mee The Canonization FOr Godsake hold your tongue and let me love Or chide my palsie or my gout My five gray haires or ruin'd fortune flout With wealth your state your minde with Arts improve Take you a course get you a place Observe his honour or his grace Or the Kings reall or his stamped face Contemplate what you will approve So you will let me love Alas alas who 's injur'd by my love What merchants ships have my sighs drown'd Who saies my teares have overflow'd his ground When did my colds a forward spring remove When did the heats which my veines fill Adde one more to the plaguie Bill Soldiers finde warres and Lawyers finde out still Litigious men which quarrels move Though she and I do love Call us what you will wee are made such by love Call her one mee another flye We' are Tapers too and at our owne cost die And wee in us finde the'Eagle and the dove The Phoenix ridle hath more wit By us we two being one are it So to one neutrall thing both sexes fit Wee dye and rise the same and prove Mysterious by this love Wee can dye by it if not live by love And if unfit for tombes and hearse Our legends bee it will be fit for verse And if no peece of Chronicle wee prove We 'll build in sonnets pretty roomes As well a well wrought urne becomes The greatest ashes as halfe-acre tombes And by these hymnes all shall approve Us Canoniz'd for Love And thus invoke us You whom reverend love Made one anothers hermitage You to whom love was peace that now is rage Who did the whole worlds soule contract drove Into the glasses of your eyes So made such mirrors and such spies That they did all to you epitomize Countries Townes Courts Beg frow above A patterne of our love The triple Foole. I am two fooles I know For loving and for saying so In whining Poëtry But where 's that wise man that would not be I If she would not deny Then as th' earths inward narrow crooked lanes Do purge sea waters fretfull salt away I thought if I could draw my paines Through Rimes vexation I should them allay Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce For he tames it that fetters it in verse But when I have done so Some man his art and voice to show Doth Set and sing my paine And by delighting many frees againe Griefe which verse did restraine To Love and Griefe tribute of Verse belongs But not of such as pleases when'tis read Both are increased by such songs For both their triumphs so are published And I which was two fooles do so grow three Who are a little wise the best fooles bee Lovers infinitenesse IF yet I have not all thy love Deare I shall never have it all I cannot breath one other sigh to move Nor can intreat one other teare to fall And all my treasure which should purchase thee Sighs teares and oathes and letters I have spent Yet no more can be due to mee Then at the bargaine made was ment If then thy gift of love were partiall That some to mee some should to others fall Deare I shall never have Thee All. Or if then thou gavest mee all All was but All which thou hadst then But if in thy heart since there be or shall New love created bee by other men Which have their stocks intire and can in teares In sighs in oathes and letters outbid mee This new love may beget new feares For this love was not vowed by thee And yet is was thy gift being generall The ground thy heart is mine what ever shall Grow there deare I should have it all Yet I would not have all yet Hee that hath all can have no more And since my love doth every day admit New growth thou shouldst have new rewards in store Thou canst not every day give me thy heart If thou canst give it then thou never gavest it Loves riddles are that though thy heart depart It stayes at home and thou with losing savest it But wee will have a way more liberall Then changing hearts to joyne them so wee shall Be one and one anothers All. Song SWeetest love I do not goe For wearinesse of thee Nor in hope the world can show A fitter Love for mee But since that I Must dye at last 't is best To use my selfe in jest Thus by fain'd deaths to dye Yesternight the Sunne went hence And yet is here to day He hath no desire nor sense Nor halfe so short a way Then feare not mee But beleeve that I shall make Speedier journeyes since I take More wings and spurres then hee O how feeble is mans power That if good fortune fall Cannot adde another houre Nor a lost houre recall But come bad chance And wee joyne to'it our strength And wee teach it art and length It selfe o'r us to'advance When thou sigh'st thou sigh'st not winde But sigh'st my soule away When thou weep'st unkindly kinde My lifes blood doth decay It cannot bee That thou lov'st mee as thou say'st If in thine my life thou waste Thou art the best of mee Let not thy divining heart Forethinke me any ill Destiny may take thy part And may thy feares fulfill But thinke that wee Are but turn'd aside to sleepe They who one another keepe Alive ne'r parted bee The Legacie VVHen I dyed last and Deare I dye As often as from thee I goe Though it be but an houre agoe And Lovers houres be full eternity I can remember yet that I Something did say and something did bestow Though I be dead which sent mee I should be Mine owne executor and Legacie I heard mee say Tell her anon That my selfe that 's you not I Did kill me and when I felt mee dye I bid mee send my heart when I was gone But I alas could there finde none When I had ripp'd me ' and search'd where hearts did lye It kill'd mee againe that I who still was true In life in my last Will should cozen you Yet I found something like a heart But colours it and corners had It was not good it was not bad It was intire to none and few had part As good as could be made by art It seem'd and therefore for our losses sad I meant to send this heart in stead of mine But oh no man could hold it for t was thine A Feaver OH doe not die for I shall hate All women so when thou art gone That thee I shall not celebrate When I remember thou wast one But yet thou canst not die I know To leave this world behinde is death But when thou from this world wilt goe The whole world vapors with thy breath Or if when thou the worlds soule goest It stay t is but thy carkasse then The fairest woman but thy ghost But corrupt wormes the worthyest men O wrangling schooles that search what fire Shall burne this world had none the wit Unto this knowledge
Love let mee Some senslesse peece of this place bee Make me a mandrake so I may grow here Or a stone fountaine weeping out my yeare Hither with christall vyals lovers come And take my teares which are loves wine And try your mistresse Teares at home For all are false that tast not just like mine Alas hearts do not in eyes shine Nor can you more judge womens thoughts by teares Then by her shadow what she weares O perverse sexe where none is true but shee Who 's therefore true because her truth kills mee Valediction to his booke I 'Ll tell thee now deare Love what thou shalt doe To anger destiny as she doth us How I shall stay though she Esloygne me thus And how posterity shall know it too How thine may out-endure Sybills glory and obscure Her who from Pindar could allure And her through whose helpe Lucan is not lame And her whose booke they say Homer did finde and name Study our manuscripts those Myriades Of letters which have past twixt thee and mee Thence write our Annals and in them will bee To all whom loves subliming fire invades Rule and example found There the faith of any ground No schismatique will dare to wound That sees how Love this grace to us affords To make to keep to use to be these his Records This Booke as long-liv'd as the elements Or as the worlds forme this all-graved tome In cypher writ or new made Idiome Wee for loves clergie only'are instruments When this booke is made thus Should againe the ravenous Vandals and the Goths invade us Learning were safe in this our Universe Schooles might learne Sciences Spheares Musick Angels Verse Here Loves Divines since all Divinity Is love or wonder may finde all they seeke Whether abstract spirituall love they like Their Soules exhal'd with what they do not see Or loth so to amuze Faiths infirmitie they chuse Something which they may see and use For though minde be the heaven where love doth sit Beauty a convenient type may be to figure it Here more then in their bookes may Lawyers finde Both by what titles Mistresses are ours And how prerogative these states devours Transferr'd from Love himselfe to womankinde Who though from heart and eyes They exact great subsidies Forsake him who on them relies And for the cause honour or conscience give Chimeraes vaine as they or their prerogative Here Statesmen or of them they which can reade May of their occupation finde the grounds Love and their art alike it deadly wounds If to consider what 't is one proceed In both they doe excell Who the present governe well Whose weaknesse none doth or dares tell In this thy booke such will there something see As in the Bible some can finde