impressions on him then an Arrow on a rock of Adamant More impure then the stable of Augaeus H. C As pensive as the night You as cruell as the Duke of Muscovia named Basilides who commanded from his subjects a tribute of Sweat and of Nightingals in the midst of Winter H Court If thou be as hot as the mount Aetna feign thy self as cold as the hill Caucasus carry two faces in one hood As ingenious Cicero could pick gold out of Ennius's dung so may His Fetters like King Agrippa's golden chain more became him then his Imperiall Dâ—adem Ka meka thee As liberall as the Sun which shines on all like Aesops Crow prankt up in borrowed feathers Descriptions HE was even ravished with contentment in beholding thâ—se goodly Pâ—â—aces where was seen an admirable Consort of Art and Nature so many Hâ—lls so well furnished within such rich hangings such most exquisite pictâ—â—es such marbles such guildings and without mountains which make a naturall Theater tapistred without Art to surpasse all workmanship forrests which seem born with the world hedges and knots curiously cut Alleys and Mazes where both eys and feet are lost Rivers which creep along with silver purlings about gardens enameld with most fragrant flowers caverns replenished with a sacred horror grotts and fountains which gently gliding contend with the warble of birds and so many other spectacles which at first sight astonisht spirits and never satiate H.C. There were Hills which garnished their proud heights with treeâ—s humble valleys whose low estate seemed comforted with refreshing of silver rivers meadows eâ—ameld with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers thickets which being lined with most pleasant shade were witnessed so too by the cheerfull disposition of many well-tuned birds each pasture stored wâ—th sheep feeding with sober security while the pretty lambs with bleating oratory craved the dams comfort Here a Shepheards Boy piping as though he should never be old there a young Sheâ—â—â—â—rdesse knitting and withall singing and her hands kept time to her voyces musick a shew as it were of an accompaniable solitariness and of a civill wildeness Neither are the gardens to be omitted which for their largeness have the face of a forrest for their variety of a Paradise Here Cypres Groves there walks with Statues Here a Sea of fountains there Swans Ostriâ—hes and other recreative creatures Mer. Ital. It is a place which now humbling it self in fallowed plains â—ow prouâ— in wel-husbanded hils marries barren woods to cultivated valleys and joyns neat gardens to delicious fountains c. Death DEath is that inconsiderable atome of time that divides the body from the soul c. Scaliger defines Death to be the Cessation of the souls functions When Hadrian asked Secundus what Death was he answered in these severall truths It is a sleep eternall the bodies dissolution the rich mans fear the poor mans wish an event inevitable an uncertain journey a thief that steals away man sleeps father lifes flight the departure of the living and the resolution of all Feltham Death had no sooner absented him from her eyes but forgetfulness drew him out of her heart When we once come in sight of the port of Death to which all winds drive us and when by letting fall that fatall Anchor which can never be weighed again the Navigation of this life takes end Then it is I say that our own cogitations those sad and severe cogitations formerly beaten from us by our health and felicity return again and pay us to the uttermost for all the pleasing passages of our lives past Sir Wa. Rawl Death deprived me of my paradized bliss and not onely made my broken heart the sad habitation of woe but also turned my mind which before was a kingdom to me into a hell of tormenting thoughts Torches made of Aromatique wood cast out their odoriferous exhalations when they are almost wasted So the vertuous A. made all the good odors of her life evaporate in the last instant of her death Thaâ— he is dead As if she now scorn'd life Death lends her cheeks his paleness and her eyes tell down their drops of silver to the earth wishing her tears might rain upon his grave to make the gentle earth produce some flower should bear his name and memory She prostrated on the body of her Lover sought in his eclipsed eyes and dead lips the remnant of her life I shall not be unwilling to suffer a goal-delivery of my soul from the prison of my body when I am called to it Delivered up to the immortality of another world This deadly shaâ—t passing through him so wounded me that I my self was arrived within few paces of the land of darkness In his silent marble the best part of that small portion of joy I had in the world but all my hopes are entombed Wats in Baa Preface Drawing neere to the confines of Deaths kingdom Deathâ—rees â—rees a man from misery and wafts him to the haven of his happiness Her As soon as Death hath played the Midwife to our second birth our soul shall then see all truths more freely then our corporall eys at our first birth see all bodies and colours Sir K.D. Desire IF you desire that I make you a picture of the nature and perquisites of Desire I wil tell you It is a strange Countrey whereunto the prodigall Child sailed when he forsook his Fathers house to undertake a banishment a Countrey where Corn is still in Grass Vines in the Bud Trees perpetually in Blossome and Birds always in the Shell You neither see Corn Fruit nor any thing fully shaped all is there onely in expectation It is a Countrey full of Figures Phantosmes Illusions and hopes which are dreams without sleep A Countrey where the Inhabitants are never without Fevers one is no sooner gone but another comes into its place There dwells Covetousness a great woman meager lean starven having round about her a huge swarm of winged boys of which some are altogether languishing others cast her a thousand smiles as she passeth along upon herself she hath an infinite number of Horse-leeches which suck upon her to the marrow Time looks on her a far off and never comes neer her shewing her an inchanted Looking-glass wherein she sees a thousand and a thousand false colours which amuse her and when she hath sported enough she hath nothing to dinner but smoke Holy Court Albeit you can no ways quench the coals of Desire with forgetfulness yet rake them up in the ashes of modesty As Pharaoh longed to know his dream so desired he to Desire the nurse of perseverance gave him wings to make the more speed Thus wishing my deserts still suitable to my desires and my desires ever pleasing to your deserts More ready in desire then able in power to serve you Then which nothing could shoot righter at the mark of my desires And wish you as full of good Fortune as I am of desire She â—â—aâ—d not 〈…〉 desires Desire is
