brinie Springs impart Melt the hardnesse of thy heart If thou art barren in desire And canst not burne in equall fire Those sighs which from my bosome flow A flame throughout my brest shall blow And those frequent tears I le shed From the cisternes of my head Shall so manure thy heart thou 'lt be Fruitfull straight in love like me On a sparke of fire fixing on a Gentlewomans brest FAire Julia sitting by the fire An amorous spark with hot desire Flew to her brest but could not melt The chast snow there which when it felt And that resistance it did bide For griefe it blush'd and so it di'd Yet lest it should prove ought unkind It contrite ashes left behind On a spark fastening on a Gentlewomans cheek IF this small spark which bore so thin a blaze Could in each part so much resentment raise And to your cheek so much of anguish waft And on your skins unblemisht margent graft Such signalls of its rigour oh then deeme What torments of a far more high esteeme My martyr'd heart must struggle with which fries In flames of Love first kindled by your eyes Ad Joannem Harmarum Libellum De Lue Venereâ exarantem QVas tibi praetendam grates quae dona rependam Harmare aut meritò ingenti quae serta refundam Qui gravidam morbis primo conamine Lernam Praegnantem malis foecundam discutis Hydram Vt faceres tantas prima Incrementaruinas Crudi nascentis tituli tu coeca recludis Arcana herbarum Naturae scrinia pandis Tu clausae exerces latebrosa cubilia terrae Pugâ—acem abstrusis Mineram quibus eruis antris Exâ—riae quae cruda luis cunabula damnet Et restag nantem morbi transfundet humorem Tuque poros reseras cutisque suburbia solvis Vt tomes excussi laxata per ostia morbi Effluat tenues sefe detrudat in auras Tu blando Aetnaeas subducis clystere flammas Et jecur immiti castigas putre Güaco Atque abster sivis terges polluta Diaetis Viscera tranquillo demulces pectora succo Qui rheuma effu sum torpenti compede sistat Herculeos tua jam manus est enixa labores Herculeos tua jam manus est partura triumphos Nam faustâ—è à pigro faecum detersit acervo Augiae staâ—ulum vappasque excussit inertes Suspecta Herculcae tandem est ac aemula clavae Quae foecunda tuae famulatur gloria pennae Nam Luis indomitae Lernam nova monstra subegit On the death of the much admired and much lamented Mr. Francis Quarles AMongst that solemne Traine of Friends which sing Thy Dirge great Soule and to thy Name do bâ—ing As to some shrine the sacrifice of praise Daigne to accept these course and home-spun Layes Alas what can the world expect from me As tribute to thy Hearse since if there be Within me any flame or heat divine That warms my brest 't was kindled first by thine And from that pure and active Fire did come Which is lockt up i' th Casquet of thy Tomb Whose heat perchance may thaw my barren eyes And make them shed some watrie Obsequies But cannot make my drowsie Fancie flame In sad and pious raptures to thy Name Or light some Poem up whose glimmering rayes About thy Name in time to come might blaze Or if it could that sickly Flame would be But a dim Index to thy memorie And only here remaine like those few bright Streaks in the aire when the expiring light Is blind with darknesse and the day is done To tell the world that there has been a Sun As he that would disband the Diamond must Encounter it with its owne proper dust So he that would enshrine thy Name in Verse Or strew some Epitaph upon thy Hearse Can never any pure or noble fire Into his dull unactive thoughts inspire Vnlesse that Fire his Fancie burnes with bee First lighted by a spark that flew from thee And as when he that frames a watch would see What loose distemper or infirmitie Is in the Fabrick how the wheels are set Or with what pace the sickly pulse does beat Straight to the Sun applies his eye and can Cure the disease by his Meridian So he that would write well and write of thee And regularly winde up an Elegie And in such equall poise his phansie set The pulse might with well-paced numbers beat Must all his lines proportion and make fit To goe by the Meridian of thy wit Thus from the duskie confines of thy urne Thou shalt again to th' bankrupt world return And after death Fame shall thee so preferre Be to thy selfe thy own Executer That all our summes of wit may seem to be But onely Legacies paid in by thee His Epitaph REader this Tombe is put in trust To keep a heap of learned dust Which we dare presume will shun The Fate of putrefaction For that salt which did remaine Cloyster'd up within his braine Will so preserve his Reliques they Shall never languish or decay However let our eyes returne Streams of teares unto his urne For those his Reliques sure will free From all corruptibilitie Or els contracting into one Will grow another Helicon Nor have we any cause to feare That we shall want the Muses there For when he died they did become Themselves the Inmates to his tombe A thankfull acknowledgement to those