WITS PILGRIMAGE, (by Poetical Essays) Through a World of amorous Sonnets, Soule-passions, and other Passages, Divine, Philosophical, Moral, Poetical, and Political. By JOHN DAVIES.  
Tucunda vicissitudo rerum.  
AT LONDON, Printed for john Browne, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunston's Churchyard in Fleetstreet,   

To the Right noble, and Highly honoured Lord Philip Herbert. Earl of Mountgomery and Baron of Shurland. etc.  

Not for thou hadst a Prince unto thy Sire,  
Nor, for thou hast a Monarch to thy friend,  
Nor for thou dost to honours height aspire,  
Nor, for thou shouldst my Book, or me defend,   

Do I appropriate the same to Thee:  
But, to this end, that while it lives, it may  
Divulge how dear thou wert to worthless me,  
That tasted to thee this lov'd-lothd Essay.   

Yet, if therein be aught that stirs thy blood  
To boil with h●at for thy wished health unfit,  
I have it mixed I hope with so much good  
As thou shalt have no hurt by tasting it:   

For, I would taste a great part of my Bane  
Ere thou shouldst taste what should thee least deprave:  
Sith thou helpest all (thy nature's so human)  
That (sick in mind) seek what they ought to have.   

And where some Spirits, that rise from Holes obscure,  
To Glories height, as proud, as scornful prove,  
(Till hate of all (Pride's hire) their falls procure)  
Thou GREATNESS bear'st as thee it could not move.   

Showing the difference ●ixt the highly bor●e  
(As nobly bred) and those, in either, base:  
For, HONOURS Children do hi● gracc adorn:  
But, Baseness Brats Her glory quite disgrace.   

Well knew that King▪ and great Philosopher  
(Whose Arms of Love, and Power uphold thee will)  
That He, on Thee did Honour well confer,  
Sith, with his grace, thou dost him honour still▪   

Long may (much honoured Earl) that grace to Thee  
Attain increase, till the extremity  
With unremoved favour stayed be▪  
The surest Stay of earths felicity:  
That after Ages may report, and see,  
King james made One, that God made great to be.   

The Book to his Patroné.  
If I thy Blood do kindly war●e, 〈…〉,  
Warm my Sires Blood with comfort of thy love.   The most free, bounden, and unalterable humble lover of your Honour, Name, and Family. john Davies of Hereford.  

Again, To the same truelie-noble Earl, and his most honourable other half Sir james Haies knight, etc.  
Sigh God and King, 
He is truly liberal and maguanimous which delights more in good renown the money. Seneca.  and your minds sympathy  
Have made you Two, an undivided One,  
(One, as of two love makes an Unity,)  
I cannot give a Gift to one alone:  
For (will I, nill I) if to one I send  
A token of my love, or loves desire,  
That sending to the other must extend,  
Sith lou● doth make your Union so entire!  
Your Sovereign (that with judgements Sharpest Eye  
Transpearceth all that is opposed to it)  
Saw ye were made for jove of Majesty, 
That bounty and beneficence that stands in travail & diligat is both m●rehones● and also spreads further, & is able to profit mor● Cicero.   
Sith careless ye were of more* benefit.  
O they are worthy to be Minions  
To God, and King that love but for their love:  
Who, to them both, and their dominions,  
Yield fruits of sweet. Affects for booths behove.  
No Sun ere saw two Faurites of a King  
(For, for the most part, such hurt Great, and small)  
More dear to all, for the●● Place managing,  
Then your (dear Pair) priest to do good to all!  
In love contending who, for virtues sake,  
(O blessed Strife excelling Unity!)  
Shall do most good, & most*mens bounden make  
To you, to whom the World itself would tie:  
Hold on rare Spirits; 
As the touch● sto● trieth gold so gold tr●eth men. Plato.  this emulation  
Is suchas, with fine force, your fames advance  
Beyond the compass of Confusion,  
And reach of Envy, slander, and Mischance.  
O stríue you stíll to show the World ye scorn  
To turn such public grace to private* game: 
He is a vicious pers● saith S. A●●gustine. that atten ●deth only his own profit.   
(As if you were for your * selves only borne)  
Sith all, but Virtue, is as vile as vain:  
And if I live, you, living thus, I may  
Legend your lives in Lives that scorn decay:  
And, Skill shall fail me but I'll place ye near  
Cestor, and Pollux in the Heavenly Sphere.  The since are lover of your heroical virtues john Davies,  

The Book to Gravity.  
THou that dost knit the Brow to austere looks,  
At what but seems; or else is lewd or light;  
And look'st for wisdom oft in witless books,  
(Stern Gravity) avert from me thy sight▪  
I am the Issue of a labouring brain,  
〈◊〉 all kind of Fancies, breeding be:  
Goo●▪ bad, indifferent, all, of either Strain  
Some as unfit, as some are fit for thee.  
I probably presume thou canst not love,  
Sith Saturn fits above fair Venus' sway  
Than I am not for thee, for I do move  
But in her Sphere that bears the world away.  
Yet if (unlike thyself) thou longest to see  
What, who, and whence I am, then smooth thy frnt  
And look on That which I have good in me  
And for that good hold me in good account:  
For, if (but like a flesh-fly) thou wilt light  
On nought but Sores, and shun the soundest parts  
Then nought sublunary can thee delight:  
For all 〈◊〉 faults though some have perfect parts  
I 〈◊〉 my Lines reach not to those Respects  
〈◊〉 ●ouch Religion: State, or Policy.  
〈◊〉 not with Causes of Effects  
〈◊〉 greater than loves large capacity:  
But in round rhymes (with Reason Biaced) I  
Do run those Points that ponit at loves delight:  
And if some Rubs do make me run awry  
Yet may I, on this Ground well run aright:  
But, howsorre I run, stop not my Race,  
That tends but to the Mistress full of grace.   

The Author to his Muse.  
WHy mak'st (fond Muse) a mixture so unmeet  
Of good, and bad in this thou hast composed  
Sith good and bad, do mar all where they meet,  
If they, in one by arms of Art be closed?  
Is it because thou so woulest Symbolize  
The nature of the All, in nature bred,  
Whose good doth bad, and bad doth good comprise  
So as they scarce can be distinguished?  
Or istsith thou wouldst please the good and bad,  
And so (like Sin) a people-pleaser be?  
Else be't because that vice & virtues trade  
Is measured by the rule of Vanity?  
What ere it be it is far out of Square,  
If it be tried by true Decorums Squire;  
Yet skills it not: sith out so all things are  
That made are of Earth, Water, air, and Fire!  
Then these, of Wit's fire made, for Air of Fame,  
(Yet some are Earthly, or with folly flow)  
The fire is faulty, and the Air too blame:  
Yet heat and moisture makes young things to grow  
But yet if these grow great, and swell with praise  
more than with numbers, or invention,  
Then good and bad, conjoined ' in these Essays,  
Doth please the World, best pleased with both in one.  
Yet what is got by pleasing one so base  
But highest displeasure of the Highest of all,  
Abuse of Nature, Art, Wit, Time, and Grace,  
Abuse to please ABUSES General:  
Then take this for a vantage, World, for I  
Will please thee so no more, but live, and die  
Thy feigned friend, or open Enemy.   

Of myself.  
WHat mean I miscreant my Brains to beat  
To forge these Fancies light as Levity,  
To set the World on fire which amorous heat,  
That now lies drowned in such vanity?  
I know I should not do it, and I know  
This knowledge much exaggerates my blame:  
Why do I then my science herein show,  
Where greatest skill doth merit greater shame?  
And who doth love this vain of fancy vain  
But vainest mea? then, o how vain am I  
That thus the powers of my wit do strain,  
To please vain Skums with scum of vanity?  
H●re Wit itself (though wit itself I had)  
Wants skill to coin excuse the faults so fowl:  
Then, Reason run right, whether dost; thou gad?  
Will't thou mislead the blind, thy Queen, my Soul?  
To please base Earth, wilt thou the, Heavens displease,  
That knowest so well the Earth yields nought but dust?  
Seekest thou for fame with my whole man's disease,  
That wotst all fame, but virtues is unjust?  
Or yet (by Faith instructed) know'st thou not  
(For, Faith, in Truth, knows more than thou canst know)  
That names of famous men away shall rot,  
If from such graceless Grounds their fames do grow?  
Art thou my guide, and yet dost me direct  
To labyrinths of love, where we are lost?  
Dost thou (most wise) cause this most fond effect?  
Or'●rossest me, sigh thee I oft have crossed?  
Ah Reason wilt thou now to Passion turn,  
That wast the Prince predominating it?  
Shall thy Slave (frail Affection) thee oreturne?  
And, mad to make me, wilt thou strain thy wit?  
Will't thou instruct me so to please the sense  
That none but sensual men shall like my Lines?  
And misinform the best Intelligence,  
That pays belief to thee, and thine assigns?  
O Reaso● weigh thyself in thine own Scales,  
Ponder thy power which is as good, as strong:  
Be thou thyself, though thou art wronged by Fools,  
And right that wrong with justice, not with wrong.  
I see thou hearst me, for thou teachest me,  
To teach thee what we both should learn and do:  
Thou prompst me now, wherein I erred through thee;  
And bidst me those light Lines again undo;  
And tie them to the lasting Lord of love,  
With such a knot as near shall be undone:  
Those lines will draw, and hold, and stay, and move.  
Sith they are by the hand of Virtue spun.  
Then Reason I acquit thee from disgrace,  
Sith thus thou promptst me what I ought to write:  
Let Tyrant shame with blood still fill my face.  
For so abusing thy right ruling might.  
My friends (though frail as I am) pres me still  
To press these lines (more frail) to public view:  
If I should say it is against my will  
I should speak truly, and yet most untrue:  
For my wills fixed my fast friends still to please:  
But yet still wavers thus, to publish these,  
Yet sith, in wavering wise, thus fixed, it stands  
Fame's wind, Wits weathercock, my will, commands.   

Wits Pilgrimage.  

(ay)  
o'er those fair Alps, thy Breasts, (that naked lie  
Towards the blushing heaven of thy bright face)  
When as I travel with my wandering Eye  
The Snows twixt Them, and That, do let her pace:  
For, passing through the Valley of thy Neck  
Mine Eye there sticks, as drowned in those snows,  
Yet, thy kind heat the same doth countercheck:  
So, to thy Chins fair Cliff●; on Milk, she flows!  
Where, being come, she breathes, and looketh back,  
Dazzled to see those passed- Beauties Deeps!  
So, there she rests, as on the rock of Wrack:  
With sense whereof twixt Fear, and Hope she weeps:  
And, dares not higher look, sith thine Eyes Beams  
Draw clouds thereto, and turn those clouds to Streams.   

(2)  
WEearie of Rest, thus resting in the Clift  
Of this fair Cliff (thine Alabaster chin.)  
She now begins herself aloft to lift,  
But ends her course, soon as she doth begin:  
For, having scaled, the neighbouring hill, thy lip,  
There sound sleeps she, drunk with Cherry-wine;  
From it (being moist, and slippie) she doth slip,  
To thy fair Teeth, which whitest white refine.  
From whence (awaked by thy words silver sound)  
She steals through the sweet Rose-banks of thy face;  
Where she is caught, and at their pleasure bound,  
Till thine Eye-beams the Bond break through their grace:  
To which clear Suns (thus drawn,) therein she spies  
loves heaven: and still there, drowned in bliss, she lies!   

(3)  
Yet, by the accidental rising-fall  
Of one Hairs glittering Sunbeam, on thine Eyes,  
Mine Eye looked over that heavens Crystal wall  
To see from whence that bright Beam should arise:  
And, as she looked beyond the milky Way  
That leads to loves high Court, she might descry  
Ten thowzand Sunbeams, ranged in fair array,  
With Love, and Wonder to surprise the Eye:  
To which, being drawn by those pure threads of Gold,  
She, (as the Fly is by the Spider wrapped)  
Stirring to go, the more They her enfold;  
So, there she rests, with Love, and Wonder rapt:  
Where, being blinded with those radiant Rai●s,  
I could not see the Rest, the rest to praise.   

(4)  
GRace of that Goodness which itself doth grace:  
virtues ●are beauty, in thick Darkness bright,  
Life of those Lines that meat the loveliest Face.  
And perfect Period of true loves delight:  
The Terms that bound thy'vnualuable price  
Are Words of Wonder, wondering at thy Worth!  
Ar●htype of of Beauty! Antitype of Vice!  
LOVES Holy-Land, that brings His Manna forth!  
Whose Mouth breathes forth such Vapour, in such Clouds,  
As strait dissolves to Nectar fluently!  
Whose Breast the Treasure of hid Wisdom shrouds:  
Which makes Thee most resemble the most High!  
Then, highest Love bounding to the Highest of all  
In the rebound, on Thee, his F●rme must fall!   

(5)  
DRead Majesty! that shinest through Beauty's Skies  
Regard me, cold Glass, burning with thy Beams;  
Which lighting on the Crystal of mine Eyes,  
Do burn my heart, through Them, with Heats extremes!  
To whose amazing Light when I draw near  
I frieze, with Fear, and flame in loves desire:  
Then, let thy Favours glances thaw this Fear:  
And, quench, with dearest Drops of Grace, this fire.  
Yet in these sacred Flames I'll sacrifice  
The heart of my poor Heart, to grace thy power;  
So thou, with Love, wilt grace that exercise,  
And, give me heart, when flames my heart devour:  
I gave thee mine, o then give thine to me  
That Mine, and Thine, be One twixt Me, and Thee!   

(6)  
Even as the Persians anciently were used  
With reverence to salute the rising Sun,  
And as his Beams were more in't them infused  
The more Devotion did their Souls orerunne:  
So, when Thou risest in loves Hemisphere  
Desire salutes Thee with a mild aspect:  
But, to His Zenuh, when Thou drawest near,  
Thou Him enragest with Beams more direct!  
I do desire Thou shouldst look right on me,  
Although those Looks do but enrage Desire:  
Yet if that rage may rest itself in Thee,  
Let all thy Beams set all my All on sire:  
Where, if I burn to Cinders, yet I shall  
Burn in thy love, more dear than all that Att.   

(7)  
WIthin thine eyes (the Mirrors of my mind)  
Mine eyes behold themselves, wherein they see  
(As through a Glass) what in my Soul I find;  
And so my Souls right shape I see in thee.  
This makes me love thee, (for our like we love)  
Which makes me love in thine Eyes still to pry;  
Because I see, in Thine, how mine do move,  
And, mine do move (as thine do) lovingly.  
Then, look in mine, and thou shalt see thine Eyes  
Attest, for thee, what mine for me protest:  
Then, let thy tongue no longer subtilize,  
But, say thou lov'st me (as I love thee) best:  
For, if we see the Hart-Roote in the eyen  
Thy eyes are false or It is truly mine.   

(8)  
SOme say they wonder how so well I write,  
(Although my lines to no great wonders stretch)  
Sith Art, my skill, of Theft cannot indite;  
Yet, I indite with skill above my reach!  
Love learns me Art, which Art inspires my Muse:  
For Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric: and the rest:  
(Music especially) loves art doth use:  
For, love, untuned, in Tune, is best expressed!  
Love, most divine, makes men do miracles:  
And, most human love, Wonders doth produce:  
But, Beauty's love, in virtues Spectacles,  
Makes men do wonders most miraculous!  
Then, they a wonder do not understand  
That wonder, sith an Angel guides my hand.   

(9)  
WHen first I learned the A, B, C of love,  
I was unapt to learn; and sith, a Cross  
Crossed my way to them, I was loath to prove  
That learning that might tend but to my loss.  
The Vowels (Looks) that spelled mute Consonants  
I hardly could distinguish what they were;  
And, sith the rest to them were Disonantes  
To make them join with Vowels, cost me dear!  
The Mutes, and Consonants, being Deeds, and Words,  
Were harsh without sweet vowels, (sweetest Looks)  
My youth was spent (for age such skill affords)  
E'er them I knew with, and without, my books:  
But (Tears) the Liquides, still being in my Eyes,  
I saw, through them at last, loves mysteries.   

(10)  
THe Parts of all loves speech, are eighty eight,  
(A fatal number, but more fatal speech)  
And, long it is ere we men learn the sleight;  
But Women strait do learn, and we men teach.  
If eight, to eighty eight be multiplied,  
loves language doth more Verbs than Nouns embrace:  
Then, full of adverbs is the same beside,  
Of Swearing, Flattering, Choosing Time, and Place.  
Why eighty eight Parts just: no more, nor less?  
This speech is figurative, A few, for more:  
For, all the parts, Speech never can express,  
Sith ever they increase in strength, and Store!  
Then, if Time raise his arms above his bounds,  
loves speech will Tower, till Error it confounds.   

(11)  
Forbidden Hopes o why were ye forbid,  
Since ye direct your aim at Bliss of Blisses;  
Which is most evident, yet most is hid  
Apparent on her lips hid in her kisses?  
Can labour of the lips deserve such meed?  
Or, bodies travel earn such recompense?  
That, with but scarce a view, each sense doth seed  
And with a touch revives the buried sense?  
Is Sense made capable of such high grace?  
And yet forbid to hope the same to have?  
Is Heaven most conspicuous in her Face?  
Yet must not Sense there hope itself to save?  
Ah what is this, but sense to Sense to glive  
To make it feel in death, what 'tis to live?   

(12)  
FOrbidden hopes? (the comforts of my Care,  
Yet Care that kills all comforts cheering me)  
I am no more myself the whiles you are:  
And, yet much more than so, the whiles you be.  
If ye stay with me, from myself I run:  
If you part from me, past myself I fly;  
Stay, or part from me, death I cannot shun:  
With, or without your help, I needs must die.  
I needs must die, for life-inspiring you:  
And die, if die you do by whom I live:  
I do decay when I do ye renew;  
I grieve with you, but more without you grieve:  
O then what choice remains to wretched me  
But to be nought, or not at all to Be.   

(13)  
FOrbidden-Hopes, the Heavens of my Hell,  
O cease your Heau'nly-Hellish Regiment:  
My heart (the Hellish Heaven wherein you dwell)  
You rule at once with joy, and Dryryment!  
Sith Contradictions ye do then maintain  
And that they reason resist that such defend,  
Then o part not my single heart in twain,  
To make it double, for this double end.  
The joys you yield, are forged but by Conciete;  
The griefs you give have ever real been:  
Your pleasures are accomplished by Dentile;  
Which, with their ending, endless Woes begin:  
Sith endless Woes your ending pleasures give,  
Die, die (damned Hopes) and let me die to live.   

(14)  
FOrbidden-Hopes, why flutter ye in Air,  
Above the Compass of your Sphere assigned?  
More Fit (how ere unfit) were deep despair,  
Then Hopes forbidden to the mounting Mind.  
Forbidden-Hopes why gaze ye on the Sun,  
(Like Bastard Egletts) that quite blinds your Eyes?  
For justice Son such Hopes hath oft orerune,  
And moult those Hopes forbidden in their rise.  
Forbidden-Hopes, why do ye imp your Wings  
With Feathers culled from the Birds of Love?  
Sith Doves are harmless without Gall, or Stings:  
But both at once you make your Subject prove:  
Then, ofrom whence have such strange Hopes their being,  
That see by blindness, and are blind by seeing!   

(15)  
IF those translucent Lamps thine heavenly eyes  
Shall stretch their beams of comfort to my passion  
I still will gaze on thy Cheeks (Beauties Skies)  
With, eyes of Wonder, Love, and Adoration!  
For, if the Gods their Heavens have made in Stars  
Thine Eyes, bright Stars, contain right Deities;  
Who are the Precedents of Peace, or wars,  
And either cause, as either fall, or rise  
Then may I (with no Godless Nations) take  
Those Stars for Deities, and them adore,  
They having power or Peace or War to make  
To make my peace, sith war hath made me poor:  
For, loves hot wars Life's Store have wasted quite  
Then grace the Foil, thus soiled to grace thy might.   

(16)  
WHen well I weigh thy fashions, and thy Form,  
(Both being of Celestial temperature,  
Which no Change can endamage, or deform)  
My love becomes, like Them, as firm, as pure!  
Thy Soul upon so sweet an Organ plays  
As makes the Parts, she plays, as sound, as sweet;  
Which sounds the heavenly Setters, and thy praise;  
The Close whereof with groundless bliss doth meet!  
This makes desire, in me, (unlike Desire)  
Like Crystal, cold, and clear, through heat, and cold;  
This makes me flame, like Sol, with heavenly fire,  
Which fructifies mine Earth, as virtue would:  
Then, what I am, at best, I am of Thee,  
virtues best Instrument to fashion me.   

(17)  
THy near too much prized Person (dearest Deer)  
The, past most precious, sacred Temple is,  
Wherein pure Chastity, and Beauty clear,  
Espoused are to Love, and lovers bliss:  
Thy mildness makes Pride poor, and Meekness rich:  
Thy looks raise Hope, yet staidly keep it down  
Within the compass of a modest pitch:  
Wherein thy highest grace, with grace, is shown.  
Thou art a Pearl which nothing can relent  
But Vinegar made of Devotions Tears:  
If it be counterfeit, or evil bent,  
For it thou hast, nor heart, nor Eyes, nor Ears:  
But, heart, and Eyes, and Ears thou hast for mine,  
Whose heart, and Eyes and Ears, are ruled by Thine.   

(18)  
TO touch on Sylla, yet to scape the same,  
And yet be drowned in the havens mouth,  
Is of all griefs the great'st, and greatest blame  
To Fortune, or Discretion, Pains, or Sloth.  
But I, that scaped the Gulf and Rock of Wrack,  
(Which in the Ocean of my boundless love  
I found to draw me on, and put me back)  
Am like, in my Hopes Haun, the like to prove;  
For when I hoped I had Thee as mine own  
(O too too credulous!) am like to those  
That love, by which for mine, thou long wast known,  
Through winds of misreport, which Envy blows:  
But, if these bitter blasts thee from me bear,  
My Hopes sink, causeless, where there was no fear.   

(19)  
THe Stoics, in their strange Philosophy,  
Make All, and Nothing, nothing but all one:  
Who say that this World Is: but yet deny  
That it hath any Essence of the own.  
But, in our loves (dear Love) the same is true:  
For, Thou, b●●ng All, art mine, that Nothing am?  
I Nothing am that is not All thy due,  
So, All and Nothing's nothing but the same!  
Then, sith my Nothing and thy All all's one,  
Thou, All, I, Nothing, make an Unity:  
For, All to Nothing hath conversion▪  
And, Nothing, unto All, by sympathy:  
Then, need I (Nothing) thou (All) nothing fear  
But All, and Nothing still shall One appear.   

