Ev'n from each other we kept unreveal'd And with much Pain our Sufferings conceal'd But then at last our Love so fierce became That we no longer could suppress the Flame We find it much too hard and cruel too To hide a Light which so apparent grew For frequent Blushes Sighs and thousand things Declar'd our Wishes and our Languishings But oh what Joys what Ecstasies were shown When we to each durst our hid Passions own Then oft in private we together came And with Discourse blow'd up the pleasing Flame What cunning Plots we 've us'd what sly deceit To cheat our Spies and undiscover'd meet Whole Nights in whisp'ring Murmurs soft Tread We 've spent while drowsie Watches snor'd in Bed. And if we fail'd of such an Enterprize Too strictly guarded by our curious Spies We could in spite converse with speaking Eyes In vain they strove our Glances to constrain They spoke our mutual Wishes our mutual Pain Disorder'd thus not long unmark't I liv'd For my observing Mother soon perceiv'd The sad unusual melancholy Care Which did in all my Words and Acts appear And quickly guest the fatal Cause was Love Whom she design'd by Rigour to remove She thought my Passion with a Rod to quell But that provok't it stubborn to rebell Her cruel Usage could effect no Cure For Love alas had taught me to endure All only serv'd more to inflame Desire Like added Fuel to increase the Fire Nothing could chase the Stranger from my Breast My Health decay'd but still my Love increast This rough Experiment she try'd in vain For Love do's all Restraint and Force disdain And I within was more severely vext Doubly with mingled Fear and Love perplext Then with Maternal Tenderness she strove By Sighs and Tears my wilfull Mind to move Believing that her Sorrows might prevail On filial Duty to relate the Tale But even that soft Stratagem did fail At last she thought since nothing else could do To make pretence that she already knew And seeming pleas'd and speaking smilingly Said why do'st strive to keep ought hid from me Alas canst thou believe that I am blind By all thy Words and Actions not to find That secret Love distracts thy tender Mind For did not I but very lately see Some wanton Songs and Verses made by thee Then be obedient let thy Mother know Who cruel Pains for thee did undergo Acquaint me freely lay aside your Fear Tell me the naked Truth of all my Dear What then must I thus beg and sue in vain And is this all the Purchase I shall gain For Blood diffus'd and lost to bring thee forth And am I and my Woes of no more worth But if thou do'st preserve thy Chastitie Keeping thy self from guilty Action free All may be well and innocent as yet And Time may wear away this fond Love-sit Thus was I daily plagu'd but yet the Curse Was that I hop'd no Cure but still grew worse Not daring to discover the hid Pain I lov'd I languish'd and I griev'd in vain Nor needed I at last a Tongue to tell What my consumptive Paleness did reveal And doz'd Stupidity declar'd so well Thou mighty Searcher of Mysterious things Whose certain Knowledge certain Succour brings Bobetius you alone were truely kind Who div'd into the Secrets of my Mind And the hid Cause from dark Effects did find Well I remember when you first perceiv'd How I was tortur'd and how I was griev'd With gentle Words you prob'd the tender Wound And by soft soothing the sad secret found Urging me to declare my Griefs and Pain As the best means my Temper to regain With Ease did you my closed Breast unlock When gently arguing thus to me you spoke For an unknown Disease no Cure can be Conceal your Grief and want a Remedie As Fire when in a Cellar closely pent Rages the more for want of Air and Vent So while your Passions you with Force constrain To burn in secret you increase the Pain Then I half willing but o'er-rul'd with shame Blush't the sad Cause of all my Griefs to name Darkly at last my trembling Tongue exprest The rowling Flames which warm'd my guilty Brest Enough said you I now enough have seen By these Effects to know the Cause within Be plain and tell me all lay by your Fear I cannot else a Remedy prepare Thus you prevail'd I blush't I wept and sigh'd And nothing of the whole Intreigue could hide Down at your Feet to dye I prostrate fall And in its native order told you all You ask't would I possess the Beautious She No I reply'd 't were an Impietie You laugh'd and cry'd Oh wonderfull Delight Had ever Venus such a worthy Wight What an unspeakable strange Prodigie In Love alas would you appear to be Striving to keep a needless Chastitie 'T would be a most unmanly Sin and base To spare a longing Virgin in this Case Would you ridiculously strive to be Pious herein 't were worst Impietie Though when perhaps you try to tast the Joy She may seem angry and unkindly coy Be not discourag'd at the gratefull Fight For Opposition whets the Appetite Makes Love more fierce and heightens the Delight Young tender Loves are fed with peevish Rage And inn'cent Quarrels