Benefactours that contributed to the re-edifying of Clare-Hall in Cambridge SHould we entomb your benefits within Vnthankfull silence so deform'd a sin No teares would expiate we might seeme to be Astonisht by some drowsie Lethargie Or blasted with some Apoplectique Fit VVhich had at once congeal'd both braine and wit VVe therefore to your Names devoutly pay The tribute of our thanks and would defray Our debt in nobler coyne could we but vie In words with our big thoughts or amplifie Our hands as wide as we can do our soules But this in us our thriftie Fate controules For you have snatcht us from the Eearth where we Lay wrapt up in our owne deformitie And have reduc'd a House that was become Both to it selfe and Founders name a tomb And like th' Idaea of the Chaos lay Deform'd and indigested by decay To shape and beauite and do so prolong Its fading lustre it againe growes young Like wither'd Aeson so that now we trust T will Phoenix-like revive from out its dust And grow into one Fabrick though 't was shrunk Before into a scatter'd heap and sunk Almost beneath its ruines to upbraid The coldnesse of these times which does invade Each hand and so benums it that we see It cannot open unto Charitie But to improve and widen out each Name Of yours to such a pacious length of Fame They may survive till time and they become Both Tenants and both Inmates to one tombe So that when Mauselaeum's shrink to dust And Obelisques of Brasse disband with rust When Pyramids themselves dissolve and lie Mauger their height low in obscuritie
when the Sun i' th nonage of the yeare Like a Bridegroom does appeare Sweet with the Balmy Perfumes of the East With Lights Embroidery drest And spangled o're with brightnesse does array That Planet with each Ray He glitters with a powerfull spark inspire Of thy Celestiall fire Into my frozen heart that there may be A flame blowne up in me Whose light may shine like the meridian sun In the dark horison Of my benighted soul and thence distill Into a pious rill Of contrite tears those clouds which do controule The prospect of my soule That so the beams of faith may clearly shine Amidst its Christalline That I may by th' infusion of their light Learn to spell Christs Crosse aright And as one touch from Moses did unlock The casquet of the rock And thaw'd its liquid treasures to repell The thirst of Israel So let this flame dissolve that masse of sin That lies wrapt up within The chambers of my heart that there may rise Two fountaines in my eyes Which may put out those scorching flames which were First fed and kindled there By that same hot Artillery which lust Into my eye-balls thrust And as when Feavers blaze within the blood And parch that purple flood The sparks and embers of them are by heat Still'd from the pores in sweat So when sin flames within me and does roule Its heat about my soule And sparkles in each facultie my eyes Being lusts Incendiaries Oh let this inward sicknesse by that fire Devotion does inspire Be still'd out at those pores o' th soule my eies In a liquid sacrifice Which gathering into one heap may swell Into a holy well Wherein when the old Dragon wounds me I May bath incessantly And having wash'd my festred wounds may be Sure both at once of cure and victorie On the death of a Prince a Meditation IN what a silence Princes passe away When they 're enfranchis'd from their shells of clay No thunder-clap rung out this Heroes knell And in loud accents to the world did tell He was deceas'd no trembling earth-quake shook The frame o' th world as if 't were Palsie-strook There was no bearded Comet did arise To light a torch up at his Obsequies And though so many men should have deceas'd When his great soule was from the flâ—sh releas'd That Charons Vessell should have ceas'd to float And he have cried give me another boat Not anie yet resign'd their vitall breath Obsequiously to wait on him in death Thus we may see Fates unrelenting knife Will even cut a Princes thred of life Nor can his spreading power inforce its strength Or his Dominions extend its length If from the urne his name first issue forth Not his tall titles or unfathom'd worth Can this Prerogative or Charter give That he his cheap dull vassall shall out-live And though the eyes o' th multitude before Follow'd his presence and did ev'n adore The earth that propp'd his feet yet when the rust Of 's monument shall mingle with his dust Contracted to a span and the rude wind Shall his abbreviated ashes find They cannot from his blast be so exempt But that he will disperse them to contempt So many graves his dust shall he being dead Obtaine yet he be no where buried Who then in Titles Crownes or Wealth would trust Since he can scarce assure himselfe his dust Even in the grave shall so protected be It shall be freed from forraign injurie To a Lady viewing her self in her Glasse LADY WHen Sicknesse Death's pale Herald does display His Ensignes in your