out Alchimy Thus vent thy thoughts abroad I 'll studie thee As he removes farre off that great heights takes How great love is presence best tryall makes But absence tryes how long this love will bee To take a latitude Sun or starres are fitliest view'd At their brightest but to conclude Of longitudes what other way have wee But to marke when and where the darke eclipses bee GOod wee must love and must hate ill For ill is ill and good good still But these are things indifferent Which wee may neither hate nor love But one and then another prove As wee shall finde our fancy bent If then at first wise Nature had Made women either good or bad Then some wee might hate and some chuse But since shee did them so create That we may neither love nor hate Onely this rest All all may use If they were good it would be seene Good is as visible as greene And to all eyes it selfe betrayes If they were bad they could not last Bad doth it selfe and others wast So they deserve nor blame nor praise But they are ours as fruits are ours He that but tasts he that devours And he that leaves all doth as well Chang'd loves are but chang'd sorts of meat And when hee hath the kernell eate Who doth not fling away the shell Loves growth I Scarce beleeve my love to be so pure As I had thought it was Because it doth endure Vicissitude and season as the grasse Me thinkes I lyed all winter when I swore My love was infinite if spring make'it more But if this medicine love which cures all sorrow With more not onely bee no quintessence But mixt of all stuffes paining soule or sense And of the Sunne his working vigour borrow Love 's not so pure and abstract as they use To say which have no Mistresse but their Muse But as all else being elemented too Love sometimes would contemplate sometimes do And yet no greater but more eminent Love by the spring is growne As in the firmament Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd but showne Gentle love deeds as blossomes on a bough From loves awakened root do bud out now If as in water stir'd more circles bee Produc'd by one love such additions take Those like so many spheares but one heaven make For they are all concentrique unto thee And though each spring doe adde to love new heate As princes doe in times of action get New taxes and remit them not in peace No winter shall abate the springs encrease Loves exchange LOve any devill else but you Would for a given Soule give something too At Court your fellowes every day Give th' art of Riming Huntsmanship or play For them which were their owne before Onely I have nothing which gave more But am alas by being lowly lower I aske no dispensation now To falsifie a teare or sigh or vow I do not sue from thee to draw A non obstante on natures law These are prerogatives they inhere In thee and thine none should forsweare Except that hee Loves minion were Give mee thy weaknesse make mee blinde Both wayes as thou and thine in eies and minde Love let me never know that this Is love or that love childish is Let me not know that others know That she knowes my paines least that so A tender shame make me mine owne new woe If thou give nothing yet thou' art just Because I would not thy first motions trust Small townes which stand stiffe till great shot Enforce them by warres law condition not Such in loves warfare is my case I may not article for grace Having put love at last to shew this face This face by which he could commnd And change the Idolatrie of any land This face which wheresoe'r it comes Can call vow'd men from cloisters dead from tombes And melt both Poles at once and store Deserts with cities and make more Mynes in the earth then Quarries were before For this love is enrag'd with mee Yet kills not if I must example bee To future Rebells If th' unborne Must learne by my being cut up and torne Kill and dissect me Love for this Torture against thine owne end is Rack't carcasses make ill Anatomies SOme man unworthy
and wit It is my deed of gift of mee to thee It is my Will my selfe the Legacie So thy retyrings I love yea envie Bred in thee by a wise melancholy That I rejoyce that unto where thou art Though I stay here I can thus send my heart As kindly'as any enamored Patient His Picture to his absent Love hath sent All newes I thinke sooner reach thee then mee Havens are Heavens and Ships wing'd Angels be The which both Gospell and sterne threatnings bring Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring I feare And with us me thinkes Fate deales so As with the Jewes guide God did he did show Him the rich land but bar'd his entry in Our slownes is our punishment and sinne Perchance these Spanish businesse being done Which as the Earth betweene the Moone and Sun Eclipse the light which Guyana would give Our discontinued hopes we shall retrive But if as All th' All must hopes smoake away Is not Almightie Vertue'an India If men be worlds there is in every one Some thing to answere in some proportion All the worlds riches And in good men this Vertue our formes forme and our soules soule is To M. I. L. OF that short Roll of friends writ in my heart Which with thy name begins since their depart Whether in the English Provinces they be Or drinke of Po Sequan or Danubie There 's none that sometimes greets us not and yet Your Trent is Lethe ' that past us you forget You doe not duties of Societies If from the'embrace of a lov'd wife you rise View your fat Beasts stretch'd Barnes and labour'd fields Eate play ryde take all joyes which all day yeelds And then againe to your embracements goe Some houres on us your frends and some bestow Upon your Muse else both wee shall repent I that my love she that her guifts on you are spent To M. I. P. BLest are your North parts for all this long time My Sun is with you cold and darke'is our Clime Heavens Sun which staid so long from us this yeare Staid in your North I thinke for she was there And hether by kinde nature drawne from thence Here rages chafes and threatens pestilence Yet I as long as shee from hence doth staie Thinke this no South no Sommer nor no day With thee my kinde and unkinde heart is run There sacrifice it to that beauteous Sun So may thy pastures with their flowery feasts As suddenly as Lard fat thy leane beasts So may thy woods oft poll'd yet ever weare A greene and when thee list a golden haire So may all thy sheepe bring forth Twins and so In chace and race may thy horse all out goe So may thy love and courage ne'r be cold Thy Sonne ne'r Ward Thy lov'd wife ne'r seem old But maist thou wish great things and them attaine As thou telst her and none but her my paine To E. of D. with six holy Sonnets SEE Sir how as the Suns hot Masculine flame Begets strange creatures on Niles durty slime In me your fatherly yet lusty Ryme For these songs are their fruits have wrought the same But though the ingendring force from whence they came Bee strong enough and nature doe admit Seaven to be borne at once I send as yet But six they say the seaventh hath still some maime I choose your judgement which the same degree Doth with her sister your invention hold As fire these drossie Rymes to purifie Or as Elixar to change them to gold You are that Alchimist which alwaies had Wit whose one spark could make good things of bad To Sir H. W. at his going Ambassador to Venice AFter those reverend papers whose soule is Our good and great Kings lov'd hand and fear'd name By which to you he derives much of his And how he may makes you almost the same A Taper of his Torch a copie writ From his Originall and a faire beame Of the same warme and dazeling Sun though it Must in another Sphere his vertue streame After those learned papers which your hand Hath stor'd with notes of use and pleasures too From which rich treasury you may command Fit matter whether you will write or doe After those loving papers where friends send With glad griefe to your Sea-ward steps farewel Which thicken on you now as prayers ascend To heaven in troupes at'a good mans passing bell Admit this honest paper and allow It such an audience as your selfe would aske What you must say at Venice this meanes now And hath for nature what you have for taske To sweare much love not to be chang'd before Honour alone will to your fortune fit Nor shall I then honour your fortune more Then I have done your honour wanting it But'tis an easier load though both oppresse To want then governe greatnesse for wee are In that our owne and onely businesse In this wee must for others vices care 'T is therefore well your spirits now are plac'd In their last Furnace in activity Which fits them Schooles and Courts and warres o'rpast To touch and test in any best degree For mee if there be such a thing as I Fortune if there be such a thing as shee Spies that I beare so well her tyranny That she thinks nothing else so fit for mee But though she part us to heare my oft prayers For your increase God is as neere mee here And to send you what I shall begge his