(20)  
WHo cannot love without to lust it run  
Or else to Passions that as wild appear,  
Are like ill Eyes, that cannot brook the Sun:  
Or most weak Brains, that strong wine cannot bear.  
But, in high Love (whose ●ase on virtue rests)  
there's no distemperature of Flesh, or Spritie:  
The Mouth of true Love sucks true Pleasure's Breasts:  
Which it augments with pure (not gross) delight.  
Hence flow all Nectared Sweets into the Soul  
That Heaven, or Earth, (in highest height) can yield;  
As sweet and fair, as Lust is sour, and soul,  
And doth (at pleasure) Pleasure's Passions wield:  
But, he that is impatient in desire,  
(As Clogged with flesh) cannot this Heaun aspire.   

(21)  
O That I could (as willingly I would  
By breathing on thy lips my Soul infuse  
Into thy beanteous Body; then, it should  
Make Thee (as still it doth) on It still muse?  
For muse I do, and nought but muse alone,  
Because it makes my Muse to make my Love  
Unto such only Beauty only known  
(By weight and measure) so, thy Soul to move:  
Move Soul (sweet Soul!) Soul of my sweetest Sweet!)  
With equal motion move, as moves my Soul:  
Which moves to Thine, then let Thine with It meet  
It to embrace, in love, not It control:  
But yet if so thou move, thou shalt (Dear Sweet)  
Control it still when it moves aught unmeet.   

(22)  
SO looks an Angel on Heauns' Crystal Wall  
As looks my Saint, or Angel in her Glass:  
Each see in each, they are Celestial;  
Her flesh then, being Heaunly, is not Grass:  
grass no: o no, though Grass doth glad the Eye  
With Ey-delighting Greenness, it's too dark  
To be like her di●●ne Serenity  
That, of highest GLORY, is a flaming Spark!  
Which sets the World on fire, and all therein,  
Like Phaeton's Pride (the Proud should I now that Story)  
No Eye sees it but would lose sight to win  
That Light, by which Eyes see, Sight dimmed with glory!  
O might mine Eyes be dimmed still, with that Light  
I would be nought but Eyes, yet blinded quite!   

(23)  
STir'st thou me up to love? yet me restrain'st  
From that thy strong perfections stir me to?  
Frownest thou in earnest? or else frowning feign'st,  
Sith thee, in earnest, earnestly I woe?  
If thou canst be thine own true Antitype,  
(That's most deformed, sith most well formed Thou art!)  
If thou canst rotten be, now, thou art ripe,  
Then, can I cease to sue, but not to smart:  
For, smart I should no less for thy disgrace  
Then I do smart for love of (graceful) Thee:  
Then, let me love thee, in thy better case,  
That in thy worst, so much should grieved be:  
But, if thou wilt not have me woe, nor love,  
Then, either cease to Be, or cease to move.   

(24)  
SO, art thou (Cruel!) like a Ballance-Scale  
For, when I sink with Bale, thou mount'st with Bliss;  
And when I rise with Bliss, thou sink'st with Bale:  
So, still thou art mine Opposite by This  
And why all this? (O froward Fair!) o why  
In mine annoy dost thou so much delight?  
Can I not live, but thou forthwith must die?  
Or doth my death give thy life, life, and sprite?  
there's no necessity herein at all,  
Unless Thou be the same: Who, (Parchas-like)  
Dost never rise, but by another's fall:  
That is, their Thread of life quite off to strike:  
For while I weigh them wounded by thy Beams  
Their vumber, rising, falls into Extremes!   

(25)  
Love, like a Centre, in a Circle stands  
As near to Beggars as He doth to Kings:  
And like a King them both, alike, Commands,  
As He commands, likewise all other Things!  
What heart is of such st'eely temprament  
(Or much more hard:) for, Steel the Magnes loves)  
But gently bows, when it by Love is bend?  
Only thy Heart (hard Heart!) He nothing moves!  
Nature near made what hath no grace in it;  
Then, thee she made not, that art so unkind:  
So, thou art nothing, sith all Beings fit  
The Ends, to which, as Means, they were assigned:  
Women, are Means that Men Be, be not then  
As Nothing, but with Something, bring some Men.   

(26)  
THe sweetness (Sweet) which in thy love I feel,  
Sweetens the sorrow which, through it, I taste:  
It me upholds, as It doth make me reel;  
And, doth enlarge my Heart, which It doth waste.  
LOVE, though Thou kill me, yet, I must confess  
Thou hast disbur'sd my Love where it is due:  
And though it boundless be, yet is it less  
Then to my loves worth doth, ' of right, accrue!  
And though thou be a Spectacle, through which  
Each grace seems greater then, in deed, it is:  
Yet, settled judgement mounts her prices Pitch:  
For, Heaven and Earth do offer fair for This!  
Then, sith Thou art more Fair than Eyes can see,  
I'll offer Thee as fair (my Soul) for Thee,   

(26)  
BY Nature, when we are most cold without  
(As in the Winter) we are hott'st within:  
And, hott'st without, when coldest the heart about:  
Thus, in, and out this hot, and cold do run:  
The truth here of I know, too well, you know  
To question it; Then, why do you suppose  
My Love is cold within, sith so in show,  
When that Show shows you how within it glows?  
Wilt thou distrust Affections Miracle  
(I per se I) so ravished with thy Love:  
As now I am loves Forces Spectacle,  
Which Cold, and Heat (yet clear in both) do prove?  
Then o look through my cold-cleere Eyes and see,  
My heart still sacrificed in flames to Thee.   

(27)  
LEt not (dear Sweet) the wheeling of the Spheres  
(That spite thy Crystalline translucencie)  
Wind up thy lifes-Threed on the Spowle of Years  
Ere thou dost as thy Mother did for Thee:  
Lest that thy Glass thy beavie do accuse  
Before the soueraign'st Sense, for being deflowered  
By Time; which Thee, as thou didst, Him, abuse:  
Which by thy Beauty will be ill endured.  
Why mak'st an Idol of Divinity  
(Thy Beaviie!) and with It the Pagan play,  
By offering up thyself, to It, and die  
In Flames, but of Self-love, condemned each way?  
Then, better thou hadst near been borne, sith birth  
Thy divine Beauty so condempnes to Earth.   

(28)  
IF (as the pythagoreans do believe)  
The Sea be nought but one of Saturn's Tears  
It's not unlike sith still I, weeping grieve  
That mine Eyes, Seas should shed, in many years.  
This is the seaunth Sun hath seen my love  
As firm, as flaming towards thy Beauty's Heaun,  
Yet overthwartly that Heauns Suns do move  
Through evil Signs that to no grace are giun,  
Near did they shine on me but to exhale  
A Sea of Tears from my stil-springing Eyes  
Or else to parch my Blood, and make me pale:  
So, fall my Tears, that still do falling rise:  
And, if those Suns thou Cloud still with disdains,  
Mine eyes shall end the World with endless Rain!   

(29)  
SOme say the Weezel-masculine doth gender  
With the Shee-Weezel only at the Ear  
And she her Burden at her Mouth doth render;  
The like (sweet Love) doth in our love appear:  
For I (as Masculine) beget in Thee  
Love, at the Ear, which thou bear'st at the Mouth  
And though It came from heart, and reins of me  
From the Teeth outward It in thee hath growth.  
My Mouth, thine Ears, doth ever chastened use  
With putting in hot Seed of active Love;  
Which, straight thine Ear conveyeth (like a Sluice)  
Into thy Mouth; and, there but Air doth prove:  
Yet air is active; but, not like the fire  
Then o how should the Son be like the Sire?   

(30)  
IF Fire hath oft Barbarian Honours done it  
By reason it resembles so the Sun  
Yet scarce is seen when his Rays overrun it)  
What would Barbarians to thine Hair have done?  
Which (o fair- Sweet!) oreshines Fire, Sun, and all;  
Whose rare resplendance no Eyes can behold  
That are not (like it) most angelical,  
And being so, will them, in wonder hold.  
Then sith that Nature Crowned Thee with such Light  
As makes all Eyes, adoring, wonder at,  
Be not, o be not then, in love, so light  
As makes thee dark by being This, to That:  
My speech is dark; yet what by light I mean  
Is more unconstant, than it is unclean.   

(31)  
IT is as true, as strange (else Trial feigns)  
That whosoever in the Moonshine sleeps  
Are hardly waked, the Moon so rules the Brains;  
For She is Sovereign of the Brains, and Deeps:  
So thou (fair Cynthia) with thy borrowed Beams,  
(Borrowed of Glories Sun, great Lord of Light!)  
Mak'st me still sleep, in Love, Whose golden Dreams  
Give Love right Currant, sith well-coyned, Delight.  
I cannot wake, while thou, on me, dost shine,  
Thy shining so, makes me so sweetly Dream:  
For, still me thinks I kiss those lips of thine:  
And,— nothing else, for, I will not blaspheme:  
But thought is free, and Dreams, are Dreams, and so  
I dream, and dream, and dream, but let That go.   

(32)  
LVst is a Tyrant, Love a Servant Is:  
This is the Sentence of Proofs evidence:  
For, I near see you (Sweet!) but feel by This  
Both Cold and H●ate, through Love, and reverence,  
What Eye can look, through clear loves Spectacle,  
On virtues Majesty, that shines in Beauty,  
But (as to Nature's divinest Miracle!)  
Performs not to It all subjective duty?  
BEAUTY'S Divinity none dare profane  
That are of human, or of Brutish Kind  
But when It's full, where virtue's in the wane:  
Where a fair Body hids a filthy Mind?  
But were thy Mind and Body's beauty one,  
'twere Nature's majesties divinest Throne!   

(33)  
Enough (fell Fair!) for, thou hast done the Deed  
That thou hast long been doing, which doth make  
Thy mercy less, for that, to kill with speed  
Shows more remorse than they that leisure take.  
How? and how long hast thou been mart'ring me  
To make my Death beyond my death to stand?  
Who have been so Anatomised by Thee  
That every Nerve hath felt thy Rigours hand!  
Out of my heart, and Brains that Hand hath squeezed  
The Spirits that either Life, or Sense maintain:  
For, I am all as dead, as unadvised:  
Only, for Thee, I Life, in show, retain:  
And if thou wilt have That, sith That's for Thee  
Then take Thou All, and leave the rest for me.   

(34)  
OMemorie (the Relic of my Sense)  
Why yet remainest, to make me yet remain  
A Relic of my Fancies soul offence,  
That loved for hate, and wooed, but for disdain?  
Carouse of Loethe, make thy Cup, my skull,  
Until thou be dead-drunk; then, like the Blessed,  
I shall be full of rest, as thou art full  
Of that forgetfulness which minds but rest.  
And thou relentless Diamond, too dear,  
(Too dear for me, that offered me, for thee)  
Shall, to the World, in worth the less appear  
Sith thou provest nothing worth to, wronged me:  
Then, sith thou art nought worth, but in th' Exchange,  
I will not me, for thee, now, interchange.   

(35)  
NOw plays my Mind upon her Instrument,  
(Thought-wasted Body, Organ of my Mind)  
No Parts but such as wholly discontent,  
My Parts are so untuned, by Thee, Unkind!  
My Lungs (the B●llowes) draw in nought but Air,  
That 〈◊〉 my Windpipes but with harsh Complaints  
Tending to Diapassons of D●spaire,  
Which often die, for, that Wind often faints.  
My heart, and Brains (the Stops, that cause the Mood)  
Do often stop: sith oft such Moods they cause  
As by the Pangs of Death are oft withstood,  
Through which the Organs Voice doth, sinking, pause:  
But if thou (SWEET) wilt have It sweetly rise  
Then, breath sweet Air into It as It dies.   

(36)  
IN the Abstract Nature is immutable;  
But, in the Subject it doth vary still:  
My Love, each way, is to It suitable;  
In th' Abstract firm, the Subject vary will.  
Why wilt thou vary (Subject of my Love,  
More sweet than Sweetness!) why wilt alter Sweet?  
Is it because thou wilt a Tyrant prove?  
Or scorn'st Subjection? or, thy Match to meet?  
If so it be (o fairest Fair!) then, know  
I am thy Subject, though thou subject be  
To my high Love, that makes me subject so:  
Then, thy Subjection gives thee Sovereignty:  
Sith so it is: then, firm to me remain,  
Whose Love doth make thee Subject: so, to Reign!   

(37)  
IF two Suns should, at once, adorn the Skies  
All, in Combustion, would be soon beneath:  
Then, 'tis no wonder though thy Sunne-bright Eyes  
(O most fair- Fair!) make all to burn that breath!  
For, in thy Faces midd-heau'n so they shine  
As comforts Nature in her works of grace:  
Yet makes It flame, with fury (oft) Divine,  
While it as Heanu'ly doth adorn thy Face:  
Then, sith I am great Mother Nature's Son,  
Let thine Eyes comfort me, with grace, to move,  
(As if I were all flaming, in the Sun)  
Unto the endless Orb of thy bright love:  
Wherein, if quite thou melt me, I shallbe  
That which I wish: that is, A parley of Thee.   

(38)  
AS great pains are not durable, at most:  
So, long Griefs are supportable, at least:  
For, nought is violent but ends in post:  
And that which dureth Nature may digest.  
This is most true, else lies Philosophy;  
And I would say she lies, in mine own proof,  
Were she not Handmaid to Divinity:  
Which makes the lie to keep the more aloof.  
But ah, the smart I have endured through love  
Hath (like that Love) been long, and extreme great  
And all for thee (too Sweet) which sour I prove,  
Which woundst me while thou dost me well entreat:  
If joab o had played that part alone  
Thou shouldst in Deed and Show, have been mine own.   

(39)  
WHen I assay to blaze my lovely Love  
And to express Her alin Colours acquaint  
I rob Earth, Sea, air, Fire, and all above  
Of their best Parts, but her worst parts to paint:  
Staidness from Earth, from Sea the clearest part,  
From Air her subtlety, from Fire her light  
From Son, Moon, Stars the glory they impart  
So, rob and wrong I All to do her right.  
But if the beauty of her Mind I touch  
(Sith That before touched, touch but parts extern)  
I ransack Heaun a thousand times as much  
Sith in that mind we may that Mind discern  
That's all in All that are or fair, or good;  
And so she's most divine in Flesh, and blood.   

(40)  
NOw Taper-pointed Night began to pierce  
The bending forehead of our Horizon,  
When as I took my Pen in blackest verse,  
To shadow forth my blacker Passion.  
I told thee then, in Words as dark as Hell,  
The Torments (Sweet) I for thy Love abide;  
And gave thee light to see their Substance well  
By lines that were all flame thy Sense to guide.  
Yet canst thou not or rather wilt not see  
The White whereat, in this dark-light I drive:  
Then know (dear Sweet) directly it is thee:  
Lo, know'st thou now? no no thou still wilt strive  
Against thy knowledge not to know the same,  
Yet know thy Fashion puts me out of Frame.   

(41)  
THere was a Time when the most sacred Saint  
That ever wedded was his Wife did woe,  
And with love-passions did her Ears acquaint,  
To move her mind to Love and marriage too:  
When he would not have thought it mortal sin,  
(If so he could) to have lynd out his love  
In moving measures so her love to win.  
For, all that measure well of force must move.  
He did, or would have told her his desires  
And measured them in Numbers) were alone  
Those, Eden's outcasts left unto their Heirs  
By marriage Rights for Generation:  
Then sith that Church, and Common weal increase  
By This, should lines that lead to this, surcease?   

(42)  
IF Speech, the noblest action of the will,  
Be turned to Silence (loves best speech) in me,  
I● wit be quickened, or made good, of ill  
By that good will which I do bear to thee:  
Then what avails good wit if it be mute  
More than good will, that want good words to show it?  
Suitors speed not, that cannot show their suit:  
So, sue I to Thee but thou wilt not know it.  
Yet Dumb-men do, and may, wed lawfully;  
But, wed they do not without first they woe:  
Then, let me (dumb through Love, that speaks thereby)  
Do as, by Laws of Heaun and Earth they do:  
They woe, then Wive, I woe, then let me Wed;  
For, Words in Deed, best fit the marriage bed.   

(43)  
MY Mind to me a mighty Kingdom is;  
Which I possess, but not enjoy in peace;  
For if I did, I were a King of This,  
But Love, my right, doth force me to release,  
If thou (great Love) usurp another's Right  
Thou art a Tyrant; and thou must resolve  
By fight to keep, what Thou hast got by fight;  
If so of force, Thou must thy force dissolve:  
For with Thy force thou canst not win from me  
My Mind, unless Her force Thou quite defeat;  
Which, it Thou do, it is the worse for thee:  
For, tho● defeatest That, that makes thee Great:  
Then, o be not too sell, but let that She  
For, and by whom I live, reign there with Thee.   

(44)  
Cannot that fire that burns me warm thy heart?  
Art thou turned Salamander in desire  
To live in my Heart's flames and feel no fire?  
But rather tak'st thou pleasure in my smart?  
My heart is little, and the flames are great:  
It's lit●e made by thy great cruelty:  
The Fuel spent (as now the same is nigh)  
The fire needs must lose both hold, and heat.  
My heart (the fuel) is not Adamant,  
That can endure the fury of this flame:  
But it is Flesh, and soon melts in the same,  
Whereof I wot, thou art not ignorant:  
Then if thy knowledge will not help my heart  
I will condemn thy Will, and curse thine Art.   

(45)  
SOme say they love, because their Loves are fair;  
And other some, sith they are wise and kind:  
The first, love but the hue of Flesh, or Hair:  
But the last, love the beauty of the Mind.  
But, my love kindled is at both those fires:  
For, Wit and Beauty in my Love doth flame  
Without all noisome Smoke of dark Desires:  
So, bright she is in Beauty, Wit, and Fame.  
If all these do concur to cause my Love,  
That Love, so caused, should bring forth rare effects:  
And so it doth, for me it so doth move  
As I do rest in restless rare Affects.  
Then, sith (dear Sweet) thy Graces and my Love  
Are like, alike, let our Affections move.   

(46)  
THey write, and speak well, that can well express,  
(In either kind) what Fancy doth suggest:  
But I the more I fancy, speak the less:  
So, in my heart, my heartless Tongue doth rest.  
But, o dear heart, sith thou art Lord of life,  
On pain of death, command my Pen to make  
ink of thy blood, to Chronicle the strife  
Which thou endurest for thy true loves sake.  
And, thou my Fancy so thyself bestir  
(Who stir'st about the Centre of my Love)  
That future Times, in love, may pity her,  
Sith graces such, unpittiful should prove:  
And, make my Pen (in lasting Colours) paint  
The Picture of my Love, and sullen Saint.   

(47)  
THe fatal beams thou dartest from thine Eyes  
(Like Basilisks work on me, in effect:  
Yet from them doth my remedy arise  
By glassing mine, in thine, them to reflect:  
For, in mine Eyes, shouldst thou thyself but see  
Thy Beams would make thee in self-love to burn:  
Then, harm me not and I will not hurt thee:  
Else on thyself thy Beauty's Beams i'll turn.  
Think not because thy heart is Adamant  
That thy bright Rays will but thereon rebound  
No, to thyself they'll make thee mercy grant,  
And love that grace that hurts & heals the wound:  
Then let thine Eye-beams grace infuse in mine  
Or, for thy plague, i'll rivet mine in Thine.   

(48)  
PArdon me Love, sith what for Thee I do  
(Although it breaks thy Precepts (oft too strict)  
Is to attain what to attain unto  
Thou shouldst no Coarse, how ere cross, contradict:  
For, she ay love is too too like a Saint,  
But that she's most unlike, in her disdain;  
Who loves: but loves to cause my just complaint,  
As if her pride took pleasure in my pain:  
Then though my prostrate old Devotion  
I do forbear, forbear to blame my Course:  
For some do climb to highest promotion  
By scorning Scorn, and offering Fury force:  
She's stiff, and I am strange, but yet I see  
My strangeness makes her seem less strange to me.   

(49)  
A Time there was when Love alone did live  
Within the Breast of Heavens eternal Light:  
But since that light did light to Planets give  
Light Venus, in light Hearts usurps his Right:  
So, she's an Idol made and daily served  
With that Devotion which to him belongs:  
Whose Motions are much more than his observed  
So, He the Author seems of his own wrongs!  
He made her first but to incline the Sense:  
But since, She seems much more than to constrain,  
Sith Mad She makes Men with her influence,  
If aught from her, their Senses do restrain:  
But why ò Lightness, lov'st thou so this Star  
Whenas the Sun of Glory's brighter far!   

(50)  
Love, leave thy Lodge (my heart) and enter Hers  
Who placed thee there; that she may know what pain:  
Thou hast in pleasures, and what rest in Stirs,  
Which being done, return to mine again:  
For, though, at once, thou glad, and grieve the same,  
Thou griu'st It so, as still It would be grieved,  
So Hers might still be melted with His flame:  
And so made One till they be life-deprived.  
Or, if not so made one, that Odds should cease,  
Yet Odds might light be made, by mutual Love:  
Then, in that War we might enjoy sweet peace:  
So, we should think War sweet, and so It prove:  
But if she love not too, o Love thou art  
heart to my grief, and grief unto my Hart.   

(51)  
OF Love, why write I, sith such hate I prove  
As is of force to make Love Love to hate▪  
How, how (poor Man) should ● have lust to Love  
Whose Love, and Life are so unfortunate?  
My scornful fortunes my Love scornful make:  
Who Looks on me as on Disgraces Glass:  
While I such hate▪ and wrongs bear for her sake,  
As able were to make a Man an Ass  
And yet such bearing she forbears to style  
With virtuous Title, yet if force 〈◊〉  
She saith its brutish: Thus 〈…〉  
My same, though yet, herein, I her excu●e▪  
Sith, she hates one that loves his own Disgrace  
That is, He loves her that doth him debase.   

(52)  
FOrtune, and Love (each other to disgrace)  
Strive who should make me Slave to either's might;  
And, being blind, fight without shifting place:  
So, I am made the Bar o'er whom they fight.  
The Blows of either often fall on me;  
And, much more often sith they both are blind:  
But, Fortune strikes me sure, as she could see;  
And, Love doth wound me sore, with Blows more kind!  
Fortune, doth chip me out, and takes away  
All outward Things: but loves impetuous Blows  
Near cease to sink till in my heart they stay,  
Thus, is my Spoil the Triumph of these Foes:  
But, more I yield to Love, than Fortunes might,  
Sith I can Live, in Love, in Fortune's spite.   

