'To thee, to thee, my heaved-up hands appeal, Not to seducing lust, thy rash relier:

I sue for exiled majesty's repeal;

640

Let him return, and flattering thoughts retire:
His true respect will prison false desire,

And wipe the dim mist from thy doting eyne,
That thou shalt see thy state and pity mine.'

'Have done,' quoth he: my uncontrolled tide
Turns not, but swells the higher by this let.
Small lights are soon blown out, huge fires abide,
And with the wind in greater fury fret:
The petty streams that pay a daily debt

645

To their salt sovereign, with their fresh falls' haste
Add to his flow, but alter not his taste.'

650

'Thou art,' quoth she, 'a sea, a sovereign king;
And, lo, there falls into thy boundless flood
Black lust, dishonour, shame, misgoverning,
Who seek to stain the ocean of thy blood.
If all these petty ills shall change thy good,

Thy sea within a puddle's womb is hearsed,
And not the puddle in thy sea dispersed.

655

'So shall these slaves be king, and thou their slave;
Thou nobly base, they basely dignified;
Thou their fair life, and they thy fouler grave:

660

Thou loathed in their shame, they in thy pride:

The lesser thing should not the greater hide;

The cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot,
But low shrubs wither at the cedar's root.

663

'So let thy thoughts, low vassals to thy state'

'No more,' quoth he; 'by heaven, I will not hear thee:

Yield to my love; if not, enforced hate,

Instead of love's coy touch, shall rudely tear thee;

670

675

680

That done, despitefully I mean to bear thee

Unto the base bed of some rascal groom,
To be thy partner in this shameful doom.'

This said, he sets his foot upon the light,
For light and lust are deadly enemies:
Shame folded up in blind concealing night,
When most unseen, then most doth tyrannize.

The wolf hath seized his prey, the poor lamb cries;
Till with her own white fleece her voice controll'd
Entombs her outcry in her lips' sweet fold:

For with the nightly linen that she wears
He pens her piteous clamours in her head,
Cooling his hot face in the chastest tears
That ever modest eyes with sorrow shed.

O, that prone lust should stain so pure a bed!
The spots whereof could weeping purify,
Her tears should drop on them perpetually.

But she hath lost a dearer thing than life,
And he hath won what he would lose again:
This forced league doth force a further strife;
This momentary joy breeds months of pain;
This hot desire converts to cold disdain:

665. low shrubs] Hyphened in Q, Q2.

666. state-] Malone. state.Sewell. state, Q1Q2Q5Q6Q7. state. Q3 Q4

668. to] not Q7.

not,] to Q7.

669. Instead] Q7. In steed Qi Q2 Q3Q4 In stead Q5Q6.

671. the] some Q3.

675. blind concealing] blind-con-
cealing S. Walker conj.

679. lips'] Malone. lips Qq.
680. nightly] mighty Q5Q6

684. prone] Q.QzQ4. proud Q3.

foule Q5Q6Q7. foul Gildon.

688. lose] Q3Q7. loose The rest.

685

690

Pure Chastity is rifled of her store,

And Lust, the thief, far poorer than before.

695

Look, as the full-fed hound or gorged hawk,
Unapt for tender smell or speedy flight,
Make slow pursuit, or altogether balk
The prey wherein by nature they delight,
So surfeit-taking Tarquin fares this night:

His taste delicious, in digestion souring,

Devours his will, that lived by foul devouring.

700

O, deeper sin than bottomless conceit

Can comprehend in still imagination!
Drunken Desire must vomit his receipt,
Ere he can see his own abomination.
While Lust is in his pride, no exclamation
Can curb his heat or rein his rash desire,
Till, like a jade, Self-will himself doth tire.

705

And then with lank and lean discolour'd cheek,

With heavy eye, knit brow, and strengthless pace,

Feeble Desire, all recreant, poor and meek,

710

Like to a bankrupt beggar wails his case:

The flesh being proud, Desire doth fight with Grace,
For there it revels, and when that decays

The guilty rebel for remission prays.

So fares it with this faultful lord of Rome,

715

Who this accomplishment so hotly chased;

For now against himself he sounds this doom,

That through the length of times he stands disgraced:

She says, her subjects with foul insurrection
Have batter'd down her consecrated wall,
And by their mortal fault brought in subjection
Her immortality, and made her thrall
To living death and pain perpetual:

725

Which in her prescience she controlled still,

But her foresight could not forestall their will.

Even in this thought through the dark night he stealeth,

A captive victor that hath lost in gain;

730

Bearing away the wound that nothing healeth,

The scar that will, despite of cure, remain;

Leaving his spoil perplex'd in greater pain.

She bears the load of lust he left behind,
And he the burthen of a guilty mind.

735

He like a thievish dog creeps sadly thence;
She like a wearied lamb lies panting there;
He scowls, and hates himself for his offence;

She, desperate, with her nails her flesh doth tear;

He faintly flies, sweating with guilty fear;

740

She stays, exclaiming on the direful night;

He runs, and chides his vanish'd, loathed delight.

He thence departs a heavy convertite;

She there remains a hopeless cast-away;

He in his speed looks for the morning light;

745

She prays she never may behold the day,

For day,' quoth she, 'night's 'scapes doth open lay,
And my true eyes have never practised how
To cloak offences with a cunning brow.

'They think not but that every eye can sce

The same disgrace which they themselves behold;

722. insurrection] resurrection Q7.
724. subjection] subjection: Q7.
727. prescience] presence Q7.
728. forestall] forest, all Q7.

729. dark night] Hyphened in Q,

740. sweating] swearing Q7.
744. hopeless] hoptlesse Q4.

747. night's 'scapes] nights scapes
QiQ2 Q3 Q4 night scapes Q5Q6 night
scapes Q7.

750

And therefore would they still in darkness be,
To have their unseen sin remain untold;
For they their guilt with weeping will unfold,
And grave, like water that doth eat in steel,
Upon my cheeks what helpless shame I feel.'
Here she exclaims against repose and rest,
And bids her eyes hereafter still be blind.
She wakes her heart by beating on her breast,

755

And bids it leap from thence, where it may find

760

Some purer chest to close so pure a mind.

Frantic with grief thus breathes she forth her spite
Against the unseen secrecy of night:

'O comfort-killing Night, image of hell! Dim register and notary of shame!

765

Black stage for tragedies and murders fell!
Vast sin-concealing chaos! nurse of blame!
Blind muffled bawd! dark harbour for defame!
Grim cave of death! whispering conspirator
With close-tongued treason and the ravisher!

770

'O hateful, vaporous and foggy Night! Since thou art guilty of my cureless crime, Muster thy mists to meet the eastern light,

Make war against proportion'd course of time;
Or if thou wilt permit the sun to climb

775

His wonted height, yet ere he go to bed,
Knit poisonous clouds about his golden head.

'With rotten damps ravish the morning air;

Let their exhaled unwholesome breaths make sick
The life of purity, the supreme fair,

780

Ere he arrive his weary noon-tide prick;

And let thy misty vapours march so thick