face and does array Your drooping Beautie with an ashie hue You straight take counsell of your Glasse to view How much those roses that their blushes shed O're either cheek are shrunk or withered When any spot that lustre does imbase Which does improve the beauty of your face You have recourse unto your Glasse to see What part dares shelter that enormitie VVhen you with any fashion would comply You to your Mirrour straight imploy your eye To be inform'd what correspondence there Your shadow does with your faire substance beare If in your painting there some errour be Or in your dresse an incongruitie You from your glasse a certaine patterne take By which your selfe you ev'n a shadow make Since then in all things you your selfe apply Still to this Christall Index to discry Each blemish in your dresse and each defect That clouds your beautie and by that correct All trespasses you may instructed be By this to know too your Mortalitie Since that fraile Tenement you so perfume With clouds of Mitrhe and Cassia and consume So much to piece it up it may repell Th' assaults of Age and be defensible 'Gainst Times rude Onsets will scon fade away And languish to a ruinous decay And by its transitorinesse declare That you your selfe your shadowes Embleme are On the death of Sir Simon Harcourt slain at the taking in of Carigs-Main Castle in Ireland MAy that pure flame which heated Harcourts brest Break from the gloomy confines of that Chest VVhich circumscribes his hallow'd dust and sink Like a spent Meteor downe into my ink That that dull juice its heat may so refine Each drop of it may prove like that divine With which each verse of mine embalm'd shall be And like his fame last to Eternitie At common Funeralls each vulgar quill Into some broken rapture can distill And with the watry tribute of the eye Dissolve into some easie Elegie Should we not then pay to this honour'd Herse Our griefs drest up in more refined Verse And mix with it such a large streame of brine It might these precious Reliques even enshrine The gratefull wind would from his ashes sweep Such clouds of dust that if we could not weep 'T would throw them thence into our barren eyes And though unwilling force some tears to rise I am no Laureat nor does any Bay Surround my Temples if it did I l'd lay That wreath brave Harcourt on thy Tomb that wee At once might crowne thy victorie and thee But though I weare no Bayes in either eye Is worne a teare sorrowes best Liverie In which I 'le steep each verse that so their brine May distribute some salt to everie line And when my barren and exhausted eyes Grow bankrupt in their watry Obsequies And spend their stock too soon those stars which shin'd To light thee into th' world and did unwind The Fate of thy great actions sure will turne To tears and drop in gelly on thy Vrne Though thus two fountaines flow from either eye T' embalme thy dust my Phancy yet is dry But pardon me that on thy hallow'd tomb I 've stuck no Epitaph which might become An Index to past ages and display To times to come how through that purple sea Which from thy wounds in such a deluge ran Thy soule passed o're to th' Land of Canaan White with her innocence alas no stone Would serve to beare the sad Inscription For even that Marble that
my tongue in prayer Checking the wild rebellions of my earth And strangling of them in their birth That being devested of that earthy weight Which did oppresse and clog my Faith I might on wings of Contemplation flie And soare beyond the vaulted skie And by the scrutinie of Faith Opticks see What place in Heaven's design'd for mee Ep. What is that Faith you vaunt of I have read Natures large Book contemplated Philosophies myst'ries but ne're could know The cause from whence Faith first did flow Ch. You may in quest of Natures secrets end Myriads of years and ages spend Till you all knowledge to your selfe ingrosse Yet ne're know Faith till you can spell Christs Crosse A Collation between Death and Sleep DEath and his drowsie kinsman Sleep agree In all the symptomes of Conformitie â—leep's caus'd by eating for the naturall heat Entices exhalations from the meat Transfus'd to Chylus which the Braine possesse With an intoxicating drowsinesse Death too by fatall eating first came in When our first Parents willfully did sin And offer'd violence to Gods Decree Tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree And as when sootie night her darknesse sheds Through the vast Concave of the aire and spreads A Vaile o're bright Hyperion we devest Our bodies to compose our selves to rest So our enfranchis'd soules shall like wise be Disroab'd o' th weeds of their Mortalitie VVhen death shall an eternall night disperse Through all those Functions that with life commerce And as when the great eye o' th day displayes In the illuminated aire his Rayes The Light dispers'd in glimpses does inspire Our hands againe our bodies to attire So when