perfect piece of natures pencill by it scorning art painted of such a colour as is the Ivory of India distained with vermillion or the snow of a Lilly married to the scarlet of a Rose A matchlesse Paragon whose perfections shall be many and yeares few A beauty whom the best verses and pencils have extol'd the faire argument on which all wits shall imploy their oratory fresher and sweeter than a new blown Rose-bud whiter and softer then a dying Swans down or the down of a Thistle nimble and sportive as a young Roe wanton as the wind that curles her hair faire as the morning cleere as the noone ruddy as the evening sweet as the spring the faire mother of flowers ripe as Autum better in all things than desire one for whom Prometheus tempered better clay than ordinary or to say better he composed her of soule stuffe one for whom Clotho kept her best and finest wooll one in whom the fates meant to shame all their former workes and in her composition so exhausted their treasury as ever since such fragments of woman as others are be daily thrust into the world one upon whose peerelesse face so full of loves and Cupids millions have waited for Almes one to whom Princes and and wits have bent and homaged and whole squadrons of Lovers have besieged and sought to storme with whole volleies of obedientiall oaths and the hollow Granado's of complement She that hath been the rack of thousand soules the flame of thousands hearts who would willingly have offered up themselves in their owne fires sacrifices to her she shall not cost thee one sigh or teare of despaire but shall freely come to meet thy embraces and shall every day increase thy affection by new merits Tell me for Loves sake is it not more lovely to lie intwined in her foulding armes like a Lilly imprisoned in a Jaile of snow or Jvory in a band of Alablaster than to sit muffled in furres like a bedrid Miser Let desperate persons endure the thunder of warre and the haile-shot of oft redoubled stroakes then shew a rent scarse stained with perhaps innocent bloud as a trophe or a fragment of a torne banner the meanest of her favours will make a goodlier show How canst thou be meane being Lord of her who is beauties Kingdome or poor enjoying the wealth of her golden haire 1 She shall be the feast of all thy senses thou shalt see the Sun the great Lynx of Heaven divided in her eyes lightning with such splendor as put out the beholders killing and reviving with frowns and smiles at pleasure in short thou shalt behold before thee the model of heaven and pride of earth 2 Thou shalt smell in her breath a fragrancy that admits no comparison with the Panthers breath gathered in bags and mixt with Cretan wines or with the Eastern spices on the Phenix pile when she her selfe is both the Priest and the Sacrifice 3 Thy tast shall find in the swelling Apples of her breast the Katherine Peares on her cheekes and the balme-bedewed Cherries of her lips such sweets with which the tongues of Nightingales the heads of Parrats the braines of Peacocks and Estriches prepared in sawced dishes by the cunningest cost-neglecting Cookes are not worthy to be named the same day 4 To thy touch shall ly open the warme snow and soft pollished Jvory of her body which excels in softnesse the ranging clouds the Indian Cotton or Cotshold Wool in sleeknesse the smoothest cut Diamond or Looking-glasse And thus to the suspense of the listning Nightingales who grieving to heare a sweeter voice than their owne shall fall downe and die upon her Lute shall she the Orpheus of the world charme thine eare Song 1. From th' early Dawne till Sol retires On beds of violets wee 'l lie toying Wee 'l quench then kissing fan loves fires Happy blisse ther 's none to this A Lovers heaven is injoying 2. Cockles our Lips shall teach to cleave whilest no Argus eye controules Our spirits out at our mouths we 'l breath Mine into thee thine into me So in each kisse wee 'l exchange soules 3. Wee 'l mix our selves till our blouds turn Elixar which the Fates shall mould To moddels of us they shall burne With desires hot as our fires Whilst we in eithers armes grow old Nay most of all she shall be sprung of the seed of the Gods and what an honour is it to call Iove Father in law Wouldst have thy Nymph described I might borrow heavens milkie way to paint out her forehead by I might call it a plaine of Lillies or a shrine of snow whither multitudes have come Pilgrimages I might compare her eyes to those of night or rather that of noone and call them Spheres of light flaming strongly and inkindling all others but that were to dishonor them with the beggarlinesse of the similitude Suppose her cheekes two faire gardens planted with the choicest flowers of Paradise but the Lilly and the Rose are but obscure types and shadowes of those delicate tinctures laid on her blooming cheekes by Natures Pencil Imagine her neck a Towre of Alablaster her breasts hillocks of snow inlaid with Saphires her mouth Musicks Temple deckt with two railes of Pearle her voice the chiming of the Spheres