staires In length and ease are alike every where To M. M. H. MAd paper stay and grudge not here to burne With all those sonnes whom my braine did create At lest lye hid with mee till thou returne To rags againe which is thy native state What though thou have enough unworthinesse To come unto great place as others doe That 's much emboldens pulls thrusts I confesse But 't is not all thou should'st be wicked too And that thou canst not learne or not of mee Yet thou wilt goe Goe since thou goest to her Who lacks but faults to be a Prince for shee Truth whom they dare not pardon dares preferre But when thou com'st to that perplexing eye Which equally claimes love and reverence Thou wilt not long dispute it thou wilt die And having little now have then no sense Yet when her warme redeeming hand which is A miracle and made such to worke more Doth touch thee saples leafe thou grow'st by this Her creature glorify'd more then before Then as a mother which delights to heare Her early child mispeake halfe uttered words Or because majesty doth never feare Ill or bold speech she Audience affords And then cold speechlesse wretch thou diest againe And wisely what discourse is left for thee For speech of ill and her thou must abstaine And is there any good which is not shee Yet maist thou praise her servants though not her And wit and vertue ' and honour her attend And since they' are but her cloathes thou shalt not erre If thou her shape and beauty'and grace
this my Extasie And revelation of you both I see I should write here as in short Galleries The Master at the end large glasses ties So to present the roome twice to our eyes So I should give this letter length and say That which I said of you there is no way From either but by the other not to stray May therefore this be enough to testifie My true devotion free from flattery He that beleeves himselfe doth never lie To the Countesse of Salisbury August 1614. FAire great and good since seeing you wee see What Heaven can doe and what any Earth can be Since now your beauty shines now when the Sunne Growne stale is to so low a value runne That his disshevel'd beames and scattered fires Serve but for Ladies Periwigs and Tyres In lovers Sonnets you come to repaire Gods booke of creatures teaching what is faire Since now when all is withered shrunke and dri'd All Vertues ebb'd out to a dead low tyde All the worlds frame being crumbled into sand Where every man thinks by himselfe to stand Integritie friendship and confidence Ciments of greatnes being vapor'd hence And narrow man being fill'd with little shares Court Citie Church are all shops of small-wares All having blowne to sparkes their noble fire And drawne their sound gold-ingot into wyre All trying by a love of littlenesse To make abridgments and to draw to lesse Even that nothing which at first we were Since in these times your greatnesse doth appeare And that we learne by it that man to get Towards him that 's infinite must first be great Since in an age so ill as none is fit So much as to accuse much lesse mend it For who can judge or witnesse of those times Where all alike are guiltie of the crimes Where he that would be good is thought by all A monster or at best fantasticall Since now you durst be good and that I doe Discerne by daring to contemplate you That there may be degrees of faire great good Through your light largenesse vertue understood If in this sacrifice of mine be showne Any small sparke of these call it your owne And if things like these have been said by mee Of others call not that Idolatrie For had God made man first and man had seene The third daies fruits and flowers and various greene He might have said the best that he could say Of those faire creatures which were made that day And when next day he had admir'd the birth Of Sun Moone Stars fairer then late-prais'd earth Hee might have said the best that he could say And not be chid for praising yesterday So though some things are not together true As that another is worthiest and that you Yet to say so doth not condemne a man If when he spoke them they were both true than How faire a proofe of this in our soule growes Wee first have soules of growth and sense and those When our last soule our soule immortall came Were swallowed into it and have no name Nor doth he injure those soules which doth cast The power and praise of both them on the last No more doe I wrong any I adore The same things now which I ador'd before The subject chang'd and measure the same thing In a low constable and in the King I reverence His power to worke on mee So did I humbly reverence each degree Of faire great good but more now I am come From having found their walkes to finde their home And as I owe my first soules thankes that they For my last soule did fit and mould my clay So am I debtor unto them whose worth Enabled me to profit and take forth This new great lesson thus to study you Which none not reading others first could doe Nor lacke I light to read this booke though I In a darke Cave yea in a Grave doe lie For as your fellow Angells so you doe Illustrate them who come to study you The first whom we in Histories doe finde To have profest all Arts was one borne blind He lackt those eyes beasts have as well as wee Not those by which Angels are seene and see So though I 'am borne without those eyes to live Which fortune who hath none her selfe doth give Which are fit meanes to see bright courts and you Yet may I see you thus as now I doe I shall by that all goodnesse have discern'd And though I burne my librarie be learn'd An Epithalamion Or mariage Song on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine being married on St. Valentines day I. HAile Bishop Valentine whose day this is All the Aire is thy Diocis And all the chirping Choristers And other birds are thy Parishioners Thou marryest every yeare The Lirique Larke and the grave whispering Dove The Sparrow that neglects his life for love The household Bird with the red stomacher Thou mak'st the black bird speed as soone As doth the Goldfinch or the Halcyon The husband cocke lookes out and straight is sped And meets his wife which brings her feather-bed This day more cheerfully then ever shine This day which might enflāe thy self Old Valentine II. Till now Thou warmd'st with multiplying loves Two larkes two sparrowes or two Doves All that is nothing unto this For thou this day couplest two Phoenixes Thou mak'st a Taper see What the sunne never saw and what the Arke Which was of foules and beasts the cage and park Did not containe one bed containes through Thee Two Phoenixes whose joyned breasts Are unto one another mutuall nests Where motion kindles such fires as shall give Yong Phoenixes and yet the old shall live Whose love and courage never shall decline But make the whole year through thy day O Valētine III. Up then faire Phoenix Bride frustrate the Sunne Thy selfe from thine affection Takest warmth enough and from thine eye All lesser birds will take their Jollitie Up up faire Bride and call Thy starres from out their severall boxes take Thy Rubies Pearles and Diamonds forth and make Thy selfe a constellation of them All And by their blazing signifie That a Great Princess falls but doth not die Bee thou a new starre that to us portends Ends of much wonder And be Thou those ends Since thou dost this day in new glory shine May all men date Records from this thy Valentine IIII. Come forth come forth and as one glorious flame Meeting Another growes the same So meet thy Fredericke and so To an unseparable union goe Since separation Falls not on such things as are infinite Nor things which are but one can disunite You' are twice inseparable great and one Goe then to where the Bishop staies To make you one his way which divers waies Must be effected and when all is past And that you' are one by hearts and hands made fast You two have one way left your selves to'entwine Besides this Bishops knot O Bishop Valentine V. But oh what ailes the Sunne that here he staies Longer to day then other daies