more the Hearts ingage Virgins untry'd half yielding half afraid Are in their own Resistance best betray'd With secret Pleasure to soft Force they yield And seemingly displeas'd give up the Field Melted at last their striving is but weak And breathless thus perhaps they faintly speak Ah do not use a harmless Creature so Still in the midst of Rapture crying no And prithee let me prithee let me go Thus when he had incourag'd me to hope I gave my Wishes an unbounded Scope In the mean time with Gifts and Gold he strove To bribe her Parents to allow my Love They easily consent such strength do's lye In the prevailing Force of Alchimy Their natural Affection soon gave way To the high Worship which to Gold they pay Oh sacred Metal Oh resistless Gold Who can thy strange betwitching Charms unfold 'T is thy unanswerable Eloquence Thy weighty Arguments and mighty Sence Which can perswade poor Mortals to dispence With any Vice or Villanous Offence So much thou didst her Parents move herein They did not barely suffer but begin To love and so promote their Daughter's sin All privacies of Place all proper Time We were allow'd to forward the sweet Crime They put us hand in hand and all the day A thousand Am'rous toying Tricks we play Nay ev'n at last the very lushious Fact They gave us Opportunity to act But there I baulk't for when to do an Ill I gain'd the Privilege I lost the Will. My hot Desire strait became cool within When once it was permitted me to sin That Lust which I before could not endure The very Power to fulfill did cure Then I and not before began to find The miserable Sickness of my Mind The Laws of Love by me were
wrinkled Face And I am tickled with my own Disgrace Thus these are the First Fruits of Death with these Down to the Grave I march by slow degrees My Form my Dress my Colour Shape and Meen Are not the same which heretofore they 've been My Body now inclin'd and awkward grown Le ts my large Coat slide from my shoulders down And what was short before seems now a Gown I so contracted and decreas'd appear You 'd think my very Bones deminish't were I 'm no more privileg'd to look on high To contemplate the rich and spacious Sky But prone to Earth from whence I came I tend To shew where I began there I must end Three Feet I use but streight I shall use four And brought to Childhood crawl upon the Floor To its first Principle each thing resolves What ris ' from Nought to Nought again devolves Hence 't is that I mould'ring to Dust am found With my old Staff poking the lazy Ground And my short steps moving with weakly pace But slowly quitting the attractive Place Seem thus to mutter my Complaints and pray With belching Jaws to Earth against Delay Mother receive thy Child pitty his pain And in thy Bosome cherish me again For hardly can my Leggs their Load sustain My loathsome Figure now moves no Delight And my sad gastly Looks the Boys affright For fear they shun me and abhor my Sight Why to thy Brood do'st shew such Crueltie To let me thus a common Bugbear be My bus'ness now with Mankind here is none The wretched Task of Life by me is done With all its various Trouble various Toyl Receive me therefore to my proper Soil What Pleasure is 't to see me undergo So many diff'rent Penalties of Wo Is it a Mother's part to use me so Scarce have I Strength thus even to complain And scarce my Staff my trembling Limbs sustain But with my Labour and my Grief opprest Lolling upon my Couch I seek for Rest Where stretch't along upon th' uneasie Bed I represent an Earthie Body dead Such as it is when once the Soul is fled Thus when I loll and stretch who would believe That I am sensible at all or live Though this indeed what Life I have do's give My Life is but one intire Punishment And all the World but one whole Discontent Heat burns my Body Clouds offend my Sight Nor do's the cold or clearer Air delight The Summer Dews are hurtfull to my Head And as Infections April Showers I dread The chearfull Days of the gay blooming Spring Nor Autumn's jolly Vintage nor any thing To me the least reviving Joy can bring But wretched I with Scurf and Scab o'er-run And with the Ptisick and Chin-Cough undone My miserable Age it self bemoans With never-ceasing and continual Groans And can you think those Creatures live to whom The Air by which we breath and Light become Hatefull and grievous sad and troublesome Ev'n Sleep Death's gentle gratefull Imagerie Which for a Time do's wretched Mortals free From the unquiet Thoughts of Miserie Still flies away and shuns unhappy me And if he do's vouchsafe though late to close My heavy Eyes he troubles my Repose With horrid frightfull Dreams and dreadfull Sights Of fatal Specters and of murther'd Sprights Down Beds or Beds of Stone are much the same And seem to me to differ but in name Though softest Silks my thin light Cov'ring be Heavy they seem and troublesome to me With many Inconveniencies opprest Often I rise to break imperfect Rest Thus urg'd