(53)  
Favours, are so far sweet as there remains  
Place for requital; but, if past that Place  
They grow, to great Hearts, but to be great pains;  
Which loath such Love, and grudge at so much grace.  
This happily (dear Sweet) you think upon  
When your dear graces on me dropping be:  
Who make them fall with small effusion,  
Lest they should cause the like effect in me.  
But, you (o me!) do quite my heart mistake:  
For, you have made it poor, and hardly lives:  
Which loves you more, the more of It you make:  
For, Favours excess hardly it revives:  
Then o, wise- Fair, my poor heart favour still,  
Sith still it lives, by hope, that so you will.   

(54)  
She comes, She comes, mount, mount my Soul  
Unto the height of Admiration!  
See how the Sun himself begins to scowl  
To see a fairer Sun the Earth upon!  
O glorious Light (which makes our Hemisphere  
Like jupiters' star-chamber with thy Rays!)  
How dost thou me confound with Love, and fear?  
What praise but Wonder, can thy Wonders praise!  
Stand, stand a loose, come not to near mine Eyes:  
For, thou wilt make them sightless with thy Light!  
O me! my heart, how with thy Beams, it fries!  
What meanest (o Miracle!) to melt me quite?  
Hold, hold; no more: thy Beams from me avert,  
Unless, from them, Thou hide me in thy Hart.   

(55)  
IF Sunbeams spring, by kind, from Heaun'ly Ground,  
If Voice, divining Ears, from Angels comes,  
If breath that yields as sweet a Scent, as Sound  
Celestial be, and Sense, with joy, ore'comes:  
Then, Face, and Voice, and Breath of my sweet Saint  
Are most Celestial: and, if so they be,  
The Spirit of Science did this Picture paint  
By Copy of his own Divinity!  
If so, she is most merciful, and just:  
Sith He, in both is most, most infinite;  
Which makes us fear, and yet, in Him, to trust;  
And so she doth, in Wisdom exquisite:  
Which oft, in justice, humbles daring Men  
And then, in Mercy, lifts them up again.   

(56)  
IF Favour comes by suffering, not by force,  
And wildfire quenched be with Milk, or Mire;  
If yielding Wool resists the Bullets course,  
And gentle Oil doth quench Lime set on fire:  
If that the higher we desire to build,  
The lower we our groundwork ought to lay:  
If all these Truths so natural are held  
That their clear evidence doth question stay:  
Then questionless you are unnatural  
(Sow're Sweet) who though I, at your feet, am thrown  
Yea, make myself your very Pedestal,  
Yet, you insult the more, and keep me down:  
If then my lowliness your scorn increase  
You are Perfections unkind Masterpiece.   

(57)  
IT's easy to blaspheme the name of Love,  
And say its but the work of Idleness:  
The Slips of Fancy, which oft mortal prove,  
The moth of Strength, and strength of Foolishness:  
These, and such like, or else far worse than these,  
Might Hate disgorge 'gainst loves Divinity:  
And with such Yells Despair her Soul might ease,  
Whose sweetest ease is bitt'erst Blasphemy:  
But I, that know the power of Love too well,  
To well do word him to be used so ill:  
For, he hath damned me to his lowest Hell  
Where He torments my Reason, wit, and Will:  
But, Reason, wit, and Will in humble wise  
Do pray for him, and wish he had his Eyes.   

(58)  
YOur Favours filling my torn heart with Hope,  
Hope, raising lustless Love, and Love, Desire,  
Desire rests not but in, Dear you, his Scope;  
Whose flames still mount to you, his Sphere of Fire.  
Then, if to my desire you will give rest,  
It must be in your stayed Loves purer flames:  
Then, with his Element, Desire invest,  
Sith his fire compound is, and him unframes.  
Feeling mounts not to Pleasure's firmament,  
But through this subtle Sphere of simple fire:  
Nor Love attain the Heaven of true content,  
But by this sweet Repose of his Desire:  
Then, if you love me, as it seems you do,  
Rest my Desire, and I will rest yours too.   

(59)  
HA! there She goes, that goes away with me;  
And here stand I, that have her in my heart:  
She flees from me, and yet I with her flee:  
For no Division can us wholly part.  
Fair fall thee buxom Air that yet dost hold  
The sent of her late presence, for thy grace:  
Thou dost sweet Air, but what the Heavens would,  
If they so happy were it to embrace.  
Who breathes this Air, their breath most sweet must be,  
Though it, before the Air made most unsweet:  
On It I'll live, till She return to me,  
To take the air which from her first did fleet:  
And then in Words she shall receive the same  
That shall be sweetened with her praise, and Name.   

(60)  
Perhaps I do, though you think otherwise,  
Love in the tenderest Bowels of my Soul;  
But what? Can I not love; unless there lies  
Love in my Front, while yours, in hate, doth scowl?  
If no faith in the Front doth lie; no love  
Lies where no faith is; for, love lives thereby:  
Then, the Fronts Arguments do nothing prove  
But show of truth involved in Fallacy.  
And if the Front say true, and true it be  
That women's Naies' are ever double Yea;  
Then, your Front ever giving Naies' to me,  
Do give me twice as many yea, by These:  
But, in true love, I hold that Skill unfit,  
That discontents the Will to please the Wit.   

(61)  
WIll you (your Will be done) have me love so,  
That by my Looks the same you best may see?  
And will you love in Deed, and hate in show?  
Do as you will, your will is law to me.  
Yet Show hath much deceit, but Substance none;  
Then, most substantial is the truest love:  
The foreheads falsehood is more seen then known,  
Yet known of most, that least thereof approve.  
Then, sith the Front's so full of Fallacy,  
I cannot trust yours, more than you can mine:  
But if you would our Hearts should open lie  
Change Hearts with me, or let us them combine:  
Then, feelingly, our hearts we so shall know,  
To This (Sour Sweet) say double yea, or No.   

(62)  
MY Tongue, is turned to Eyes, mine Eyes, to Ears  
In the dread presence of my deeerest Love:  
Who, while she speaks, my very seeing hears;  
Her Tongue, and Body do so sprightly move!  
My Tongue, & Ears are deaff, & dumb the while,  
O'erwhelmed with Love, and joy, and Hope in each;  
Only my Looks applaud her Words with smiles,  
As if they only heard, and saw Their reach.  
And sith with her I cannot interpleade  
But m●erely by the m●ane of speaking-Lookes,  
Sith Looks alone must stand me then in stead  
My Looks shallbe Love, and Wits record Books,  
Wherein she still may read what I conceive  
Of her sweet words, and what replies I give.   

(63)  
Say you (dear Sweet●) my Lines are laboured sore?  
My Lines, I know, will tell you no such thing:  
Though every Line do●h labour more, and ●ore,  
Till they my Grief, concealed, to light do bring.  
But, for my Lines themselves, they laboured are  
With no more pain than pain in pleasure takes:  
Sith they my heart unburden of much care,  
That yet, for want of better issue aches.  
A Laboured Line's too busy for my Brain,  
That is well 〈◊〉 distracted, with mun Thought:  
Let those Lines labour, that by Lines do gain;  
●or, I have laboured Lines, too loage, for nought:  
Sith my best laboured Lines you still reward  
With saying, tush this pains might well be spared.   

(64)  
WHile Words I weigh, in Scales of my Conceit,  
To know their weight that merit most respect,  
And, while I use some Art (without Deceit)  
To place them where they may have most effect,  
I find the weightiest Words are far too light  
To weigh the Will resolved not to be weighed;  
And, though their plac● make infinite their might,  
Yet stir they not a Mind perversely stayed:  
Then, why seek I to move you by my Words?  
I know not I, because I know so much:  
Yet this lost labour my Love you affords,  
Which, ● It draw not, shall your hardness touch:  
For, were you Steel, the Magnes of my Love  
Would draw you to't; but harder you I prove.   

(67)  
YOur Souls rough calms, that neither hate, nor ●oue,  
Your Mind unmoved with praises, or reproof,  
The less they moved are, the more they move  
My froward love, to stand the more aloof.  
Yet looks it back, when it is well-nigh gone,  
Supposing It should not so give you o'er:  
Then tries some other kind Conclusion,  
Which speeds no better than those tried before.  
You hate me not; for, well you use me still:  
You love me not; sith you feel not my pain:  
This (like your mortal hate) offends my Will;  
Yet, this is all the love my Love doth gain:  
What metal are you off? sure, flesh, and Blood  
Are not so stayed, that nought can move their mood!   

(66)  
WHere shall I hide me from loves Power? o where?  
If to th' Antipodes from him I fly  
He Pricks his Flights at me, and hits me there:  
If near at hand, his Torch my Flesh doth fry.  
In Earth, his Shafts have all fubdued to Him;  
The Sea's his Mother's country; and beside  
He naked is, and so can faster swim:  
And, through the Air, he on his Wings doth glide.  
If to the Fire I fly, it's to himself:  
Then, Heaven, and Hell, (if Poets fable not)  
Have felt the great force of the little El●e:  
Thus, all, in all, are subject to his Shot:  
Then sith no where I can be safe from these,  
I'll hide me no where: That is, in mine ease.   

(67)  
But This, and then my Pen shall make abode  
In endless Rest: For, even now the same  
Goes, straddling, underneath a heavy Load:  
For, Heaviness his form doth quite unframe.  
Who sheddeth sable Tears, well mixed with Brine,  
To rue his owner's sorrows bitter state:  
And maketh hapless Blotts in every Line  
To Symbolize his Love unfortunate.  
The sinking Paper makes them, spreading, run,  
As ●r●efe runs, spreading, in his sinking heart:  
Pen, Y●ke, and Paper, then, are quite undone,  
(As is their Master) with sad sorrows smart:  
And all that smart I feel through your disdain,  
Who wounds my heart, with love, yet scorns my pain.   

(68)  
Work on my heart, stern Grief, and do thy worst:  
Draw it together till his Strings do crack:  
My Mind will near be whole till they be burst:  
Then, break, break heart, ere broken be my Back▪  
Which undergoes a World of heavy Harms,  
That well might break It, and an Hart of Oak:  
Then, Grief extend the vigour of thine Arms  
To crush his substance into Sigh smoke.  
Hope, thou dost hurt It with thy helping Hand:  
Who (Apelike) kill'st it with a kind embrace:  
Thy Charge, wan Hope, yield to pale Death's Command,  
That He my vital Spirits may have in Chase:  
For, sith good Luck proves luckless in my Love,  
Go hang thee Hope, yet stay, lest I it prove.   

(69)  
Give me (fair- Sweet) the Map, well coloured,  
Of that same little World, yourself, to see  
Whether those Zones of hot Love, and cold Dread  
Bee so extreme in you, as theyare in me.  
If on the Hat (that small World's Centre great)  
Such Heat, and Cold their vtt'most Powers employ,  
No Thoughts could dwell therein for Cold, and Hea●e;  
Which my distem'pred-dismall Thoughts annoy.  
But, if I find the Climes more temperate  
In your World then in mine, I'll thither send  
My Thoughts by Colonies,, in wretched State,  
Sith there, forthwith, they cannot choose but mend:  
And by your temperance, when they bettered be  
If you'll transplant Them, Them re●plant in me.   

(70)  
NO, I deny it; and my negative  
shallbe made good with two affirmatives  
Yea, I affirm it: which Affirmative  
Shall be avouched with two Negatives:  
I do deny I feign, yea, yea I do,  
As you accuse me, and withal affirm  
I love you for yourself, for whom I woe:  
And cannot love no love that is too Firm.  
I cannot love no love, nor love that love  
That's like Privation, drawing near to nought:  
That love is nothing, and can Nothing move,  
But such a something as should not be sought:  
What That is, guess (if it be not your hate)  
It is that I would fly as evil fate.   

(71)  
WHat boots Complaint (if it be made alone)  
To him whose help without himself doth lie?  
But to cause Moon effect more cause of moan,  
Or make Despair wan hopes best remedy:  
Sith now, o Tyrant Grief; thou long hast had  
The sack of my subdued hearty Cheer,  
Rest, rest awhile let no new fires be made  
Vn●o thy Spoils that are consumed near.  
O Reason what clear Eyes hast thou to see  
Our Evils! & how blind in shunning them!  
My Reason sees my Griefs extremity  
Yet sees not how to make it less extreme:  
For, since I love you (Sweet) I can but grieve,  
To see you raze the hopes which me relieve.   

(72)  
Dear Sweet (who in a bright face Definite  
(Being a Spark inflaming Worlds of love▪)  
Contains an Heaven of Beauty infinite:  
To which my Thoughts, on Wings of Hope, do move)  
Sith that the Sun (Heavens most majestic Eye)  
Disdains not to behold the basest Worm,  
To glad his Soul and grace his vility,  
Let your heavens Suns the like on me perform.  
Grace is a Spark of that immortal Flame  
Which, being from Heaven descended knew not where  
(In Earth) to enter in a mortal Frame,  
But in your Corpse, wherethrough It shineth clear:  
Then, sith Grace glori●ies you Form, and Face,  
Grace me with looks, that glorify your grace.   

(73)  
THy Beauty's blush, like fairest Morn in May,  
(Faire●Honied Sweet) doth so entrance mine Eyes  
That while thou dost those Roses rich display  
They see heavens hue through thy skin's Crystal skies,  
And did my fault nor thine enforce the same  
I still could wish to see that Heavenly Blush:  
Yea, I would see that glory to my shame,  
So that my faces shame would cause that flush▪  
Then blame me not if (when thy Cheeks I see  
Died in a Tincture that is so divine)  
My Cheeks in selfsame Colour Died be  
To make thine spread their Die, by dying mine:  
Then, blush thou not, for blushing in this wise  
Sith that Hue from, and for thy grace doth rise.   

(74)  
SOme, blaze the precious beauties of their Loves  
By precious Stones; and, other some by flowers;  
Some, by 〈◊〉, and Celestial Powers;  
Or, by wh●●els their Fancy best approves.  
Yet, ●▪ by none of these, will blazon mine;  
But, only say herself, herself is like:  
For, those Similitudes I much mislike  
That are much used, though they be divine.  
In saying she is like herself, I say  
She hath no like; for, she is past compare,  
Then, who, aright commends this creature rare,  
Must say She is: and there, of force, must stay,  
Because, by words, She cannot be expressed;  
So, say she is; and, wondering, owe the rest.   

(75)  
We read that Gelon and Pisistratus  
Usurped tyrannical dominion  
By means as violent as vicious:  
Yet ruled with love, and admiration:  
But, love (that rules the Kingdom of my mind)  
Coming in Peace, aright, to that Command  
Doth rage therein, and either burn, or bind  
The Powers thereof, that none escapes his Hand:  
Then would he Gelon were, for government,  
Though he had got the same with sword, and fire:  
Then, should I be loves Kingdom of Content,  
That am the flaming Forge of his Desire:  
But, rule more mildly, Love, lest my Minds Powers  
Conspire to quench that Flame with thy bloods Showers.   

(76)  
BOdies, be neither Light, nor heavy ●ound  
So long as they are in their proper place;  
But being out, they shift to It apace,  
Be it above, or else beneath the Ground:  
Then, Love, it seems, is not in his right Sphere,  
That in my heart doth rest in such unrest;  
Who shifteth still to you, he loveth best;  
Then, must he rest in you, or else no where.  
Receive my Love (Dear Love) then, to that rest,  
Sith Divine Nature made you for the same;  
Prove not disloyal to that royal Dame,  
But let us each of other be possessed:  
And, if your virtue simple were before  
Thus, being purely mixed, it willbe more.   

(77)  
THe Polipp Fish sits all the Winter long  
Stock-still, through sloth, and on himself doth feed▪  
So, through the cold of fear I do, in deed,  
Whereby the Liberty of Love I wrong.  
But they do perish, pitiless, that wear  
(Through sloth) away, that might be fat, and Fair  
By honest Labour; hie Promotios stair:  
So, do I perish, pitiless, through Fear.  
Yet, can I not but fear your scorn, dread Dame,  
If I should labour to disclose my Love,  
Sith your high fortunes mine are far above,  
This makes me, through my sloth, to work my blame:  
But, lest I should myself so quite consume  
To say I love you, let my love presume.   

(78)  
SO shoots a Star as doth my Mysteries glide  
At Midd-night through my Chamber; which she makes  
Bright as the Sky, when Moon, and Stars are spied;  
Wherewith my sleeping Eyes (amazed) wake.  
Which open no sooner than herself she shuts▪  
Out of my sight, away so fast she flies;  
Which me in mind of my slack service putts;  
For which all night I wake, to plague mine Eyes:  
Shoot Star once more, and if I be thy Mark  
Thou shalt hit me, for thee I'll meet withal:  
Let mine Eyes once more see thee in the dark,  
Else they, with ceasslesse waking, out will fall:  
And if again such time, and place I lose  
(To close with thee) let mine Eyes never close.   

(79)  
DE●re, if thou wilt that I shall call thee Dear,  
(Who are most dear how ever thou-art called!  
Endear me to thy Love, past price, and peer,  
By loving me that to thy love am thralled.  
Yet fear I Freedom, as I fear thy hate:  
For, nought but thy, fixed hate can make me ●ree:  
And, though relict, I'll be no Reprobate  
To gentle Love, nor yet to cruel Thee!  
I'll be thy Vassal, though freeborn I am,  
S●th they are highe-borne whom thy love sustains:  
Then let me live to bear thy Vassals name,  
Yet live to make thee labour for my pains:  
That by that pains, and labour, thou, and I  
may get our Like, to live in when we die.   

(80)  
THe romans, in their Temples, placed, of old,  
near to the Graces, well-tongued Mercury;  
To note that Speech in uttering will catch cold,  
That lights not on a gracious Ear, and Eye:  
So, though my Tongue were most Angelical,  
And, could make Ears to hear of Stone, or Wood,  
Yet, if your Ears turn Honey into Gall,  
As good no Speech, as speaking for no good.  
Be not (dear Sweet) o be not so perverse,  
Your Ears are flesh, and so your heart should be:  
Then, stone them not, to Cool my charming Verse,  
That seeks to turn your Ears, and heart to me:  
But, by that Turn, if you do fear a fall,  
I'll hold you up, or break my Neck withal.   

(81)  
IF the Egyptian, and the Troglodite  
Over whose Heads the Sun directly stands  
But one mere Moment, daily, in his height,  
Do hardly scape quite burning by his Brands,  
How then should I (bright- Fair!) not quite be brent  
With those bright Beams, shot from, those Suns, thine Eyes,  
Sith still they are to me directly sent  
As from my Zenith, i● thy Beauty's Skies?  
O! with those Rays exhale from Mercies Seas  
Some Drops of Grace, & shower them down on me,  
To cool the fiery heat of my Disease,  
That so my Sore, and Salve may come from Thee:  
If not, yet shall those Cloude-dissoluing Beams,  
Melt my Care-Clouded Eyes to cooling Streams.   

(82)  
While that this Air I breath to cool my Heart,  
My heart's inflamed so with loves desire  
That Air to Fire it doth thereby convert:  
So lives my heart in Hell, or quenchless fire!  
Then, canst thou Goddess full of outward grace,  
(In whom I hope, sigh thee I love and serve)  
Still feed these flames with Beams sent from thy face  
And martyr him thou shouldst from pains preserve:  
Then may I say, by Kind th' art glorious made,  
But by unkindness thou thyself dost mar:  
Thou mar'st thyself▪ That is, thou mak'st me vade,  
Who, than thyself doth love thee better far:  
And yet thou lov'st thyself too well for me  
Sith so thou lov'st, because I so love thee.   

(83)  
NO more but so? Why then false Hopes farewell  
Why, why so long have you deluded me?  
Say you (false Fair!) you hate to love too well?  
Although too well, true love can never be?  
Then, too well have I loved you for such love  
That thinks true love too well loves what it likes:  
Which speech doth you as fond as fickle prove;  
And through your tender reputation strikes.  
Hate you to love too well that loathed Hate:  
But hate not true love kindly to embrace:  
Your grace to love, my Mind did animate  
And can you love, too well such love of Grace?  
I● so you can, Grace, too well, loves your Frame  
Who makes it famous, while you It defame.   

(84)  
LAmia the witch (as Poets featly feign)  
Still in a box, at home puts up her Eyes:  
But going abroad she put them in again  
Their proper holes, wherewith each Mo●e she spies:  
So, thou at home, (that is, thyself within  
O hellish Cerces that bewitchest me)  
Pullest out thine Eyes: that is, seest not thy Sin;  
But yet abroad thou mine too well dost see.  
Thou sayst I have deceived thee in thy love  
By other Loves; and so, thou me dost hate  
Upon a mere surmise: but I can prove  
Where thou thy Chastity didst vulnerate:  
O no, I lie, thou still didst keep it ●ound  
But others gave, and it received the wound.   

(85)  
lT may be as you say▪ but yet say I  
It should be otherwise then still you do:  
You say you Love, I will not say you lie,  
Because you Love, and Love to linger to:  
For, if you loved me could I love so long,  
For mere Delays disguised in loves Array  
Could I, for so much right reap so much Wrong,  
If you loved ●ot alone to show delay?  
Delay, in Love, is dangerous you know:  
Then It you love sith mine that danger is:  
Who seeing love wears me in Deed, and Show,  
You love Delay, to waste me quite, by This:  
But, if you love to waste me so, by That,  
Hate me, another while, to make me Fat.   

(86)  
Be not, o be not carelessly unkind  
To him (sower-Sweet) whose care is all for thee:  
Look in my heart, through windows of my mind,  
And nought but thine own Image thou shalt see.  
Sack not the Temple then, where thou art shrined  
A glorius Monument of Excellence!  
The Shrine's immortal, sith so is my Mind,  
Yet mayst thou it deface, by plaguing Sense.  
Thou plaugst my feeling, sith through thee I feel  
The hatefulst plagues that loves Fire can inflict:  
My heart (where thou dost dwell, with heart of Steel;)  
Sill flaming, burns, yet thee it not afflicts:  
But wert thou not lessesensible than Steel▪  
Thou couldst not choose but feel the pains I feel!   

