And that white cloud divide
Into a doubtful twilight, then,
Then will your hidden pride
Raise greater fires in men.
LIKE to a bride, come forth, my book, at last,
With all thy richest jewels overcast ;
Say, if there be 'mongst many jems here, one
Deservelesse of the name of Paragon;
Blush not at all for that, since we have set
Some pearls on queens that have been counterfet.
THOU who wilt not love, doe this;
Learne of me what woman is.
Something made of thred and thrumme;
A mere botch of all and some;
Pieces, patches, ropes of haire;
Inlaid garbage ev'ry where.
Out-side silk, and out-side lawne,
Sceanes to cheat us, neatly drawne.
False in legs, and false in thighes,
False in breast, teeth, haire, and eyes;
False in head, and false enough,
Onely true in shreds and stuffe.
SUPREME FORTUNE FALLS SOONEST.
WHILE leanest beasts in pastures feed,
The fattest oxe the first must bleed.
So soft streams meet, so springs with gladder smiles
Meet after long divorcement by the iles,
When love, the child of likenesse, urgeth on
Their christal' natures to an union;
So meet stolne kisses, when the moonie nights
Call forth fierce lovers to their wisht delights;
So kings and queens meet, when desire convinces
All thoughts but such as aime at getting princes,
As I meet thee. Soule of my life and fame!
Eternall lamp of love! whose radiant flame
Out-glares the heav'ns 1Osiris; and thy gleams
Out-shine the splendour of his mid-day beams;
Welcome, O welcome, my illustrious spouse ;
Welcome as are the ends unto my vowes.
I! far more welcome then the happy soile,
The sea-scourg'd merchant, after all his toile,
Salutes with tears of joy; when fires betray
The smoakie chimneys of his Ithaca.
Where hast thou been so long from my embraces,
Poor pittyed exile? Tell me, did thy graces
Flie discontented hence, and for a time
Did rather choose to blesse another clime?
Or went'st thou to this end, the more to move me,
By thy short absence to desire and love thee?
Why frowns my sweet? Why won't my saint confer
Favours on me, her fierce idolater?
Why are those looks, those looks the which have been
Time-past so fragrant, sickly now drawn in
Like a dull twilight? Tell me, and the fault
Ile expiate with sulphur, haire, and salt;
And with the christal humour of the spring,
Purge hence the guilt, and kill this quarrelling.
Wo't thou not smile, or tell me what's amisse ?
Have I been cold to hug thee, too remisse,
Too temp'rate in embracing? Tell me, ha's desire
To thee-ward dy'd i'th'embers, and no fire
Left in this rak't up ash-heap, as a mark
To testifie the glowing of a spark?
Have I divorc't thee onely to combine
In hot adult'ry with another wine?
True, I confesse I left thee, and appeale
'Twas done by me, more to confirme my zeale,
And double my affection on thee; as doe those
Whose love growes more enflam'd by being foes.
But to forsake thee ever, co'd there be
A thought of such like possibilitie ?
When thou thy self dar'st say, thy iles shall lack
Grapes, before Herrick leaves canarie sack.
Thou mak'st me ayric, active to be born,
Like Iphyclus, upon the tops of corn.
Thou mak'st me nimble, as the winged howers,
To dance and caper on the heads of flowers,
And ride the sun-beams. Can there be a thing
Under the heavenly 'Isis, that can bring
More love unto my life, or can present
My genius with a fuller blandishment?
Illustrious Idoll! co'd th'Ægyptians seek
Help from the garlick, onyon, and the leek,
And pay no vowes to thee, who wast their best
God, and far more transcendent then the rest?
Had Cassius, that weak water-drinker, known
Thee in thy vine, or had but tasted one
Small chalice of thy frantick liquor; he,
As the wise Cato, had approved of thee.
Had not 2Jove's son, that proud Tyrinthian swain, (Invited to the Thesbian banquet) ta'ne Full goblets of thy gen'rous blood, his spright
Ne'r had kept heat for fifty maids that night.
Come, come and kisse me; love and lust commends
Thee and thy beauties; kisse, we will be friends
Too strong for fate to break us: Look upon
Me with that full pride of complexion,
As queenes meet queenes; or come thou unto me,
As Cleopatra came to Anthonie ;
When her high carriage did at once present
To the Triumvir love and wonderment.
Swell up my nerves with spirit; let my blood
Run through my veines like to a hasty flood;
Fill each part full of fire, active to doe
What thy commanding soule shall put it to;
And till I turne apostate to thy love,
Which here I vow to serve, doe not remove
Thy fiers from me; but Apollo's curse
Blast these like actions, or a thing that's worse,
When these circumstants shall but live to see
The time that I prevaricate from thee.
Call me the Sonne of Beere, and then confine
Me to the tap, the tost, the turfe; let wine
Ne'r shine upon me, may my numbers all
Run to a sudden death and funerall.
And last, when thee, dear spouse, I disavow,
Ne'r may prophetique Daphne crown my brow.
IMPOSSIBILITIES TO HIS FRIEND.
My faithfull friend, if you can see
The fruit to grow up, or the tree;
If you can see the colour come
Into the blushing peare or plum;
If you can see the water grow
To cakes of ice, or flakes of snow;
If you can see that drop of raine
Lost in the wild sea, once againe ;
If you can see how dreams do creep
Into the brain by easie sleep:
Then there is hope that you may see
Her love me once, who now hates me.
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