by my weak Bodies sad Defect I do those very things I would neglect And striving many Evils to avoid My Health by many Evils is destroy'd Thus Age coming on unheeded and unsought With multitudes of heavy Mischiefs fraught Submission to its own sad Weight is taught Who therefore would a tedious Life desire And so by piece-meal painfully expire Then in the Flesh the Soul should bury'd lye And to live dying better once to dye Alas I don't complain because I 'd give A six't Prescription how long Man should live 'T is an unpardonable Crime I know To circumscribe great Nature by my Law. I only wish that I might meet my Fate E'er Age should all my Pleasures captivate E'er Time with his rank Ills my Life invade Time which makes all things wear away and fade The sturdy Bull by Time deficient grows Nor use of former noble Courage knows The proud gay mettled Horse of late so good By Age becomes the Scandal of the Stud This can abate the furious Lyon's Rage And the fierce Tyger gentle grows with Age. Antiquitie makes even Rocks decay And ev'ry thing alas to Time gives way Wherefore I rather would anticipate My growing Miseries by swifter Fate And all my Punishment at once would feel Nor wait in painfull Expectation still But who can tell the Sorrows and the Pain VVhich not themselves but others do sustain Thus poor Old men increase their grievous Care By minding how much they unpitty'd are Of those who cannot in their Suff'rings share Hence 't is that Age forsaken friendless Age Do's in so many scolding Broyls engage Meeting with such Contempts such Detriments While none in his behalf his Harms resents The rogu'ish Boys and wanton Girls agree Both to despise abuse and laugh at me For Master me they think 't is shame to own Because with Age I 'm despicable grown They flout my Gate my Face and trembling Head Whose angry Nod they heretofore would dread Though my dim'd sight small help to me do's give Yet I shall certainly my Shame perceive No rude affronts by me unseen can go But I must mark 'em to compleat my Woe Thrice happy sure is the deserving He Who leads his Life in calm Tranquillitie And e'er with Age his Strength is quite decay'd Is from the World by timely Death convey'd For to remember former Happiness Do's but increase the wretched Man's Distress ELEGY II. The ARGUMENT In this Elegy the Poet mourns the Inconstancy of his Mistriss and seems to attribute the Cause of it to his being Old nevertheless he endeavours by several Arguments to perswade her to continue her Love to him still but despairing of Success he ends the Elegy with a Complaint BUT lo Lycoris my inconstant Fair To me too faithless and to me too dear She whose Desires whose Soul and mine were one And long we undevided liv'd alone Secure I thought of such a lasting Love And Happiness as nothing could remove But now by strange Infatuations led The stupify'd Ingrate avoids my Bed And from my aged and enfeebl'd Arms To younger Lovers bears her sprightly Charms Of former Joys forgetfull all the while Do's me decrepid old unable stile Nor recollects those many Pleasures past Which she with vast Delight so oft would tast And my unhappy Age so much did hast Nay the ungratefull the perfidious She To cast the odium of her Crime on me Feigns that my Faults caus'd her Inconstancie Perhaps hereafter when she may
espy Me weaken'd with my Age as I pass by With Hood or Fan she 'll seem to hide her Eyes And me in these opprobrious terms despise Bless me did I e'er love this antick Thing Could his Embraces any Pleasure bring Those rivell'd Jaws or Lips did I e'er kiss Or kindly grant him the exalted Bliss She 'll nauseate me and in Contempt will seem To spew my Love up like a loathsome Flegme Alas what Comforts can Old Age afford You see with what prime Blessings it is stor'd VVhat once could move Delight and Love engage Becomes despis'd when sowr'd with crabbed Age. VVas 't not enough that I had liv'd to be To the full growth of manly Decencie VVhen all I did was acted with a Grace Active my Mind and beautifull my Face E'er I became offensive and despis'd Sordid unpleasing hatefull and unpris'd VVhat e'er I've liv'd before is nothing now In all the Circumstances where or how Time with himself has taken all away That was e'er chearfull pleasant brisk or gay VVhite falling Hairs are now around my Head And my pale Face would seem to speak me dead Yet bright and beautifull she still appears Nor grows less charming tho' more grown in Years Which she but too well sees and too well knows Therefore with inward heat of Pride she glows And I confess she still retains the Grace And Influence of her once dearer Face And in the Embers still the hidden Flame Of Love do's both conceal'd and warm remain So that I see Age do's contrive to spare And favour too as all things else the Fair. For all her Beauties are not quite decreast Sh' as still enough t' inflame the youngest Breast But Old Men feed on Reliques of their Love And former