to black Despair Start from the ground and throw your Mourning by Loves great Sultana says you shall not die The dismal dark half year is over past The Sea is op'd the Sun shines out at last And Trading's free the storms are husht as death Or happy Lovers ravisht out of breath And listen to Astraea's Harmony Such power has elevated Poetry T. C. To the Lovely Witty Astraea on her Excellent Poems OH wonder of thy Sex Where can we see Beauty and Knowledge join'd except in thee Such pains took Nature with your Heav'nly Face Form'd it for Love and moulded every Grace I doubted first and fear'd that you had been Unfinish'd left like other She 's within I see the folly of that fear and find Your Face is not more beauteous than your Mind Whoe'er beheld you with a Heart unmov'd That sent not sighs and said within he lov'd I gaz'd and found a then unknown delight Life in your looks and Death to leave the sight What joys new Worlds of joys has he possest That gain'd the sought-for welcome of your Breast Your Wit wou'd recommend the homeliest Face Your Beauty make the dullest Humour please But where they both thus gloriously are join'd All Men submit you reign in every Mind What Passions does your Poetry impart It shews th'unfathom'd thing a Woman's Heart Tells what Love is his Nature and his Art Displays the several Scenes of Hopes and Fears Love's Smiles his Sighs his Laughings and his Tears Each Lover here may reade his different Fate His Mistress kindness or her scornfull hate Come all whom the blind God has led astray Here the bewildred Youth is shew'd his way Guided by this he may yet love and find Ease in his Heart and reason in his Mind Thus sweetly once the charming W lr strove In Heavenly sounds to gain his hopeless Love All the World listned but his scornfull Fair Pride stopt her ears to whom he bent his prayer Much happier you that can't desire in vain But what you wish as soon as wish'd obtain Vpon these and other Excellent Works of the Incomparable Astraea YE bold Magicians in Philosophy That vainly think next the Almighty three The brightest Cherubin in all the Hierarchy Will leave that Glorious Sphere And to your wild inchantments will appear To the fond summons of fantastick Charms As Barbarous and inexplicable Terms As those the trembling Scorcerer dreads When he the Magick Circle treads And as he walks the Mystick rounds And mutters the detested sounds The Stygian fiends exalt their wrathfull heads And all ye bearded Drudges of the Schools That sweat in vain to mend predestin'd fools With senseless Jargon and perplexing Rules Behold and with amazement stand Behold a blush with shame and wonder too What Divine Nature can in Woman doe Behold if you can see in all this fertile Land Such an Anointed head such an inspired hand II. Rest on in peace ye blessed Spirits rest With Imperial bliss for ever blest Upon your sacred Urn she scorns to tread Or rob the Learned Monuments of the dead Nor need her Muse a foreign aid implore In her own tunefull breast there 's wonderous store Had she but flourisht in these times of old When Mortals were amongst the Gods inrolld She had not now as Woman been Ador'd But with Diviner sacrifice Implor'd Temples and Altars had preserv'd her name And she her self been thought Immortal as her fame III. Curst be the balefull Tongue that dares abuse The rightfull off-spring of her Godlike Muse And doubly Curst be he that thinks her Pen Can be instructed by the best of men The times to come as surely she will live As many Ages as are past As long as Learning Sense or wit survive As long as the first principles of Bodies last The future Ages may perhaps believe One soft and tender Arm cou'd ne'er atchieve The wonderous deeds that she has done So hard a prize her Conqu'ring Muse has won But we that live in the great Prophetesses days Can we enough proclaim her praise We that experience every hour The blest effects of her Miraculous power To the sweet Mcsick of her charming tongue In numerous Crowds the ravisht hearers throng And even a Herd of Beasts as wild as they That did the Thracian Lyre obey Forget their Madness and attend her song The tunefull Shepherds on the dangerous rocks Forsake their Kinds and leave their bleating Flocks And throw their tender Reeds away As soon as e'er her softer Pipe begins to play No barren subject no unfertile soil Can prove ungratefull to her Muses Toil Warm'd with the Heavenly influence of her