nature put thee in And to deliver up to God that state Of which he gave thee the vicariate Which is thy soule and body as intire As he who takes endeavours doth require But didst not stay t' enlarge his kingdome too By making others what thou didst to doe Why shouldst thou Triumph now when Heav'n no more Hath got by getting thee then t 'had before For Heav'n and thou even when thou livedst here Of one another in possession were But this from Triumph most disables thee That that place which is conquered must bee Left safe from present warre and likely doubt Of imminent commotions to breake out And hath he left us so or can it bee His territory was no more then Hee No we were all his charge the Diocis Of ev'ry exemplar man the whole world is And he was joyned in commission With Tutelar Angels sent to every one But though this freedome to upbraid and chide Him who Triumph'd were lawfull it was ty'd With this that it might never reference have Unto the Senate who this triumph gave Men might at Pompey jeast but they might not At that authoritie by which he got Leave to Triumph before by age he might So though triumphant soule I dare to write Mov'd with a reverentiall anger thus That thou so earely wouldst abandon us Yet I am farre from daring to dispute With that great soveraigntie whose absolute Prerogative hath thus dispens'd with thee ' Gainst natures lawes which just impugners bee Of early triumphs And I though with paine Lessen our losse to magnifie thy gaine Of triumph when I say It was more fit That all men should lacke thee then thou lack it Though then in our time be not suffered That testimonie of love unto the dead To die with them and in their graves be hid As Saxon wives and French soldarii did And though in no degree I can expresse Griefe in great Alexanders great excesse Who at his friends death made whole townes devest Their walls and bullwarks which became them best Doe not faire soule this sacrifice refuse That in thy grave I doe interre my Muse Who by my griefe great as thy worth being cast Behind hand yet hath spoke and spoke her last Elegie AS the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still As that which frō chaf'd muskats pores doth trill As the Almighty Balme of th' early East Such are the sweat drops of my Mistris breast And on her necke her skin such lustre sets They seeme no sweat drops but pearle coronets Ranke sweaty froth thy Mistresse's brow defiles Like spermatique issue of ripe menstruous boiles Or like the skumme which by needs lawlesse law Enforc'd Sanserra's starved men did draw From parboild shooes and bootes and all the rest Which were with any soveraigne fatnes blest And like vile stones lying in saffrond tinne Or warts or wheales it hangs upon her skinne Round as the world 's her head on every side Like to the fatall Ball which fell on Ide Or that whereof God had such jealousie As for the ravishing thereof we die Thy head is like a rough-hewne statue of jeat Where marks for eyes nose mouth are yet scarce set Like the first Chaos or flat seeming face Of Cynthia when th' earths shadowes her embrace Like Proserpines white beauty-keeping chest Or Joues best fortunes urne is her faire brest Thine's like worme eaten trunkes cloth'd in seals skin Or grave that 's dust without and stinke within And like that slender stalke at whose end stands The wood-bine quivering are her armes and hands Like rough bark'd elmboughes or the russet skin Of men late scurg'd for madnes or for sinne Like Sun-parch'd quarters on the citie gate Such is thy tann'd skins lamentable state And like a bunch of ragged carrets stand The short swolne fingers of her gouty hand Then like the Chymicks masculine equall fire Which in the Lymbecks warme wombe doth inspire Into th' earths worthlesse part a soule of gold Such cherishing heat her best lov'd part doth hold Thine's like the dread mouth of a fired gunne Or like hot liquid metalls newly runne Into clay moulds or like to that Aetna Where round about the grasse is burnt away Are not your kisses then as filthy and more As a worme sucking an invenom'd sore Doth not thy fearefull hand in feeling quake As one which gath'ring flowers still feares a snake Is not your last act harsh and violent As where a Plough a stony ground doth rent So kisse good Turtles so devoutly nice Are Priests in handling reverent sacrifice And nice in searching wounds the Surgeon is As wee when wee embrace or touch or kisse Leave her and I will leave comparing thus She and comparisons are odious Elegie The Autumnall NO Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one Autumnall face Yong Beauties force our love and that 's a Rape This doth but counsaile yet you cannot scape If t' were a shame to love here t' were no shame Affections here take Reverences name Were her first yeares the Golden Age That 's true But now they' are gold oft tried and ever new That was her torrid and inflaming time This is her tolerable Tropique clyme Faire eyes who askes more heate then comes from hence He in a fever wishes pestilence Call not these wrinkles graves If graves they were They were Loves graves for else he is no where Yet lies not love dead here but here doth sit Vow'd to this trench like an Anachorit And here till hers which must be his death come He doth not digge a Grave but build a Tombe Iere dwells he though he sojourne ev'ry where In Progresse yet his standing house is here Iere where still Evening is not noone nor night Where no voluptuousnesse yet all delight In all her words unto all hearers fit You may at Revels you at counsaile sit This is loves timber youth his under-wood There he as wine in Iune enrages blood Which then comes seasonabliest when our tast And appetite to other things is past Xerxes strange Lydian love the Platane tree Was lov'd for age none being so large as shee Or else because being yong nature did blesse Her youth with ages glory Barrennesse If we love things long sought Age is a thing Which we are fifty yeares in compassing If transitory things which soone decay Age must be lovelyest at the latest day But name not Winter-faces whose skin 's slacke Lanke as an unthrifts purse but a soules sacke Whose Eyes seeke light within for all here 's shade Whose mouthes are holes rather worne out then made Whos 's every tooth to a severall place is gone To vexe their soules at Resurrection Name not these living Deaths-heads unto mee For these not Ancient but Antique be I hate extreames yet I had rather stay With Tombs then Cradles to weare out a day Since such loves motion natural is may still My love descend and journey downe the hill Not panting after growing beauties so I shall ebbe out
And makes me end where I begunne The good-morrow I Wonder by my troth what thou and I Did till we lov'd were we not wean'd till then But suck'd on countrey pleasures childishly Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den T' was so But this all pleasures fancies bee If ever any beauty I did see Which I desir'd and got t' was but a dreame of thee And now good morrow to our waking soules Which watch not one another out of feare For love all love of other sights controules And makes one little roome an every where Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone Let Maps to other worlds on worlds have showne Let us possesse one world each hath one and is one My face in thine eye thine in mine appeares And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest Where can we finde two better hemispheares Without sharpe North without declining West What ever dyes was not mixt equally If our two loves be one or thou and I Love so alike that none doe slacken none can die Song Goe and catche a falling starre Get with child a mandrake roote Tell me where all past yeares are Or who cleft the Divels foot Teach me to heare Mermaides singing Or to keep off envies stinging And finde What winde Serves to advance an honest minde If thou beest borne to strange sights Things invisible to see Ride ten thousand daies and nights Till age snow white haires on thee Thou when thou retorn'st wilt tell mee All strange wonders that befell thee And sweare No where Lives a woman true and faire If thou findst one let mee know Such a Pilgrimage were sweet Yet doe not I would not goe Though at next doore wee might meet Though shee were true when you met her And last till you write your letter Yet shee Will bee False ere I come to two or three Womans constancy NOw thou hast lov'd me one whole day To morrow when thou leav'st what wilt thou say Wilt thou then Antedate some new made vow Or say that now We are not just those persons which we were Or that oathes made in reverentiall feare Of Love and his wrath any may forsweare Or as true deaths true maryages untie So lovers contracts images of those Binde but till sleep deaths image them unloose Or your owne end to Justifie For having purpos'd change and falsehood you Can have no way but falsehood to be true Vaine lunatique against these scapes I could Dispute and conquer if I would Which I abstaine to doe For by to morrow I may thinke so too I Have done one braver thing Then all the worthies did And yet a braver thence doth spring Which is to keepe that hid It were but madnes now t' impart The skill of specular stone When he which can have learn'd the art To cut it can finde none So if I now should utter this Others because no more Such stuffe to worke upon there is Would love but as before But he who lovelinesse within Hath found all outward loathes For he who colour loves and skinne Loves but their oldest clothes If as I have you also doe Vertue ' attir'd in woman see And dare love that and say so too And forget the Hee and Shee And if this love though placed so From prophane men you hide Which will no faith on this bestow Or if they doe deride Then you have done a braver thing Then all the Worthies did And a braver thence