our land waters teares of passion vent Our waters then above our firmament Teares which our Soule doth for her sins let fall Take all a brackish tast and Funerall And even those teares which should wash sin are sin We after Gods Noe drowne the world againe Nothing but man of all invenom'd things Doth worke upon itselfe with inborne stings Teares are false Spectacles we cannot see Through passions mist what wee are or what shee In her this sea of death hath made no breach But as the tide doth wash the slimie beach And leaves embroderd workes upon the sand So is her flesh refin'd by deaths cold hand As men of China ' after an ages stay Do take up Porcelane where they buried Clay So at this grave her limbecke which refines The Diamonds Rubies Saphires Pearles Mines Of which this flesh was her soule shall inspire Flesh of such stuffe as God when his last fire Annuls this world to recompence it shall Make and name then th'Elixar of this All. They say the sea when it gaines loseth too If carnall Death the yonger brother doe Usurpe the body 'our soule which subject is To th' elder death by sinne is freed by this They perish both when they attempt the just For graves our trophies are and both deaths dust So unobnoxious now she'hath buried both For none to death sinnes that to sinne is loth Nor doe they die which are not loth to die So hath she this and that virginity Grace was in her extremely diligent That kept her from sinne yet made her repent Of what small spots pure white complaines Alas How little poyson cracks a christall glasse She sinn'd but just enough to let us see That extreme truth lack'd little of a lye Making omissions acts laying the touch Of sinne on things that sometimes may be such As Moses Cherubines whose natures doe Surpasse all speed by him are winged too So would her soule already'in heaven seeme then To clyme by teares the common staires of men How fit she was for God I am content To speake that death his vaine hast may repent How fit for us how even and how sweet How good in all her titles and how meet To have reform'd this forward heresie That woman can no parts of friendship bee How Morall how Divine shall not be told Lest they that heare her vertues thinke her old And lest we take Deaths part and make him glad Of such a prey and to his tryumph adde Elegie on Mris Boulstred DEath I recant and say unsaid by mee What ere hath slip'd that might diminish thee Spirituall treason atheisme 't is to say That any can thy Summons disobey Th' earths face is but thy Table there are set Plants cattell men dishes for Death to eate In a rude hunger now hee millions drawes Into his bloody or plaguy or sterv'd jawes Now hee will seeme to spare and doth more wast Eating the best first well preserv'd to last Now wantonly he spoiles and eates us not But breakes off friends and lets us peecemeale rot Nor will this earth serve him he sinkes the deepe Where harmelesse fish monastique silence keepe Who were Death dead by Roes of living sand Might spunge that element and make it land He rounds the aire and breakes the hymnique notes In birds Heavens choristers organique throats Which if they did not dye might seeme to bee A tenth ranke in the heavenly hierarchie O strong and long-liv'd death how cam'st thou in And how without Creation didst begin Thou hast and shalt see dead before thou dyest All the foure Monarchies and Antichrist How could I thinke thee nothing that see now In all this All nothing else is but thou Our births and life vices and vertues bee Wastfull consumptions and degrees of thee For wee to live our bellowes weare and breath Nor are wee mortall dying dead but death And though thou beest O mighty bird of prey So much reclaim'd by God that thou must lay All that thou kill'st at his feet yet doth hee Reserve but few and leaves the most to thee And of those few now thou hast overthrowne One whom thy blow makes not ours nor thine own She was more stories high hopelesse to come To her Soule thou'hast offer'd at her lower roome Her Soule and body was a King and Court But thou hast both of Captaine mist and fort As houses fall not though the King remove Bodies of Saints rest for their soules above Death gets'twixt soules and bodies such a place As sinne insinuates 'twixt just men and grace Both worke a separation no divorce Her Soule is gone to usherup her corse Which shall be'almost another soule for there Bodies are purer then best Soules are here Because in her her virtues did outgoe Her yeares would'st thou O emulous death do so And kill her young to thy losse must the cost Of beauty ' and wit apt to doe harme be lost What though thou found'st her proofe'gainst sins of youth Oh every age a diverse sinne pursueth Thou should'st have stay'd and taken better hold Shortly ambitious covetous when old She might have prov'd and such devotion Might once have stray'd to superstition If all her vertues must have growne yet might Abundant virtue'have bred