then by continued devotion to your self and service to purchase at length the esteem of Madam Your most faithfull servant T.B. XXXV To his Lady M riâ— complaining of her cruelty Madam TYranny as ill becomes a subject as a Prince and cruelty is the natural issue of that Monster To say your Ladyship is guilty of both in some kind is a truth undeniable For ever since fortune made me happy in your knowledge my affection hath had no Centre but your breast my faith no fellow and my constancy such as can never admit a change yet my sighes are unpittied my love unregarded my faith and constancy answered with nothing but your disproportionate denialls Nor can I without wonder consider that your Ladyship should be 〈◊〉 all the world so perfectly charitable to mee so cruell unles 't were ordained by fate That the first fruits of my love which should be the first step to happines must be made abortive by your incompassion Madam the more you deny the more fuel you add to those flames which if not suddenly allai'd by your pittie will consume my very being into ashes of mortalitie These are Madam the reall dictates of a heart that 's wholly benâ— To serve you T. B. XXXVI A consolatory letter to a Mother upon the death of her first born Honoured Madam THe sad need a Comforter and a Soul in desolation requires to bee assisted with reasons to bear the cause of its griefs That you are both sad and grieved I can no more doubt then I can be without a share in your passions That you have many comforters because friends many solid considerations from your own pietie and pious wisdome to salve your sorrowes I am as confident Yet as none more tenders your happinesse then my self so could not I alone be silent in this motive of your teares what I would say is Dearest Madam be comforted and this were 't in my power I would effect The reason of your sable thoughts the spring that streames your cheekes rise I know from the sad accident of your childs death It was I confess the first image of your likenes the first blessâ—â—g that heaven honored your body with the first pledge of nature the first title you had to be a Mother And to bee deprived of this almost as soon as 't was given could not but find and afford matter both for teares and grief in a disposition so natural and good But Madam there 's a time for all and a meane also What could not be denied to your sweetness must be moderated by your discretion 'T is true that sweet infant was yours 't was your first 't was dear and you suffered many dolours to give it life But withall you consider as 't was yours so given you by God as the first so more due to him as dear yet could it not be too dear for him that hath it Although of painfull birth yet that your throwes brought forth a Saint that your dolours were endured so soon to enthrone a part of your self among the Angels these dolours these throwes happily suffered Those whom God makes Parents he makes but Nurses of his own children he lends them to be brought up for heaven and if hee hath so soon discharged you of this obligation t is not so much a cross as a blessing Had it lived to mature age perhaps he saw danger both to It and you it might have been more cause of grief to you more loss to it self it might have been unfortunate in life in death unhappy 'T is not the being children of either good or great extract that makes them alwayes either good or happy And this perhaps God that provident Parent of all foresaw Be it so or not certaine it is the bodies but the souls prison wherein 't is no soner breathed from Heaven but 't is maculated by this corrupt Earth and in this as it longer sojournes so is it not only debarred of its true happiness welfare but also offends its great Creator and consequently is miserable Therefore would God make the cradle of yours its death bed that he might hasten its blisse As he breathed a pure soul into it so would he again take it before defiled by the actuall blemishes of sin Had it liv'd it could have afforded no comfort to your piety but being in health prosperity and pious and can it be more pious then in heaven more prosperous then in heavens joyes more healthfull then in the enjoyance of immortality O consider t is now past all danger 't is freed from all misery 't is blessed in blessedness it prayes for you And can there be any sorrow so great that these considerations cannot consolate O what more happy then to be so happy a Mother no sooner a Mother then a Mother to heaven Nor doubt dear Madam but hee that gave you this dear pledge of his love will give you more and as he took this to his own joyes so will he leave in its stead more to your comfort This he took to give it as soon happiness as being and therein to try your virtue and resignation to his will this as I doubt not but he will find so may you be confident he will bee bountifull a sure rewarder of your patience a prosperer of your soul body and its fruitfulness But pardon most honoured Madam my loves redousness and if in this unpolishd Consolatory I have errd let it be as it is loves fault a fault that your nobleness I am certain will remit Thus with humblest respects he takes his leave that will no longer bee then be yours the daily Petitioner to heaven for your most wished comforts of both Worlds Madam Your humble and most affectionate servant D.W. XXXVII To excuse the not answering a letter SIR THat I have committed so great a Solaecisme in good manners as to receive two letters from you without giving you humble thanks for either I beseech you ascribe not to any want of zeal to your service for in earnest you cannot make me more happy then in vouch safing mee the honour of your commands which shall alwayes find as ready an obedience in mee as any thing that most concernes my own interest In the assurance â—â—ereof I give you the humble respects of Sir Yours ad nutum T. B. XXXVIII Vpon a Motion of marriage Dear Sir I Give you many humble thanks for your tendring mee a wife and your good advise in that affair I well remember the Counsell of a prudent friend was not to marry till I were 30 years of age and then to have a wife ten years younger then my self because women especially teeming ones sooner decay then men I have also read that there are 3 principall motives to a wedded life Procreatio Prolis Conservatio Domus and Consolatio vitae Now the gentlewoman you write of in stead of being ten years younger I believe is ten years elder then my self and so may be in danger to
Self-condemning minde An un-Sun-seen cave Love-distilling tears This Heaven-displeasing war Liver-scalding lust Marble-hearted cruelty Time-beguiling pleasure This Blood-be-dabled Kingdom People-pleasing Lectures Corner-haunting lust A Life-Conferring form c. Formulae Majores OR COMMON PLACES Absence AS thou art the food of my thoughts the relief of my wishes and the onely life and repast of all my desires So is thy love to me a continual hunger and thine absence an extream famine In absence my grief grows in finding my present estate so weak in fortune and my desâ—rts so slender in nature that not knowing wâ—th Anthony how to requite his Cleopatra I onely rest with Anthony to dye for my Cleopatra Tell him my love doth burn like vestaâ— fire which with his memory richer then all â—pices disperseth odours round about my foul and did reâ—ress it when 't was dull and sad with thinking of his absence He more breathâ—d A.B. then the ayr it self and all her absences were to him so many deaths I want no part of welfare but your wished presence The love which he bare to her at her return was as a torrent which aâ—teâ— it hath a long time been restrained breaks the forced dammâ— and with vigorous impetuousness drowns the fields Holy Court Hoping forgetfulness which commonly waits upon absence might possess him he departed Since your absence melancholy hath been my Concomâ—tant and youâ— remembrance my greatest comfort I departed from you like a hungry infant pull'd from his nurses breast or a thirsty Hart chased from a sweet fountain Live I pray you in repose as much as you may during this absence