But these are but faint Metaphors of her to represent whom words are too narrow and freshest colours too dim Rather I wish that thy enfanched eyes were as sharpe as an Eagles or Tiberius his whilest thou doest survey my forme and if they spie any thing in me that may challenge their liking be confident thou shalt enjoy it in as high a perfection in that Beauties heaven who shall every minute coine new artfull postures and try the variety of my stealths to make thy delight immortall So that you shall be the happiest pair that fry under the Torrid Zone of Love hourely in that Elizium quenching and renewing your heats and letting your selves loose to the freedom of uncontrouled embraces If thou hast a fancy to invent arts and try conclusions here shalt thou have fit opportunity to surpasse Ovid and Aretine and become Professor in THE CYPRIAN ACADEMY If Armes and Duells comply with thy Humor thou shalt never want action the soule of Love her paps like two Pomegranates rising up on either side with a gentle and tempting swelling shall as they beat give both a signall and a challenge to the encounter And when thou art foiled and cast into a qualmie sound one kisse shall infuse new spirits into thy panting limbes and arm thee for a fresh charge and thou shalt alwaies be above thy sweet foe the exâ—ract of delight in these feates of Armes these not destructive but productive warres instead of killing the Champions shall produce new ones Thus Happy wanton so loved of all the Starres shall pleasure become thine handmaid and the crop of thy joyes be ripe as harvest in the Aprill of thy yeeres These airy blandishments and raptures made the hot
sense as Saturnia swaies in some of these lesser worlds too yet many are so refined from earth and ignorance as they acknowledge no alleagance unto her but he that submits not to the scepter of the Paphian Queene is a Rebell against nature and but the shadow of a man but such stubborne ones are as rare as a horse in the streets of Venice or a beggar in Holland Petronius indeed once blasphemed and wrote Satyrs against our Goddesse but he soone sung a Palinodia and spent his last breath in chanting of amorous Odes This is that powerfull Planet that makes not onely rationall but irrationall not onely the animate but inanimate creatures and vegetables feel her influxious power So that she commands the three soules that animate the world the vegetative the sensitive and the rationall one whereof is infused into Plants two into Beasts all into Men No creature as Saint Hierome concludes is to be found Quod non aliquid amat no stock or stone that hath not some feeling of Love Even Flowers and Plants feele her influence the faire Primrose the first borne of the spring if forsaken of the masculine flower droopes and withers disconsolate as if she kept her beauty onely for him The Heliotrope was inamoured of Goldenhair'd Titan and still at his presence unmaskes as if he came to court her and converts towards him the Vine the Elme the Cabbage and the Olive dote upon and manacle one another in their armes the Olive and the Mirtle intwine their roots and branches if they grow neer Palme trees are of both sexes and expresse not a sympathy but a Love passion Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat nutant ad mutua Palmae Faedera Populeo suspirat Populus ictu Et Platano Platanus Alnoque assibilat Alnus Leaves sing their Loves Each complementall tree In courtship bowes the amourous Palmes wee see Confirme their leagues with nods Poplars inchaine Their armes the Plane infettereth the Plane Florentius tells us of a Palme that loved most fervently and would not be comforted untill her Love applied it selfe unto her you might see the two trees bend and of their owne accord stretch out their boughs to embrace and kisse each other They marry one another and when the wind brings the smell to them they are marvelously affected they will be sicke for love ready to die and Pine away which the Husbandman perceiving strokes those Palmes that grow togetogether and so stroaking again the Palme that is inamoured they carry kisses from the one to the other or weaving their Leaves or Boughes into a Love-net they will prosper and flourish with a greater braverie But the greatest Triumph of Love in these kind of Vegetalls was in the two Italian Palmes the Male growing at Brundusium the Female at Otranto which continued Barren till they saw another growing up higher though many Stadiums asunder Dionea is that Omnipotent Power that puts motion into a Stone and strikes fire from Ice and makes cold water sensible of her heat this is shee that made the amorous Brook Alpeus pursue the coy and flying River Arethusa from the Stymphalin Woods piercing earths hidden Bowells through cold Emyranthus and Ellis till they ran both in one Channell and mingled Waves Flumina senserunt ipsa quid esset amor Triumphant Love hath made cold water fire And give and take the flame of warme Desire The nimble Birds are overtaken by Cupids nimbler wings and annually