Brain Upon the dry and sandy plain On craggy Mountains cover'd o'er with Snow The blooming Rose and fragrant Jes'min grow When in her powerfull Poetick hand She waves the mystick wand Streight from the hardest Rocks the sweetest numbers slow IV. Hail bright Vrania Erato hail Melpomene Polymnia Euterpe hail And all ye blessed powers that inspire The Heaven-born Soul with intellectual fire Pardon my humble and unhallow'd Muse If she too great a veneration use And prostrate at your best lov'd Darling's feet Your holy Fane with sacred honour greet Her more than Pythian Oracles are so divine You sure not onely virtually are Within the glorious Shrine But you your very selves must needs be there The Delian Prophet did at first ordain That even the mighty Nine should reign In distant Empires of different Clime And if in her triumphant Throne She rules those learned Regions alone The fam'd Pyerides are out-done by her omnipotent Rhime In proper Cells her large capacious Brain The images of all things does contain As bright almost as were th'Ideas laid In the last model e'er the World was made And though her vast conceptions are so strong The powerfull eloquence of her charming tongue Does clear as the resistless beams of day To our enlightned Souls the noble thoughts convey Well chosen well appointed every word Does its full force and natural grace afford And though in her rich treasury Confus'd like Elements great Numbers lie When they their mixture and proportion take What beauteous forms of every kind they make Such was the Language God himself infus'd And such the style our great Forefather us'd From one large stock the various sounds he fram'd And every Species of the vast Creation nam'd While most of our dull Sex have trod In beaten paths of one continued Road Her skilfull and well manag'd Muse Does all the art and strength of different paces use For though sometimes with slackned force She wisely stops her fleetest course That slow but strong Majestick pace Shews her the swiftest steed of all the chosen Race V. Well has she sung the learned Daphnis praise And crown'd his Temples with immortal Bays And all that reade him must indeed confess Th' effects of such a cause could not be less For ne'er was at the first bold heâ—t begun So hard and swift a Race of glory run But
instructress and thy musicks song She that could make Thy inarticulated strings to speak In language soft as young desires In language chaste as Vestal fires But she hath ta'n her Everlasting flight Ah! cruel Death How short's the date of Learned breath No sooner do's the blooming Rose Drest fresh and gay In the embroy'dries of her Native May Her odorous sweets expose But with thy fatal knife The fragrant flow'r is crop't from off the stalk of life III. Come ye Stoicks come away You that boast an Apathy And view our Golgotha See how the mourning Virgins all around With Tributary Tears bedew the sacred ground And tell me tell me where 's the Eye That can be dry Unless in hopes nor are such hopes in vain Their universal cry Should mount the vaulted sky And of the Gods obtain A young succeeding Phoenix might arise From Orinda's spicy obsequies In Heaven the voice was heard Heaven does the Virgins pray'rs regard And none that dwells on high If once the beauteous Ask the beauteous can deny IV. 'T is done 't is done th' imperial grant is past We have our wish at last And now no more with sorrow be it said Orinda's dead Since in her seat Astraea does Appear The God of Wit hath chosen her To bear Orinda's and his Character The Laurel Chaplet seems to grow On her more gracefull Brow And in her hand Look how she waves his sacred Wand Loves Quiver's tyde In an Azure Mantle by her side And with more gentle Arts Than he who owns the Aureal darts At once she wounds and heals our hearts V. Hark how the gladded Nymphs rejoyce And with a gracefull voice Commend Apollo's Choice The gladded Nymphs their Guardian Angel greet And chearfully her name repeat And chearfully admire and praise The Loyal musick of her layes Whilst they securely sit Beneath the banners of her wit And scorn th'ill-manner'd Ignorance of those Whose Stock 's so poor they cannot raise To their dull Muse one subsidy of praise Unless they 're dubb'd the Sexes foes These squibbs of sense themselves expose Or if with stolen light They shine one night The next their earth-born Lineage shows They perish in their slime And but to name them wou'd