and if my being away causes sorrow in you let the assurance of my affection diminish it forced a tedious separation of those sacred bodies whose souls are entirely link'd in divine affection Acknowledgement MY acknowledgement of your favours shall appear in my willingness to do you servâ—ce And my self shall not onely acknowledge this favour with humbâ—est thankfulness but c. The acknowledgement of your favours shall be my meanest thanks and to thank you for those favours must be my best acknowledgement I can do no more I will do no less They acknowledge with more or less degrees of homage some kinde of fealty It shâ—ll not be without a just confession of the bond your benefits have and ever shall hold upon me Affection THe construction of his Speech might best be made by the Grammer-Rules of affection It is the flaming Agony of affection that works the chilling access of your fever The coals of his affection were so kindled with wonder and blown with delight that Suffering neither his unworthyness nor his wrongs to cover with forgetfulness or diminish with consideration the affection she had born him to whom with words which affection endited but amazement uttered he delivered Looking down upon her from the high-top of affections Tower If you retain as yet any spark of affection which you have often given me witness of kiss this paper in remembrance of him who c. My affections no less love the light and witness then they have conscience of your vertue The high tide of overflowing affection restraining his tongue with astonishment as unable to express an unexpressable passion The blood of her face ebbing and flowing according to the tyde of affection He grafted his affection in the stock of her constanâ—y Testimoâ—ies of a never-silent hearty affection But perceiving his affection so grounded that striving against it did more anger then heal the wound and rather call his friendship in question then give place to any friendly Counsel The large testimony of your affection makes me willinâ— to suppresse a great number of errours She in an instant was made an unfortunate winter of affection To intrinsecate my self in your affection My affection shall finde no parallel in its well-wishes to you The tender tinder of his affection began to sparkle Striving to match her matchless beauty with a maâ—chless affection He whâ—se affection clymed by another stair In â—rue affection two so become one as they both become two Rel. Med. You in whom my affection holds a steady mansion Nor life nor death shall divorce my affection from you Upon what bryars the roses of his affection grow I conjure you to this by my affâ—ction that never had equal Ar. The sight of this place doth call my thoughts to appear at the Court of affection held by that 〈◊〉 Steward Remembrance Thâ—se lines â—epresent in the poverty of fancy the riches of my affâ—ction Good offices are the marks and ciment of true affection H.C. The heart is the Continent of affection Affection flows uncompelled Anger ANger is the feaver of the Soul which makes the tongue talk idle it puts a man into a tumult that he cannot hear what counsel speaks t is a raging sea a troubled waâ—er that cannot be wholsom for the use of aâ—y Feltham They are things below the merit of my indignation objects of scorn which a little slighted and not inflamed by opposition or countenanced to a reply by confutation will within a whilâ— of themselves extinguish and vanish like sâ—me dispersed roving winds which without encâ—unter are dispirited and dye Doctor Wats upon Bacon Beauty THen was plainly to be seen the Empire which humane beauty and an eloquent tongue have over earthly powers Beauty consists in complexion in lineaments and in harmony You are the most excellent star that shines in the bright element of Beauty Some became Petitioners and Prisoners to her Beauty others did homage to her vertues Beauty is to be reckoned but as an outward fading benefit that nature hath bestowed The Idol of beauty ought not to be honored with such oblations My eyes drank much more eagerly of her beauty then my mouth did of any other liquor Her face is such a spark of beauty as is able to enâ—â—ame a world of love She who in a definite compass can set forth infinite beauty The excellency of her returned beauty was a credible embassador of her health Where beauty is there needs no other plea. Sâ—ll not your soul for such a vanity as eye-pleasiâ—g beauty Vertue is nothing else but inward beauty and beauty nothing else but an outward vertue Bacon Making her beautiful beams to thaw away the former icyness of his Two sisters about whom as about two Poles the sky of Beauty was turned Rather then those eyes should over-flow their own beauties or the sky of your beauty should be over clouded with sorrow Beauty in the heaven of her face two Suns eclipsed was wrapped up in paleness Beauty which hath no grace is a bait floating on the water without a hook to be taken and to catch nothing Eustatius Beauty is like the herb Larix cool in the water but hot in the stomack I cannot but applaud the wonder of your beauty Such is the divine power of loves deity such the vertuous force of your heavenly beauty and such the happy issue of our decreed
destiny Beauty without chastity is like a Mandrake apple comely in shâ—w but poysonful in taste I must accuse my self of presumption for daring to consider any moles in that face which you had marked for a beauty Sir K.D. A beauty which always with too eloquent a tongue did dictate tacite perswasions to his heart What a fair vestment is to a deformed body the same is a comely body to a deformed minde Bacon A fair soul in a fair body is a river that windingly creepeth with many wavy-turnings within the ennamel of a beautiful meadow and ravisheth the whole world with the admiration of its excâ—llency Bâ—auty in it self is such a silent Orator as ever iâ— plâ—â—ding for respect and liking and by the eyeâ— of others is ever sending to their hearts for love Feltham The modest sweetness of a lilied â—ace Beauty is the wit of nature put into the frontispiece I have seen and yet not with a partial eye such features and such mixtures as I have thought impossible for either nature to frame or art to counterfeit yet in the same face I have seâ—n that which hath our gone them both the countenance Oh! if such glory can dwell with corruption what Celestial excellencies are in the Saints above who would not gaze himself into admiration when he shall see so rich a treasure in so pure a Cabinet unmatched vertue in matchless beauty Feltham Zeno said grace of body was a voyce of flower and a flâ—wer of voyce Voyce of flower because it drawes amity to it as the flower of a garden not crying out nor tormenâ—ing it self a flower of voyce because it is one of the most flowry eloâ—encies among the attractives of nature What is temporal beauty but a transitory charm an illusion of senses a voluntary imposture a slave of pleasure a flower which hath but a moment of life a Diall on which we never look but whilst the Sun shines on it What is humanâ— beauty but a dunghill covered with snow a glass painted with falsâ— colâ—urs a prey puâ—sued by many Dogs a dangeâ—ous hâ—stess in a â—rail house a sugred fruit in a feast which some dare not touch for respect â—therâ— gormandize through sensuality Go â—rust so a â—ing a good Go bâ—take you to so â—nhappy a sâ—are Gâ— tie your contentments to â—o slâ—ppery a