elect their Valentines What a perfect Harmonia of affection is there between the Turtle and his deare mate whose continuall billing shames Diana and her Icy-fouled traine What a zealous adorer of our Goddesse is the wanton Sparrow who empties himselfe of all his Radicall moysture in her Rites and at three yeares end when that Columne of life fails him offers up his dry bones a Sacrifice to her The Eagle of Sestos and Peacocke of Leucadia were both betrayed to the Love of Virgins and having zealously served them here followed them to Elizium as that wonder of a Dog did his Master Sabinus Aristotle will have birds to sing ob futuram Venerem for joy and hope of their stealthes to come The Idalian Archer makes the Inhabitants of the flouds his Bulls too and pierces the Armour of their glittering scales he placed among his Trophies the sluggish Whales the Triton of Epirus the crook-backt Dolphin that was inamored of Hernias and him at Puteoli that loved a childe and would carry him upon his backe as the Lord of his Affections and after dyed for losse of him Pisces ob amorem marcescunt pallescunt c. Fishes pine away for love and wax leane if Gomesius Authority may be taken and are Rampant too some of them Venus takes Diana's worke out of her hands and wounds and intangles in her toyles the four-footed Citizens of the Forrest Furor est insignis equarum How insatiable is the Leacherous Goat The Cowes runne and lough in the Valley and the fiercer beasts make the trees quiver and be all Aspin at their roaring not for their Prey but absent Loves Cupid is as familiar with Lions as Children with Cosset Lambes and often-times gets on their backs holding them by the Maines and riding them about like Horses whilst they fawne upon him with their tailes Omne adeò Genus in terris hominumque ferarum Et genus aequoreum pecudes pictaeque volucres In furias ignemque ruunt amor omnibus idem All kinde of Creatures in the earth beasts grim And men and fish with golden gills that swim And painted birds alike to rage doe flie Thus Love beares equall sway in Earth Sea Skie Lest any thing should escape her she catched that nimble wonder of volacity the Winde its selfe Boreas he that in his rage tosses the blew Billowes curling their monstrous heads and teares up knotty Oakes and makes the massie Ball to stagger like a drunken man when he flies through her hollow entrailes and crannies she made this Fury turne all mildnesse and convert himselfe into gentle brieses to fanne Orythia's rosie faire haire whom being denyed he bore away in a blast The Spirits of the Aire and Devills of Hell are subject to Love else what meane the Stories of Incubus and Succubus of Nymphs Faunes Satyres Faires and those lascivious Telchines about whom the Platonists spent so many Pen-ploughed Reams of Paper Excellently said that well-worded Noble Italian Baptista Guarini in his Matchlesse Pastorall Il Pastor fido upon this Theame Look round about Examine the whole Universe throughout All that is faire or good here or above Or is a Lover or the work of Love Th' all-seeing Heaven the fruitfull Earth's a Lover The Sea with Love is ready to boyle over Pallas has but few Subjects and these adore Venus too nay shee her selfe may be call'd without Solaecisme Venus her hand-maid for Valour is a Page to Love not Love to Valour for none in that Valiant are taken
with this Love but once wounded with Love they become so and undantedly undergoe all perrills for the beloved Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis Tyrant Love what canst not thou Compell poore mortall men do doe The valiantest Field-men have been no Niggards of their bloud in Loves quarrell which sharpens their Swords aswell as their Spirits What made Persius combate that immense Prodigie of Nature and the deep Medusa that drove the broad-spread waves before his mighty breast but the Love of Andromede and having loosed her from her Gyves farre unworthy of so faire a Prisoner and changed them for Hymens sweeter Bands What made Phineus rashly turne the Nuptiall Feast into a Sanguinary Fray and make the clashing of bruised Armour and groanes of his dying friends his Epithalamion Notes but the Love he bore to the same illustrious Lady Arithmetick wants Numbers to reckon the Tilts and Turnaments the Combates Wounds and Deaths that such quarrells have caused whilst the brave Aspects of lovely Dames did Tantara to the fight and their favours wag in sight It 's no newes to heare that Erycina takes Victory its selfe Prisoner and makes the Victor Captive to his Captive as she did the redoubted Amphialus to the divinely divine Philoclea Iupiter to Calisto Hercules the scourge of Monsters to faire Omphale to comply with whose humour hee left off his Lions spoile to weare Sardanapalus-like womens soft Robes and with those hands with which he drew bloud hee drew the slender thread which trembled to bee spun by such terrible fingers and held a feeble Distaffe with that arme which used to beare the knotty Club and thresh Tyrant Champions like a bunch