defile Astraea's Rhime VI. But you that would be truely wise And vertues fair Idea prize You that would improve In harmeless Arts of not indecent Love Arts that Romes fam'd Master never taught Or in the Shops of fortune's bought Would you know what Wit doth mean Pleasant wit yet not obscene The several garbs that Humours wear The dull the brisk the jealous the severe Wou'd you the pattern see Of spotless and untainted Loyalty Deck't in every gracefull word That language can afford Tropes and Figures Raptures and Conceits that ly Disperst in all the pleasant Fields of poesie Reade you then Astraea's lines 'T is in those new discover'd Mines Those golden Quarries that this Ore is found With which in Worlds as yet unknown Astraea shall be crown'd VII And you th' Advent'rous sons of fame You that would sleep in honours bed With glorious Trophies garnished You that with living labours strive Your dying Ashes to survive Pay your Tributes to Astraea's name Her Works can spare you immortality For sure her Works shall never dye Pyramids must fall and Mausolean Monuments decay Marble Tombs shall crumble into dust Noisie Wonders of a short liv'd day That must in time yield up their Trust And had e'er this been perisht quite i th' ruines of Eternal night Had no kind Pen like her's In powerfull numbers powerfull verse Too potent for the gripes of Avaritious fate To these our ages lost declar'd their pristine State VIII But time it self bright Nymph shall never Conquer thee For when the Globe of vast Eternity Turns up the wrong-side of the World And all things are to their first Chaos hurl'd Thy lasting praise in thy own lines inroll'd With Roman and with the British Names shall Equal honour hold And surely none ' midst the Poetick Quire But justly will admire The Trophies of thy wit Sublime and gay as e'er were yet In Charming Numbers writ Or Virgil's Shade or Ovid's Ghost Of Ages past the pride and boast Or Cowley first of ours refuse That thou shouldst be Companion of their Muse. And if 't were lawfull to suppose As where 's the Crime or Incongruity Those awfull Souls concern'd can be At any sublunary thing Alas I fear they 'll grieve to see That whilst I sing And strive to praise I but disparage thee By F. N. W. To Madam Behn on her Poems WHEN th' Almighty Powers th' Universe had fram'd And Man as King the lesser World was nam'd The Glorious Consult soon his joys did bless And sent him Woman his chief happiness She by an after-birth Heaven did refine And gave her Beauty with a Soul divine She with delight was Natures chiefest pride Dearer to Man than all the World beside Her soft embraces charm'd his Manly Soul And softer Words his Roughness did controul So thou great Sappho with thy charming Verse Dost here the Soul of Poetry rehearse From your sweet Lips such pleasant Raptures fell As if the Graces strove which shou'd excell Th' admiring World when first your Lute you strung Became all ravisht with th' immortal Song So soft and gracefull Love in you is seen As if the Muses had design'd you Queen For thee thou great Britannia of our Land How does thy Praise our tunefull Feet command With what great influence do thy Verses move How hast thou shewn the various sense of Love Admir'd by us and blest by all above To you all tribute's due and I can raise No glory but by speaking in your praise Go on and bless us dayly with your Pen And we shall oft return thee thanks again H. Watson POEMS UPON Several OCCASIONS The Golden Age. A Paraphrase on a Translation out of French I. BLest Age when ev'ry Purling Stream Ran undisturb'd and clear When no scorn'd Shepherds on your Banks were seen Tortur'd by Love by Jealousie or Fear When an Eternal Spring drest ev'ry Bough And Blossoms fell by new ones dispossest These their kind Shade affording all below And those a Bed where all below might rest The Groves appear'd all drest with Wreaths of Flowers And from their Leaves dropt Aromatick Showers Whose fragrant Heads in Mystick Twines above Exchang'd their Sweets and mix'd with thousand Kisses As if the willing Branches strove To beautifie and shade the Grove Where the young wanton Gods of Love Offer their Noblest Sacrifice of Blisses II. Calm was the Air no Winds blew fierce and loud The Skie was dark'ned with no sullen Cloud But all the Heav'ns laugh'd with continued Light And scatter'd round their Rays serenely bright No other Murmurs fill'd the Ear But what the Streams and Rivers purl'd When Silver Waves o'er Shining Pebbles curl'd Or when young Zephirs fan'd the Gentle Breez Gath'ring fresh Sweets from Balmy Flow'rs and Trees Then bore 'em on
