800

"O Night, thou furnace of foul reeking smoke,
Let not the jealous Day behold that face
Which underneath thy black all-hiding cloak
Immodestly lies martyr'd with disgrace!
Keep still possession of thy gloomy place,

That all the faults which in thy reign are made

May likewise be sepulchr'd in thy shade! 805

"Make me not object to the tell-tale Day!
The light will show, character'd in my brow,
The story of sweet chastity's decay,
The impious breach of holy wedlock vow;
Yea, the illiterate, that know not how

810

To cipher what is writ in learned books, Will quote my loathsome trespass in my looks.

"The nurse, to still her child, will tell my story, And fright her crying babe with Tarquin's

"Let my good name, that senseless reputation,
For Collatine's dear love be kept unspotted:
If that be made a theme for disputation,
The branches of another root are rotted,
And undeserv'd reproach to him allotted

That is as clear from this attaint of mine 825
As I, ere this, was pure to Collatine.

"O unseen shame! invisible disgrace!
O unfelt sore! crest-wounding, private scar!
Reproach is stamp'd in Collatinus' face,
And Tarquin's eye may read the mot afar,
How he in peace is wounded, not in war.

830

Alas, how many bear such shameful blows, Which not themselves, but he that gives them knows!

"The aged man that coffers-up his gold
Is plagu'd with cramps and gouts and painful
fits;

And scarce hath eyes his treasure to behold,
But like still-pining Tantalus he sits
And useless barns the harvest of his wits;
Having no other pleasure of his gain
But torment that it cannot cure his pain.

860

Even in the moment that we call them ours.

"Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring ;. Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;

The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing
What virtue breeds, iniquity devours.
We have no good that we can say is ours,
But ill-annexed Opportunity

66

Or kills his life or else his quality.

870

875

"O Opportunity, thy guilt is great! "T is thou that execut'st the traitor's treason. Thou sets the wolf where he the lamb may

get;

Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the sea

"To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,
To blot old books and alter their contents,
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings,
To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs,
To spoil antiquities of hammer'd steel,
And turn the giddy round of Fortune's
wheel;

"To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,

To make the child a man, the man a child,
To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter, ass
To tame the unicorn and lion wild,

To mock the subtle in themselves beguil'd,
To cheer the ploughman with increaseful

"Let him have time to tear his curled hair, 981
Let him have time against himself to rave,
Let him have time of Time's help to despair,
Let him have time to live a loathed slave,
Let him have time a beggar's orts to crave, 985
And time to see one that by alms doth live
Disdain to him disdained scraps to give.

"Let him have time to see his friends his foes,
And merry fools to mock at him resort;
Let him have time to mark how slow time goes
In time of sorrow, and how swift and short 991
His time of folly and his time of sport;

And ever let his unrecalling crime

Have time to wail the abusing of his time.

1025

"In vain I rail at Opportunity,
At Time, at Tarquin, and uncheerful Night;
In vain I cavil with mine infamy,
In vain I spurn at my confirm'd despite :
This helpless smoke of words doth me no right.
The remedy indeed to do me good
Is to let forth my foul defiled blood.

"Poor hand, why quiver'st thou at this decree?

Honour thyself to rid me of this shame;
For if I die, my honour lives in thee;
But if I live, thou liv'st in my defame.

1030

Since thou couldst not defend thy loyal dame,

But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set,
Each flower moist'ned like a melting eye;
Even so the maid with swelling drops gan wet
Her circled eyne, enforc'd by sympathy
Of those fair suns set in her mistress' sky, 1230
Who in a salt-wav'd ocean quench their light,
Which makes the maid weep like the dewy
night.

A pretty while these pretty creatures stand,
Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling:
One justly weeps; the other takes in hand 1235
No cause, but company, of her drops spilling.
Their gentle sex to weep are often willing,

Grieving themselves to guess at others' smarts,

And then they drown their eyes or break their hearts.