(87)  
It's said and known, (and, so, it's held for true)  
That Arethusa, and Alph●us are  
Two Rivers that, each other so pursue  
As nought can let their Course, or water mar:  
For sweet Alpheus doth through Thetis glide,  
Free from her saltness, (though, Lais-like she steer)  
Until he meet upon the other side,  
With his love Arethusa, fresh and clear.  
Then, if that senseless Rivers (which by kind  
Are most unstaid) in love so constant be,  
Let me not you (Fair Nymph) unconstant find,  
Sith through all wrongs, I run, aright, to Thee;  
Then, sith to thee I run through sorrows Seas,  
Let me in thy clear heart, and Arms have eafe.   

(88)  
DOwn, down proud heart, to loves Lures, stoop▪ o stoop  
She Lures, that loves, she loves, that can allure;  
Then, down, o down, yet not so low as droop;  
Sith she, being gracious, is as kind, as sure!  
Her glancing Eye, through Love, in, State is stayed,  
Which stands with constant grace, and Majesty:  
Both which, in, love deserve to be obeyed  
By hateful hearts, that are as hard as high:  
Then melt, melt heart, in hot affections flames,  
If thou be not more hard then hardest Stones:  
For, hearts, but of that temper, she unframes  
In fire of Love, and makes them tender ones:  
Then (Sweet) sith now mine melts for love of you▪  
Let it run into yours, to Mould it new.   

(89)  
THere was a time (to speak, whereof I faint  
Sith That that was, near loved the ducking Frir'e)  
When I might pray to you, as to my Saint,  
And you would grant, or further my desire.  
But, you reject (as superstitious)  
The prayers which I now do make to you  
And (terming them as vain, as vicious)  
You bend from me, when I to you do bow.  
If I with you commit Idolatry  
It is an easy error▪ sith you be  
An Image but too like the Deity  
For Fleshy Eyes the difference to see:  
But, if you would have me my Conscience kill  
Bid me not love you, that will do your will.   

(90)  
IN Nature are two supreme Principles:  
As namely, Unity, and binary:  
The first doth form all Beauty's Miracles:  
The lasts the Fount of all Deformity.  
The Form of Number is this Unity:  
(Number, the Matter: Unity, the Form)  
Confusion, springeth from Duality:  
Which doth the frame of Nature quite deform:  
Then sith that Unity hath so great grace,  
And that Duality be so deformed:  
Lett●s not be two (fair Sweet) but fast embrace  
The Mean whereby we may be still conformed:  
Or, if we shall be Two (o fairest Fair!)  
Let you, and I make but one perfect Pair.   

(91)  
HA, ha, ha, ha, you mak● me laugh, I swear:  
And yet I laugh as some, in joy, do weep  
To see you double, like a Hare, for fear,  
Lest I should smell where now, in love, you creep.  
Well, Wanton, well: I see your Harebrained Course,  
Though, with the Cat, I wink at what I see:  
You now turn Tail to me, no force, no force,  
You show your beastly manners as they be.  
Double no more, no more I'll hunt for you:  
Unless I open, sith you now I wind:  
I'll freely spend, your fame still to pursue,  
Sith it is blind before, and lame behind:  
Yet though some wide mouths call a jade, a jade,  
I'll speak more spuce, yet call a Spade, a Spade.   

(92)  
Look from the Turret of thy high disdain  
(Wherein I see thee, though thou seeth me not)  
On me (fell Fair.) flat lying on the Plain  
Of Lowliness, like the least little Mote!  
Yet if thy heaunly faces Suns do shine  
(In grace,) on my great smallness I, poor I,  
Shall, shining, mount, as if I were Divine,  
Like Motes in Sun, who, shining, mount thereby.  
But if thou Cloud thy faces Heaven with aught  
That may those Sunbeams let to shine on me,  
I'll steep myself in Tears till I be nought,  
That I thus brought to nought by cruel Thee,  
May charge thee with my fall, when I shall rise  
To meet thee, to have justice, in the Skies.   

(93)  
O proudly●chast, and Lovely-coy, dear Sweet,  
Why tak'st thou pleasure to impeach thy fame  
With name of Cruel, for thy Sex unmeet?  
To keep good name, wilt thou lose thy good name?  
It's mercy to thyself to be most fell  
To those (I grant) that seek thine honours foil;  
But, unto him that makes thy praise excel  
It is no praise to triumph in his spoil.  
The pure respect thou bearest thy Chastity  
First made me love thee with all pure respect:  
Then, sith pure love, is perfect Piety,  
And chaste Desire is sacred, in effect,  
Requi●e my pure Love, and my chaste desire  
With like, to like, till we become entire.   

(94)  
FInding myself (before I would be found)  
Near lost in Labyrinths of hapless love,  
I got me to a melancholy grove  
To descant on Loves-griefs to heavy Ground:  
Where whilft I couched me to perform the same,  
The Flies, and Gnats, without still vexed me;  
And Grief, within, as busy as a Bee▪  
Unto my treble grief, made double game:  
So, while I sought to descant on my Harms,  
My Harms did descant on That which I sought:  
For, while I thought on't I was vexed in thought;  
And, in my Flesh afflicted with thief Swarms:  
Then thought I Lovers were like idle Drones▪  
Whom Stingers follow, to augment their moans.   

(95)  
GOds me! what will you? soft, what do I dream?  
Do I hear real words? or think I do?  
Or can it be that beauty so extreme  
Should be so foully false, and brag on't too?  
Sure, I had rather lay my Senses lie,  
Then think you can, be so unlike to you:  
Sith in the sam's no possibility,  
How are you seem to you, and me untrue.  
Say what you will, I will not wrong you so  
To think (much less to say) that you fair, Sweet,  
Will plight me faith; then, me and It for go:  
And vaunt (o past belief!) how you did 〈◊〉:  
But, this I swear, if yond rest so unsound,  
That such cracked Ware is better lost then found.   

(96)  
HE that would fain reduce an high-born Wise  
Unto the Compass of his mean estate,  
Must not at first, stick for a little Strife,  
To make his peace to have the longer Date:  
For, as some Curtal over-lusty Mares,  
Then Water them, wherein they seeing it,  
Let fall their Crest, sith their Tail so ill fares,  
That Fools, and Asses ride them without Bit▪  
So, from the Colon to the Period  
Of this Similitude, what should ensue  
Is easily guessed: But ah, I am forbade  
By high-born Wives, low matched, to tell it you:  
But, by their leaves this must I needs affirm,  
A Ring, too wide, well bowed doth sit more firm.   

(97)  
Fool that I am, to seem so passionate  
In that which Wives, and Woes, and Years have cal'md  
Why, now should Venus know my Body's State?  
Or, with her Balsamum my Wounds be Balmed?  
No more, no more: it is enough that I  
Have won Repentance, with the loss of Time,  
In running o'er these Rules of Vanity:  
And not repeat them, erst in Rules of Rhyme.  
Now, many Winters have Frost-bit my Hairs,  
Congealed my Blood, and cooled my vital Hear,  
I, Youthful-follies should ore'flow with Tears:  
And, make a Rod of Rue myself to beat:  
But, trust me Love, how ere I write of Thee,  
I am in hate with thee, and thou with me.   

(98)  
IF I dare call Love Rogue, and Runagate,  
It's like I am resolved to loathe his love:  
But, so I call Him and the cause of Hate;  
Which to my grief, in mine own Soul I prove.  
I hate as hell, His mere remembrance  
Much more the Favours he hath done to me:  
And hold his loathsome love the fowl'st mischance  
That can befall Men that most hapless be.  
It is the Scourge of God to plague Mankind:  
The Conflagration of a World of Lust:  
The Match whereat hell-fire itself doth tynd:  
The Heat that soonest turns our Blood to dust:  
And (so I might not seem of bloody Mind)  
Would's Brains were beaten out, as he is blind.   

(99)  
THe Tyrant love, that martyrs still the Mind,  
We make a God, to which our Pens & Tongu●  
Do sacrifice their Labours, il assigned;  
And so ore-right the Author of our Wrongs:  
Then, this Affections ●loud we ought to turn  
Into the Channel of Celestial Love;  
Sith Angels swim still in that blessed Borne  
(Lea●der-like) to Grace by whom they move!  
Where Light of truth (the Landmark) near goes out,  
And still the Current runs as calm, as clear:  
Where no misfortunes Flaws, Fear needs to doubt:  
Sith holy loves smooth Flood, excludeth Fear:  
This Lo●e alone, (did our Muse rightly sing)  
Should be the Plainsong of her descanting.   

(100)  
WHy sing I then in this too loving Strain  
When Love, and I do so unkindly jar?  
This Vain in me, may seem as light as vain;  
Who still turns Coward in loves hottest War.  
Besides, my state of Fortune, Body, Mind,  
Are all adverse to light loves amity:  
How is it then I am to love so kind  
As to seem subject to his Empery?  
The Cause is weak, though strong in strange Effects,  
Which Men, how stayed so ere, by Wind doth move:  
Some call it Fame, that nought but Air respects,  
And, sooth to say, for It I sing of Love:  
And though they write best, that write what they feel  
Yet, edged by Fame, I fetch Fire out of Steel.   

(101)  
THus far may Speculation help a Wit  
Unapt for love, to write of loves estate:  
Thus far can Art extend her Benefit  
Past Nature's Bounds, in show of Love, or Hate.  
These Love-tricks are not mine, though mine they be  
As they are thus drawn out in loving Lines:  
These Passions are too weak to passion me,  
Although my strength from aught to nought declines.  
But whist my Muse, Hypocrisy is sin;  
Make me not seem more holy than I am:  
My Marrowbones lie Flesh and 〈◊〉 within,  
All which, by nature, ●urnes in Beauty's Flame;  
But, say I am, sith Grace to me is good,  
Free from unkind desires of Flesh and Blood.   

Inventions Life, Death, and Funeral.  
(102)  
Busy Invention, why art thou so dull  
And yet still doing?  
Are no Conceits ensconst within thy skull  
To help my wooing?  
Canst not, with judgements aid, once ●ally out  
with Words of power  
My Lady's dreaded Forces to disrout  
and make way to her?  
Or, canst thou use no Stratagem of wit  
That may entrap her?  
To yield unto Conditions fair, as fit  
else love enwrap her?  
Fie, fie, thou lin'st my hedd-peece to no end  
Sith by thy Lyninge  
I cannot, in loves wars, my Wit defend  
from foul declining.  
Doth Love con●ound thee, that thy Founder is,  
(Bewitched Invention?)  
Can she which can but make thee pregnant, miss  
of her in●ention?  
The powers of Wit cannot defend thee then  
from Shames confusion;  
But thou must die, with shame, and live again  
By Hope's infusion.  
Hope, hold my heart, and Head; for, they are sick  
Invention dieth:  
lovesick they are and need an Empiric  
which Love denieth.  
Invention, now doth draw his latest breath  
for comfort crying,  
He dies, and yet, in dying, strives with Death  
To live still dying!  
Ring out his Knell, for now he quite is dead  
Ding, dung, bell, well rung!  
Sing out a Dirge for now he's buried  
Farewell He, well song!  
This Epitath fix on his senseless Head,  
Here lies Invention  
That stood his loving▪ Master in no stead  
In loves contention.  
Yet, for his Soul (lest it should quite be damned)  
Some Dole bestow ye;  
Give my poor Wits (which he hath ●owly shamed)  
what he doth owe me.  
So, Mortus, et sepultus now▪ he is,  
Heaven grant his rising,  
Be not to utter darkness, but to Bliss  
of high Devising.   

(103)  
DIe, d●e Forbidden Hopes, o die;  
Fo●, while you live, in Death live I:  
Sith from Forbidden Hope  
Death first had life; and scope,  
(Ambitious hope, forbidden:)  
Then, if thou liv'st, needs die I must;  
For, Death doth live in hope unjust:  
Or at the least Despair,  
Whereof Death is the Hair;  
Then die, or still live hidden.   

(104)  
NOw, to this Sea of Cittie-Common-wealth  
(Lymit●lesse London) am I come obscu'rd;  
Where twofold Plagues endanger may the health  
Of Soul, and Body of the most secured:  
The Bodies Plague's an Ill which God can do  
For, is Ill in the Cirtie he doth not?  
But Sin (the Plague which doth the Soul undo)  
He cannot do, though how he well doth wot.  
Then, now my Soul stand stiffly on thy g●ard  
Sith many mortal Dangers thee surround  
Let Grace, thy guide, thy House still watch, & ward  
To keep thy Habitation clean, as sound:  
And, if thou canst, with Lo●t, live chastely here  
Angels will fetch thee hence when Plagues are near.    

Other Sonnets upon other Subjects.  
The Trinity illustrated by a three-square perspective Glass.  

(1)  
IF in a three-square Glass, as thick, as clear,  
(Being but dark Earth, though made Diaphanal)  
Beauties divine, that ravish Sense, appear,  
Making the Soul, with joy, in Trance to fall,  
What then, my Soul, shalt thou in Heaven behold,  
In that clear Mirror of the TRINITY?  
What? o It were not THAT, could it be told:  
For, 'tis a glorious, yet dark Mystery!  
It is THAT which is furthest from description;  
Whose beaming-beauty's more then infinite.▪  
Its Glories Monument, whose Superscription  
Is, Here lies LIGHT, alone indefinite!  
Then, o Light, limitless, let me (poor me)  
Still live obscure, so I ●ay still see Thee.   

(2)  
I Love the life that Love doth most mislike:  
That is the life which is most like to Death:  
On Life's Ha●r-strings when Death at last, shall strike  
Souls Organs than do sound with sweetest breath!  
The Discords of this Life annoy their Ears  
Where but Faiths Concord's only sweetly sound:  
From Discords, Dangers rise: from Dangers, Fears:  
Which Three, these Three, the Soul, Mind, Body, wound!  
I would therefore, live dead to s●ch a life▪  
Within the Grave of most obscure estate:  
So, dead, to live as far from State, as S●ri●●,  
To check those Lusts that would give Love the Mate:  
But o this Faith (frail faith, and Love (self-love)  
Be dead, sith they but live for selfe-behove.   

(3)  
TIme, faster than my Thought away doth haste;  
Who thought not to have lost It, but for gain:  
But, as that thought was present, Time was passed;  
So, left me but to think that Thought was vain.  
While I am musing how my Time to spend,  
Time spends Itself, and me: but how, I muse!  
So, still I muse, while Time draws on mine end:  
Thus▪ Time doth me, and I do it abuse.  
I think, and while I think, I io'ly, act:  
(Yet Thought's no idle action of the Mind)  
So, idle actions Time, and me have wracked  
Yet, in these Ruins, I my making find:  
For, I am made, by musing, what I am  
That's one that lines the Ornaments of Fame.   

(4)  
Sigh Rest, and Labour wears this Life away:  
(For, Rest doth toil, as Toil doth fatigate)  
Sith pain, in Labour stirs, and rests in Play:  
(For, Labour pains That, Rest doth satiate)  
What marvel though the Host of Animals  
Do (groaning) long to be Life dispossessed:  
Sith their whole Power by Nature's forces falls  
Into the life of Labour, Death of Rest.  
Then how should Man but long to leave that Stage  
Where Pain doth play in Rest, and Rest in pain:  
Sith Rests his Home, and Payne's his Pilgrimage,  
Who cannot rest, where he cannot remain?  
It than remains that we this Life detest  
Sith it doth rest in▪ Toil, and toil in Rest!   

(5)  
Sigh glorious Princes like to Mirrors are,  
(As clear, as brittle) how dare they contend:  
Sith when they meet, and light upon the bare,  
They may see their beginnings, in their end?  
And, sith base Upstarts like to Bladders be  
(Pu●t up with wind which makes them stiff, as stout)  
Me thinks each bound they should rise heavily:  
Sith That which makes them mount, may let It out.  
lastly, sith Men to Bubbles are compared  
(Than which no Being's nearer kin to Nought)  
Why from ill Thoughts do they their Wills not ward  
Sith they may be extinguished with a thought?  
It is sith Bubbles do but weak appear:  
So, in their Weakness, Men to Nought are near!   

(6)  
Work on, my Soul, while Sleeps Soul takes her rest,  
And, Sense held idle by her heavy hand;  
Act in Dumbe-Showes, which idle Spirits detest,  
That Wit, thy Will, thereby, may understand.  
Let Fancy offer to Intelligence  
The Shade of Shapes, whose Substance thou dost love;  
So, Sense shall s●e, without the Seeing Sense,  
(When Reason is rest) how thou dost move.  
Mount thee upon thy Wings of Wit, and Will,  
Unto the height of thy Wills true desires:  
There work thy pleasure, be it good, or ill,  
That (waking) Will may work what Wit requires:  
For, 'tis Wits work in sleep, Will's work to spy,  
That wakfull wit may right what is awry.   

(7)  
THe Match is double made, where Man, and Wife,  
Of diverse Bodies, make one perfect Mind;  
Striving to be as far from Hate as Strife:  
In kindness constant of a diverse kind.  
He, glad of her, She of his self, more glad;  
Sith as her better half, she Him doth hold!  
Each gives, to each, yet have more than they had!  
For, love, and wealth so grows more manifold!  
Doubling one life, sith they of Two, make One,  
Where Loves Desires rest pleased, in unrest:  
For true joy rests, untired, in motion,  
And by their motions that is still expressed:  
He rules sith She obeys, or rather She  
Obeying, rules: Thus, Souls may married be!   

(8)  
WEre Man's Thoughts to be measured by Days  
ten thouzand Thoughts ten thousand Days should have:  
Which in a Day, the Mind doth, daily, raise:  
For, still the Mind's in motion like a Wave!  
Or, should his Days be measured by Thought  
Then Times shortst Moment they would faster flee:  
Yet, Thought doth make his life both long, & nought▪  
That's nought, if long, and long, if nought it be.  
If long it be, for being nought, (though short)  
The shortest thought of long life is too long:  
Which thinks it long in labour, short in sport,  
So, Thought makes Life, to be still old, or young:  
But sith its full of thought, sith full of Sins  
Think it may end, as thought of it begins.   

(9)  
SEarch all the Sonnets set Love wealth to win,  
And you shall see (how ever darkly done)  
That lightly with the Eye they do begin  
As if loves heat, and Wits, came from that Sun.  
And I, as if the Eye bewitched me,  
Oft set my Sonnets Scene just in the Eye  
Of beaming Beauty, that it, so, may see  
Wherein consists loves Comick-Tragedie.  
Thus is the Senses Sovereign's Subject, made  
loves Sonnets Subject, in fair Paper- Reams;  
Sith with loves fire it doth the Hart invade:  
For, that cold Crystal burns with Beauty's Beams.  
Then o the Eye, the Eye! ay, I, that's it  
Wherein men see their want of Grace, and Wit.   

(10)  
Wisdom, and Virtue cannot (if they would)  
Misguide the Soul to whom they still are Guides:  
They guide to Glory going b●t on Gold:  
And all that Earth doth precious hold beside.  
Or, if ill Times should (with injurious hand)  
Oppress Them in their Course, or Cross their way,  
Yet must He needs about Time's Compass stand  
That, with such firm uplifters, falls away.  
The aim of Wisdom, yea and Fortunes too,  
Is at one White, to make bright whom they love:  
Ne can Cross Fortune Wisdoms Friends undo,  
Sith their undo do their makings prove▪  
The Stars rule Fools, both ru'ld by Wisemen are:  
So, each Man's Manners do his Fortune's square.   

(11)  
WHen, with my Minds right Eye, I do behold  
(From nought, made nothing less) great Tamburaline,  
(Like Phaeton) drawn, encoach in burnished Gold,  
Reigning his drawers, who of late did Reign  
I deem me blessed in the Womb to be  
B●rne as I am, among indifferent Things:  
No King, nor Slave but of the mean degree  
Where I see Kings made Slaves; and Slaves made Kings.  
When, if my Meanness but one Thought conceive  
That minds but Mounting, this Thought keeps it down:  
And so I live, in Case, to take or give,  
For Love, or Meed, no S●epter ●ut a Crown:  
Yet Flowers of Crowns, for Roesies' expense,  
Poets might take, and give no recompense.    

In praise of Poesy.  
THou that, by force of All commanding words,  
Mak'st all Affections follow thy Commands,  
To whom the Highest such height of power affords  
As fully with his grace, and glory stands,  
To thee sweet Poesy offer I this Mite  
Of Forceless words derived from lesser might.  
Thou that dost scorn Comers with muddy Brains  
Or with ought less than Spirits Angelical,  
Who chant enchanting Soul bewitching strains  
Where of but some includes the Sum of All  
To thee I sacrifice these Laudes to lea●e  
In flames of zeal that far surmount the Mean:  
For o Tho● scorn'st so base as Mean to bear  
Sith that the Mean, in Thee, is held but base,  
Though other Arts the Mean do highly rear  
Thou hold'st the Mean to be an high disgrace  
Then ● with what high Raptures should my Brains  
Entraunced be to open thy virtues Veins?  
Which, while I strive to do my Brains do beat  
As if they would work out their Freedom so  
Who do attempt to leave their narrow Seat,  
As if they scorned to be the Crown below  
But would be compassed in an Angel's Crown  
To make thee Angell-bright in de●re renown!  
Sweet Helicon, my Brains quite overflow:  
So shall thy Nectar them intoxicate  
And with a fiery Wreath bind thou my Brow,  
That mak'st the Muse in Flames to fulminate:  
While She, with voice, like Thunder, rattles forth,  
The Peals of Praises due to Poesy's worth!  
From this Foundation might my Muse transcend  
The tenfold Orbs of Heaven; e'en to his Throne  
That's all in All, there should these praises end,  
That higher praises might be His alone:  
But, such Transcendents are too high to climb.  
For my tired Muses Wings, that Let's do lime.  
Yet in my Sconce ● make your Rendezvous  
All words that may wing Praise with Angels Plumes  
And judgement join them fast with Arts Mouth-g●ue  
That they may hold past Time that all con●umes:  
But ● my Will all Words h●th ouersho●  
Then, let my silence praise what Words cannot.   


(13)  
WHiles in my Soul, I feel the soft warm Hand  
Of Grace, to shaw the Frozen dregs of Sin  
She, Angel (armed,) on Eden's Walls doth stand  
To keep out outward joys that would come in:  
But, when that holy Hand is ●ane away  
And that my Soul congealeth (as before)  
She outward Comforts seeks (with Care) each way  
And, runs to meet them at each Senses Door.  
Yet they, but at the first sight, only please;  
Then shrink, or breed abhorred Satiety:  
But, divine Comforts (far unlike to These)  
Do please the more, the more they stay, and Be:  
Then, outward joys I inwardly detest,  
Sith they stay not, or stay but in unrest.   