a proud delight Had she persever'd just there would have bin Some that would sinne mis-thinking she did sinne Such as would call her friendship love and faine To sociablenesse a name profane Or sinne by tempting or not daring that By wishing though they never told her what Thus might'st thou'have slain more soules had'st thou not crost Thy selfe and to triumph thine army lost Yet though these wayes be lost thou hast left one Which is immoderate griefe that she is gone But we may scape that sinne yet weepe as much Our teares are due because we are not such Some teares that knot of friends her death must cost Because the chaine is broke but no linke lost To Sr Henry Goodyere WHo makes the Past a patterne for next yeare Turnes no new leafe but still the same things reads Seene things he sees againe heard things doth heare And makes his life but like a paire of beads A Palace when 't is that which it should be Leaves growing and stands such or else decayes But hee which dwels there is not so for hee Strives to urge upward and his fortune raise So had your body'her morning hath her noone And shall not better her next change is night But her faire larger guest to'whom Sun and Moone Are sparkes and short liv'd claimes another right The noble Soule by age growes lustier Her appetite and her digestion mend Wee must not sterve nor hope to pamper her With womens milke and pappe unto the end Provide you manlyer dyet you have seene All libraries which are Schools Camps Courts But aske your Garners if you have not beene In harvests too indulgent to your sports Would you redeeme it then your selfe transplant A while from hence Perchance outlandish ground Beares no
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
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
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
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
if the Presence were a Moschite and lift His skirts and hose and call his clothes to shrift Making them confesse not only mortall Great staines and holes in them but veniall Feathers and dust wherewith they fornicate And then by Durers rules survay the state Of his each limbe and with strings the odds tries Of his neck to his legge and wast to thighes So in immaculate clothes and Symetrie Perfect as circles with such nicetie As a young Preacher at his first time goes To preach he enters and a Lady which owes Him not so much as good will he arrests And unto her protests protests protests So much as at Rome would serve to have throwne Ten Cardinalls into the Inquisition And whisperd by Jesu so often that A Pursevant would have ravish'd him away For saying of our Ladies psalter But 't is fit That they each other plague they merit it But here comes Glorius that will plague them both Who in the other extreme only doth Call a rough carelessenesse good fashion Whose cloak his spurres teare whom he spits on He cares not His ill words doe no harme To him he rusheth in as if arme arme He meant to crie And though his face be as ill As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ yet still He strives to looke worse he keepes all in awe Jeasts like a licenc'd foole commands like law Tyr'd now I leave this place and but pleas'd so As men from gaoles to'execution goe Goe through the great chamber why is it hung With the seaven deadly sinnes being among Those Askaparts men big enough to throw Charing Crosse for a barre men that doe know No token of worth but Queenes man and fine Living barrells of beefe flaggons of wine I shooke like a spyed Sple Preachers which are Seas of Wits and Arts you can then dare Drowne the sinnes of this place for for mee Which am but a scarce brooke it enough shall bee To wash the staines away though I yet With Macchabees modestie the knowne merit Of my worke lessen yet some wise man shall I hope esteeme my writs Canonicall Satyre V. THou shalt not laugh in this leafe Muse nor they Whom any pitty warmes He which did lay Rules to make Courtiers hee being understood May make good Courtiers but who Courtiers good Frees from the sting of jests all who in extreme Are wreched or wicked of these two a theame Charity and liberty give me What is hee Who Officers rage and Suiters misery Can write and jest If all things be in all As I thinke since all which were are and shall Bee be made of the same elements Each thing each thing employes or represents Then man is a world in which Officers Are the vast ravishing seas and Suiters Springs now full now shallow now drye which to That which drownes them run These selfe reasons do Prove the world a man in which officers Are the devouring stomacke and Suiters The excrements which they voyd all men are dust How much worse are Suiters who to mens lust Are made preyes O worse then dust or wormes meat For they do eate you now whose selves wormes shall eate They are the mills which grinde you yet you are The winde which drives them and a wastfull