will spring Which is to keepe that hid The Sunne Rising BUsie old foole unruly Sunne Why dost thou thus Through windowes and through curtaines call on us Must to thy motions lovers seasons run Sawcy pedantique wretch goe chide Late schoole boyes and sowre prentices Goe tell Court-huntsmen that the King will ride Call countrey ants to harvest offices Love all alike no season knowes nor clyme Nor houres dayes moneths which are the rags of time Thy beames so reverend and strong Why shouldst thou thinke I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke But that I would not lose her sight so long If her eyes have not blinded thine Looke and to morrow late tell mee Whether both the'India's of spice and Myne Be where thou leftst them or lie here with mee Aske for those Kings whom thou saw'st yesterday And thou shalt heare All here in one bed lay She 'is all States and all Princes I Nothing else is Princes doe but play us compar'd to this All honor's mimique All wealth alchimie Thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee In that the world 's contracted thus Thine age askes ease and since thy duties bee To warme the world that 's done in warming us Shine here to us and thou art every where This bed thy center is these walls thy spheare The Indifferent I Can love both faire and browne Her whom abundance melts and her whom want betraies Her who loves lonenesse best and her who maskes and plaies Her whō the country form'd whō the town Her who beleeves and her who tries Her who still weepes with spungie eyes And her who is dry corke and never cries I can love her and her and you and you I can love any so she be not true Will no other vice content you Wil it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers Or have you all old vices spent and now would finde out others Or doth a feare that men are true torment you Oh we are not be not you so Let mee and doe you twenty know Rob mee but binde me not and let me goe Must I who came to travaile thorow you Grow your fixt subject because you are true Venus heard me sigh this song And by Loves sweetest Part Variety she swore She heard not this till now and that it should be so no more She went examin'd and return'd ere long And said alas Some two or three Poore Heretiques in love there bee Which thinke to stablish dangerous constancie But I have told them since you will be true You shall be true to them who'are false to you Loves Vsury FOr every houre that thou wilt spare mee now I will allow Usurious God of Love twenty to thee When with my browne my gray haires equall bee Till then Love let my body raigne and let Mee travell sojourne snatch plot have forget Resume my last yeares relict thinke that yet We'had never met Let mee thinke any rivalls letter mine And at next nine Keepe midnights promise mistake by the way The maid and tell the Lady of that delay Onely let mee love none no not the sport From country grasse to comfitures of Court Or cities quelque choses let report My minde transport This bargaine 's good if when I 'am old I bee Inflam'd by thee If thine owne honour or my shame or paine Thou cover most at that age thou shalt gaine Doe thy will then then subject and degree And fruit of love Love I submit to thee Spare mee till then I 'll beare it though she bee One that loves
to be possessor Of old or new love himselfe being false or weake Thought his paine and shame would be lesser If on womankind he might his anger wreake And thence a law did grow One might but one man know But are other creatures so Are Sunne Moone or Starres by law forbidden To smile where they list or lend away their light Are birds divorc'd or are they chidden If they leave their mate or lie abroad a night Beasts doe no joyntures lose Though they new lovers choose But we are made worse then those Who e'r rigg'd faire ship to lie in harbors And not to seeke new lands or not to deale withall Or built faire houses set trees and arbors Only to lock up or else to let them fall Good is not good unlesse A thousand it possesse But doth wast with greedinesse The Dreame DEare love for nothing lesse then thee Would I have broke this happy dreame It was a theame For reason much too strong for phantasie Therefore thou wakd'st me wisely yet My Dreame thou brok'st not but continued'st it Thou art so truth that thoughts of thee suffice To make dreames truths and fables histories Enter these armes for since thou thoughtst it best Not to dreame all my dreame let 's act the rest As lightning or a Tapers light Thine eyes and not thy noise wak'd mee Yet I thought thee For thou lovest truth an Angell at first sight But when I saw thou sawest my heart And knew'st my thoughts beyond an Angels art When thou knew'st what I dreamt whē thou knew'st whē Excesse of joy would wake me and cam'st then I must confesse it could not chuse but bee Prophane to thinke thee any thing but thee Comming and staying show'd thee thee But rising makes me doubt that now Thou art not thou That love is weake where feare 's as strong as hee 'T is not all spirit pure and brave If mixture it of Feare Shame Honor have Perchance as torches which must ready bee Men light and put out so thou deal'st with mee Thou cam'st to kindle goest to come Then I Will dreame that hope againe but else would die A Valediction of weeping LEt me powre forth My teares before thy face whil'st I stay here For thy face coines them and thy stampe they beare And by this Mintage they are something worth For thus they bee Pregnant of thee Fruits of much griefe they are emblemes of more When a teare falls that thou falst which it bore So thou and I are nothing then when on a divers shore On a round ball A workeman that hath copies by can lay An Europe Afrique and an Asia And quickly make that which was nothing All So doth each teare Which thee doth weare A globe yea world by that impression grow Till thy teares mixt with mine doe overflow This world by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so O more then Moone Draw not up seas to drowne me in thy spheare Weepe me not dead in thine armes but forbeare To teach the sea what it may doe too soone Let not the winde Example finde To doe me more harme then it purposeth Since thou and I sigh one anothers breath Who e'r sighes most is cruellest and hasts the others death Loves Alchymie SOme that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I Say where his centrique happinesse doth lie I have lov'd and got and told But should I love get tell till I were old I should not finde that hidden mysterie Oh 't is imposture all And as no chymique yet th'Elixar got But glorifies his pregnant pot If by the way to him befall Some odoriferous thing or medicinall So lovers dreame a rich and long delight But get a winter-seeming summers night Our ease our thrift our honor and our day Shall we for this vaine Bubles shadow pay Ends love in this that my man Can be as happy'as I can If he can Endure the short scorne of a Bridegroomes play That loving wretch that sweares 'T is not the bodies marry but the mindes Which he in her Angelique findes Would sweare as justly that he heares In that dayes rude hoarse minstralsey the spheares Hope not for minde in women at their best Sweetnesse and wit they' are but Mummy possest The Flea MArke but this flea and marke in this How little that which thou deny'st me is It suck'd me first and now sucks thee And in this flea our two bloods mingled bee Thou know'st that this cannot be said A sinne nor shame nor losse of maidenhead Yet this enjoyes before it wooe And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two And this alas is more then wee would doe Oh stay three lives in one flea spare Where wee almost yea more then maryed are This flea is you and I and this Our mariage bed and mariage temple is Though parents grudge and you w' are met And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet Though use make you apt to kill mee Let not to that selfe murder added bee And sacrilege three sinnes in killing three Cruell and sodaine hast thou since Purpled thy naile in blood of innocence Wherein could this flea guilty bee Except in that drop which it suckt from thee Yet thou triumph'st and saist that thou Find'st not thy selfe nor mee the weaker now 'T is true then learne how false feares bee Just so much honor when thou yeeld'st to mee Will wast as this flea's death tooke life from thee The Curse WHo ever guesses thinks or dreames he knowes Who is my mistris wither by this curse His only and only his purse May some dull heart to love dispose And shee yeeld then to all that are his foes May he be scorn'd by one whom all else scorne Forsweare to others what to her he' hath sworne With feare of missing shame of getting torne Madnesse his sorrow gout his cramp may hee Make by but thinking who hath made him such And may he feele no touch Of conscience but of fame and bee Anguish'd not that 't was sinne but that 't was shee In early and long scarcenesse may he rot For land which had been his if he had not Himselfe incestuously an heire begot May he dreame Treason and beleeve that hee Meant to performe it and confesse and die And no record tell why His sonnes which none of his may bee Inherite nothing but his infamie Or may he so long Parasites have fed That he would faine be theirs whom he hath bred And at the last be circumcis'd for bread The venom of all stepdames gamsters gall What Tyrans and their subjects interwish What Plants Myne Beasts Foule Fish Can contribute all ill which all Prophets or Poets spake And all which shall Be annex'd in schedules unto this by mee Fall on that man For if it be a shee Nature before hand hath out-cursed mee AN ANATOMIE OF THE WORLD Wherein By occasion of the untimely death of Mistris ELIZABETH DRVRY the frailty and the decay of this whole World is represented The first Anniversary