(●4)  
It's not Cocytus, River of sad tears:  
Nor ought besides that may sense most torment  
Doth cause the fear of death, or life endears,  
In Epicures, that sensually are bend:  
But 'tis the relapse into Nullity,  
Which of all griefs and miseries is chief  
To those that scoff at immortality,  
Sith in Not-being's Being's greatest grief:  
For, what joy is so great but the conceit  
Of falling to his Infinition  
(Of black Non-essence) will confound it straight  
In those that think this life their Portion?  
Sith then their Heaven on their frail life depends,  
Their Heaven must melt when they do mind their ends.   

(15)  
MEn, (Worlds of Mould, that fill the great World's Mould)  
Creep (like vile Worms, in whom is nought but Slime)  
To find some Hole, wherein to make▪ their Hold;  
Which found, they fill; then (restless) strait they climb:  
Till having raised themselves about the Ground  
They open lie to be to dust dissolved:  
As little, by great Clods, to Dust, are ground:  
So, Clods resolved to climb, are soon resolved:  
For, little Worlds, that would devour the great,  
Break, sith they cannot that huge Mass contain;  
For, they that Eat the Earth, the Earth will eat:  
So, Earth to quick, is quickly dead again.  
Then, in the Earth, if Men will be secure,  
They must like Worms, strait Holes or death endure.   

(16)  
WHen Will doth long t'effect his own desires  
She makes the Wit (as Vassal to the Will)  
To do what she (how ere unright) requires,  
Which Wit doth (though repiningly) fulfil.  
Yet, as well pleased (o temporising Wit!)  
He seems t'eff●ct her pleasure willingly;  
And all his Reasons to her Reach doth fit;  
So, like the World, gets love by flattery.  
That this is true, a Thousand Witnesses  
(Impartial Conscience) will directly prove;  
Then▪ if we would not willingly transgress  
Our Will should swayed be by Rule of Love:  
Which hides the Multitude of Sins because,  
Her Sire, thereby, to him his Servants draws.   

(17)  
IT is no easy skill to rule aright;  
The Helm of State one Hand can hardly sway:  
They must needs use the left, as well as right,  
That in a right Course, will a Kingdom stay:  
For, like as Hercules (as Poets feign)  
Was gotten in a Night as long as two,  
Because that Phoebus did his horses reign  
Till jupiter that Deed, did thoroughly Do:  
So, a right Sta●seman must of force be bred  
In a long Night of Silence, and sad thought;  
And in deep skill should hide his subtle Head.  
Till his skill be Herculean as it ought;  
And then, though Atlas on him heaven impose,  
He that huge Burden, staidly under-goes!   

(18)  
WHen Verity and Virtue be at one  
with Peoples-love (called Popularity)  
They (like a forewind in the Poop) drive on  
The Owner to sway Kingdoms easily:  
But, if this triple Union be at odds  
The lack of one may cause the wrack of all,  
Although the lackers were terrestrial gods  
Yet will they ruling reel, or reeling fall.  
I grant, a time vice may have good success,  
And rule at will, by rules of Policy;  
But in Conclusion ●will have nothing less,  
If true the Rules be of Divinity:  
For, who doth rule by Rules that virtue lack,  
In Vice's spite his Rule shallbe his wrack.   

(6)  
MEn overtoild in Commonwealth affairs  
Get much Tantalia● wealth by wealthy pains;  
Which they enjoy not through uncessant Cares:  
So, all their Comfort is in Care, and gains.  
Good reason then, that they should care to get,  
Who get great Cares, by getting great Commands:  
That will not let them sleep, sith sleep they let:  
For, who sleeps well in Bands, though golden Bands?  
Well fare they then with glittering Miseries,  
Though they ●are costly, yet they coldly sare:  
That feed on nought, but what doth feed the Eyes,  
And cloy their stomachs with consuming Care.  
Care for such Gaudies who so list for me,  
Sith Commons much more Common better be.   

(20)  
DAm'd Avarice (like a sly greedy Whore)  
Stirs up Desire, and pleasure doth ●ordidd:  
And makes his Lovers starve amiddst their Store,  
As Midas with his golden Viands did.  
All other Lusts themselves help every way:  
For, who's a Glutton that will spare to feed?  
Or who are carnal that forbear the play  
Upon an appetite to act the Deed?  
But wealthy Misers have not what they hold:  
And, money use not, through desire of it:  
As, we should Clothes forbear for being cold:  
And, for we hungry are, eat not a Bi●t▪  
This is an Ill that Good doth most abuse,  
Because it loves the good, it hates to use.   

(8)  
A Time there was when as thee Moon desired  
The Sun to make his a fit Petticoat;  
Who did refuse to do what she required,  
Sith he in her such often change did note:  
So, can no wisdom well proportion out  
To these phantastics (●arious, as vain)  
A rate of Wealth to bring the year about,  
Sith now they love, what strait they loath again▪  
These, of all light Things, burden most the Earth;  
Of whom there is no help, no hope, no use;  
Whose Mothers laboured idly in their birth,  
To bear such idle Things, for Things abuse:  
Each Slave to vice may used be in his Kind,  
But there's no use of the unconstant Mind.   

(22)  
THe ignorance of the Omnipotent,  
Into two Branches doth itself divide,  
Atheism, and Superstition, either bend  
From Truth, and in their backward bent abide.  
The first, encountering Nature's stiff, and hard,  
Begets in them scorn of Religion:  
The last, with supple Natures, more afeard,  
In them engenders Superstition.  
These, to Religion, are the two Extremes;  
Twixt whom the rests, a Virtue most Divine!  
Crowned with three in One rare Diadems,  
By heavens great Three in One, or single-Trine!  
These Two bewitch the World; for, at this day  
Most pray amiss, or else they miss to pray.   

(23)  
Pleasure with profit is the Pynn whereto  
〈◊〉 pens direct their best directed aim;  
Which if they splitt, they do as they should do;  
And justly for it Glories prise they claim.  
Now from my Will (well-bent as I supposed)  
(With Shafts of the endeavours of my Wit)  
I have rood at this Point, and them disposed  
As the Wind sat abroad, the Pynn to splitt.  
If I have shot too much on the left hand,  
I (as not weather-wise) the Wind mistook:  
Yet I considered both the Air, and Land;  
But, though my Shafts can neither of them brook,  
I lost them right, though light mine Arrows were  
Yet some being weighty, I must needs be near.   

(24)  
PLato puts difference these Terms between  
A Man Is not, and is that hath no Being:  
For, in the first a Nullity is seen,  
Which with nor Sense, nor Substance hath agreeing.  
The other showeth but the difference  
Between the Cause, and Matter; or, more plain,  
Between the Power, and Passion; wherein Sense  
Perceives that Odds doth really remain:  
For, This distinguisheth twixt that which Is  
(Yea, of It self Is, evermore the same)  
And That which of another's That, or This,  
Yet holds nor This nor That, but altars Frame:  
So, Man, compared with his constant Cause,  
No Being hath at all, by Nature's Laws!   

(25)  
SInce first I came to years myself to know,  
To know myself, I have done what I can:  
Who am not as I am in outward show,  
And yet I seek to show myself a man:  
For, sith of Soul, and Body I consist,  
And that my Body for my Soul was made,  
I ought, in searching of that Soul, insist;  
Sith thats myself, that Is, and cannot fade:  
She Is: that is, (Like her Original)  
immortal, and invisible: that is  
Past comprehention of Wit natural,  
So, still I search, to know, to know I miss:  
Then, if my knowledge be but this to know  
That I know nothing, I am humbled so.   

(26)  
THe accademics held it better far  
Quite to distrust th' Imagination,  
Then to believe all which it doth aver,  
Which breeds more false, then true opinion:  
Then, sith the case so stands with this Souls power,  
We should suspend our judgement, sith Things seem,  
Not as they be (though Sense the same assure)  
But, be (but in Conceit) as them we deem:  
For, through the Senses Channels that doth run,  
That is conveyed to the Intelligence:  
Then, Sense (as in the greatness of the Sun)  
Being deceived, deceives each inward Sense:  
O then, for Men, who seek but good to show,  
How long ought we suspect they are not so?   

(27)  
SO long as Unity retains her might  
She is but only One: the Number Two  
Breeding but difference: so indefinite  
Doth still divide, that so it may undo;  
e'en so a Word, or Speech while they abide  
But in the Thought, It's called a Secret right:  
But if put forth, forthwith abroad it glides:  
For, words have wings as swift as Thought in flight.  
A Ship, upon her wings (the Sails) may be  
In roughest winds stayed by her Anchor hold  
When she would into welknown dangers flee  
And so the same from utter wrack withhold:  
But speak a word, and nought shall let it hie  
Oft to the wrack of him that let it fly.   

(28)  
THen, if we show (what unshown have we would)  
To any other, we bewray thereby  
We ween they'll keep that closer than we could:  
So, show our Secrets for more secrecy.  
But, do the Geese, that into Sicily  
Over the mountain Taurus fly by night,  
Gag them with Stones, for Gaggling as they fly,  
Lest Eagles breeding there should stop their flight?  
And shall men have less Wit than witless Geese  
To make that known that Wit would close conceal  
And put no Gag into their glib Mouth-peece,  
But (like tame Gulls) by gaggling it reveal?  
Then, if my Tongue were of this twattling kind,  
It should more taste my meat, then feel my mind.   

(29)  
They that have skill to keep, and nourish Bees  
Do hold that Hives wherein most noise they make  
To be the best, or with them best agrees  
Who, to the same, most honeyed Riches rake:  
But they that have the Charge of human Swarms:  
Do hold them happiest when they quietst be:  
And furthest off from uproars, and Alarms,  
As having honeyed Sufficiency!  
Sufficiency, the Nurse of Rest, and Peace:  
For excess breeds excess of Sin, and Shame:  
And Sin, and Shame do wars, and Woes increase:  
Where Wasps make honed riches spoil, their game:  
Then, in our treble Hives of treble Realms,  
We want no peace, because we want Extremes.   

(30)  
THe Frosty Beard, inclining all to white,  
The Snowy Head: or Head more white than Snow,  
The Crowfoot near the Eyes, Brows, Furrowed quite,  
With Trenches in the Cheeks, Experience show.  
These are the Emblems of Authority;  
Which joined to those do much augment her might:  
These are the Signs of Reason's Sovereignty,  
And Hieroglyphics spelling judgement right.  
These are the Trophies reared by Times left hand.  
Upon the spoil of Passion, and her Powers:  
We, by these Symbols, Wisdom understand:  
That us directeth, and protecteth ours:  
All these in me begin to come in sight,  
Yet can I hardly rule myself aright.   

(31)  
ALl Dignities that suddenly begin,  
And gloriously increase, in haste, post haste,  
So orerunne Envy that she cannot sin,  
Nor sin before; for, strait her power they passed.  
If Flax on fire be put, it makes no smoke,  
Because it, in a Moment, falls to flame:  
No more can Envy, Pomp to fume provoke,  
That on the sudden blazeth on the same.  
But Greatness gotten slowly by degrees  
Lies most exposed to envies cruelty;  
Those Beams are faint, and, used thereto, she sees  
Them at the brightest, with a baneful Eye:  
Then, blessed They that are from State exempt  
That lies exposed to Envy, and Contempt.   

(32)  
THe more unlike to God, the worse the Man;  
Things most like Gods unlike, are most vile things:  
God Brightness is, with Him it first began;  
The Devil is darkness, and from him it springs.  
Who's bright, or loveth brightness, is like God:  
Who's dark, or Darkness loves, is like the Devil:  
Who then in Darked ●sse lives, or makes abode,  
Doth live like God's unlike, ●he Fount of Evil.  
To live, or die alone, it is all one;  
Sa● that, of both extremes, to die is best;  
The Beasts most brute, delight to li●e alone:  
And whosoe liveth ●oe, lives like a Beast:  
I cannot think that Men such Beasts will be:  
For, Men, and Beasts live with their like we see.   

5. Sonnets in ppaise of Emin●acy or a public Life.  

(33)  
WEalth of heavens Heaven, and want of Hell of Hells:  
Angels renown, and men's evangelized:  
The Sum, of all their All imparadized;  
Glorious Elier, that itself excels!  
Blackness, Antipodes: Foulness, Opposite:  
Minds joy, joys bliss, and Blisses blandishment:  
Laudes Crown, crowns pomp, and pomps best ornament:  
Kynnet of Darknessr, lightly turning it.  
deaths death, Life's life, and life of Lives, lives Life  
Eyes eye wits eye, Souls eye Eye of all Eyes:  
Fame's pride, Pride's foil, yet Foils doth scandalise:  
God's glory, Glories God, and stay of strife!  
This is obscure, and yet 'tis extreme Light,  
Manns Summum bonum, and Gods Souls delight!   

(34)  
TO Live alone, alone is not to live,  
To die alone, alone is not to die:  
For, Death is Life to such a lifeless one  
That lives alone, and loathes all Company.  
Who lives alone, alone doth living Die,  
Who dies alone, alone doth dying live:  
For, Life gave life for sweet Society,  
And Death, for Life, and Life, for Death did give.  
Earth's not alone, for, Earthling, creep upon it;  
And Water's not alone, for Fish live in it:  
air's not alone, for Sprights live in, not on it:  
And, Cricketts Live with Fire, as all have seen it:  
Since these are all, from whence all Creatures spring,  
Who lives alone, lives not like any Thing!   

(●)  
THen least alone, when I am most alone,  
Quoth one that least, loud most men's Company:  
But what was he? a Ruler; such a one  
Oft lives alone to keep Society:  
For, Kings (whose cares are how from cares to keep  
Their subjects lives: in Life's Communion.)  
Oft live alone, and wake when sound they sleep,  
That he with them may sleep when theirs is gone.  
But private Men, if they too private are,  
Are most injurious to men's public good;  
And who are such, live past all kind of Care;  
So lived not He, that for Men spent his blood:  
If he (Kind Lord) had loved to live alone  
He had not died, and we had lived unknown.   

(36)  
MArtha, and Mary (two of his beloved  
That was the Son of Mary, mother Maid)  
Chose different lives (by grace, and Nature moved)  
Contemplative, and Active (as it's said)  
Mary, the first, the last, did Martha choose:  
The first, preferred was before the last▪  
By Him, for whom she did the last refuse,  
Through whom she was, therefore, with glory graced  
If glorified she were, than not obscure:  
And if with Him she were, than not alone:  
Alone she was with Him, upon whose power  
All Creatures rest, yet still he rests all one:  
B●t such a one, as every One attends  
Who lives alone then, lives not like his Friends.   

(37)  
I cannot say but Beauty is a Guist:  
But, to few given that have other grace:  
For, it the Mind above itself doth lift  
Although the Mind and Body be but base.  
Beauty is bright, then, then 'tis light lightly  
And if too bright, too light, too oft, it is:  
Yet 'tis the Sign where Grace doth use to lie.  
But, if thrust out, the Inn is most amiss.  
And most amiss, to miss what most adorns,  
And hath but merely stained-painted Walls:  
Which Vice doth honour much: but Virtue scorns:  
Sith It, to Vice, from grace, and Virtue falls:  
Then Beauty if thou be not Grace's Inn,  
Grace, suing to thee, sueth but to sin..   

(38)  
YEt what a precious Pearl, in World's account,  
(Pearl in the worlds Eyes, that doth blind those Eyes)  
Frail Beauty is, appears by Beauties wont,  
That Colours now her faults with Forgeries.  
Did ever Sun (bright Eye of Heaven!) yet see  
Complexions in our Streets set (Cried) to sale  
Before these Times made them so uttered be,  
Which makes chaste thought good cheap, as being stale?  
If ever, never was there such a Sun  
Unless the Deluge (springing) saw the same:  
If then they coulord, 'twas by it ore'runne,  
To better it, because it was too blame:  
Those Waters varnished it, and made it clean,  
So wish I varnished every painted (.)   

(39)  
But mad, or desperate Muse what meanest thou thus  
To touch this Couloring with this hard Touch,  
Sith that thou know'st some, somewhat virtuous,  
Do use to Colour somewhat more than much?  
Some, good, as great (but neither great, nor good:  
For, Greatness scorns her goodness so to blot)  
Do make their blood dissemble with their blood:  
Which (for a Colour) seems what it is not.  
Still worse, worse, cease, cease foolhardy Move,  
Thou art too biter so such Sweets to grieve:  
Thinkst thou that those, which thou dost so abuse,  
Will ever grace thee, much less thee relieve?  
But, o did all as thou dost, they should rest  
Rewards unto themselves, and please the best.   

(40)  
LAte in a Lodging, where I used to lie,  
A Picture, pinched hung therein, in my walk:  
Which, one way, had a faire-Maides Phisnomy:  
The other way, an Apes, which seemed to talk:  
So, that Face had two Faces, in one Hood:  
A fair Maids, and an Apes: which seemed to me  
The Painter was not mad, in merry mood:  
That, under mirth, hid grave morrahty:  
For, to my Thoughts (that may with his agree)  
He seemed to touch our Apish painted Dames,  
Who counterfeit the Beauty, which they see,  
And make the Boards, their faces: to their shames:  
But, Wainscot Faces cannot blush, a whit,  
But when they lay on Red, which seemeth It.   

(41)  
SWeet Beauty bear this bitterest abuse:  
If thou abuse thyself, why should not he?  
Of whom thou hast, in this Tract, made good use  
(In gaudiest Colours) by out-painting Thee.  
Thou canst not hurt me more than by thy Looks  
Then thy good Looks I need not much to weigh:  
My fight thy Back, than Forepart better brooks:  
Then, when thou seest me turn some other way:  
Unto mine Eyes thou art a Cockatrice,  
Who dost infuse, through them, into my heart,  
The virtue of thy power, which doth (like Vice)  
Wholly confound my single-double Part:  
Then, if thou wilt damnme for mine offence  
Look well on me, to plague my Soul, and Sense.   

(42)  
Sigh Good thou lov'st (o God, Goods only Drift!  
Why giv'st thou me a Mind which Ills deprave?  
If Grace I cannot have, without thy gift,  
Why plagu'st thou me for that I cannot have?  
Can my power make thy Power obedient be,  
(Mine being so frail, and Thine so infinite)  
That, maugre thine, I might wrest Grace from Thee,  
And, with strong hand, to rend from Thee thy Spirit?  
O no! it cannot: but, it's in my power  
To Sin, and so, to thrust thy Spirit from mine:  
Then, o thou Fonnt of goodness, on me power  
(What's f●rre above my reach) that Spirit of Thine:  
If not, I can but fear, that can but fall:  
So, can despair, but cannot do withal▪   

(43)  
SOrrow, the Salve, and Sore of deadly Sin,  
Sister of mercy, Mother of Remorse,  
Who by thy being lost, dost Being win:  
And, through thy strengths decay, augmentst thy force.  
Who, while thou hurt'st, thou healst (together both)  
So, tak'st away thy Being, with thy Being,  
Who loathest to love, because thou lov'st to loath,  
That which doth give thee sight, or blinds thy seeing:  
O thou sweet-Sowr-sowr sweet, (each way too true!)  
Sweeten, that Sour that sourest death doth seek:  
Make sweet, sour Sin, by making Death (her due)  
Die, sith I live, by Sin, made truly meek:  
For, whenas Ill, by Grace, makes good our Mood,  
Grace lets Ill Bee, that so, it may be good!   

(44)  
TRue love is Charity be gun to Be,  
Which Is, when Love beginneth to be true:  
But, to the highest grows loving-charity  
When she the Highest alone doth love to view.  
O Charity! that evermore dost flame  
In that dread majesties eternal Breast.  
When, by thy heat, shall my Love lose her name,  
And made to flame, like Thee, in restless rest?  
Well featuted Flesh too base a Subject is  
For Sou'raign Loves divine, ay-blest, embrace:  
The Love of Flesh loves nought but flesh, but this  
loves nought that savours of a thing so base:  
Then, be the Priest, and as an Host, I'll die  
Offered to Heaven in flames of Charity.   

(45)  
Sigh Truth itself calls this life sour, as vain,  
What is less sensible than Sense, that deems  
It Sweet, sith so to sensual Sense it seems,  
Which not a thought in one state doth remain.  
I see it such, with Observations Eyes  
That ey the inside of all outward Shows;  
Which clearly shows, Life ebbs the more it flows,  
And when it longest hath lived soonest dies.  
A King this Moment, that Kings adorate,  
The next, a Corpse, Slaves loath to look upon:  
Then, was he King but in opinion,  
Which altars with the altering of his state;  
O then sith Life is but a dream of breath,  
In this life's Dream I'll nought but dream of death.   

(46)  
THe Seas unfit to sail on, it too calm:  
As it is when it is too turbulent:  
Then, the mean motion sets it so a walm  
As doth the Sailor's Ear, and Eye content:  
So, neither too calm, nor too rough a Mind  
Gives Virtue Way whose ways are in the Mean:  
In Love, if Passion do not Reason bind  
Their Action to the Clouds commends the scene  
Hatred, and Ire makes way, (and Let's putback)  
For justice, and for Prowess t'act their Parts:  
Courage is cold, and justice is but flack  
If Ire and Hatred did not stir their Hearts,  
Then, sith loves pass●●●, may with Reason hold  
Good reason we should love as Reason would.   

(47)  
IF Nature cannot make Desire to cease  
In Compass of the Mean, let Grace thy Guest  
Give head, where Excess is the mean to peace,  
And the Extreme the midst of endless rest.  
For, Grace hath Passion given for Nature's aid  
While they in virtues Compass walk the Round:  
And move to Goodness when themselves are stayed:  
But otherwise, they do their Stay confound:  
For, as excess of Virtue is but Vice,  
And, too much of the best, becomes the worst:  
So, extreme Passion doth much prejudice  
And make them who have most, the most accursed:  
Then if thou would ● be passionate, and blessed  
Passion must stir thee, but in peace, to rest.   

(48)  
TO draw such Lines as will not hold the strain  
(If they be stretched upon the Rack of Wit)  
Is labour no less vilifide, then vain:  
And, for Times graced by finding fault, unfit:  
But, such to twist upon the Wheel of Thought,  
As may hold stretching though all Racks them strain,  
Do grace their Worker sith they are well wrought,  
And ●●●wne of matter that draws out the Brain.  
Such Lines will reach if to the utmost streind,  
Above Delight, short of Satiety:  
And are so strong that En●y is constrained  
To s●y 〈◊〉 hold beyond her power to try:  
〈◊〉 when the Sun doth in our Zenith light  
He makes no Shade his Beams descend so right.     