Mrs. Behn POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS WITH A VOYAGE TO THE Island of Love By Mrs. A. BEHN LONDON Printed for R. Tonson and I. Tonson at Gray's-Inn-Gate next Gray's-Inn Lane and at the Judges-Head at Chancery Lane end near Fleetstreet 1684. TO The Right Honourable JAMES EARL of SALISBVRY VISCOUNT CRAMBORN AND BARON of ISLINGTON MY LORD WHO should one celibrate with Verse and Song but the Great the Noble and the Brave where dedicate an Isle of Love but to the Gay the Soft and Young and who amongst Men can lay a better claim to these than Your Lordship who like the Sun new risen with the early Day looks round the World and sees nothing it cannot claim an interest in for what cannot Wit Beauty Wealth and Honour claim The violent storms of Sedition and Rebellion are hush'd and calm'd black Treason is retir'd to its old abode the dark Abyss of Hell the mysterious Riddles of Politick Knaves and Fools which so long amused and troubled the World's repose are luckily unfolded and Your Lordship is saluted at Your first coming forth Your first setting out for the glorious and happy Race of Life by a Nation all glad gay and smiling and you have nothing before you but a ravishing prospect of eternal Ioys and everlasting inviting Pleasures and all that Love and Fortune can bestow on their darling Youth attend You in the noble persuit and nothing can prevent Your being the most happy of her Favourites but a too eager slight a two swift speed o'er the charming slowry Meads and Plains that lie in view between Your setting out and the end of Your glorious Chase. A long and illustrious race of Nobility has attended Your great Name but none I believe ever came into the World with Your Lordship's advantages amongst which my Lord 't is not the least that You have the glory to be truly Loyal and to be adorn'd with those excellent Principles which render Nobility so absolutely worth the Veneration which is paid 'em 't is those my Lord and not the Title that make it truly great Grandeur in any other serves but to point 'em out more particularly to the World and shew their Faults with the greater magnitude and render 'em more liable to contempt and that Reward which justly persues Ingratitude nor is it my Lord the many unhappy Examples this Age has produc'd that has deter'd you from herding with the busie Vnfortunates and bringing Your powerfull aid to their detestable cause but a noble Honesty in Your Nature a Genorosity in Your Soul That even part of Your Education had the good fortune not to be able to corrupt no Opinion cou'd byass You no Precedent debauch You though all the fansied Glories of Power were promis'd You though all the Contempt thrown on good and brave Men all the subtile Arguments of the old Serpent were us'd against the best of Kings and his illustrious Successour still You were unmov'd Your young stout Heart with a Gallantry and Force unusual resisted and defied the gilded Bait laugh'd at the industrious Politicks of the busie Wise and stubbornly Loyal contemn'd the Counsels of the Grave Go on my Lord advance in Noble resolution grow up in strength of Loyalty settle it about Your Soul root it there like the first Principles of Religion which nothing ever throughly defaces and which in spight of even Reason the Soul retains whatever little Debaucheries the Tongue may commit You that are great are born the Bulwarks of sacred Majesty its defence against all the storms of Fate the Safety of the People in the Supporters of the Throne and sure none that ever obey'd the Laws of God and the Dictates of Honour ever paid those Duties to a Sovereign that more truly merited the Defence and Adorations of his People than this of ours and t is a blessing since we are oblig'd to render it to the worst of Tyrant Kings that we have one who so well justifies that intire Love and Submission we ought to pay him You my Lord are one whom Thousands of good Men look up to with wondrous Veneration and Ioy when 't is said Your Lordship amongst Your other Vertues is Loyal too a true Tory a word of Honour now the Royal Cause has sanctified it and though Your Lordship needs no encouragement to a good that rewards it self yet I am confident You are not onely rank'd in the esteem of the best of Monarchs but we shall behold you as one of our Preservers and all England as one of its great Patrons when Ages that shall come shall find Your noble Name inroll'd amongst the Friends to Monarchy in an Age of so villainous Corruption Yes my Lord they will find it there and bless You. 