of beauties grace alone And let your beauty be with this suffis'd That my heart's City is by it surpriz'd Raze not my heart nor to your beauty raise Blood-gilded Trophies of your beauties praise For wisest Conquerours do Towns desire On honourable tearmes and not with fire Cruel faire one thy bleeding servant T. P. The Lover having word brought him of his Mistress departure Dearest I Am engag'd to sortow and my heart Feels a distracted rage Though you depart And leave me to my feares let love in spight Of absence our divided souls unite But you must go the me lancholy Doves Draw Venus chariot hence the sportive loves That wont to wanton here hence with you flie And like false friends forsake me when I die For but a walking Tombe what can he bee Whose best of life is sorc'd to part with thee Bright Goddess your humble admirer The Lover absent from his Mistress beyond the Seas sollicites her thus My dearest Mistress STar of my life if these sad lines do hap The raging fury of the Sea to scape O let your hand then be their blessed Port From whence they may unto your cies resort Fountain of bliss yet well-spring of my wo O would I might not justly tearm you so My dearest dear behold the portraicture Of him that doth all kind of woes indure Of him whose head is made a hive of woes Whose swarming number dayly greater grows Of him whose senses like a rack are bent With divers motions my poor heart to rent Whose mind a mirrour is which onely shows The ugly image of my present woes Whose memory 's a poyson'd knife to teare The ever-bleeding wound my brest doth bear And that poor heart so faithful constant true That onely loves and serves and honours you Is like a feeble Ship which toine and rent The mast of hope being broke and tackling spent Reason the Pilot dead the stars obscured By which alone to sail it was inured No Port No Land no comfort once expected All hope of safety utterly neglected With dreadful terror tumbling up and down Visions uncertain waves to mountaines grown I must confess that when I do consider How ill alas how ill agree together So peerless beauty and so fierce a minde So hard an inside and so soft a rinde A heart so bloody and so white a brest Such proud disdain with so mild looks supprest And how my dear O would it had been never Accursed word O would it had been ever How once I say