knot What else will happen unto you buâ— to court a phantasie which loosâ—ing your hold will leave you nothing but the sorrow of your illusions H. Court Blush AS she sâ—ake that word her cheekes in â—ed Letters writ more then her tongue did speak As the wonder strove to make her pale warm love did fortifie her cheeks wiâ—h guilty blushes At whose presence a frâ—sh vermilion dye bestowed a new complexion on her Company HIs pleasing company did beguile the times haste and shortned the waies length Why will you give me with so sparing a hand the riches of your presence Constancy She whose constancy neither time nor absence the mothes of affection nor what is more this my change in fortune could alter He who signed his faith with the seal of his constancy Be but thou as constant a friend to my mind as thou shalt be a true possessor of my heart and I shall have as just a cause of joy as thou no cause of doubt Though the surging sea hath moved the humors of my body yet it hath not power to change the inclinations of my mind for I love you no less at Antwerpe where I am arrived then I did at London c. He continued always constant like the Needle of a Sea-compass in a storm Constancy is the foundation of vertue Bac. Fortune is lik Proteus if you persist she returns to her true shape Bacon Comparisons THis comfort in danger was but like the honey that Sampson found in the Lions jaws or like lightning in a foggy night Râ—solved he was not to touch the forbidden fruit nor to drink on Circes cup he would not with the Spider suck poyson out of a fair flower In the greenest grasse is the greatest Serpent â—n the clearest water the ugliest Toad In the most curious Sepulcher are inclosed rotten bones The Oâ—â—â—ich carrieth fair feathers but rank flesh As there hath been an unchast Helen in Greece so there hath been also a chast Penelope As there hath been a prodigious Pasiphae so has there been a godly Theocrita Hippâ—manes ceased to run when she had gotten the Goal Hercules to labour when he had obtained the victory Mercury to pipe when he had cast Argus in a slumber Every action hath his end Each book sent into the world is like a Bark put to sea and as liable to censures as the Bark is to â—oul weather Herbert Like the Citie Mindus whose Gates were so big that the City might go out of them Which like the flaming two edged waving sword of the Cherub cuts asunder on all sides whatsoever does oppose it Cressy Liâ—e the stone that groweth in the River of Curia which the more it is cut the more it increaseth There is no iron but will be softned with the fire So no c. As a fair flower nipt with the morning frost ' hanging down his head as much sorry for his declining glory When the Halcions hatch the Sea is calm and the Phoenix never spreads her wings but when the Sun shines on her nest So Like the Spaniel which gnaws upon the chain that ties him but sooner marres his teeth then procures liberty Consider that the heavenly Sun disdains not to give light and shine upon the smallest worm In this 't is so evident that I will not light the Sun with a rush candle He commends unto us a golden chain of Christian perfections consisting of these links Faith Vertue Patience c. We can expect but Polyphemus courtesie to be last devoured Romes Capitoll was not built in one day nor was Zeuxis Helena suddenly limn'd forth with one pensill They have long sported in the bloud and treasure of the land as the Leviathan doth in the Waters His mind was all this while so fixed upon another devotion that he no more marked his friends discourse then the child that hath leave to play marks the last part of his lesson or the diligent Pilot in a tempest attends the unskilful words of a Passenger She trembled like the unlickt lamb newly yean'd upon a sheet of sâ—ow My expression is but like a picture drawn with a cole wanting those lively colours which a more skilfull pen might give it It is the Decree of Heaven That every Composition here beneath as well fram'd by the hand of Art as fashioned by the help of Nature should sustain some imperfection for glasse hath its lead gold its drosse corn its chaff Helen her mole the moon her spots and the Sun its shade Spa. Bawd Like the Sun that illuminates the whole aire if no cloud or solid opacous body intervene S. K.D. Did make no more
his mouth was the Oracle whereby I directed my actions As I could not be without his presence so I never would do any thing without his counsel When I am from you I am dead till I be with you when I am with you I am not satisfied but would still be nearer you vnited souls are not satisfied with imbraces Rel. Med. In the intercourse of affection my love surmounts yours Fire comes out of the hardest Flint with a steel oyl out of the driest jet by fire love out of the stoniest heart by faith by trust by time Eupheus I cannot but admire thy love knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds as I will not envy thee thy death so I wish a glory may await thy end great as the constancy that advanc'd thee to it Her Two neighbouring Lillies whom rude winds disperse ' mongst restless dust may sooner meet upon their stacles again and kiss each other in a second growth then we our loves renew Love is the good which by being diffused is corrupted she that loves one another and a thrid takes in men at the coyle and loves onely for her pleasure The object of true love is but one From the Infancy of Time to her decrepitude the love between two hath been held most honorable Heroinae Our mutuall mindes thus combined was like the Garden of Eden wherein grew more delights then either Nature now affords or Art can expâ—ess Graâ—ious is the face that promiseth nothing but love and most celestiall the resolution that lives upon chastity She had a pure flame shot from heaven into her breast from no other place could so generous a mind be fired My love shall never end but with my life There is nothing that belongs to us both that can be divided our wills united make but one mind which ruling all our actions it seems we are in like manner but one body Ariana He was so rapt with these dear engagements that the commotions of his heart disturbed his mind and stop'd the freedom of his thoughts I must confess my self in prison but 't is a prison of love where my desires my thoughts my hopes my joys are chains H.C. Chast love She changes the fire of Babylon into that of Jerusalem Her hâ—irs which were the nets wherein so many captive souls did sigh under the yoke of wanâ—â—n love are now as the Ensignes and Standards of wicked Cupid traâ—pled under the feet of the Conqueror Those kisses which carried the poyson of a luxurious passion in her heart do now breath fâ—om her nothing but thâ— delicacies of chasâ—iâ—y Her leasing odâ—urs which before were vowed to sensuality are now become the sweetest exhalations from that Amber Isle which brings forth an odoriferous perfume Entertainments for Lent My passion hath for its object a thing too perfect to permit me a thought that may be unworthy of the cause of it I like that love which by a soft ascension does degree it self in the soul Feltham Your presence is like Homers Nepenthe that can banish the sadness of the mind The heart of a lover is a Citie in which upon one and the same day are seen sports and bankets battels and funerals Plutarch Who does not know that love took away the senses of wise Solomon and made him violate the sacred law Love moved