influence all impression came But by receivers impotencies lame Who though she could not transubstantiate All states to gold yet guilded every state So that some Princes have some temperance Some Counsellers some purpose to advance The common profit and some people have Some stay no more then Kings should give to crave Some women have some taciturnity Some nunneries some graines of chastitie She that did thus much and much more could doe But that our age was Iron and rustie too Shee she is dead she 's dead when thou knowst this Thou knowst how drie a Cinder this world is And learn'st thus much by our Anatomy That 't is in vaine to dew or mollifie It with thy teares or sweat or blood nothing Is worth our travaile griefe or perishing But those rich joyes which did possesse her heart Of which she 's now partaker and a part But as in cutting up a man that 's dead The body will not last out to have read On every part and therefore men direct Their speech to parts that are of most effect So the worlds carcasse would not last if I Were punctuall in this Anatomy Nor smels it well to hearers if one tell Them their disease who faine would think thy're well Here therefore be the end and blessed maid Of whom is meant what ever hath been said Or shall be spoken well by any tongue Whose name refines course lines and makes prose song Accept this tribute and his first yeares rent Who till his darke short tapers end be spent As oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth Will yearely celebrate thy second birth That is thy death for though the soule of man Be got when man is made 't is borne but than When man doth die our body 's as the wombe And as a Mid-wife death directs it home And you her creatures whom she workes upon And have your last and best concoction From her example and her vertue if you In reverence to her do thinke it due That no one should her praises thus rehearse As matter fit for Chronicle not verse Vouchsafe to call to minde that God did make A last and lasting'st peece a song He spake To Moses to deliver unto all That song because hee knew they would let fall The Law the Prophets and the History But keepe the song still in their memory Such an opinion in due measure made Me this great office boldly to invade Nor could incomprehensiblenesse deterre Mee from thus trying to emprison her Which when I saw that a strict grave could doe I saw not why verse might not do so too Verse hath a middle nature heaven keepes Soules The Grave keepes bodies Verse the Fame enroules A Funerall ELEGIE 'T Is lost to trust a Tombe with such a guest Or to confine her in a marble chest Alas what 's Marble Jeat or Porphyrie Priz'd with the Chrysolite of either eye Or with those Pearles and Rubies which she was Joyne the two Indies in one Tombe 't is glasse And so is all to her materials Though every inch were ten Escurials Yet she 's demolish'd can wee keepe her then In works of hands or of the wits of men Can these memorials ragges of paper give Life to that name by which name they must live Sickly alas short-liv'd aborted bee Those carcasse verses whose soule is not shee And can shee who no longer would be shee Being such a Tabernacle stoop to be In paper wrapt or when shee would not lie In such a house dwell in an Elegie But'tis no matter wee may well allow Verse to live so long as the world will now For her death wounded it The world containes Princes for armes and counsellors for braines Lawyers for tongues Divines for hearts and more The rich for stomackes and for backs the poore The officers for hands merchants for feet By which remote and distant Countries meet But those fine spirits which do tune and set This Organ are those peeces which beget Wonder and love and these were shee and shee Being spent the world must needs decrepit bee For since death will proceed to triumph still He can finde nothing after her to kill Except the world it selfe so great was shee Thus brave and confident may Nature bee Death cannot give her such another blow Because shee cannot such another show But must wee say she 's dead may 't not be said That as a sundred clocke is peecemeale laid Not to be lost but by the makers hand Repollish'd without errour then to stand Or as the Affrique Niger streame enwombs It selfe into the earth and after comes Having first made a naturall bridge to passe For many leagues farre greater then it was May 't not be said that her grave shall restore Her greater purer firmer then before Heaven may say this and joy in 't but can wee Who live and lacke her here this vantage see What is 't to us alas if there have beene An Angell made a Throne or Cherubin Wee lose by 't and as aged men are glad Being tastlesse growne to joy in joyes they had So now the sick starv'd world must feed upon This joy that we had her who now is gone Rejoyce then Nature and this World that you Fearing the last fires hastning to subdue Your force and vigour ere it were neere gone Wisely bestow'd and laid it all on one One whose cleare body was so pure and thinne Because it need disguise no thought within 'T was but a through-light scarfe her minde t'inroule Or exhalation breath'd out from her Soule One whom all men who durst no more admir'd And whom who ere had worke enough desir'd As when a Temple 's built Saints emulate To which of them it shall be consecrate But as when heaven lookes on us with new eyes Those new starres every Artist exercise VVhat place they should assigne to them they doubt Argue ' and agree not till those starres goe out So the world studied whose this peece should be Till shee can be no bodies else nor shee But like a Lampe of Balsamum desir'd Rather t' adorne then last she soone expir'd Cloath'd in her virgin white integritie For marriage though it doth not staine doth die To scape th'infirmities which wait upon VVoman she went away before sh'was one And the worlds busie noyse to overcome Tooke so much death as serv'd for opium For though she could not nor could chuse to dye She'ath yeelded to too long an extasie Hee which not knowing her said History Should come to reade the booke of destiny How faire and chast humble and high she'ad been Much promis'd much perform'd at not fifteene And measuring future things by things before Should turne the leafe to reade and reade no more VVould thinke that either destiny mistooke Or that some leaves were torne out of the booke But 't is not so Fate did but usher her To yeares of reasons use and then inferre Her destiny to her selfe which liberty She tooke but for thus much thus much
know my pain As prisoners then are manacled when they' are condem'nd to die What ere shee meant by'it bury it by me For since I am Loves martyr it might breed idolatrie If into others hands these reliques came As 't was humility To afford to it all that a Soule can doe So 't is some bravery That since you would have none of mee I bury some of you The Blossome LIttle think'st thou poore flower Whom I have watch'd sixe or seaven dayes And seene thy birth and seene what every houre Gave to thy growth thee to this height to raise And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough Little think'st thou That it will freeze anon and that I shall To morrow finde thee falne or not at all Little think'st thou poore heart That labours yet to nestle thee And think'st by hovering here to get a part In a forbidden or forbidding tree And hop'st her stiffenesse by long siege to bow Little think'st thou That thou to morrow ere that Sunne doth wake Must with this Sunne and mee a journey take But thou which lov'st to bee Subtile to plague thy selfe wilt say Alas if you must goe what 's that to mee Here lyes my businesse and here I will stay You goe to friends whose love and meanes present Various content To your eyes eares and tast and every part If then your body goe what need your heart Well then stay here but know When thou hast stayd and done thy most A naked thinking heart that makes no show Is to a woman but a kinde of Ghost How shall shee know my heart or having none Know thee for one Practise may make her know some