An amorous Colloqui twixt Dorus, and Pamela.  

IN a Garden rich of Flowers  
Walled with bay, and Hawthorn Towers,  
In a Tower the rest forsaking,  
Woe kept Philomela waking.   

Here heard Dorus and his Saint  
This Birds musical Complaint:  
While they hearkened to her singing  
Their hands were each other wring.   

When their Ears were cloyed to hear  
Notes that never cloie the Ear?  
Sith Hands, hearts did so discover,  
Dorus thus did Woe his Lover.   

Sweet you see, and feeling so,  
How our Hands, and Hearts agree  
And sith Hands, and Hart● conspire,  
Let us likewise in Desire.   

Time, and Place us both do woe,  
To do that we needs must do,  
If we will be linked for ever  
With the Knot that none can sever.   

Time, once past, returneth not:  
Place, once lost, is hardly got.  
Then sith both attend our Pleasure,  
Let us wait upon their leisure.   

Think not Lust corrupts my love,  
Though effects of both I prove  
Sith that Lust, alone, seems acting  
Where Love, only, is Compacting.   

This Conjunction I desire  
Not to quench unhallowed sire,  
But sith I would only owe thee,  
I, in love alone, would ●now thee.   

Of himself Love jealous is,  
Lest he should in duty miss,  
Sith it is his bounden duty  
To do service still to Beauty.   

Bound, nay treble bound I am,  
By thy Beauty, Grace, and Fame,  
That no Right should be neglected  
Due to one so much affected!   

Sith Love can no better do,  
Then to make still One, of Two:  
That Love, Love is best acquitting  
That comes nearest to uniting.   

My Soul from my Lips would fly,  
And, of Thine to Thine would high,  
That their Powers they might be mixing  
In desire of faster fixing.   

Sith our Souls (through loves desire)  
Labour thus to be intite,  
Often let our Bodies being  
Make one E●lence, through agreeing.   

So to be, is to be One:  
Which is by Conjunction:  
One in Spirit, and Flesh, and either  
Made by Coupling fast together.   

This I long for, but not long  
That this should thy Virtue wrong:  
Sith its virtue in affection,  
That desires to make Connexion.   

When desire hath had his will  
Thou shalt be what thou art still:  
Mine own life whose fame I tender,  
More than what my life can render.   

My love's Love, whose Object is  
virtues beauty, Beauty's bliss;  
Near made poor for Flesh's pleasure,  
Sith her Means are without measure!   

Love itself it self doth hate  
Till it be incorporate  
With his dear beloved Object,  
Reigning in It, to It subject.   

O then, Dear (more dear to me  
Then my life's felicity)  
Yield, òyeeld, without gainsaying  
Sith that Danger's in delaying,   

This he said, and saying strove  
To enjoy what he would have  
Warred with Fire, and Sword of Lovers  
While her Forces he discovers.   

Forces put in Beauty's hand,  
Which rare Virtues did command:  
Wherewith She him so restrained  
As the fight grew more unfeigned.   

Loath she was to put him back,  
But more loathed her Hovorr wrack▪  
Thus while Resolution hoverd,  
Resolution He discovered   

Spare, ò spare my dearest Deer  
(Quoth she to him (Victor near)  
Let me die ere live deposed  
Of my Trust in Thee reposed.   

Thee my Love doth so obey  
That it hates to say thee nay,  
Did not Virtue, bid mine Honour  
Charge my love to wait upon her.   

'tis no scruple love doth make  
That thou shouldst such Tribute take;  
Sith thou art my loves true owner,  
But I fear the foilc of honour.   

Sweet, dear Sweet, let be let be:  
Wrong not Right thou hast in me▪  
O! forbear vnc●●ill action,  
Which procureth civil faction.   

If the best blood of my Heart  
Would but ●ase thy easiest smart,  
I protest ● would eff●se it,  
That thou mightst, at pleasure, use it.   

Can my Dorus feel annoy  
And Pamela ease enjoy?  
No, the smart of thy least ●inger  
Galls my Soul like Conscience Stinger   

Art thou Racked? thy Rack constrains  
The convulsion of my veins:  
Wherein flows the Sanguine Humour  
That fr● thee should wash fowl Rumour.   

Love me (Sweet) but love me so  
That me, faultless, thou mayst know  
So to know me, is to know me  
Worth the love which thou dost owe me.   

My heart shrines thy loviug heart,  
Still in me thou bideing a●t:  
Do not th●n pollute thy Temple  
With the ●●lth of ●owle Example.   

Thou shalt have me how thou wilt  
When such Having Hath no guilt:  
But if now I should yield to thee,  
I should fear I should vnd● me.   

Sith I should seem most obscene  
In thy Souls Eye pure, a●d clean:  
If not, I should ban my Folly  
To love such a soul unholy.   

Do what ere thou wilt with me,  
So thou make me meet for Thee:  
Thou art good, none can mistake Thee  
(Being Noble) good, then, make me.   

I'll be Thine while good I am,  
Never Thine with evil name:  
Let me glory but in glory  
Bright●ing our Affections Story.   

Yet (dear Sweet) these Lips of mine  
Shall still Labour more than thine  
With sweet Words and sweeter Kisses  
To miss no joy but Amisses.   

I will melt with fervour free,  
And infuse myself in thee,  
That thou shalt possess me wholly,  
So thou wilt possess me holy.   

ay, perhaps do wish that done  
Which in Love, we have begun:  
(Blameless) so to bless thy Fortune  
With what, now, thou dost importunc.   

But, till then (as Reason would)  
Hold thou all that I do hold,  
Thou shalt have all (said she weeping)  
But what is in Honours keeping.   

O then, Sweet, persuaded be  
Witness be my Tears with me  
How lioath I am to displease thee,  
If with honour, I could please Thee,   

Hereupon in Dorus Eyes  
T●a●●s of joy, and grief did rise,  
And 〈◊〉 words were issue seeking,  
●ands, hard wrong, expressed their speaking.   

Y●t at last, when Passion had  
〈◊〉, in being Woe, and glad,  
〈◊〉 Dorus his Tongue tried  
To unsold what it denied.   

While (quoth he) Pamela dear  
I thy charming Reasons hear  
I am so enchanted by them  
As I want will to deny them.   

But let me, o let me take  
The dear offer thou didst make  
Which was, harmless kindest kissing  
Sigh it is my greatest blessing.   

Herewith he her Body eclipse  
Sucking Sucket from her Lips,  
Twixt whose sucking all his Speeches  
Were as sweet, as full of breaches.   

Though quoth he (and then he kissed)  
Sweet, I should (and then he missed  
Of what he was then in speaking  
Kisses still his Speeches breaking)   

Though, I say (said he) yet then  
Lips fore Tongue, and Wit did ren)  
My Lips near should cease to kiss thee  
My Lips nereshold too much bliss thee.   

Should I life, and breath consnme  
In thy blissful Breathes perfume  
I could n●uer too much love Thee  
Sith, as good as kind I prove thee.   

For, as in a Glass, I see  
What I ought to be, in thee:  
Sith thou dost my faults Discover  
Making me ● perfect Lover.   

I will love thee ●s I should  
That is, so as Reason would:  
Reason would such divine Graces  
Should be loud with chaste Embraces.   

Come, the Rector of my Soul,  
Which Commands by thy Control  
Who hast giun her Reason power  
O●e sweet Sin, and Passion sour.   

Come then (Sweet) let us from hence  
Walk in loves Circumference:  
Till we may (within the Centre)  
Do these Rights without adventure.    

The picture of Formosity.  
WHo would my LOVES divine Idea see  
(So to divine his human fantasy)  
Look in these Lines which her delineate  
And see an heawly Form in earthly state! 
Hair.   
Her Hair, gold's Qninteslence, ten times refined, 
Head.   
(In substance far more subtle than the Wind)  
Doth Glorify that Heauns Divexity  
(Hi● Head) where Wit doth reign invincibly. 
Forehead.   
Her Front's the Field wherein, in love, contends  
True Grace and Gravity for graceful Ends;  
Whose doubtful Conflict gives undoubted grace  
To loves extrem'st Horizon, 
Face.  her sweet face.  
On the declining of this upper Plain  
(Where Modesty in Majesty doth reign)  
An heaunly Hemisphere o'er Canopies  
Two Suns, 
Eybrowe.  the Lights of earthly Paradise:  
Who, 
Eyes.  with the force of their fair influence,  
Delight men's inward, light their outward sense.  
In which fair Mirrors all Eyes love to pry,  
Sith there themselves they glad and glorify. 
Cheek●.   
Her Cheeks! lilies, and Roses are too fowl  
For Similes, t'xpresse true Beauty's Soul:  
For, there that Soul imparadized lies  
Like Grace, alone, that made it joy of Eyes!  
Two Dimples, like two Whirlepits, there appear,  
More beauty to devour then Fle●h can bear!  
Her No'e, 
Nose.  the Gnomon of loves Dial bright,  
Doth, by those Suns, still shadow out that light  
That makes Time's longest hours, but Moment's seem:  
Fo● Months but minutes Senses, joyed, esteem.  
Her Lips! 
Lips.  blush Cherries, Coral, Rubies blush:  
For your Prim's far inferior to their Flush:  
〈◊〉 gain the Prize if you, with Them, contend,  
Whose Beauty's more than Hues can comprehend!  
Her Teeth. A Row of rarest Margarites,  
empale a Tongue that give all Tongues their Rights;  
From whom their Dialect derives such grace, 
Teeth.   
As Ears it draws with it from place to place: 
Tongue.   
Who, when she lifts (with Balme-breaths Ambrosia)  
She it enaires in Prose, or Poësy;  
That flow so boldly from her fluent Tongue  
As if they could not, though they would, go wrong▪  
But o her Voice! o fie I wrong the same,  
To call much more, no more but by that name;  
But, briefly thus; 
Voice.  It is That of those Quires  
That wonder rap divine, and humans Ears!  
Which when she tunes to Silver-sounding strings,  
Her voice much more than Silver-sounding rings;  
So that though she thereto her Voice doth fit  
Yet sweetest Strings she makes but foils to it.  
Her Chin (where GRACE. her glory brings about)  
Is like a Promontory iutting out  
Into a Sea of Sweets, 
Chin.  her Neck, 
Neck and Breast.  and Breast, 
Paps.   
Where Beauties 
* Neck.  Billows rest still in unrest?  
Whose seemly Swellings beating on this Point  
Doth Beauty's Deluge seem to disappoint:  
So, BEAUTY sits in Dimple of this Chin  
To oversee the Sweets this Sea within:  
Who can but touch this Cape (Cape of good Hope)  
The way from thence, to Pleasure lieth open,  
Which lieth on her Lips, which if Lips touch  
Pleasure herself will at that pleasure gruche.  
Fall from these Eaves of BEUTYES heaunly house  
(Where Grace, and Natute are miraculous)  
Along the Crystal 
* Bosom.  Column that it stays,  
Then Mount my Muse and fly o'er Pleasure's 
* Belly.  Seas  
Into Desires delicious Continent,  
Where Loves Desire lives, covertly, content▪  
Her Belly bounds the life of loves desire,  
With all the Comforts, that it can require:  
There is the Milky way that doth direct  
To loves hid Court, the Court of LOVES Elect,  
Is is th' Olympus where Sense-pleasing sweets  
In active games to strive for glory meets:  
Upon the Top whereof Ioues Altar lies, 
Navel.   
Where zealous Thoughts their Children sacrifice  
In flames of lawful Lust, to Lawless LOVE,  
Where they, with joy, sweet martyrdoms do prove!  
Just at the foot of this my Muse's Mount,  
There lies, but what! that doth my Muse surmount,  
T'express It as It is, without offence,  
Such is this Secrets unknown Excellence!  
But, at olympus Foot runs Helicon;  
Then think what makes good my Comparison  
(With purest Thought) and so perhaps ye shall  
near guess from whence loves Helicon doth fall.  
Her Thighs▪ 
Thighs,  be snowy Standards, gracefully great,  
Which are (strange Paradox) congealed with Heat!  
Whose Bases, lifted upwards, hold on hic  
That Mount, and Fount of earths felicity;  
And, growing downwardly, small, or Taper-wise,  
Two Pirameds', reversed, make her Thighs:  
Whose Points, depending on a Bony Bowl,  
With motion meet them to, 
Apple of the k●ee▪ Knees.  and fro doth roll.  
The Biace of which Boowles doth make the Knees  
From whence Lo●es lightest Muses take theír veeze  
To leap into those Seas, which Cares destroy,  
Where to be drowned is to be drunk with joy,  
Those well compacted Knees (unknown to all  
Save known by measures▪ Geometrical)  
Are Beauties Hinges: which each Leg, and Thigh  
With nimble-welmade ●oynts togeathertye:  
So, that fair Frame which on these Hinges plays  
Doth, by a Consequent, imply their praise  
Then, from her Knees slide down her Legs along  
(Dull muse, that dost her Parts perfection wrong, 
〈◊〉   
And right them in Description of this part  
Which, in a word, surmounts Descriptions Art!)  
Unto her Foot, Perfections Pedestal,  
No more, nor less than keeps her Corpses from fall:  
Which, 
●oote.  for the acquaint proportion, doth persuade  
It rather is imagined, then made!  
Now, from her He eel, to Head, climb back my Muse  
Along her Back Parts and those Parts peruse,  
With forward backwardness, because they are  
More Common to her Kind though no less rare:  
Her Butt, but o! 
Buttocks.  quick wit lend me a word  
That fairly may that Part a name afford  
Fit for the fairness of her foulest part,  
But think what 'tis to spare new words of Art:  
To call them Haunches were but to profane  
Their names that are for Globes-Celestiall ta'en:  
For, they are so composed by Nature's Skill  
That Agent, mixed with Azure, them do fill!  
But, leave these Parts (lest partly some perceive  
That I am loath these pleasant Parts to leave)  
And scale Beauties * Meridian which doth lie 
●ir back.   
Upon these Crystal Heauns' plurality. 
Ribs.   
There Lock the * Side-railes of this total Frame 
Rigebone.   
Within a * Prop, that upright holds the same:  
And, for that Prop of many joints consists  
It seemly stands or bows which way she lists.  
She bows to all, yet none can make her bow:  
For, with the high, she's high, and low, with low▪  
Whose Back bears witness that her Breast is such  
That stiffly stands, or bows, still more then much! 
The holous of the back bone   
A Trench, wise Nature, in the same hath cut  
Where all the hottest Shot of Love are shut,  
That can o'ercome what ere their force withstand  
And, though by Love commanded, Love Command.  
Upon the Margins of this Trench do ●e  
(That slow lie, by degrees, mount meanly high)  
Beauties faíre Walks, or Daízie covered Downs  
Whereto She flies, 
The on●ward hollounes of the back.  for solace, when She frowns:  
And all along down to the Postern Gate  
Where Nature thrusts out that which she doth hate.  
Beauties do run neat Base, and kindly take  
Each other Prisoners for sweet Beauty's sake!  
Her Shoulders broad; whereto her Arms are knit,  
Within whole Circuit Ioy doth sadly sit: 
Shonlders   
Because, that joy she will impa●t to none  
But unto Fame's Superlatives alone!  
Along those Arms (like Arms of Seas, and Brooks]  
Run the blue Veins, 
Arms.  with many branching Crooks; 
Veins.   
Which, in a Soil, with Milk clean overflown,  
Do darkly make those rivers Channels known.  
But o her Hand! (which my Muse Captive holds  
And drowns her in drie●moisture in the Folds)  
Is a myere Labyrinth of Faries, far sought,  
That yields no coming out 〈◊〉 wandering Thought.  
●hat Hand, in fair Hands, can so show her mind  
That in that show wit may Wits Substance find:  
And handles so each praised Instrument  
As She of them had supreme government.  
What should I speak of other Qualities  
Done bly that Hand (the Hand of Sciences)  
Sith no Skill that doth Greatness glorify  
But her Hand can, their rareness, rarify!  
The Tables of those Hands LOVES Tables are; 
Table of the had finger's,   
Her fingers are the Points, both whitest Ware:  
Whose Sides are edged with the sweetest Air,  
So to distinguish them, more sweet, pure, fair!  
Here LOVE at Tick-tack plays, or at Queens●game;  
But, Irish hates, for having Tricks too blame:  
Here He casts Doublets, Double Points to take,  
(The Hart, and Hand) both which an end do make  
Of all LOVES Games, save ●hen the vieth are paid  
He playeth with the Prize, for which he played▪  
But to paint out her Part these Parts within  
I might much more than Zeuxis glory win:  
But, as he drew a vail upon that part  
He could not show by Colours, nor by Art:  
So must I do, and say, nay swear, it is  
Virtue Contracted, to abstracted Bliss!  
For, all her Parts are the true Properties  
Of divine Grace, and Princlie Qualities!  
O Dull Invention how dost thou abuse  
This Queen of Beauty Subject of my Muse?  
For that too base is each Comparison  
Are yields too blaz on Nature's Paragon.  
Then, o Invention make my Muse confess  
she's more than Art, and Nature can express.  
So, not as I began, my Song I end,  
My LOVES Idea none can comprehend.   

In Love is no Loathsomeness.  
IF but no more than base Bum-fiddling  
Respected were in loves delicious Scene,  
Then, at the Close, such irksome piddling  
Would make the Act as odious, as obscene:  
For, might my Muse, with modesty, demand  
Wha● pleasure takes frail Sense in? In's enough,  
To point at That which all do understand  
A sport, if sport it be, as rude, as rough.  
And what feels Flesh, but Flesh? and what is that  
(Though made in height of Nature's Art, and pride)  
But Dung, and Dust● (be it or lean, or fat)  
And who to fall to such Filth can abide? 
To stir up thoroughly the stinking puddle of the filthy manners of wantonesses▪ it would turn up the stomachs of the ●onest and chaste bearers through the hateful & villainous sou●d thereof. Pit●a.   
But say that Mother Nature doth procure  
(For procrertions sake) her fleshly Brood  
To join together in this Act impure,  
Yet is it far less graceful, than its good:  
For, did not Adam's Apples juice infect  
Our perfectest blood in being minged with it,  
We should not this affect, nor s●●rse effect,  
As being, for pure Saints Edenizd, unfit▪  
Than should no ioy-pained tickling of the Sense  
(Like that of Arme-pitts, paining us with pleasure)  
Have drowned our Feeling with the Confluence  
Of lustful pleasures floods, sunk in Displeasure.  
We should not then lie soaking in Shames * Soil,  
And melting inlacivious Extacie;  
Nor should, with heat of Lust, our Livers boil  
Till our lifeblood be quite d●●d up thereby.  
Nor should the Marrow●Malady, consume  
That Oil of life that makes us strong, and fresh;  
Nor should we need our Garments to par●ume  
To cloak the stink of our still-rotting Flesh.  
No, Love hath in it virtue more Divine,  
And the Beloved more cause of dear delight!  
Where Virtue sits enthrond in Beauties Shine  
To make each others splendour double bright.  
There Modesty to Majesty is knit,  
And Venus Diana Clasps, with chaste embrace  
There stayed Wisdom's matched to nimble Wit  
And Nature ●hequers up all gifts o● Grace!  
Now, in such Confluence of Divine graces  
(That do beheaun the Hart, entrance the Mind!)  
How can base flesh, once mind fleshly embraces  
When sleshly Motions these stayed Virtues bind.  
Were Flesh persuaded that an Angel were  
In Woman's Form within her Coverture  
Could she desire to know a Thing so clear  
With other knowledge then divine, and pure?  
No no, she could not though she were inflamed  
With Fire that kindled Zodoms hellish fire;  
She could not, no, though she sought to be dammed  
(Through her desires) so dammed a deed desire!  
No more can Love have mind of hateful Lust,  
When as her Object is Angelical;  
But than it doth embrace (as needs it must)  
That Object with Arms supernatural:  
This is the highest Heaun of human Love,  
Which none but divine Creatures seek to pro●e!   

Essays upon certain Sentences.  

Amans quid cupiat scit, 〈◊〉 sapiat non videt.  
WOuldst thou (wise Hus●and) have thy marriage Bed 
Solon the excellent Lawgiver would have m●n kee●e cöpa●●● with their 〈◊〉 in b●d but thrice ● month▪ that li●e as Cities & States use after a certain time between to renew their leagues, & confederacies one with another: So he would have love to procure the man to be a continual wooer to the wife to keep away the Monster Satiety.   
(Without Satiety, to glut 〈◊〉?  
Then Thou, and It ●ust oft be sundered,  
With Love 〈◊〉 leave to ●ake Love more entire:  
For, no joy vn●● 〈◊〉 but sa●i●tes;  
The more it is, the 〈◊〉 while it endures:  
And, the less 〈◊〉, the more it consolates;  
The truth whereof▪ to welknowne proof a●lures.  
Too much of what so ere, produced by Nature,  
Makes Nature too too much 〈◊〉 ordered:  
Too much of Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stature,  
In the Ingendrers and 〈◊〉.  
And Fire, and Flax must ●lame, it they do touch,  
And Men, and Women join that (bare) embrace:  
Who then do seldom part befo●● too much  
Their dearest Embracements doth too much debase.  
To wed a wife, and not to Bed her too  
Were too unkind a part for Grooms to play:  
To woe, and not use that for which we woe  
Were Faith, and Hope, through strange Love, to betray  
But yet to Bed her, and to Lie still by her  
Is more unkindly done than not to Bed her:  
And better were it, for Thee, quite to fly her  
Then not to use her well, when thou hast wed her.  
And well thou dost not use her, she may deem,  
If well thou dost not then thyself approve:  
And though of Action she may careless seem,  
Yet may she fear thy sloth is sin in love.  
Then must Temptation on thy weakness work  
If still thou Bed, or rarely Bed thy Wife:  
In each of which, Temptation still doth lurk;  
And all Temptation tendeth but to Strife.  
Then they, from strife, are free, that can, and will  
In marriage Duties use the Golden Mean:  
For so their Love is without Measure still,  
And Souls, and Bodies are as strong, as clean!  
But, all that married are have not the Gui●t  
So to Divide themselves, sith Beds some have  
But for themselves (poor Souls) wherewith they shift)  
Who, being One, have Two, but on's their Grave.  
In reason these should be together thrust,  
Sith they are only rich in cold Desire,  
Who lie together more for hea●e, than Lust,  
Heat, that comes only f●om Afflictions fire.  
Flesh these do touch, as o●t as F●eshe they taste,  
That's seld [God wot] so Flesh, and they are Two:  
A blessed odds that makes the Strivers chaste,  
And makes them live well, though it them undo.  
Now, if this Lore dislikes some youthful Bloods  
That still do boil with heat of Love, or Lust,  
[Which must be cooled (still) in Lust's running Floudds,]  
Then must they do, perforce, what needs they must.  
Yet let them know, to know each other so  
Both Grace, and Nature thereby takes offence,  
A man may make his Wife, well, let that go,  
The name of Whore fits not Obedience.  
But Marriage is by Heaven, authorized,  
Sith, by the Heau'n-wright, wrought in Paradise:  
Then, who defiles Her undefiled Bed,  
Makes her not vertueus, but a vail for Vice.  
And Overmuch, doth over much Defile  
That blessed Bed, which Grace doth purify:  
Then let not Sin o'ermuch itself beguile  
To think that Bed, so much doth sanctify.  
And if that any man a wife hath got  
That looks but for so much, accursed is He:  
And Wives that have, like Husbands, to their lot,  
〈◊〉 like vccu●st, so, both accursed be.  
The one, by 〈◊〉, accursed, by Hap, the other;  
So, both are cursed, though in a 〈◊〉 Kind  
But, blessed Father, and a blessed Mother  
Those 〈◊〉, by Hap, may make, if blest in mind.  
Then, if we ought, before a Friend we choose,  
To ear much Salt with him, him all to taste  
We need to eat ten times as much 〈◊〉 those  
Whose All we make our All until our last:  
For in that Match ourselves we make or mar;  
Then had we need to leave, before we take:  
That's leave our Choice, by choosing better far:  
Then, leave our life, ere faith, or Choice forsake.  
Now, you that yet are free, must needs be bound,  
To him that hath thus freed you (ere this Tie)  
From casting Anchor where you may be drowned  
In Seas of Lust, and waves of Misery.  
Be sure of Sea-room ere these Surges swell,  
That may lie hid in deep'st profunditi●s  
Keep well that Compass that may guide you well,  
In mists of Love to clear Felicity.  
The fairest Face hath not still fairest grace;  
Nor yet the Black, in show, still black in Deed:  
Who oft are bright in Mind, though black in Face.  
And oft the fairest Flowers bear blackest Seed.  
Then lest fair Colour, colour foulest Vice  
judge thou of Co●lors by clecre judgements Eye:  
If Colour should to d●ath thy life entice,  
Die, without Colour, ere for Colour die:  
So shalt thou live (and never colour dying  
Which show of life) thy life still glorifying!   