'T is this my Lord with every other Grace and Noble Vertue that adorns You and gives the World such promises of Wonders in You that makes me ambitious to be the first in the Croud of Your Admirers that shall have the honour to celibrate Your great Name Be pleased then my Lord to accept this Little Piece which lazy Minutes begot and hard Fate has oblig'd me to bring forth into the censuring World to which if any thing can reconcile it 't will be the glory it has to bear Your Noble Name in the front and to be Patronized by so great and good a Man Permit but my Zeal for Your Lordship to attone for the rest of my Faults and Your Lordship will extremely oblige My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant A. Behn TO Mrs. BEHN ON THE PUBLISHING HER POEMS Madam LOng has Wit 's injur'd Empire been opprest By Rhiming Fools this Nations common Jest And sunk beneath the weight of heavy stafes In Tory Ballads and Whig Epitaphs The Ogs and Doegs reign'd nay Baxter's zeal Has not been wanting too in writing Ill Yet still in spight of what the dull can doe 'T is here asserted and adorn'd by you This Book come forth their credit must decay Ill Spirits vanish at th'approach of day And justly we before your envy'd feet There where our Hearts are due our Pens submit Ne'er to resume the baffled things again Unless in Songs of Triumph to thy Name Which are outdone by every Verse of thine Where thy own Fame does with more lustre shine Than all that we can give who in thy Praises join Fair as the face of Heaven when no thick Cloud Or darkning Storm the glorious prospect shroud In all its beauteous parts shines thy bright style And beyond Humane Wit commedns thy skill With all the thought and vigour of our Sex The moving softness of your own you mix The Queen of Beauty and the God of Wars Imbracing lie in thy due temper'd Verse Venus her sweetness and the force of Mars Thus thy luxuriant Muse her pleasure takes As God of old in Eden's blissfull walks The Beauties of her new Creation view'd Full of content She sees that it is good Come then you inspir'd Swains and
hope do busily advise Whisper Renown and Glory in thy Ear Language which Lovers fright and Swains ne'er hear For Troy they cry these Shepherds Weeds lay down Change Crooks for Scepters Garlands for a Crown But sure that Crown does far less easie sit Than Wreaths of Flow'rs less innocent and sweet Nor can thy Beds of State so gratefull be As those of Moss and new faln Leaves with me Now tow'rds the Beach we go and all the way The Groves the Fern dark Woods and springs survey That were so often conscious to the Rites Of sacred Love in our dear stoln Delights With Eyes all languishing each place you view And sighing cry Adieu dear Shades Adieu Then 't was thy Soul e'en doubted which to doe Refuse a Crown or those dear Shades forego Glory and Love the great dispute pursu'd But the false Idol soon the God subdu'd And now on Board you go and all the Sails Are loosned to receive the flying Gales Whilst I half dead on the forsaken Strand Beheld thee sighing on the Deck to stand Wasting a thousand Kisses from thy Hand And whilst I cou'd the lessening Vessel see I gaz'd and sent a thousand Sighs to thee And all the Sea-born Nereids implore Quick to return thee to our Rustick shore Now like a Ghost I glide through ev'ry Grove Silent and sad as Death about I rove And visit all our Treasuries of Love This Shade th' account of thousand Joys does hide As many more this murmuring Rivers side Where the dear Grass still sacred does retain The print where thee and I so oft have lain Upon this Oak thy Pipe and Garland's plac'd That Sicamore is with thy Sheep-hook grac'd Here feed thy Flock once lov'd though now thy scorn Like me forsaken and like me forlorn A Rock there is from whence I cou'd survey From far the blewish Shore and distant Sea Whose hanging top with toyl I climb'd each day With greedy View the prospect I ran o'er To see what wish'd for ships approach'd our shore One day all hopeless on its point I stood And saw a Vessel bounding o'er the Flood And as it nearer drew I cou'd discern Rich Purple Sails Silk Cords and Golden Stern Upon the