other part But take my word shee doth not know a Heart Meet mee at London then Twenty dayes hence and thou shalt see Mee fresher and more fat by being with men Then if I had staid still with her and thee For Gods sake if you can be you so too I will give you There to another friend whom wee shall finde As glad to have my body as my minde The Primrose VPon this Primrose hill Where it Heav'n would distill A shoure of raine each severall drop might goe To his owne primrose and grow Manna so And where their forme and their infinitie Make a terrestriall Galaxie As the small starres doe in the skie I walke to finde a true Love and I see That 't is not a mere woman that is shee But must or more or lesse then woman bee Yet know I not which flower I wish a sixe or foure For should my true-Love lesse then woman bee She were scarce any thing and then should shee Be more then woman shee would get above All thought of sexe and thinke to move My heart to study her and not to love Both these were monsters Since there must reside Falshood in woman I could more abide She were by art then Nature falsify'd Live Primrose then and thrive With thy true number five And women whom this flower doth represent With this mysterious number be content Ten is the farthest number if halfe ten Belongs unto each woman then Each woman may take halfe us men Or if this will not serve their turne Since all Numbers are odde or even and they fall First into this five women may take us all The Relique WHen my grave is broke up againe Some second ghest to entertaine For graves have learn'd that woman-head To be to more then one a Bed And he that digs it spies A bracelet of bright haire about the bone Will he not let'us alone And thinke that there a loving couple lies Who thought that this device might be some way To make their soules at the last busie day Meet at this grave and make a little stay If this fall in a time or land Where mis-devotion doth command Then he that digges us up will bring Us to the Bishop and the King To make us Reliques then Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen and I A something else thereby All women shall adore us and some men And since at such time miracles are sought I would have that age by this paper taught What miracles wee harmelesse lovers wrought First we lov'd well and faithfully Yet knew not what wee lov'd nor why Difference of sex no more wee new Then our Guardian Angells doe Comming and going wee Perchance might kisse but not between those meales Our hands ne'r toucht the seales Which nature injur'd by late law sets free These miracles wee did but now alas All measure and all language I should passe Should I tell what a miracle shee was The Dampe WHen I am dead and Doctors know not why And my friends curiositie Will have me cut up to survay each part When they shall finde your Picture in my heart You thinke a sodaine dampe of love Will through all their senses move And worke on them as mee and so preferre Your murder to the name of Massacre Poore victories But if you dare be brave And pleasure in your conquest have First kill th'enormous Gyant your Disdaine And let th'enchantresse Honor next be slaine And like a Goth and Vandall rize Deface Records and Histories Of your owne arts and triumphs over men And without such advantage kill me then For I could muster up as well as you My Gyants and my Witches too Which are vast Constancy and Secretnesse But these I neyther looke for nor professe Kill mee as Woman let mee die As a meere man doe you but try Your passive valor and you shall finde than In that you'have odds enough of any man The Dissolution SHee'is dead And all which die To their first Elements resolve And wee were mutuall Elements to us And made of one another My body then doth hers involve And those things whereof I consist hereby In me abundant grow and burdenous And nourish not but smother My fire of Passion sighes of ayre Water of teares and earthly sad despaire Which my materialls bee But ne'r worne out by loves securitie Shee to my losse doth by her death repaire And I might live long wretched so But that my fire doth with my fuell grow Now as those Active Kings Whose foraine conquest treasure brings Receive more and spend more and soonest breake This which I am amaz'd that I can speake This death hath with my store My use encreas'd And so my soule more earnestly releas'd Will outstrip hers As bullets flowen before A latter bullet may o'rtake the pouder being more A Ieat King sent THou art not so black as my heart Nor halfe so brittle as her heart thou art What would'st thou say shall both our properties by thee bee spoke Nothing more endlesse nothing sooner broke Marriage rings are not of this stuffe Oh why should ought lesse precious or lesse tough Figure our loves Except in thy name thou have bid it say I 'am cheap nought but fashion fling me'away Yet stay with mee since thou art come Circle this fingers top which did'st her thombe Be
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
elemented them shall stay And though diffus'd and spread in infinite Shall recollect and in one All unite So madame as her Soule to heaven is fled Her flesh rests in the earth as in the bed Her vertues do as to their proper spheare Returne to dwell with you of whom they were As perfect motions are all circular So they to you their sea whence lesse streames are Shee was all spices you all metalls so In you two wee did both rich Indies know And as no fire nor rust can spend or waste One dramme of gold but what was first shall last Though it bee forc'd in water earth salt aire Expans'd in infinite none will impaire So to your selfe you may additions take But nothing can you lesse or changed make Seeke not in seeking new to seeme to doubt That you can can match her or not be without But let some faithfull booke in her roome be Yet but of Iudith no such booke as shee Elegie TO make the doubt cleare that no woman's true Was it my fate to prove it strong in you Thought I but one had breathed purest aire And must she needs be false because she 's faire Is it your beauties marke or of your youth Or your perfection not to study truth Or thinke you heaven is deafe or hath no eyes Or those it hath smile at your perjuries Are vowes so cheape with women or the matter Whereof they are made that they are writ in water And blowne away with winde Or doth their breath Both hot and cold at once make life and death Who could have thought so many accents sweet Form'd into words so many sighs should meete As from our hearts so many oathes and teares Sprinkled among all sweeter by our feares And the divine impression of stolne kisses That seal'd the rest should now prove empty blisses Did you draw bonds to forfet signe to breake Or must we reade you quite from what you speake And finde the truth out the wrong way or must Hee first desire you false would wish you just O I prophane though most of women be This kinde of beast my thought shall except thee My dearest Love though froward jealousie With circumstance might urge thy'inconstancie Sooner I 'll thinke the Sunne will cease to cheare The teeming earth and that forget to beare Sooner that rivers will runne back or Thames With ribs of Ice in June would bind his streames Or Nature by whose strength the world endures Would change her course before you alter yours But O that treacherous breast to whom weake you Did trust our Counsells and wee both may rue Having his falshood found too late 't was hee That made me cast you guilty and you me Whilst he black wrech betray'd each simple word Wee spake unto the cunning of a third Curst may hee be that so our love hath slaine And wander on the earth wretched as Cain Wretched as hee and not deserve least pitty In plaguing him let misery be witty Let all eyes shunne him and hee shunne each eye Till hee be noysome as his infamie May he without remorse deny God thrice And not be trusted more on his Soules price And after all selfe torment when hee dyes May Wolves teare out his heart Vultures his eyes Swine eate his bowels and his falser tongue That utter'd all be to some Raven flung And let his carrion coarse be a longer feast To the Kings dogges then any other beast Now have I curst let us our love revive In mee the flame was never more alive I could beginne againe to court and praise And in that pleasure lengthen the short dayes Of my lifes lease like Painters that do take Delight not in made worke but whiles they make I could renew those times when first I saw Love in your eyes that gave my tongue the law To like what you lik'd and at maskes and playes Commend the selfe same Actors the same wayes Aske how you did and often with intent Of being officious be impertinent All which were such soft pastimes as in these Love was as subtilly catch'd as a disease But being got it is a treasure sweet Which to defend is harder then to get And ought not be prophan'd on either part For though 't is got by chance 't is kept