Biblis to be enamoured on her own brother Caunus and Pasiphae to accompany vvith a Bull Love is like a pan of Charcoal vvhich meeting vvith the vvind its contrary makes it turn more ardent or like a rapid torrent vvhich justing against adam swells higher so love meeting with opposition grows hotter and stronger Dodona's Grove These two hearts being dissolved into love spake in thoughts not having language enough to express their affection H.C. Since then I cannot retaliate your love or retribute your favours yet vvill I receive them vvith a desire â—o pay The vvorthy St. Dionysius in the book of Divine Attributes distinguisheth three sorts of love one is called circular the other love in a right line and the third oblique Love saâ—th an ancient Lover hath made a But of my heart vvhere so soon as it had shot all its arrows it threw it self as an inflamed dart into the bottom of my heart to set me all on fire There is nothing comparable to the Martyrdom of love It is an exhalation in a cloud It is a fire in a Mine a torrent shut up in ditches a night of sâ—paration lasteth ages and all waxeth old for it but its desires The life of this young Hero vvhich vvas ever hanging about the heart of his Mistress ever in the contemplation of her goodness perpetually in the furnace of love vvholly tranformed it self into his vvel-beloved as one vvax melted into another as a drop of vvater poured into a great vessell of Wine as incense wasted in flames H. Court He said what a warm lover when desire makes eloquent could speak he said she was both Star and Pilot. No birth or estate can chalenge a prerogative in love The deep wound of his love being rubbed afresh with began to bleed again Love is to the soul that which vvings are to Birds to carry us to its fruition For vvant of vvell loving vve apply the most precious thing which is love to gain wretched creatures as if one used a golden hook to fish for frogs and a scepter to shake hay I 'le always dwell with you like your shade I 'le keep a Jubile to your memory My eyes pay tribute where my heart pays love I vvill repay your love vvith usury Love making in the field of his memory a muster of the vertues of that Lady The man that applies not himself to some love is like a body vvithout life Love is the Wine of the soul Love is the greatest Philosopher in the vvorld He can transmute substances vvithout altering the accidents Man commended MAn is the pride of Heavens creation 〈◊〉 A man vvhose life needs no Advocate vvhom detraction it self cannot mention vvithout addition of some Epithetes of respect to conclude him in a vvord no object for any evill passion but envy and a subject for no discourse but vvhat ends vvith admiration It seems Nature from above had been dispatch'd as a brave Harbinger to score out a lodging for this great Soul and give him a Body suitable to the vigor of his Spirit so vvel vvas it composed c. H. Court What he is according to nature a Master piece vvhere many prerogatives meet together a Body composed of a marvellous Architecture a Soule endowed vvith He is the Orpheus vvho vvith his looks onely vvithout setting his hand to the Lyre enchants and ravishes the most savage of our Wilderness Aristotle that Linceus of Nature Nature vvas sent by God as a gallant Harbinger to compose a Body for him suitable to his great Spirit He did vvith great nobleness and bounty which vertues at that time had their turns in his Nature restore Lo. Bacon
force to draw up souls vvhose voyâ—e vvill charm a Satyr and turn a mans prayer into ambition make a Hermite run to Hell c. Gr. Serv. Whose exquisite beauty was so beautified vvith rarest vertues that men honored Nature as a God in her perfections and held her more then a Woman in her veruâ—s Par. Vienna She vvhose beauty vvas far fairer then the evening Star and vvhose vertue vvas more powerful 〈…〉 greatest Câ—nstellatiâ—n The renown of her attâ—active vertues and the vertue of hâ—r moving perâ—ections haâ—h so captivated my freest thoughts that vvondring at her same I am wounded with fancy and my desire is I would vvillingly here draw to the life the Portraiture of this Lady if my black Ink vvere not too unfit a colour to set forth a celestiall beauty You have far more perfections then years and more inward excellence then extern beauty yet so beautifull as few so fair though none more vertuous She had a mind of excellent composition a piercing wit voyd of ostentation high erected thoughts seated in a heart of courtesie an eloquence as sweet in the uttering as slow to coâ—e to the uttering a behaviour so noble as gave a Majesty to adversity Arcadia Shee 's a Virgin happy in all endowments vvhich a Poet could fancy in his Mistress being her selfe a School of goodness vvhere chaste maids may learn without the aids of foraign principles by the example of her life and pureness to be as she is excellent I but give you a briâ—f Epitome of her vertues vvhich dilated on at large and to their merit vvould make an ample story Were all her other graces worn in clouds That eye that very eye would charm a Lucrece Her name like some celestiall fire quickens my spirits I never knew vertue and beauty meet in a sweeter nature Thou art a virgin sweet so pretious in thy frame that with the cordage of thy hair thou mightst have fettered Kings Thy voyce has mar'd the beauties of the night when thou didâ—t sing the quiet stars would wink and fall assee I could gaze on her till my wonder did convert me into marble and yet my sâ—ul would in her self retain a fire lively as that which bold Prometheus stole Madam you are so large a Theam to treat of and every grace about you offâ—rs to me such Copie of language that I stand doubtfull which first to touch at if I erre as in my choyce I may let me intreat you before I offend to sign my paâ—dâ—n Whâ—ther we consider her face or beauty pleasiâ—gness that charms hearts and sweet majesty have spent all their riches upon her Ariana She breathes forth nothing but the sweets of love The eyes are the wonders of the face and dark figures â—f Divinity we may call them too the Dials â—f love which fastned on the wall of a countenance shew with the stile of their looks the minutes of hours either happy or unhappy to Lovers Fame which is accustomed to increase the desert of every thing it would commend hath been constrained to diminish yours being impossible to be published according to the greatness of it It is a mark of great vertue not to be able to endure to be commended She was crown'd with a garland of odoriferous flowers and her delicate hair in tresses falling upon a neck of snow did set forth the beauties of this divine face whose splendor dazled mens eyes so that there was not any one that could support unwoundâ—d the sight of so many wonders Lesser lights borrow beams of radiance from your greatâ—r Orb which doth illumine and heat our Nâ—rtâ—ern clyâ—e with celestiall ardors Ho. Court Madam if the duty which commands me to serve all Ladies did not ordain me this obedience your birth and so many â—air qualities I see in you oblige me to it Ariana My eye of contemplation was fixed on this bright Sun as long as it was able to endure the radiant beams of it whâ—se redundant light veâ—les the looker on with a dark mist Sir K.D. I esteem reverence and adore you in the most secret and recluse withdrawings of my heart Her face did shine with so great evidence as it defied the noon-tide Sun in its greatest