Be not ielou▪ over the wife of thy bosom, neither teach her by thy means an evil Lesson Ecclus. 9 1.  
You that do choose your Wives as sometimes I  
Have chosen 〈◊〉: That is, for Beauty's sake,  
And in your Choice mind but carnality  
You make a Match to mar, and mar, to make,  
Ye mar yourselves by making such a Match:  
Yet mar yourselves, to make yourselves but Beasts:  
Then, in your turning Beasts, oft Horns ye catch,  
Which the Head bears, how ere the heart digests▪  
For, if you needs will Wive for Wantonness  
Then needs you must have Wantoness to your wives:  
And it your 〈◊〉 so well love Lust's excess  
〈◊〉 ●●tt They love what you love as their lives.  
But were they good by Kind, their Kind you change,  
And make them oue●kinde so, overnought.  
You learn them strange Tricks, and they teach as strange  
To others, that do learn but what you taught.  
Therein (like good Wi●es) they divulge your Skill  
because you should be known to be good Doers:  
Then blame them not sith they, for mere goodwill,  
Do show their Husbands Cunning to their Wooers.  
Nor, will they take to teach, but give, to learn  
Some other Tricks of others, skilled therein:  
Wherewith to please their Husbands, and to earn  
Their Living if need be, for Slouch is sin.  
These Good-ones are made so, by teachers ill  
(Too good a● all things that are good for nought)  
If their means ●ail; yet can thee live by Skill;  
Which being Light shall lightly well be wrought.  
But o frail Fleshlings, Husbands, Hard-heads, Bawds,  
Note but the end of your lascivious Match:  
Yo●● Wives get, Emeralds, Rubies, and such Gauds,  
Which you, of them, and they, of others, catch.  
Shame, and Confusion (with a Pox) Disjoines  
Your dam'd Conjunction, which doth quite divide  
From Heaven, your Souls, from Health, your loathsome Loins,  
To teach each Groom to choose a better Bride:  
●or, who so ever drowns his Spirit in Flesh  
When he doth handle Flesh, to fit his gripe;  
Shallser●ed be with Tricks still fresh, and fresh  
Until he stink, as stale, or rotten-ripe▪  
And in thy Choice, thy Choice to handle so  
Thou 〈◊〉 so well b●●eru'd; and served well  
Th' 〈◊〉, by her, which thou didst Love, to know,  
N 〈◊〉 now, to love, or love, as known well▪  
I speak not of the Bralls, and Discontents  
●●hat 〈◊〉, which still doth Lust belott,  
●oth breed, twixt them, through their misgoverments)  
Though they Want not; That is, they want them not.  
Then 〈◊〉 Mis●●is be what likes her best  
[though Lust loves not to serve best Mistrises]  
But let thy Wife (in whom thou wouldst be blest)  
Be far from Tricks, and Toys, and Fantasies▪  
And look not in her Eyes for Looks t●alure  
(Except thine Eyes b'alurd with modest Looks)  
But look to see, through them, her Spirit pure;  
So mayst thou conjure Spirits up by those Books,  
That may thy heart to pure affection move,  
And in loves Compass, Compass endless Love!   

Non est eiusdem & multa & opportuna dicere▪ Erasmus Chiliad:  
Sigh all my Thoughts are but my Minds Conceits  
And my Conceits but motions of my Mind,  
How is it that my Mind in her Receipts  
Takes not, for Currant, Thoughts well Coined, by Kind?  
Is it because their metal is but mean  
Sith they are forged but by frail Fantasy?  
Or, e●s because their temper is unclean?  
Or, all, in one, their value vilify?  
What ere it be it makes my Thoughts to muse  
That (being stamped by Art, and forged by Kind)  
My Mind should yet (as base) the same refuse;  
Or, nail them up, where they no passage find.  
The cause, I think [which Thought may Currant run]  
Is, [sigh ●hee is a Queen of Flesh, and Blood]  
She will have nought [lest all should be undone]  
Aloud by her that is not great, and good!  
Then how escape these counterfeit Conceits  
[Base for their Stuff, and rugged for their Stamp]  
Out of her Mint, [aloud by judgements weights?]  
They scape through Passions Mist, and Errors Damp.  
But can a fault excused be by a fault  
The lesser by the greater fa●re? o no  
Then this excuse, sith downright it doth halt,  
For Currant, with the Upright cannot go.  
But be't a fault to Love, as 'tis to hate?  
Nor, Love nor Hate are faulty, being just:  
●ut, ●is a fault to lo●es if too too late)  
●●cause su●h love looks too like hateful Lust;  
●hen, i● I ●oue▪ as Love is understood▪  
My understanding much misguides my Will:  
Which o● her 〈…〉 blind] 〈◊〉 goes to good,  
〈…〉  
Then ●is the b●ame of blind Intelligence,  
And what● the cause Intelligence is blind?  
It blinded is by misreport of S●nce:  
●or, that doth blind the Soul, and lame the Mind.  
But must I sensual 〈◊〉, to seem excused,  
●hen, wo●se and worse falls ou● mine ill excuse:  
●were better say, by Love I am abused,  
〈◊〉 I, to love, have offered much abus●,  
Abused by Love, without my Lust● consent!  
That is too strange a strength for Love, or Lust:  
And either's power in me, is impotent:  
●o●, how boile● Blood, that long since is addust?  
Well, be it as it may, it seems my might  
Gives way to what it would, not what it should:  
Which on the bent of my Minds Motions light  
Puts these right Lines of Love which long will hold.  
But i● they break when my Mind is unbent  
Now shall they break, for I e'en now repent.   

Qualis vir talis oratio.  
FAces do not more vary in their Forms  
Then Wits in shapes, though most be shapeless Wits:  
For, breeding base, oft well-shapt Wit deforms;  
So, 〈◊〉 comes off comely, but by fits▪  
And 〈◊〉 o●t part are better fed, then bred;  
(But, they that feeding want, want Wit, and Wealth:)  
Then, most men's Wits are most ill-favoured,  
And what they show, by Wit, they show by stealth.  
Yet many Members o● that Block●head Body  
(The Multitude) write idly, without stint;  
And he that's not in P●int they hold a Noddy  
Because themselves are Noddies still in Print.  
Some Rhyme, in rage; which rage puts Reason down;  
Yet puts not Reason down in their Rhymes rage:  
These Arrs run rough, but their Rhymes (if their own)  
With reason rnnne like a thwart Marriage..  
Yet if too smooth be this smart Simile  
(Although it be as rough as Rage, or Wrack)  
Their Rhymes and Reason then, run like a Cry  
Of braining Beasts, that Rhyme, and Reason lack,  
Yet; will they force Minerva, not by Art,  
But for●e, or fear, of their wits strength, or stature  
(For, so these Asses ween) to take their part;  
So (like the Giants) ●ight 'gainst God and Nature.  
Some make, in Prose, great Tomes their wit●s t'intomb,  
To be as Monuments of Wit, for ever:  
Yet (sith those Monuments no Wit enwombe,  
(Being quite consumed) they continue never,  
The mo●'s the pity that such stately Tombs  
(That of have* gold without, 
gilt 〈◊〉  though dross within]  
Should be gazed on by Learning's drugging Grooms  
And, by their Engine, razed; o deadly sin!  
Minerva ble●●e my Book, wits Mon●ment,  
(A little Monument for lesser Wit]  
From such usurping Ben●clarkes violent,  
Lest ●hey pull out Wits eres their turns to fit.  
Yet will I leave it them, while fearless, I  
To ●ury go in expedition,  
To try their trúth, or taste their Tyranny;  
The wo●st is Eyeless deposition:  
And if it hap, I hope I'll Zion gain,  
Sith I the Cause of Zion will maintain.   

When the rich man speaks, every man holds his tongue and what he saith is praised unto the Clouds. etc. Ecclus. 13. 24.  
THe Tongue of truth hath said [hen true it is)  
Though Indigence could speak like Solomon,  
The World is mute, or says he speaks amiss  
Sith but the golden Ass speaks well alone.  
Thus, golden Asses clawed by Clawbacks are  
Where they do itch, (and but for clawing, itch)  
Yet (like lads) pinch each other, being ba●e,  
And so the Ri●ch are praised by poor and rich▪  
〈…〉 Wings of Sun-bright Seraphins  
〈…〉 Pe●s, and make them Nectar flow  
〈…〉 not gult▪ like Cherubins  
〈…〉, in deed, but sink in show.  
〈…〉 World is wise herein.  
(Though wise ●●●ein more than most wickedly)  
〈◊〉 Detraction is esteemed no sin  
So ●hat the great be greatly praised thereby.  
〈…〉 greatly praised when all but Theirs  
〈…〉 is (how laudable soe'er)  
Their 〈◊〉 (●hough Crabs) are sweet with Apple squires  
〈…〉 for Love, and Love for meed, or fear.  
They may be bold they wo● well with the poor;  
〈◊〉 packhorses, bear when Asses bray:  
Th●y 〈◊〉 may wince, but they can do no more,  
And for their wincing They on them may lay.  
●ut heers the comfort, upright after ●imes  
(Upright, sith that which Is not, no way bends)  
Will Lawrell-Crowne them for their royal Rhymes:  
●or envies self Desert, if dead, commends.  
Then, Rhymes, how ere unroial, run you on  
You may, in time, perhaps come near that Crown  
Mean while look for no Coronation  
●ut such as Envy gives high-born Renown:  
Yet with your Wit, those after times persuade  
That some were marred perhaps e●e all were made.   

Upon Apparitions in the Night.  
YE grizly Ghosts that walk in shades of Night  
Like Shades whose Substance (though quite Matterlesse)  
The daily fowl Offender doth aftright  
Why make ye Darkness Paper for your Press?  
Do you imprint in Blackness, blacker forms  
Of matters worse? or in our Fantazi●  
empress ye Figures raising Horrors storms  
Or how in darkness come you to the Eye?  
Do you but show? or show in Substances?  
Thicken you Air (and so a Shape assume?)  
Or creep you in some Corprall Ef●ences?  
Or else the Sight deceive with less than Fume?  
And why o Hell hounds range you in the Night  
Out of earths Centre, (your infernal Hold?)  
Loath ye the Sun? a or is the day too light,  
To do your deeds of Darkness as ye would?  
Can ye dead Bodies truly actuate?  
And so such Bodies borrow of the Saints?  
Or can ye Wicked Bodies animate:  
So, take from God the cause of his Complaints?  
For if you Souls infuse into the ill  
You are the Father of their Spirits, and God  
Complains without cause that ●hey cros●e his Will,  
Nor are they under naturally his R●dd.  
But He it is, alone, that Soul●● creates,  
Without whom nought was made that made hath been:  
And Bodies good, and Bad he animates,  
Only he made not Death, first made by sin..  
And what is Sin, but only mere Defect?  
So Sin is nought: then nought hath Death begot;  
And Nothing should, in sense, have no effect:  
So, Sin, and Death Nought made, and Nought Is not.  
I would it were not, but, too true, it is,  
But is as Canker doth to Silver cleave:  
So, you; fowl ●iends, that love such Filth as this  
Do leave no Sinners, that no sin do leave▪  
The purest Places you do hold an Hell;  
And Places most impure you Heaven esteem:  
The one do plague, the other please you well;  
And so of deeds, of either Kind, you deem.  
To be among the the deads' Graves you are glad;  
Wherein you●seeke their senseless Bones to grieve:  
And love to rattle them in sign you had  
The Conquest of Mankind through Adam's Eque.  
So by a Woman (your familiar.)  
Y'are now familiar with Men night, and Day:  
And which of both Familiars worse do war  
With Men, and Reason, it is hard to say.  
These femine Familiars, but too oft  
Torment us men as if you (friends) they were:  
Whose hard hearts placed in their fair Bodies soft  
Plague whom that Beauty doth to them endear.  
Yet some so filthy are that they are best  
When they are worst; that is, when fowl defame  
With use of trading ill, their Trade, hath ceased,  
Then (with a Pox) they live chaste to their shame.  
Thus have we got double Familiars,  
Women and Devils by a Woman's pride:  
Both which familiarly, wage secret wars  
With Men, poor Men, that still the Brunt abide.  
But yet o Passion tax not All, for Some:  
Some are so far from being Fiends, that they  
Are Saints and Angels, yet such so become  
Through Grace (not Nature) which their Nature's sway.  
Many a virtues Virgin Grace hath made;  
The chief whereof was that wife full of grace:  
Who was a Mother-maide, which may persuade  
All women's foes their friendship to embrace:  
Yet many Mary's full of Fiends there be,  
But no such Maries as this Saint we see.   

Suum cuique pulchrum.  
WHy Self conceit canst thou not brook to see  
Or hear, or read, or scarce once think upon  
The Parts which in another praised be?  
Wouldst like God, only wise, be praised alone?  
And why so praised wouldst be? for being blind  
Seeing not thyself on whom alone thou look'st?  
Or else for clawing thine own●itching Mind?  
Or, which is worse, sith thou thyself mistookst?  
If these (besides which, I know nought thou ha●t)  
Be them for which thou wouldst be lauded so  
Thy Wits are gone, and thou thyself, art passed  
For these, do fleet, where stayed Wit doth flow.  
Thou art but blind, yet scorn'st thou other guide:  
But lead'st thyself in Ways most hard to hit:  
So, thou thyself still lead'st thyself aside  
Where Error robs thee of Grace, Art, and Wit.  
Yet can the witty hardly shake thee of●  
So hardly to their Headpiece thou dost cleave:  
That though thou blindst, thou mak'st them see to scoff,  
Yet hardly take, what they so freele give.  
Thou lov'st the Learned, sith they love thee well  
Yea, mak'st them oft to dote for love of thee  
Thou mak'st them ween their Art doth Art excel  
When they see not they deep Art cannot see:  
For, thou and enny (ay Consociates)  
Will not admit that Art herself should show  
By others fingers; but the mind inflates,  
Which scorns to look for highest Art so low.  
Well, take thy pleasure, so thou me displease  
Displease me, as though lov'st me, sith thou art  
A mental pleasant tickling damned Disease  
And I'll love that thou hat'st this loving part  
Hang not about me, tempt me not too much:  
For I, though frail do hold up hangers on  
While I can stand, if me in love théie touch,  
Though some such oft seek my subversion;  
And rest assured if me thou wilt not leave  
I'll muse on nought but thy hopes to deceive.   

Stultus Stulta loquitur.  
Thought well conceived and words as fair, as fit  
All souldred with substantial symmetry  
Best shows the life of judgement, Art and Wit,  
Which best Pens have worst labour to descry.  
This is a grace that glorifies the Pen:  
That imps Fame's wings to make her further flee,  
This is (like god) but seldom seen with men:  
Though in men by his power, and grace he be.  
Yet all suppose (thot cân but draw a Line  
That they can draw the picture of this Power  
And that their workmanship is so divine  
That like that Grace, it ever should endure.  
And through that self-conceit That is conceaud  
Which they do daily labour (in great pain)  
To bring to light, which by the World receaned,  
Makes her Arms weary long it to sustain.  
It often proves such spriteless heavy Stuff  
(As much misshaped as black, or Mystical:  
Yet ween they, They give Rudeness such a Cuff  
As turns him round, and breaks his neck withal:  
For Self-conceit will not persuaded be  
But that her Bird is fairest, though black and fowl;  
Chiefly if she in night of Mystery  
See best abroad to wander like an Owl.  
Pens, whither will you? whither will ye flee  
Above the Compass of your native power?  
O senseless Things! will you still Doing be  
The Muses, to their shame, thus to deflower?  
Cease, or take Nectar out of Helicon,  
And let it flow from you as from that Fount;  
Such, only such, do Fame's Wings pinion,  
But others make but gaggling Geese to mount.  
Yet, if you ween you were for Motion made,  
And were in motion while in Wings you were  
Fall to a Notary, or Scriveners Trade,  
Then may you move right being in your Sphere.  
But o! to register the Acts of Wit  
Forbear, dear Pens, that make yourselves so cheap;  
Sith for that Office you are far unfit,  
And for your Labour sown, but Laughter reap:  
But if you'll needs be lining, yet take breath  
Lest all the World do laugh your lines to death.   

Candidae musarum ianuae:  
AMong the faults we fell to by our fall  
No one divides us more from Piety  
Then doth self-love, which is the sum of all  
The fowl Deformities we caught thereby:  
Hence flow our Follies, and crimes●capitall;  
This Fount (wherein, [Narcissus-like] we look)  
Drowns us in Blame, which Heaun, nor Earth can brook.  
Hence is it that we others glorious Gifts  
Do hold as base; and ours [though mere Defects]  
We do adore: and use all cnnning shifts  
To have them held for glorious Effects!  
To this tend all our [Wit-purloyning] Drifts,  
Which we in others, held nor Wit, nor Sense:  
But, being Ours (Stolen) both have excellence.  
Hence is it that we can no more eudure  
Another praises, than our own dispraise:  
Hence, seek we others blemish to procure,  
That, on their foil, we may our glory raise:  
We cannot shine▪ directly being obscure:  
Then, indirectly do we send some Beams  
Of glory-vaine, on Self-love's vainer Streams.  
Hence, Men of Art deprave each others Skill,  
Sith it they view with Luciferian Eyes:  
Hence, Poets do each others praises kill  
With keen invectives that from hence arise:  
Hence, spare they none whom they have power to spill:  
And they have power to spill themselves, and all  
[If they be great] that stand but near their fall.  
That Poets should be made to vomit words]  
(As being so raw Wits Maw could not digest]  
Hath to Wits praise, been as so many Swords  
To kill it quite in earnest, and in jest:  
Then, to untruss him [before Knights, and Lords]  
Whose Muse hath power to untruss what not?  
Was a vain cast, though cast to hit a blot.  
O Imps of Phoebus, why, o why do ye  
employ the Power of your Divinity  
(Which should but foil Vice from which we should flee▪)  
Upon impeaching your own Quality?  
O grace the graceless, you that glorious be:  
Who cannot grace yourselves more then to give▪  
A large allowance poor wits to relieve.   

Written to my dear Friend Master Nicholas Deeble.  
I Am about it, good Will give me leave;  
Stir me not faster than my Wit can move:  
What though He be myself, myself must give  
Myself, some time, to show myself my love.  
Show? ah how Show? with Worthless Pen, an●  
Alas poor Show! No, Nic, it shall not be:  
And, yet it must, my Pen must drink, or shrink  
Sith it doth thirst so sore to write to Thee!  
Then, Ynckpott by your leave, a draft, or tw●  
Of gaully Liquor you must yield my Pen,  
Which (like ● Potion drunk) will make him do  
His business kindly: A Hall Gentlemen.  
Now on, spruce Pen, fall now into your Measures,  
But stay, let 〈◊〉 first number them in Mind:  
You are too hasty: soft, be▪ ruled, take leisure:  
Now, Single, well said, now, thy Motion's Kind.  
Beware thou double not, a single friend  
Cannot endure such Tricks: but, let thy Feet  
Be plac●d ●o please, yet please not to offend,  
And in their motion Rhyme, and Reason meet.  
I love Thee for thy Love, lo, there's my Reason:  
Nay, didst thou hate me (as thou mayst in time)  
Yet should I love Wits Salt, which Thee doth season,  
And, thy rare other Gifts, lo, here's my Rhyme.  
Thus far, in measure, hath my prancing Pe●  
To Thee approached: Pen, homage now, why so:  
So should it be, for, still the worse men  
Must pay the better, reverence which they owe.  
Now Sir, if my rude Pen may fetch yours in  
After the manner of a Cooshin-dance  
Leave when you will; and, as you li●t begin,  
Your Discords to mine breed no variance:  
But, how so ere your Feet be placed, they shall  
In Love, jump with my Feet, Hand, Hart, and all.  
Be thou my Damon then, and I will be,  
At least a Pit●ias (if not more) to Thee!   

