BEAUMONT. - FLETCHER.

CAREW. 129

FRANCIS BEAUMONT. 1585-1616.

What things have we seen

Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtile flame,

As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,

And resolved to live a fool the rest

Of his dull life.

Letter to Ben Jonson.

JOHN FLETCHER. 1576-1625.

Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
Upon an "Honest Man's Fortune."

THOMAS CAREW. 1589-1639.

He that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

Disdain Returned.

Then fy betimes, for only they
Conquer love, that run away.

Conquest by Flight

SIR THOMAS OVEBBURY.

1581-1613.

In part to blame is she,

Which hath without consent bin only tride:
He comes to neere that comes to be denide.*

A Wife. St. 36.

GEORGE WITHER, 1588-1667.

Shall I, wasting in despair,

Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care,
'Cause another's rosy are?

Be she fairer than the day,

Or the flow'ry meads in May,
If she be not so to me,

What care I how fair she be? †

The Shepherd's Resolution.

*Cf. Montague, page 213.

† Shall I like a hermit dwell
On a rock or in a cell,

calling home the smallest part
That is missing of my heart,
To bestow it where I may

Meet a rival every day?

It she undervalue me

What care I how fair she be?

Attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh.

FRANCIS QUARLES. 1592-1044.

Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.

Emblems. Book ii. 2,

This house is to be let for life or years;

Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears; Cupid't has long stood void; her bills make

known,

She must be dearly let, or let alone.

Ibid. Book ii. 10.

GEORGE HERBERT. 1593-1632.

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,

The bridal of the earth and sky.

Virtue.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie.

Ibid.

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for thy laws

Makes that and the action fine. The Elixir.

A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice.

The Church Porch.

Dare to be true, nothing can need a lie ;

A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.*

Ibid.

The worst speak something good; if all want

sense,

God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence.

Ibid.

Bibles laid open, millions of surprises.

Sin.

Man is one world, and hath

Another to attend him.

Man.

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

The Pulley.

SIR JOHN SUCKLING. 1609-1641.

Her feet beneath her petticoat,

Like little mice stole in and out,

As if they feared the light;
But oh! she dances such a way!

No sun upon an Easter-day

Is half so fine a sight.

On a Wedding.

And he that does one fault at first
And lies to hide it, makes it two.

Watts. Against Lying.

Her lips were red, and one was thin,
Compared with that was next her chin;
Some bee had stung it newly.

Why so pale and wan, fond lover,
Prithee, why so pale?

Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?

Prithee, why so pale?

"T is expectation makes a blessing dear;

Ibid.

Sung.

Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it

were.

Against Fruition.

ROBERT HERRICK. 1591-1660.

Some asked me where the Rubies grew,

And nothing I did say ;

But with my finger pointed to

The lips of Julia.

The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.

Some asked how Pearls did grow, and where?
Then spoke I to my Girl,

To part her lips, and showed them there

The quarelets of Pearl.

Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep

A little out, and then,

Ibid.