warre Is fought against you and you fight it they Adulterate lawe and you prepare their way Like wittals th' issue your owne ruine is Greatest and fairest Empresse know you this Alas no more then Thames calme head doth know Whose meades her armes drowne or whose corne o'rflow You Sir whose righteousnes she loves whō I By having leave to serve am most richly For service paid authorized now beginne To know and weed out this enormous sinne O Age of rusty iron Some better wit Call it some worse name if ought equall it The iron Age that was when justice was sold now Injustice is sold deerer farre allow All demands fees and duties gamsters anon The mony which you sweat and sweare for is gon Into other hands So controverted lands Scape like Angelica the strivers hands If Law be in the Judges heart and hee Have no heart to resist letter or fee Where wilt thou appeale powre of the Courts below Flow from the first maine head and these can throw Thee if they sucke thee in to misery To fetters halters But if the injury Steele thee to dare complaine Alas thou goest Against the stream when upwards when thou art most Heavy and most faint and in these labours they ' Gainst whom thou should'st complaine will in the way Become great seas o'r which when thou shalt bee Forc'd to make golden bridges thou shalt see That all thy gold was drown'd in them before All things follow their like only who have may have more Judges are Gods he who made and said them so Meant not that men should be forc'd to them to goe By meanes of Angels When supplications We send to God to Dominations Powers Cherubins and all heavens Court if wee Should pay fees as here Daily bread would be Scarce to Kings so 't is would it not anger A Stoicke a coward yea a Martyr To see a Pursivant come in and call All his cloathes Copes Bookes Primers and all His Plate Challices and mistake them away And lack a fee for comming Oh ne'r may Faire lawes white reverend name be strumpeted To warrant thefts she is established Recorder to Destiny on earth and shee Speakes Fates words and tells who must bee Rich who poore who in chaires who in jayles Shee is all faire but yet hath foule long nailes With which she scracheth Suiters In bodies Of men so in law nailes are extremities So Officers stretch to more then Law can doe As our nailes reach what no else part comes to Why barest thou to you Officer Foole Hath hee Got those goods for which men bared to thee Foole twice thrice thou hast bought wrong and now hungerly Beg'st right But that dole comes not till these dye Thou had'st much lawes Urim and Thummim trie Thou wouldst for more and for all hast paper Enough to cloath all the great Carricks Pepper Sell that and by that thou much more shalt leese Then Haman when he sold his Antiquities O wretch that thy fortunes should moralize Esops fables and make tales prophesies Thou art the swimming dog whom shadows cosened And div'st neare drowning for what vanished A Hymne to God the Father I. WIlt thou forgive that sinne where I begunne which was my sin though it were done before Wilt thou forgive that sinne through which I runne And do run still though still I do deplore When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more II. Wilt thou forgive that sinne which I have wonne Others to sinne and made my sinne their doore Wilt thou forgive that sinne which I did shunne A yeare or two but wallowed in a score When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more III. I have a sinne of feare that when I have spunne
My last thred I shall perish on the shore But sweare by thy selfe that at my death thy sonne Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore And having done that Thou haste done I feare no more Letters HEN. GOODEERE ETiam vulgari linguâ scriptae testantur literae nos amicorum meminisse sed alienâ nos de illis meditari In illis enim affulgent nobis de amicis cogitatiunculae sed ut matutinae stellae transeunt evanescunt In his autē haeremus immoramur amicos uti solem ipsum permanentem nobiscum degentemque contemplamur Habes cur Latinè Ipsius etiam scribendi audi rationem Peto consilium in quo simul amicitiam profiteor meam tuâmque agnosco Etenim non libenter nosmetipsos exuimus aut in ingenij prudentiaeve dotibus aliorum nos fatemur indigos Nec certè quicquam quisquam sit modò ingenuus ei denegabit à quo consilium petiit Quod enim divina sapientia extremum charitatis terminum posuerat animam ponere idem regularum Ecclesiae tractatores quod ipsimet Canonici crassam aequitatem vocant de fama honore cedendo asserunt usurpant Certè non tam beneficiis obnoxii quam consiliis reddimur Sed ad rem Philosophentur otiosiores aut quibus otia sua negotia appellare lubet Nobis enim nos dudum perspicui sumus fenestrati Elucescit mihi nova nec inopportuna nec inutilis paulò quà m optaram fortassis magis inhonora occasio extera visendi regna liberosque perquam amantissimae conjugis charissima pignora caeteraque hujus