by art NO Lover saith I love nor any other Can judge a perfect Lover Hee thinkes that else none can or will agree That any loves but hee I cannot say I lov'd for who can say Hee was kill'd yesterday Love with excesse of heat more yong then old Death kills with too much cold Wee dye but once and who lov'd last did die Hee that saith twice doth lye For though hee seeme to move and stirre a while It doth the sense beguile Such life is like the light which bideth yet When the lifes light is set Or like the heat which fire in solid matter Leaves behinde two houres after Once I love and dyed and am now become Mine Epitaph and Tombe Here dead men speake their last and so do I Love-slaine loe here I dye A Hymne to Christ at the Authors last going into Germany IN what torne ship soever I embarke That ship shall be my embleme of thy Arke What sea soever swallow mee that flood Shall be to mee an embleme of thy blood Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise Thy face yet through that maske I know those eyes Which though they turne away sometimes They never will despise I sacrifice this Iland unto thee And all whom I lov'd there and who lov'd mee When I have put our seas twixt them and mee Put thou thy seas betwixt my sinnes and thee As the trees sap doth seeke the root below In winter in my winter now I goe Where none but thee th' Eternall root Of true Love I may know Nor thou nor thy religion dost controule The amorousnesse of an harmonious Soule But thou would'st have that love thy selfe As thou Art jealous Lord so I am jealous now Thou lov'st not till from loving more thou free My soule Who ever gives takes libertie O if thou car'st not whom I love Alas thou lov'st not mee Seale then this bill of my Divorce to All On whom those fainter beames of love did fall Marry those loves which in youth scattered bee On Fame Wit Hopes false mistresses to thee Churches are best for Prayer that have least light To see God only I goe out of sight And to scape stormy dayes I chuse An Everlasting night The Lamentations of Ieremy for the most part according to Tremelius CHAP. I. 1 HOw sits this citie late most populous Thus solitary and like a widdow thus Amplest of Nations Queene of Provinces She was who now thus tributary is 2 Still in the night shee weepes and her teares fall Downe by her cheekes along and none of all Her lovers comfort her Perfidiously Her friends have dealt and now are enemie 3 Unto great bondage and afflictions Juda is captive led Those nations
If I should confesse a fault in the boldnesse of asking them or make a fault by doing it in a longer letter your Ladiship might use your stile and old fashion of the Court towards mee and pay mee with a pardon Here therefore I humbly kisse your Ladiships faire learned hands and wish you good wishes and speedy grants Your Ladiships servant JO. DONNE To Sr H. G. SIR BEcause I am in a place and season where I see every thing bud forth I must do so too and vent some of my meditations to you the rather because all other buds being yet without taste or vertue my letters may be like them The pleasantnes of the season displeases mee Every thing refreshes and I wither and I grow older and not better My strength diminishes and my load growes and being to passe more and more stormes I finde that I have not only cast out all my ballast which nature and time gives reason discretion so am as empty light as vanity can make me but I have over-fraught my selfe with vice and so am riddingly subject to two contrary wrackes sinking and over-setting and under the iniquity of such a disease as enforces the patient when hee is almost starv'd not onely to fast but to purge for I have much to take in and much to cast out Sometimes I thinke it easier to discharge my selfe of vice then of vanity as one may sooner carry the fire out of a roome then the smoke And then I see it was a new vanity to thinke so And when I thinke sometimes that vanity because it is thinne and airy may be expelled with vertue or businesse or substantiall vice I finde that I give entrance thereby to new vices Certainly as the earth water one sad the other fluid make but one body so to vice and vanity there is but one Centrum morbi And that which later Physitiās say of our bodies is fitter for our mindes for that which they call destruction which is a corruption and want of those fundamentall parts whereof we consist is vice And that Collectio Stercorum which is but the Excrement of that corruption is our vanity and indiscretion Both these have but one root in mee and must bee pulled out at once or never But I am so far from digging to it that I know not where it is For it is not in mine eyes only but in every sense nor in my concupiscence only but in every power and affection Sir I was willing to let you see how impotent a man you love not to dishearten you from doing so still for my vices are not infectious nor wandring They came not yesterday nor meane to goe away to day They Inne not but dwell in mee and see themselves so welcome and finde in mee so good bad company of one another that they will not change especially to one not apprehensive nor easily accessible but I doe it that your counsell might cure mee and if you deny that your example shall for I will as much strive to be like you as I will wish you to continue good To Sir H. G. SIR I Hope you are now welcome to London and well and well comforted in your fathers health and love and well contented that we aske you how you doe and tell you how we are which yet I cannot of my selfe If I knew that I were ill I were well For we consist of three parts a Soule and Body and Mind which I call those thoughts and affections and passions which neither Soule nor Body hath alone but have beene begotten by their communication as Musique results out of our breath and a Cornet And of all these the diseases are cures if they be knowne Of our Soules sicknesses which are sinnes the knowledge is to acknowledge and that is her physick in which wee are not dieted by drams and scruples for we cannot take too much Of our bodies infirmities though our knowledge be partly ab extrinseco from the opinion of the Physitian and that the subject and matter be flexible and various Yet their rules are certaine and if the matter be rightly applyed to the rule our knowledge thereof is also certaine But of the diseases of the minde there is no Cryterium no Canon no rule for our owne tast and apprehension interpretation should be the judge and that is the disease it selfe Therefore sometimes when I finde my selfe transported with jollity and love of company I hang leads at my heeles and reduce to my thoughts my fortunes my yeares the duties of a man of a friend of a husband of a father and all the incumbencies of a family When sadnesse dejects me either I countermine it with another sadnesse or I kindly squibs about mee againe and flie into sportfulnesse and company And I finde ever after all that I am like an Exorcist which had long laboured about one which at last appeares to have the Mother that I still mistake my disease And I still vexe my selfe with this because if I know it not no body can know it And I comfort my selfe because I see dispassioned men are subject to the like ignorances For divers mindes out of the same thing often draw contrary conclusions as Augustine thought devout Anthony to bee therfore full of the holy Ghost because not being able to read he could say the whole Bible and interpret it And Thyraeus the Jesuite for the same reason doth thinke all the Anabaptists to be possessed And as often out of contrary things men draw one conclusion As To the Romane Church Magnificence and Splendor hath ever beene an argument of Gods favour and Poverty and Affliction to the Greeke Out of this variety of mindes it proceeds that though all our Soules would goe to one end Heaven and all our bodies must goe to one end the Earth Yet our third part the minde which is our naturall Guide here chuses to every man a severall way Scarce any man likes what another doth nor advisedly that which himselfe But Sir I am beyond my purpose I meant to write a letter and I am fallen into a discourse and I doe not only take you from some businesse but I make you a new businesse by drawing you into these meditations In which yet let my opennes be an argument of such love as I would fain expresse in some worthier fashion Elegies upon the Author TO THE MEMORIE OF MY EVER DESIRED FRIEND Dr. DONNE TO have liv'd eminent in a degree Beyond our lofty'st flights that is like Thee Or t' have had too much merit is not safe For such excesses finde no Epitaph At common graves we have Poetique eyes Can melt themselves in easie Elegies Each quill can drop his tributary verse And pin it like the Hatchments to the Hearse But at Thine Poeme or Inscription Rich soule of wit and language we have none Indeed a silence does that tombe befit Where is no Herald left to blazon it Widow'd invention justly doth