brightnesse Albeit Medea were wicked yet Penelope was peerless If Clytemnestra were naught yet Alcestes was passing good If Phaedra were damnable yet there was another laudable Camd. Rem She had the spirit of a man in a feminine body She 's a burning mirror in which all the beams of beauty are united She is the Star by whom my Fate is led Modest she was and so lovely that whosoever look'd but stedfastly upon her could not but-but-soul himself in her Feltham Her eyes swift as the shoots of lightning nimbler then thought and bright as the polisht Diamond She is of so specious a glory that though she need not the applause of any to add to her happiness yet she attracts the hearts of all that know her to love service admiration To apparell any more in these paper vestments I should multiply impertinents and perhaps displease For I have ever found face commendation to dye wisdoms cheeks of a blush-colour All lips are opened with singular prerogatives in honour of this Lady and are all dried up in the abundance of her praises In her person alone a plenitude of all perfections does inhabit H.C. In her all the most delicious attractives of beauty and the most conspicuous characters of power are assembled together This Aglae was a Roman Dame of prime quality having a delicate wit in a beautifull body and powerfull passions in a great fortune She had been married but becoming a widow in an age as yet furnished with verdant freshness grace and beauty she had not buried all her affections in the Tomb of her husband After she had a little wiped away the first tears which nature exacts as tribute in such like accidents she quickly plaid so much the Courtier in her slight sorrow that she seemed greatly to desire as soon as might be to finish what she had never well begun Holy Court But by successe of time she felt her passion so much enkindled towards him that she neither thought spake nor liv'd but for him The fair Aretaphila inflames all hearts with the musick of her voyce myriads of joys are in her looks her eyes are natures richest Diamonds set in foils of polisht Ebony her breath expires Odors more sweet then issued from the trees of Balm in Paradise Argal. Parth. She upon whose meanest thought the Art of memory 's grounded and inspires each Organ of our meditating sense with their perfections merit Ibid. She in whom the sum and abridge of all sorts of excellencies are met like paralels in their proper center Herb. Travails Whose listning ears were well pleased with the sweet harmony of her well-tun'd words and whose liking eyes were ravish'd with the sight of her perfections She the ornament of the earth the modell of heaven the
triumph of Nature the life of beauty the Queen of love Her action was beautified by nature and apparell'd with skill her gesture gave such a way unto her speech through the rugged wilderness of his imaginations that Her voice represented the heavenly seven-sphear'd harmony Such an extraordinary Majesty shines in all her actions as surely either Fortune by parentage or Nature in creation hath made her Pilgrimes who come from the remotest confines of the world cannot see any thing in all the affluent wealth thereof comparable to her Insomuch that I wish all the members of my body were changed into tongue and that I were nought but voyce to be throughout the whole Universe the trumpet of her praises H.C. Her gracious soul hath more Antidote in it then all the world hath poyson which will therfore in her affliction make her like the Sun which shewes his greatest countenance in his lowest declension and bring her out of it likâ— gold out of the fire refined not consumed Lost Sh. My prayer shall be That your Fortune may surmount your greatness and your vertue your fortune that your greatnesse may be above envy your goodnesse above detraction that your illustrious example may darken the ages past and lighten them to come that you may live beloved and die lamented lamented by earth but joy'd by heaven c. She suffer'd no mutiny of passions against reason nor of reason against God She resolved to work with perspective Glasses of dâ—fferent yea and even câ—ntrary kindes for when she described her own vâ—rtues she served heâ—selfâ— of a Diminishing Glasse which made them seem so little as to be no more thâ—n a kind of nothing But on the other side when she gave account of her imperfections she would by no means know them by any other name then of Vices and Sins because she took a Multiplying glasse to her self lest else those Mole-hils should not seem mountains Sir Tob. Mat. in his preface to S. Teresa's life You must give me leave to adjourn you for more ample satisfaction of this expectation to those drops which I may perhaps both be able and willing to derive and draw out of the Sea of her perfections c. Ib. I shall onely say in very few words by way as it were of antepast till the Feast come in that she had a heart as open as day in the exercise of bounty But above all things she was so perfect a lover of Truth that she would no more have even so much as but disguised it and much lesse varied from it in the least kind then she would have sold her self for a slave c. Ib. I le assure you this Elogium has no more in it of the Panegyrick then of the just praise I am rather her debtor then her creditor herein She puts that in execution which turns nature into admiration She whose two eyes were the Suns that rul'd my day and to whom onely her absence did make night she whose mild vertue and beauteous looks were a soft visible musick which entranc'd the lookers â—n and struck harmonious raptures into every chaft soul and instilled pure fires into every unchast c. Amor. War A pretty smile made a kind of day-break in her face She is wholly made of charm She is the star that rules my faculties Women discommended LOose Women are whoups proud birds which have nothing but crest and naturally delight in ordure they are Bats which cannot endure one little ray of light but seek to hide themselves under the mantle of night they are Horseleeches which draw blood from the veins of a House and State where they exercise their power They are Syrens of the earth which cause shipwracks without water They are Lamiae who have Hosteries of cut-throats that kill men under pretext of good usage They are Harpies who surprize even from Altars and in the end become envenomed Dipsades which enforce an enraged thirst upon those whom they have once bitten Ho. Court A woman without devotion is like a Bee without a sting which will make neither honey nor wax is a case covered with pretious stones to preserve a dunghill The tongues of women are like the bells of the Forrest Dodona which make a prodigious jangling O God! What a dangerous beast is the spirit of a woman It is able to create as many monsters in essence as fantasie can form in painting No Owle will live in Creet In Rhodes no Eagle will build her nest no wit spring in the will of women It is an infinite simplicity to commit secrets to a woman whose heart is as fit to keep what it out to conceal as a Sieve to hold water As well may I collect the scattered wind into a bag or from the watery surface scrape the guilt reflections of the Sun as bring her heart within the quiet list of wives that will obey and love Incestuous strumpet more wanton then Lamia more lascivious then Lais and more shameless thâ—n Pasophane whose life as it hath been shadowed with painted holiness so