aurae oblectamenta aliquot ad annos relinquendi De hoc ut tecum agerem te convenire cupio Quod etsi nec id recusem nollem in aedibus Barlotianis Habeo cur abstineam Amicitiae enim nec veteris nec ita strictae munera paulò quà m deceat imprudentiori impetu mihi videor ibi peregisse Prandere si vacat foras aut caenare horulamve perdere pomeridianam aut matutinam liceat mihi illud apud Rabbinum Lincombum jam commoranti per te intelligere satis mihi fiet Interim seponas ero chartulas meas quas cum sponsione citae redhibitionis ut barbarè sed cum ingeniosissimo Appollinari loquar accepisti Inter quas si epigrammata mea Latina Catalogus librorum satyricus non sunt non sunt extremum iuditium hoc est manum ultimam jamjam subiturae sunt Earum nonnullae Purgatorium suum passurae ut correctiores emanent Alia quorum me inscio in mundum erepserunt exempla tamen in archetypis igne absumpta fatebuntur se à me ad Inferos damnata esse Reliquae quae aut virgines sunt nisi quod à multis contrectatae aut ita infoeliciter steriles ut ab illis nulla ingenita sunt exemplaria penitus in annihilationem quod flagitiosissimis non minatur Deus corruent dilabentur Vale amore meo fruere quem vetat fortuna sola ne uti possis Et nisi animo candido ingenuave mea libertate gaudere malis habe tibi mancipium JO. DONNE To Sir H. G. I Send not my Letters as tribute nor interest nor recompence nor for commerce nor as testimonialls of my love nor provokers of yours nor to justifie my custome of writing nor for a vent and utterance of my meditations For my letters are either above or under all such offices yet I write very affectionately and Lehide and accuse my selfe of diminishing that affection which sends them when I aske my selfe why Only I am sure that I desire that you might have in your hands letters of mine of all kindes as conveyances and deliverers of mee to you whether you accept me as a friend or as a patient or as a penitent or as a Bedesman for I decline no jurisdiction nor refuse any tenure I would not open any doore upon you but looke in when you open it Angells have not nor affect not other knowledge of one another then they list to reveale to one another It is then in this only that friends are Angells that they are capable and fit for such revelations when they are offered If at any time I seeme to study you more inquisitively it is for no other end but to know how to present you to God in my prayers and what to aske of him for you For even that holy exercise may not be done inopportunely no nor importunely I finde little errour in that Grecians counsell who sayes If thou aske any thing of God offer no sacrifice nor aske elegantly nor vehemently but remember that thou would'st not give to such an asker Nor in his other countryman who affirmes sacrifice of blood to be so unproportionable to God that perfumes though much more spirituall are too grosse Yea words which are our subtlest and delicatest outward creatures being composed of thoughts and breath are so muddy so thicke that our thoughts themselves are so because except at the first rising they are ever leavened with passions and affections And that advantage of neerer familiarity with God which the Act of incarnation gave us is grounded upon Gods assuming us not our going to him And our accesses to his presence are but his descents into us And when we get any thing by prayer hee gave us before hand the thing and the petition for I scarce thinke any ineffectuall prayer free from both sinne and the punishment of sinne Yet as God seposed a seventh of our time for his exterior worship and as his Christian Church early presented him a Type of the whole yeare in a Lent and after imposed the obligation of canonique houres constituting therby morall Sabbaths every day I am far frō dehorting those fixed devotions But I had rather it were bestowed upon thanksgiving then petition upon praise then prayer Not that God is endeared by that or wearied by this All is one in the receiver but not in the sender And thankes doth both offices For nothing doth so innocently provoke new graces as gratitude I would also rather make short prayers then extend them though God can neither bee surprised nor besieged For long prayers have more of the man as ambition of eloquence and a complacency in the worke and more of the devill by often distractions For after in the beginning wee have well intreated God to hearken we speake no more to him Even this letter is some example of such infirmity which being intended for a letter is extended and strayed into a Homily And whatsoever is not what it was purposed is worse Therefore it shall at last end like a letter by assuring you I am c. To Sir H. G. SIR NAture hath made al bodies like by mingling and kneading up the same elements in every one And amōgst mē the other nature custōe hath made every mind like some other We are patternes or copies we inform or imitate But as he hath not presētly attain'd to