the Trump at the last day shall all By its shrâ—ll Summons to Gods Audit call And Christs the Sun of Righteousnesse shall come To distribute to th' world a publike Doom Our moulder'd and disbanded bodies must Quit the close confines of their beds of dust To cloath again our widdow'd Soules and be Enstated both with Immortalitie In seipsum Febre iterum correptum pene confectum HEn me Qualis edax liquefactis Ossibus Ignis Incubat attritas quae lassat Flamma Medullas Quis Calor in Cineres redigit sinuosa Cerebri Tegmina quae tortos laxant Incendia nervos Quaeque fatiscentes obstipant Nubila sensus Et caecos volvunt adinertia Lumina Fumos Vt plane Aetnaei sum maesta Figura Camini Nam veluti Ignivemi serpunt è vertice Clivi Vndantes flammae fumis sulphure anhelat Moestus Apex montis coctoque bitumine fervet Dum glacie obstrictus torpèt pes montis inerti Qua Boreae afflatus torpentes evomit aeuras Quae macra effusis obstipant arva pruinis Frigora Plumatae sic dum nivis aemula pigros Invasere pedes caelefacta per Ilia serpunt Foecundi flammis ignes qui naribus balant Perque Apicem capitis fumo sa incendia volvunt In me congestas fundat puer Hydrius undas Huc glomerent Plëades nimbisque impactus Orion Implicit as nubes densa volumina aquarum Hic reserunt calidas quae sic effusa Favillas Ignitae febris deleant quâ totus aduror Et quâ marcentes populantur sanguinis artus Flamma potest febris tantos vibrare dolores O Deus aeterrae est qualis tunc flamma Gehennae On himselfe being stung by a Wasp When first this busie testie Wasp did fix His sting in me and did his venome mix With my untainted bloud my skin begun To swell to an Imposthumation How did each part by sympathie complaine Stretch'd and distorted on the rack of paine What flames did this Incendiarie fling From out the narrow quiver of his sting Into each part which through my veins were thrown And through each Nerve and Arterie were blown If then a Wasp can so afflict each sense How great must be the sting of conscience On the Nativitie of our Saviour VVHo can forget that ne're forgotten night That sparkled with such unaccustom'd Light Wherein when darknesse had shut in the day A Sun at midnight did his beams display And God who mans fraile house of earth compos'd Himselfe in a fraile house of earth enclos'd Who did controule the Fire Aire Sea and Earth Was clad with all these foure and had a birth In time who was begotten before time Received a birth or th' early Sun did climb Th' ascent o' th East whom the vast Aire and Main And Precincts of the earth could not confain Is circumscrib'd now in so briefe a roome Hee 's lodg'd i' th circuit of a Virgins womb Who light to him that was all Light did give And made him who was life it selfe to live Who in her arms bore him whose hand controules The massie Globe and bears up both the poles And what improv'd the Miracle begun He was at once her Father Spouse and son VVho then his Mother was by farre more old Yet equall age did with his Father hold VVho was a child yet with his word did make The world and with his voice this world can shake Now Truths great Oracle it selfe was come The Faithlesse Oracles were strucken dumb No marvell if the Shepherds ran to see Him that should everie Shepherds Shepherd bee VVho was the Door through whom a certain way To find out life for all lost sheep there lay And though this Sun of Righteousnesse did lie VVrapt up in louds of darke Obscurity Yet he could such a stock of light allow As did the Heavens with a new Starendow Which with its beames did gratefully attend Him who at first those streams of light did lend And by the Conduct of its Rayes did bring The Easterne Kings to see their heavenly King And though all Stars by Natures Lawes does run A course contrariant to the course o' th Sun Yet loe her Statutes violated were For here the Sun was followed by a Starre On Christs Passion a Descant DArknesse had now clos'd up the worlds bright eye And drawne a Maske of vapours o're the skie And all the beamy tapers of the night In sable clouds had muffled up their light T was Pietie called in their beames th 'ad been Found Accessarie else to such a sin They ne're could have assoill'd though from their sphears They should themselves have drop'd i' th shape of tears They had lent light and influence to betray Him from whose light they borrow'd every ray When with her pitchy Exhalation Night had thus vail'd the lustre of the sun A Cataract of armed men did powre Themselves into that Garden where each flowre By th' Incense of those Prayers that Christ expir'd A balmy stocke of fresh Perfumes acquir'd And being now broake in did forthwith run With glimmering torches to find out the Sun Yet could not this thick cloud of men benight This glorious Lamp the Fountaine of all light Till th' interposing of false Iudas lips Obscur'd his beams and caus'd a black Eclipse Yet when he snatcht his treacherous lips away He straight