hath it been full of pestilent villanies Her Carcasse a better name I can hardly afford her outside was the inside of a Sepulcher her head was unthâ—cht as an old Parsonage her eyes like lights at the last snuff when the extinguisher is ready to make their Epitaphs sunk low into their Candlesticks her ears now deaf now happy such was her tongue they have lost their sense her nose worm'd like a piece of Homer of the first bind offended with her breath bowed to her chin to dam it up her cheeks hol'd as the earth in Dog days drowth her lips fit to be kist by none but themselves her teeth rotten as her soul hollow as her heart loose as the shingles of an old silenc'd steeple scragged as a disparked pale stood at that distance one could not bite another her tongue so weakly guarded scolds like the Alarm of a clock her chin was down'd with a China beard of twenty hairs her breast lank as a quick-sand wasted as an hourglasse at the eleventh use one arm one leg one foot she doff'd with day and as a resurrection don'd with the morrow her bones pithless as a stallion for seven posterities the slightest fears might now make rattle in her skin her body wasted to no waist blasted with lust as an Oke with lightning was as familiar with diseases as a Physitian To conclude she is odious beyond all comparison one sight of her would make the heat of youth recoyl into an infant continence Heroinae The look of a lascivious woman is like that of a Basiliâ—k which kils Chastity by beholding it Diogenes snarled bitterly when walking with another he spyed two women talking and said See the Viper and the Asp are changing poyson Feltham No Weather-cock under heaven is so variable as an inconstant woman Every breath of wind forces her to a various shape As if her mind were so neer a kin to air as it
that I must beg leave to lessen though I cannot hope to have it wholly remitted in saying the justness of your Ladyships cause of stay made me presume none had so little compassion as to deny it and that I might expect the being freed from my ague without danger of losing the opportunity of presenting my humble thanks for so many singall favours undeservedly conferred on me but since that happiness with many others is lost by your Ladyships absence honour this paper so far I beseech you as to suffer it to supply my defects herein and testify how ambitious I shall be by my future observance to merit the title of Madam Your most humble servant A.B. LXXII Vpon the death of a fair Lady Sir AMong other impartments your last tells mee you were to usher a fair Lady to her grave A Corporall work of Mercy it is to bury the Dead I grant but to interr so great a Beauty â—eâ—ms to entrench on Pity and blast the Spring Had she lived till Autumne or even Midsommer the funeralls of many flowers had lamented her Urne yea if but till they had been blown they would have lost their lives to adorn her Hearse and have been ambitious like those Savages to have been buried quick with their Ladie Paragon for her attendance in the other World But she has inverted Nature and the Season too the flower of beauty died when the beauty of flowers should spring and so has not onely left a withered World but dismayed the Blowth of what should garnish it Flowers are disheartened to open their fragrant Colors since their Pattern is so early Cropt and seem to intend being she 's entomb'd under the Earths surface to keep themselves under Earth to accompany her dust yet I will free you of cruelty in this fate you had no hand I am sure in her death though you helpt her to her Grave And who should be a fitter Mourner at the exequies of a fair Lady than so compleat a servant of Ladies Sir I see what grace you are entertained with by them they not only love you living but are loath to part with you dead will carry you as for as they can towards the other life when they goe That if they may not have your company quite through which were a wrong to Survivors they may your funerall tears sighes or prayers for their Vltime Vale you preface a happy imprimis to this sad discourse and say having first done all that might tend to her future happiness Happy News and it ownes you I believe an instrument of good effects and offices Had all fair Ladies such faithfull servants More Idols of beauty would receive impression of the divine Image and become the servants of God And she had much reason to desire your care of her bodies enterrment that had first aided her soul with a saving Viaticum for heaven Long may you live the Author or helper of such good deeds In the interim as here was a double work of mercy Corporall and Spirituall exploited so you I am confident have made your usefull application of the Accident beheld in the blasting of this flower the fate of Fairness the frailties of the fairest Clay that feature and white and red could embelish If she were not Superlative in Beauty in beauty she had many inferiours if in fortunes not the favourite of fortune yet she has had her smiles Many Beauties have faln sooner many may sooner fade yet in her all beauties all fortunes have exprest what fortunes and beauties are what is the Exit of the Fable of this temporary life to wit ugly death eternall deprivation the cold Tomb and deformed dust Fortunate life that so contemplates mortal condition as to be indifferent and ready to change that fraile incertainties and vain glitter may be motives to assure and fix on lasting good that by others death learnes to live and lives the life that feares not death that so accompanies others funeralls as in that sable equipage to behold the mournfull Pomp of the Worlds farewell and their own destiny that reads in that earthy bed of death the Grave of others their own Motto we are dust and all mortall things Momentary Sir pardon this long slip of my pen you see how a fair Ladies death and your living pietie entrances me to the forgetfulness of other subjects I confess I am also now in a dull Mood not apt as to expression Thanks for your News on which the only present comment shall be that I am for ever Sir Your thankfull servant D.W. LXXIII The Reply relating the particulers of that Ladies death Sir SInce you have been pleas'd to sing so sweet a dirge and to make so excellent a comment upon our late funerous text I cannot think the particulers of that sad subject how confusedly soever I deliver them will be unacceptable to you This Lady was 3 moneths continually dying without any hope of recovery and this occasioned by an ulcer in her throat it was my good fortune though others had assai'd it to gain her first assent to bring a spirituall Phisitian to her Dr. G. was next at hand and did act his part exceedingly well after 2 or 3 effective visits the Patient through the comfort and ease of the spirituall Cataplasmes and emplaisters which the Doctor applied was so rapt and piously enamor'd of him as she even embrac'd him at every appearance When shee drew neer the confines of deaths kingdom she did usually ejaculate not only most pious but even eloquent or rather diviniloquent expressions as this amongst many others which heaven grant I may never forget I have said she lived long in the vanity of this World for which God hath placed mee in this bed of sorrow Were it his holy pleasure I should act over one of them again and the choice left to mee I would by the Grace of Jesus rather chose the torments of this bed and malady then have any thing to do with the Worlds vanities c Besides nothing did so much trouble her as that she had lived as she said for fear of Worldly endamagement some yeares in an outward profession that contradicted her inward perswasion The Doctor was no less taken with his Patient then she with him for I heard him say hee was never more satisfied with the manner of any persons death And I confess her exit did more tristitiate mee then did that of my own Sister the manner of it not a little both mortifying and edifying mee For to see her picture in the Anti-chamber and then go in and look upon the originall was subject enough for mortification the one being so incomparable beautifull the other so ghastly In a word the last breath she drew was Je-and in pronouncing sus she expir'd So that we may conclude as she was a great beauty living she was a greater dead For whereas corporall beauty in others dies with the body hers did not so but by a secret transition