Action but in Thought can prove Unable to perform as heretofore They all past Joys to Memory restore Tickle with that and grieve they can no more And after all what can the wretched gain But the sad privilege to entertain Their own Misfortunes Misery and Pain Thoughts of lost Happiness gives no Relief They only serve more to inrage the Grief But since of former Vigour I 'm bereft Nor to give kind Embraces Strength have left Therefore my false Lycoris must not we Sometimes remember past Felicitie Must former Joys be vanishing and vain Like tracks of Cattle in a sandy Plain Must we forget all that was done before And think of happy Pleasures past no more Why even Brutes shun Pastures new and strange And Sheep in unknown Walks refuse to range The Bull his old frequented Shades do's love Nor will the Flocks from their known Folds remove Sweetest in wonted Brambles Philomel Do's sing and her sad mournfull Story tell But you alone experienc'd Friendship shun And to an untry'd Entertainment run Were it not better far that you confide In Certainties and things that you have try'd Various Events still Novelties attend As they begin they very seldom end If you object my Age remember too That creeping Age is stealing upon you Therefore let that instruct you to be wise And do not me because I 'm grey despise Old Time will silver too thy golden Hair For he do's neither Sex nor Beauty spare We often find that parity of Years Two Minds by parity of Love endears What though I cannot act as once I could Let it suffice that I did well of old The Husbandman whose Strength is lost in Years Still reverend to younger Swains appears The Young do's still the Courage and the Fire Which in the elder Souldier was admire The Swain is griev'd to loose his expert Steer And to the Trooper his old Horse is dear But oh alas Love only can subsist And live and act within a Youthfull Breast And sprightfull blooming Youth alone can prove The fittest Object for a perfect Love. But yet sad Age has not quite plundred me Of all my Rhetorick and Gayetie For still I can my dolefull Tale reherse In tunefull Numbers and in flowing Verse Slight not mature and solid Gravitie Nor venerable Age but let it be Esteem'd and valu'd as desir'd by thee Condemn not in another what so fain You for your self would willingly obtain Seems it not strange in one and foolish too To slight that Voyage which themselves must go Call me your Brother or your dearest Friend Or Father either of 'em Love intend Let Lust to Honour yield as now 't is fit And to pure Piety let Love submit Thus I with tears lament my weak Old Age But that cannot my troubl'd Thoughts assuage For long discourse of Grief do's Grief enrage ELEGY III. The ARGUMENT In this Elegy the Poet gives an account how he was very much in love when but a Boy and that the young Creature with whom he was so Enamour'd return'd his Passion to the full yet after all when with much toyl and difficulty it was so brought about that he had Liberty to enjoy her he would not but was then by having that privilege granted him cured of his Love. BUT now perhaps it may in part Assuage The violent Griefs of my tormented Age A while the mournfull Story to suspend Of Ills which do my present Days attend To recollect things past and call to mind Those Years which Time has left so far behind Those tender Years wherein my Life was free From all Disquiets Love but only thee For Aquilina did my Heart invade And I ador'd the Fair the Beaut'ous Maid To that degree I burnt that I became Pale mad and melancholy with the Flame Yet even then my childish Innocence Preserv'd me free from Scandal and Offence For Ignorant of Love and quite unskill'd In Venus Arts yet with Desire fill'd Something I wish't but innocent of what Did my own Miserie the more create Nor was the excellent the charming She Less griev'd or less disturb'd with Love of me For though she conquer'd yet she was o'er-come And could not carry perfect Triumphs home But heated with her Passion and Desire In vain she strove to shun th' internal Fire Restless from place to place for Ease she flew But with her what she would avoid she drew With Charms at distance we each other caught And lov'd unknowing what we either thought In Solitude we hop'd to find Redress And secret Love in Secret to repress But that alas did but our Loves increase Then we sought out a more obleiging way To feed and feast our Passions ev'ry day By the Exchange of kind and gentle Words Words which to Lover's Flames Fuel affords Yet we could only cherish the dear Fire With fruitless wishing Looks and vain Desire To me a cruel Pedagogue gave law And her a carefull Mother kept in awe Thus we both lov'd but no Success foresaw Our very Eyes our very Nods they watch't And at all little Circumstances catch't Each change of Colour with a carefull Eye They mark't by that our Passions to descry With Industry and with deceitfull Arts A while the growing Passions of our Hearts