of Hempe or a Stock-fish These were his Interludes between his Acts and when his Ribs were well beaten and grew crasie then would he retreat into her Lap the Bay of sweet Delight as into Loves Port to be new built for further engagement Cupid has made the whole body of Philosophy and Divinity too to tremble at the twang of his bow the greatest Masters of Wit and Reason have coveted no higher subject to heighten their Fancies than great Loves Supremacy and the Encomiums of some Beauty How did sweet-tongu'd Petrarch trudge up and down after Laura How was Loves great Master Ovid enamoured of bright Iulia the Iewell of his soule and Celebrated her excellencies and their stealths under the maske of Corinna Did not Cytheris possesse Cornelius Gallus his soule and Plautia Tibullus his Did not smooth Propertius place his heaven in Cynthia's Love who being ravished from him by injurious Atropos in the heat and hight of their best dayes how did it cracke his Sinewes shrinke his Veines and make his very heart-strings jarre and so enthrall'd him to Melancholy Don Saturne as hee lockt himselfe up in her Tombe who alive served in stead of a tenth Muse unto him of which wittily the Epagrammatist Cynthia te vatem fecit Lascive Properti Ingenium Galli Pulchra Lycoris babet Famaest Arguti Nemesis formosa Tibulli Lesbia dictavit docte Catulle tibi Non me Pelignus nec speruit Mantua vatem Si qua Corinna mihi si quis Alexis erit Wanton Propertius and witty Gallus Learned Catullus and subtile Tibullus To Cynthia Lychoris Lesbie And Nemesis you owe your Poetry Naso nor Maro should not call me bad If I a Corinna or Alexis had Mercury whose Caduceus is said to asswage the rage of the Sea in that contentions are appeased by the flexanimous power of Eloquence and discreet Negotiation of Embassadors he who was said to steale Apollo's Arrow out of Quiver Vulcans Tools out of his shop and Iupiters Scepter shewing the bewitching force of his facundity was not hee Love-strucke when hee saw Herse bearing to Tritonia's fane her Sacrifice in a crowned Basket upon her shining haire and how did hee bend his wits to sollicite her sister Aglauros to procure him accesse Nay Apollo himselfe the Inventer of Poesie Musick and Physick elated for his Victory over the ugly Python found Cupids Shaft the most prevalent when he pursued the over-much loved but over-much hating Daphne over the uncouth Rocks craggie Clifts and untrod Mazes of the Woods Againe the Celestiall heat was inflamed by a Terrestriall and he who used to look indifferently upon all cared to see none but Leucöe for whom his looks waxed so pale a colour sutable to his griefe Afterwards being banished heaven for a year for slaying the Cyclops that made the Lightning that slew his Sonne Phaëton he turned Herds-man and kept the cattell of Aametus King of Thessaly for the love he bore to his faire Daughter Afterwards he assumed those Weeds againe to enjoy Issa Daughter of Macarius Prince of Lesbos so unmajesticall is Majesty where Love hath a footing This is that ancient passion that vies Antiquity with any time as Phaedrus contends and was according to Hesiod begot by Terra and Chaos before the gods were borne Ante Deos omnes primum generavit amorem Love is the elder Sister of the gods Or Mother that gave them beings abodes Cupid is more than quarter Master among the gods Thetide aequor Vmbras Aeaco Coelum Iove c. For proofe of this Antiquity of Loves Supremacy History tells us that this Fire which some think to be that that Promethâ—us fetcht downe from heaven burnt so hot in old Saturne the Father of the gods as it made him willing to goe out of himselfe and become a horse to beget Chiron the Centaure on Philira and ever since it hath ruled the three Provinces with their Rulers that his Dominions were divided into viz. Hell Sea and Heaven excellently expressed by that Poet Laureat to whose Name Wit and Art must bow and are justified only by honouring it in his Hue and Cry after Cupid in his Marriage Maske At his sight the Sunne hath turn'd Neptune in the Waters burn'd Hell hath found a greater heat Iove himselfe forsook his Seat From the Center to the Skie Are his Trophies reared high So that it was no Heresie in Orpheus to make a petty Pope of him and give him the Keyes of heaven and hell Claves habet superorum inferorum Nor was his Herald Ovid out of the Story when he thus blazed his Stile Regnat in superos jus habet ille Deos. Love commanded Pitchy Pluto that holds the inferior Province of the triparted world to ravish Proserpina from the sedgy Banks of Pergusa Lake Love made the green Glassie god of Waves to bow his Trident to her Scepter In mare nimirum jus habet orta mari Shee that from the Ocean sprung Hath right to rule the Waves among This watry Proteus became for Arne a Bull for Ephimedia the turbulent River Enipus for Bisalpida a Ramme for Ceres and Medusa a Horse for Melanthe a Dolphin c. And lest Heaven should remaine freer than Earth Sea and Hell Love struck great Iupiter the scatterer of three-forked lightning with