pass'd into the soul Thus have you heard the brief but sad story of this good Ladies end and that from Sir Your humble servant T.B. LXXIV LETTER Sir THe punishment that Apollo inflicts of reading Guicciardine is a light one compar'd to this that you impose â—pon your self and yet you will only here play the Stoick in not acknowledging you are in pain Nothing can justify mee but obedience for persuming to offer this tedious Romance to those eyes that should onely look upon Iliads I give verses as Galenists do Phisick which clogs the stomack more then the disease I must confess we may view Cities taken kingdomes ruin'd and new worlds discovered in lesse roome It is a Poem that hath neither height nor profundity yet it has length it overflowes but swells not it wearies without ascents as Promenades do upon a flat In a word I shall think if you do not find fault with it and reprehend me it is because you are angry and will do nothing in Passion however it is a trust I recommend to your secrecy for follies are not things of the least consequence to trust a friend with And having now performed my promise with you I expect you should do the like with Sir Your affectionate servant J.C. LXXV Vpon the New year Sir AS all things sublunary owe their being to the revolution of the upper Spheres so their change And 't is just they should submit to their essentiall Guides Amongst other novelties the first mover had brought about the point of Circular motion that has began us a New year and promises many unwonted effects Whilst these appeare let us be the same we were constant old friends to God heaven and our selves Change though to the better argues imperfection yet not to change to the better were the worst of imperfections As restles rivers hast to their Ocean so ought we to ours which is God that Ocean of bliss repose and Center of aeternity Till here arrived we are in flux and variety Let us be so but hold the right way As Grace is elder then Nature so she first begins her year Astronomers commence theirs with the springs vigour when the Sun 's in Aries the Church is content with Capricorn When her Sun 's in the Cradle that Orient of Justice and mercy the Son of God The signes melancholy yet the forerunner of more propitious So let our sorrows shorten with the nights our joyes with the dayes lengthen This solstice if we follow the conduct of the right Star will fairly move to a brighter height a nearer approach dispell our mists warme our hearts ravish our eyes This rambling prologue is but to bring in the prayer that wishes you a happy New year and that regard of times winged Cariers which in running moments may take hold of the stedfast point of eternity This is the Center of circumference In which who truly fix may be moved but not from it Then as time whirles away the measure of our mortall being it will haâ—ten that which shall know no alteration but to be invariable Sir my complexâ—on suits the dead season at present and yeilds me but a languishing health Hence my pen's as dull You know when the bodies out of order the spirits cannot but flag I must suffer the one you will pardon the other And so to affaires that require no politure but what your patience shall give them c. 2 January W.D. LXXVI ANSWER SIR YOurs I have received read and read again and the more I read it the more I have a a mind to read it such are the incentives of your heaven-inspired lines which as they clearly demonstrate the truth of that Maxime of a modern Author that Eternity is the Port and Sabbath of all humane Contemplations So since my more earthy Soul and lesse heavenly cogitations are not able in due manner to comprehend them I wrap my self in this your learned sheet and say to it with equall wonder As Aristotle once did to Euripus Qâ—uia ego non capio te tu capias me T B. LXXVII A letter to a friend upon his marriage SIR I Have of late with held from you the Characters of my hand though not the welwishes of my heart conceiving you as close in the pursuit of your fair Daphne as Phabus was of his when the breath of his mouth disorder'd her dissheiveld hair For I perceive you have now ran so as happily to take the Virgin-prize may you be ever mutually happy There now onely remains the metamorphosis not into the Beast with two backs which the knavish Shakespear speaks of but of that more ingenious two into one unus una into unum which you have hinted so modestly in yours Your Daphne I hope before the arrivall of this paper will be converted not onely into Bayes but Rosemary which is one fragrancy due to her perfections if you have as I doubt not given her a true Character more then the Poet gave Apollo's Mistress Let this therefore suffice to give you both the parabien of Hymen's honours and felicities and to let you know I shall both expect and be ambitious to wear a sprig in honour of her nor will I faile heartily to commend you both to the great President of the wedding of Cana in Galilee that he may turn the bitter Waters of your long expectation into the Wine of a happy and contented life made up with the blessing of a good and pious posterity In which devotion I affectionately rest Sir Your humble servant H.T. Superscriptions FOR LETTERS to be addressed to all sorts of persons according to the usage of the present times If to a Duke TO the most Noble and some times Excellent or illustrious Prince And in discourse we stile him Grace If to a Marquess To the right Noble or right honourable And in discourse his attribute is Lordship or Honour If to an Earle Viscount or Baron To the right honourable And to begin a Letter we either say May it please your Honor or Lordship Right honorable My Lord. Which last is used only by Lords to Lords or by Gentlemen of some quality otherwise it is held too familiar If to a Baronet or Knight of the Bath we say To the honourable or much honoured And his attribute in the beginning of a letter may be Much honored Sir The like may be given to a Collonel The usuall attribute of a Knight was of old Right Worshipfull And of an Esquire Worshipful But these are much disus'd unles it be by persons of inferiour rank We say writing to a Knight To my noble or to my much honored friend Sir A.B. Knight these present To an Esquire we say To my much honored or most worthy friend T.G. Esquire Observe that when you write to an Esq you be sure not to say Master T.G. Esq for the Master is ridiculous the Esq including it So if you write to a Doctor of Divinity a Doctor of the Civil Law or Doctor of