Deck a Canopy was spread Of Antique work in Gold and Silver made Which mix'd with Sun beams dazling Light display'd But oh beneath this glorious Scene of State Curst be the sight a fatal Beauty sate And fondly you were on her Bosome lay'd Whilst with your perjur'd Lips her Fingers play'd Wantonly curl'd and dally'd with that hair Of which as sacred Charms I Bracelets wear Oh! hadst thou seen me then in that mad state So ruin'd so design'd for Death and Fate Fix'd on a Rock whose horrid Precipice In hollow Murmurs wars with Angry Seas Whilst the bleak Winds aloft my Garments bear Ruffling my careless and dishevel'd hair I look'd like the sad Statue of Despair With out-strech'd voice I cry'd and all around The Rocks and Hills my dire complaints resound I rent my Garments tore my flattering Face Whose false deluding Charms my Ruine was Mad as the Seas in Storms I breathe Despair Or Winds let loose in unresisting Air. Raging and Frantick through the Woods I fly And Paris lovely faithless Paris cry But when the Echos sound thy Name again I change to new variety of Pain For that dear name such tenderness inspires And turns all Passion to Loves softer Fires With tears I fall to kind Complaints again So Tempests are allay'd by Show'rs of Rain Say lovely Youth why wou'dst thou thus betray My easie Faith and lead my heart astray I might some humble Shepherd's Choice have been Had I that Tongue ne'er heard those Eyes ne'er seen And in some homely Cott in low Repose Liv'd undisturb'd with broken Vows and Oaths All day by shaded Springs my Flocks have kept And in some honest Arms at night have slept Then unupbraided with my wrongs thou 'dst been Safe in the Joys of the fair Grecian Queen What Stars do rule the Great no sooner you Became a Prince but you were Perjur'd too Are Crowns and Falshoods then consistent things And must they all be faithless who are Kings The Gods be prais'd that I was humbly born Even thô it renders me my Paris scorn For I had rather this way wretched prove Than be a Queen and faithless in my Love Not my fair Rival wou'd I wish to be To come prophan'd by others Joys to thee A spotless Maid into thy Arms I brought Untouch'd in Fame ev'n Innocent in thought Whilst she with Love has treated many a Guest And brings thee but the leavings of a Feast With Theseus from her Country made Escape Whilst she miscall'd the willing Flight a Rape So now from Atreus Son with thee is fled And still the Rape hides the Adult'rous Deed. And is it thus Great Ladies keep intire That Vertue they so boast and you admire Is this a Trick of Courts can Ravishment Serve for a poor Evasion of Consent Hard shift to save that Honour priz'd so high Whilst the mean Fraud's the greater Infamy How much more happy are we Rural Maids Who know no other Palaces than Shades Who wish no Title to inslave the Crowd Lest they shou'd babble all our Crimes aloud No Arts our Good to shew our Ill to hide Nor know to cover faults of Love with Pride I lov'd and all Love 's Dictates did pursue And never thought it cou'd be Sin with you To Gods and Men I did my Love proclaim For one soft hour with thee my charming Swain Wou'd Recompence an Age to come of Shame Cou'd it as well but satisfie my Fame But oh those tender hours are sled and lost And I no more of Fame or Thee can boast 'T was thou wert Honour Glory all to me Till Swains had learn'd the Vice of Perjury No yielding Maids were charg'd with Infamy 'T is false and broken Vows make Love a Sin Hads thou been true We innocent had been But thou less faith than Autumn leaves do'st show Which ev'ry Blast bears from their native Bough Less Weight less Constancy in thee is born Than in the slender mildew'd Ears of Corn. Oft when you Garlands wove to deck my hair Where mystick Pinks and Dazies mingled were You swore 't was fitter Diadems to bear And when with eager Kisses prest my hand Have said How well a Scepter 't wou'd command And when I danc'd upon the Flow'ry Green With charming wishing Eyes survey my Mien And cry the God 's design'd thee for a Queen Why then for Helen dost thou me forsake Can a poor empty Name such difference make Besides if Love can be a Sin thine 's one To Menelaus Helen does belong Be Just restore her back She 's none of thine And charming Paris thou art onely mine 'T is no Ambitious Flame that makes me sue To be again belov'd and blest by you No vain desire of being ally'd t' a King Love is the onely Dowry I can bring And