But ah! however shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill, she must herself assay !
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put thy by-past perils in her way!
Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay:
For when we rage, advice is often seen,
By blunting us, to make our wits more keen.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others proof:
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms, that preach in our behoof.
O appetite! from judgment stand aloof.
The one a palate hath, that needs will taste,
Tho' reason weep, and cry, It is my last.
For further I could say this man's untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling,
Heard where his plants in other orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling,
Kuew vows were ever brokers to defiling:
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adult'rate heart.
Aud long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid;
What's to you sworn, to none was ever said.
For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,
Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow:
All my offences, that abroad you see,
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
Love made them not, with acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind:
They sought their shame, that so their shame did find.
And so much less of shame in me remains,
By how much of me their reproach contains.
Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
affection put to the smallest teen,
Or my
Or any of my leisures ever charmed:
Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
And reign'd commanding in his monarchy.
Look here what tributes wounded fancy sent me,
Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood;
Figuring, that they their passions likewise lent me,
Of grief and blushes aptly understood;
In bloodless white, and the encrimson'd mood,
Effects of terror, and dear modesty,
Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
And lo! behold these talents of their hair
With twisted metal amorously empleach'd,
I have receiv'd from many a several fair;
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
With th' annexions of fair gems enrich'd;
And deep-brain'd sonnets, that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality:
The diamond! why 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invis'd properties did tend:
The deep green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend :
The heaven-hued saphyr, and the ophal blend
With objects manifold; each several stone,
With wit well blazon'd, smil'd, or made some moan.
Lo! all these trophies of affection hot,
Of pensive and subdu'd desires, the tender;
Nature hath charg'd me, that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render :
That is, to you my origin and ender.
For these of force must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
O! then advance (of yours) that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise!
Take all these smiles unto your own command,
Hallow'd with sighs, that burning lungs did raise ;
What me your minister for you obeys,
Works under you, and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels, in combined sums.
Lo! this device was sent me from a nun,
Or sister sanctify'd, of holiest note,
Which late her noble suit in court did shun;
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms doat,
For she was fought by spirits of richest coat,
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
To spend her living in eternal love.
But O! my sweet, what labour is't to leave
The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives?
Playing the place which did no form receive:
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gives!
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle 'scapeth, by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.
O! pardon me, in that my boast is true;
The accident which brought me to her eye,
Upon the moment did her force subdue.
And now she would the caged cloister fly;
Religious love put out religious eye:
Not to be tempted, would she be immured;
And now to tempt, all liberty procured.
How mighty then are you, O hear me tell!
The broken bosoms that to me belong,
Have empty'd all their fountains in my well;
And mine I pour your ocean all among.
I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
Must for your victory us all congest,
As compound love to physic your cold breast.
My parts had power to charm a sacred sun;
Tho' disciplin'd, I dieted in grace,
Believ'd her eyes, when they t' assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place.
O! most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither string, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.
When thou impressest, what are precepts worth,
Of stale example? When thou wilt enflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame?
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst
And sweetness in the suffering pang it bears, (shame,
The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.
Now all these hearts, that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,
And supplicant, their sighs to you extend,
To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design;
And credent soul to that strong bonded oath,
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.
This said, his watry eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights, till then, were level'd on my face,
Each cheek a river running from a fount,
With brinish current downward flow'd apace.
Oh! how the channel to the stream gave grace'
Who glaz'd with crystal gate the glowing roses,
That flame thro' water which their hue incloses.
Oh, Father! what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear!
But with the inundation of the eyes
What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold, that is not warmed here ?
Ob, cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath!
Both fire from hence, and chill extincture hath:
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