An Epitaph, or what you will, on the death of Master M●ece an harmless professed Fool who shall decease, when it shall please God, and him, made at his earnest request.  
HEre low he lies that sat still with the High,  
For foolish Wit, and honest Knavery.  
Never poore-Foole himself more wisely bare:  
For, he got love of All, and took no care!  
Then, neue● Fool, on this World reeling Stage,  
Played his Part better, till fourscore of age▪  
Then, Time, and Death on him their force did prove,  
And took him from this Life, but not our love.  
Now, make Worme● merry, Meece, as Thou mad'st Men,  
Until in endless Mirth We mere again:  
For, to that Mirth if now thou be not gone  
God knows what is become of Solomon!  
Who, though He knew much Good, and did it to,  
Yet knew much Ill, which he (much worse) did do.  
But Thou, (like Adam (Meece) in innocence  
Knewst not so much as how to give offence▪  
Or, if thou knewst, thou didst conceal the same;  
So, like a wise-Foole liud●st thou without blame!  
Then, Meece sigh Death doth play the Fool with Thee  
Showing his Teeth, laughing ill fauour'dly,  
Put on his Pate, thy cap; and on his Back  
Thy pide●Coate put, with every foolish ●nack:  
And say (●ith he sits quite be fide the Stool)  
Look on she Fool that cannot kill a Fool! 
The outward g●●●ment of b●s Flesh suppressing the Souls vnder●standin●   
For I poor Meece; that was a Fool, to Death,  
Have made Death now my Fool, e'en with a Breath:  
Sith I have Cou●nd him with only That  
That made me to be mocks, and laughed at:  
Namely, but with mine only outward* weed  
Whereof poor naked Snake, he stood in need●  
And, I, being weary of it, gave it, then,  
When I was like to live with God, and Men.  For what hath the wiseman more than the Fool Eccles▪ 6. 8.   

〈…〉 serious and sacred Subjects.  

Mortal Life compared to Post, and Pare.  

WHen well I weigh the state of mortal Life,  
Me seems it seems but too like Post, and Pair:  
Where each Man seeks to win, by civil strife;  
While most make show of more than what they are.   

One, vies it, being but a Knave, perchance,  
Against a King, or Queen, or Pairs of both,  
Our-braving Cowardice, and Ignorance:  
And, others part Stakes, that to lose are loath.   

Some, Nothing seem, to get Something by it,  
These some, pass all, to go beyond the rest:  
These, better their Goods-fortunes by good Wit,  
Who crouch, as being worst, till they are best.   

Some, somewhat give, to fetch some others in,  
That so, at last, they may be furthest out:  
These, little give, by small gifts, much to win,  
Yet oft so lose they all, to win a Flout.   

Some, being Pa●riall, dare to do, what not?  
Vy, and re●uy and ween they all shall win:  
When some One other better Cards hath got,  
That they are furthest out, when furthest in▪   

Some Elders, for revives, pass Pare, and Post,  
When lo, the Younger shares, or Doubles it:  
Then frets the Winner, for his winning, lost,  
Sith foolish Fortune Conny-catched wit▪   

Some, vy, and revy faceing, so, to foil;  
That have no Games, but game some seem, with grief:  
The while the rest have game to see their spoil,  
Who yet, out braved, do blush, sith they were chief.   

Some, being Cock, like cravens give it over  
To them that have the worst Cards in the Stock:  
For, if the one be rich, the other poor  
The Cock proves Craven, and the Craven, Cock▪   

Some, 
on in direct helps  having lost the double Pare and Post,  
Make their advantage on the Purrs they have:  
Whereby the Winner's win all are Lo●t,  
Although at best, the other's but a Knave.   

Pur Ceit deceives the expectation  
Of him, perhaps, that took the Stakes away;  
Then, to pur Tanthees in subjection:  
For, Winners on the Losers oft do play.   

Flush is ore●boren oft by a better Flush:  
And Kings do conquer Kings but by the hand:  
As Stronger do the weaker ever crush:  
And still win of them Glory Goods, and Land.   

Some, look awry to see it they can spy  
Another's Cards, thereby to make their game,  
Then on a Nine ten times, perhaps they vy  
Knowing the other's blind, though they are lame.   

Some Pack, and others Cut, to break the Pack:  
Some, shuffle cunningly, and shift thereby:  
Some, take a Card, and some a Card put back  
More than they should, to back their vice, and Vie.   

Some, have confederates of the Looker's on:  
Whole ook as friends they were to all alike:  
Then with a sign of least suspicion  
They note the Coney which they mean to strike.   

And if the Gamesters do play overlong,  
All, drawn, by all, the Butler's Box doth draw:  
As Lawyers get all be it right, or wrong  
That's won, and lost, it Men be long in Law▪  
Thus properly we may this Life compare,  
Unto the bragging game of Post, and Pare.    

My Corollary.  
WEalth, like a Pegasus, doth run, or Flee,  
(As swift as Thought) especially from those  
That near are glad, but when at game they be,  
Though all their Wealth thereby, in Post, they lose:  
And so when Wealth away is posted quite  
They run away, or else play least in sight.   

Written to the Right Noble, and well- accomplished Lady the Countess Dowager of Pembroke.  

I Grace invoke, which had would make me pray,  
To Thee (great Lady, great, and glorious to:)  
I pray to Thee, 〈◊〉 to a Comforts Stay,  
Then, let my comfort still, be tied thereto.  
To Thee my whole Man is dyaphanall;  
The Rays of whose Wits Eyes pierce through me quite;  
Who (like a Goddess) seeth all in All  
Which in me is, or Fowl, Fair, Wrong, or Right.  
If ought be Faire● or Right in me, it is  
Not mine, but Thine, whose Worth possesseth me:  
But if aught fowl be in me, or amiss,  
I hate for That, for, that it's not for Thee:  
If I be All amiss, I All assign  
To Shame, and Sorrow sith no part is Thine,   Your Honours, while he is worthy of that Honour▪ I. D.  

Again to Hir.  
Feign would I write that Wi●t near yet concea'ud,  
But abject Wit withstands my high De●ire:  
So diverse write, and ween, yet are deceived▪  
For, Follies Flaws make light Wit so aspire▪  
Then, cease to write. Then, is Desire displeased.  
Better Displease Desire, than Wit disgrace.  
Disgrace on wit hath at this Instant seized.  
Wherhfore? for halting. Then wit post apace  
Unto the Point: now, now, thy quickness show:  
For, Fowrteene Lines thy Lymitts are, and They  
Are at a Point. What if they be? I know  
The more's my meed if now I wit bewray.  
The last Line next ensues: your praise, & Witt's behind,  
For, may all raise your Price except Men being rude of kind.  MARY: PEMBROKE.  

Written to the right Honourable, and most judicious Lord William Earl of Pembroke that now is.  
Look Lord with those sharp Eyes of thine, with which (though largely open)  
In seeing thou see'st the least o'er sights old, new, or done, or spoken:  
Look on this Seal of simple Zeal, which though but coursely Cared,  
Contains the Impress of thy praise thy virtues have deserved.  
Truths Hands, Wealths Arms, Wits Eyes, Arts Tongue, & wisedons listening Eared  
Prevent Times Course, young years, conceiving, bring forth many years!  
Fair featured soul I well-shapen sprite! in which subsisting be,  
Grace, Goodness, Glory: Three in one, and One including Three!  
Grace, goodness gives, to Glory guides, such Gui●●, such Guide, such Glory  
God gave, you have, yet having hold unsure, to shun Vainglory.  
So, so (sweet Lord) so should it be; so was true Sapience Source,  
More wise than all, most wise in this, knew Things had but their Course.  
Who goes to Glory, Glori● shunes so shunes, so goes,, that yet  
Vainglory shunned, true glory gained, may him in glory set.  
Read, Note, Search, Try, Know, Show, Muse, Mount, aspired, again descend;  
The lower Souls sink in themselves, the higher they ascend!  
Tell mounting, wits that s too too light that Wisdom makes not weighty;  
Tell motion it is worse than mad whose Motors not Almighty.  
Tell World it's but the wayward Maze where Man is mazed and lost;  
Tell State it stands on Airy Props, by Storms still turned and tossed.  
Tell Wisdom she is base if She mounts not above the Moon,  
Tell Humours, and tell Humoristes, their H●mors change top soon.  
Tell Learning it is dark as Hell not mixed with light of Grace,  
Tell Council, 
〈◊〉 Law.  and tell * councillors they oft mistake the Case.  
Tell Books, though euer●blest some Bee, yet are they but Informers,  
Tell them they should more blessed be if they were still Reformers.  
Tell Arts they ask too much for Artelin ask all our time,  
Tell Arms they do but work their Harms, by Arms, and Harms that climb,  
Tell Earthly Hopes they make us seek for that we cannot find,  
Tell tell Worlds-Blisse it wanteth force to breed true Bliss in Mind.  
Tell Sport it spoileth precious Time, tell Time he's falsely true,  
True in his Course, in's Custom false, away steals, yet pursues!  
Tell Keasa●● (tho●gh they Caesars are) their Nostrils Bound their breath;  
Tell Li●e (though during like the Sun) it subject is to death.  
Tell Wealth it wastes with earthly Pomp, tell Pomp it's but a Puff,  
Tell Glory she must bide the gird of envies Counterbuff.  
Tell, tell Fair-wordes, from fowl Mouths sent, they feed, but fatten Fools  
Tell Friends true Frindshipps no where learned but in true virtues Schools,  
Tell, Love that He an ● doll is; found, forged adored by Fancy,  
Tell Flesh enraging Lust she is a Soule-confounding Frenzy:  
Tell Favours they are Copper-gilt, uncertain true, if true:  
Tell Fools when Shadows come before, their Substance nill eusue.  
Tell Looks, where Love in Triumph Til●s against unfenced Eyes,  
They Look●s allure, by Looks like Lures, which seem true, yet are lies▪  
Tell All that all is (all in All] beneath the Hea●●●ly Cope,  
A Dream, a Shade, a toil of Spirit, a base betraying hope.  
And lastly ●el thy Thoughts [sweet Lord] they in an Harr must rest  
That Honour holds for Life, and lives to die ere dispossessed,  
Here Sus Mineruam mayst thou say, its true; yet say not so,  
Because it comes from him that lives to die upon ●hy Foe.  I. D. Deus, ad quae nos tempora reseruasti? Policarpus.  

Meet not an Harlot, lest thou fall into her Snares. E●clus. 9 3.  

WHO so will keep his Soul, and Body chaste  
From Woman's haunt, he must himself retire;  
Yea, though they seem religious, and shamefast:  
For, blushing Women most inflame Desire.   

Stand not upon thy strength (though it surpass)  
Nor thy fore●proued Chasteness stand thou on.  
Thou, art not Holier than David was?  
Nor wiser than was most wise Solomon?   

And ask the Prince of Earthly Paradise,  
(Who, in perfection, was made most complete)  
What power a Woman had him to entice  
To make him his own bane, and ours to eat!   

If we stand near a Fall, we stand unsure,  
If near the Fire we● warm, though Ye we were:  
We cannot strive with Death and long endure;  
Nor Live with Weakness, but must weak appear,   

To be with Women still, yet know them not  
Is no less strange than to stand falling still:  
We cannot handle Pitch without a spot,  
Although we handle it with Care and skill.   

Then, if thou wouldst be safe, in safety, fear;  
Sith fear doth make thy safety more secure:  
●or, too much trust is too much danger near;  
And in the midst of Dangers none are sure.   

In greenest Grass a Snake doth often lie  
And Love begun in Spirit, o●t ends in flesh:  
Flesh talls in smoothest Opportunity;  
And when she (drunken) reels, Sin riseth fresh.   

The Fiend, her foxlike friend, doth never sleep●  
But wakes to tempt her still with Time, and Plac●:  
In sweetest Honey he doth Poison ●●eep,  
Which maketh Nature work in show ofgrace:  
Then, if thou wouldst not slide, from Women slip:  
For, Ill oft reigns in such good fellowship:    

Gracious is the end that ends all our pains.  
WHen, when, o when shall I bid life farewell  
Wherein my Soul, and Body so ill fares?  
My Soul within my Body, Loathes to dwell  
●ith it doth dwell in such a World of Cares.  
Wherein the best are briars, that scratching, hold  
What ere they catch unto another's harm:  
Whose Tenter-hookt Arms do, in Love, enfold  
No one but whom they spoil, and quite disarm:  
Where Men love Men, not for that Men they are  
But simply for themselves; all whose respect  
Is swallowed up with self-respecting Care,  
And commonly the Common good neglect,  
Where Fashions are, than Eormes, more various:  
(Tho●gh scarce among a Million two are like)  
Where ●he most just are lest injurious  
Though justice their injustice doth dislike,  
Where Faces want no graces to allure  
The Mind to love, so to betray the Mind:  
An holy kiss, in show, shows to assure  
The rather to fail Hope that seeks to find,  
Where oft Religion palliates Policy,  
And Saints are made a Sacrifice for State:  
Yea, heaunly Powers for Earthly Majesty,  
Away goes all that lets Ambition's gate.  
Where holy Fathers do unholy Deeds  
While yet they bless their Sons that cloak their shame:  
And so the Ha●t of Piety still bleeds  
Because Hypocrisy still wounds the same.  
Where all is seeming, and Nought real is:  
For all do covet only but to seeme●  
Illseemeth good, and sorrow seemeth Bliss,  
And Men, but by their show do men esteem.  
Where the whole frame of nature's out of frame,  
And at the point to be dissolved quite:  
Where Wit and Learning are both blind, and lame,  
Yet scorn, through pride, a Guide to lead them right.  
Where no man hath an Ear to hear, sith Ears  
Are now turned all to Tongues, or Teeth, to gnaw:  
If one have Ears none but himself he hears,  
As bound ●hereto by self-love's lawless law.  
Where Love, and Lordship can no Rivals bear,  
That yet should bear with all that Grace doth brook,  
Where every thing amiss is every where  
And nought found good unless it be in look.  
Where virtue is despised though bright she be,  
If she be bare; Yet Venus, bare, is loved:  
Where nought hath taste else, that is bare to see  
Yea, Truth itself if bore, is not approud.  
Where all and some make but the sum of all  
Vainst Vanities; for so at best they be:  
Where each one riseth by another's fall,  
Yet mounts in vain, for quickly fall must he.  
So on this sorrows Sea, [this World of Woc]  
Al falls to Earth, that riseth from the same:  
And so all Earthly Things do ebb and flow,  
And ebb in nature, as they slow in name.  
Then o have I not reason to desi●e  
My Nature's dissolution, sith it is  
With these ●lls conversant, which do conspire  
To make it [like them] more than most amiss?  
Then, Death (the end of Il unto the good)  
Enshore my Soul near drowned in flesh, and blood.   

Quotidie est deterior posterior dies.  
HOw many piercing Pens have launct the Veins  
Of this vain World, to let her humours out?  
How many satires beat their tried Btaines  
How, from this Ioynt●sick Age to bite the Gout?  
And yet like those annoyed with that disease,  
These Times have rather rest then help thereby:  
For they displease them that do them displease;  
So rest renengd, but toiled in malady.  
And oft those Surgeons are as humorous  
As are the Aches which they seek to heal;  
Who having Teeth, as sharp as mumerous,  
Through others, bite themselves, which seld they feel.  
Because themselves are senseless of their Ills  
Which this observing World perceiving well  
Measures their Medicines by their wicked Wills  
So loathes their Corrosives, and themselves doth quell.  
But he that looks with well●discerning Eyes  
Into the world's inevitable woes  
Shall see it sick of mortal maladies;  
And will (as from the plague] fly far from those.  
I see them well (though well I cannot see  
Sith I am Hoodwinked still with dark desires]  
And I confess the World's the worse for me  
Though to the best my Spirit▪ at worst aspires.  
feign wo●ld I leave this farthel of my Flesh  
In Fast Charge; the lighter so to fly  
From these still●following plagues which are most fresh  
When we are weariest of their company.  
But, ●o the World still rounds me in the ear  
With Wind that sweetly in that Organ sounds,  
Which me allures to love mirth, joy and Cheer:  
So down it beats my will when it rebounds.  
Thus the World's heavy and unholy hand  
My Spirit suppresses that would fain aspire;  
And with my Flesh, conspires it to withstand  
With whom the Devil joins in that desire.  
Thus do I rest in that Church militant,  
Which still with●stands these three still fight F●●s  
Still warring with them till that strength I want  
To guard, with grace, their most ungracious Blows.  
Then through my weakness am I forced to yield  
Who then, like Tyrants, triumph in my spoil  
And wrack my Hope's best harvest in the Field  
Which they have got, so, fearful make my foil:  
And thus twixt good, and evil, Sin, and grace,  
I still do, striving, run a tedious Racel   

Envy is blind and can do nothing but dispraise Virtue.  
THe best conceit that ever Brain did breed  
(Though better borne then bred, or first conceived,  
May in good birth, yet have such evil speed,  
That scarce the spirit of life may be perceived:  
For, Emulation hath no patience  
(No more than Ignorance) to stand upon  
The narrow search of strict intelligence  
But dooms it dead, sith it lives so alone.  
That lives alone that singularly lives  
Which is the life of Singularity:  
To live that life still Emulation strives  
Or to observe his skill that lives thereby.  
Envy seems poisoned with another's praise,  
Which as those praises swell, swells more, and more;  
Who, worn to nought, herself▪ (yet) only weighs,  
And weighs no others worths, vulesse too●poore.  
But that she seeketh to enrich alone,  
Not of Devotion, but of dammed desire  
To make the greater worth the lesser known:  
For she doth most eclipse what is most clear,  
Why toil we●then? or lose our golden Sleeps  
To gain (with golden Time) more glorious praise?  
Sith basest Envy, highest Honour keeps,  
By whose despite her glory oft decays.  
It is because the longer after Death  
Our Fames do flee, the longer breath they shall:  
For, envies wind doth vanish with our breath;  
And when our hearts break, broken is her Gall:  
Then this doth comfort all that merit fame  
Virtue lives when Envy dies with shame.   

Vincit qui pati●●●.  
TO seek for ease where we are borne to toil  
Is but to rest in toil, and toil in rest:  
To toil for ease where Sloth may work our spoil,  
Is but, by ease, to be case dispossessed:  
They fish, and catch a Frogg, which so do fish  
That, ●aue the Souls repose, catch all they wish,  
It's better far to give our Souls to rest  
In Patience, then in Pleasures, sith they do  
Sweetly (like rubbings of an Itch) molest,-  
●ut, Patience gladds us while Pains us undo;  
Then, give me Patience, and let Pleasure go,  
As that which works, in sport, our overthrow,  
That comfort I detest that takes from me  
Uncessant sorrow, for uncessant sin:  
Nor, love I that sharp sight that all doth see  
Save only That which is myself within  
That Knowledge is as course as counterfeit,  
That makes Men utterly themselves forget.  
Give me an Hell of pain, so I may have  
The Heaven which a Conscience sound d●th gives:  
Sith he is but uncessant sorrows Slave,  
That, sick in Soul, in pleasures' Heaven doth live:  
If Patience Hive the Soul in sorrows Swar●es,  
She Heaven enjoyeth in an Hell of Harms.  
Who rightly knows himself, himself contemns:  
And though men clap their hands in his applause,  
Yet he their praises, with himself, condempnes  
By evidence of Conscience, & her Laws:  
The cause why others flatter us, with ease,  
Is, we ourselves our selves too well do please.  
How much the more our knowledge all surmounts  
So much the lower we in in Hell shall fall,  
If, when we come to make our last accounts,  
Our virtue be not found much more than all:  
And simply better 'twere from Sin to flee,  
Then cunningly Define what Sin should be.  
With brightest Knowledge to live most obscure  
Is to find Hea'n, which in that Light doth lie:  
Yet like the Sun, through thick Clouds coverture,  
To light the World that Men may walk thereby:  
So, doth the Highst obscure himself from sight  
While all that see, do see but by his Light,  
What need we seek acquaint words, & Phrases fin●  
Sith by one Word all Truth is known alone;  
Which Word made all things by his power Divine:  
So, all things by that Word are only known:  
Then, they that learn this only World to know  
Know more than World, or Wit itself, can show.  
All other Knowledge doth but vex the Spirit,  
Though her it makes much more intelligent:  
In it, alone, is Knowledge; with Delight;  
Sith it the Wit, doth clear, the Will, content;  
Then they that know this single●simple word  
Do know much more than Knowledge can afford.  
No State so holy, nor no Place so Sole  
(Much more no Science) but is full of Doubt:  
Cares, creeping, fill each solitary Hole;  
And many more vexations swarm without:  
And till we leave the World, or wayward Will,  
We bear with us a World of trouble still.  
Then, 'tis not shunned by flight, unless we could  
Fly from ourselves, (our adversaries chief:)  
For, while ourselves our selves have fast in hold,  
We hold ourselves to Sin, and so to Grief:  
For, they that grieve not when they do transgress,  
Short pleasures feel, not extreme wretchedness  
The lack of Will in faith still fixed to be  
Is the sole cause we want our true repose:  
For, who so blind as they that will not see,  
And, who more sub●ect to hard overthrows:  
Insuitable Sorrows still attend  
On none but on the wilful, past their end!  
To shun the Tempter we must shut the Ga●●  
Of our Intelligence against his Charms;  
Or, lest he should our Will predominate,  
Repulse him from our wit, by force of Arms:  
If yet he stands, upon him strait Discharge  
Truths double * Cannon, 
The ●ld, and new Testament.  with a double Charge.  
Then will he fly, or if he stands, h● falls;  
For, nothing can resist his Ordinance  
Who makes the meekest Minds his Generall●  
That, yielding, fight, and foil by sufferance:  
O 'tis a wondrous Conquest when a Foe  
By overcoming hath the overthrow!  
The longer we forbear him to withstand  
The weaker are we when we do resist,  
And much the stronger is he to command▪  
For, Thoughts are active when they do persist:  
Because Thoughts travel, with Delight, in pain,  
Till He be borne, and they conceive again.  
Great Troubles well are borne, by bea●ing small  
As Milo bore a Calf, turned Bull at last;  
They in the roughest Tempests needs must fall  
That are o'erthrown with every little Blast:  
In Sum, the sum of all our earthly joy  
Is in our patient bearing all annoy.   

Again.  
IF Hope and Patience did not hold the heart  
From being squeezed to nought with gripes of grief  
It could not be, by Nature, nor by Art,  
But Death would hold that Seat of Life, in chief:  
For, in this Life Deaths do so multiply  
(Or Dolours, at the best, far worse than Deaths)  
That we do live no longer than we die.  
Who living die, and breathing spend our breaths.  
So that in patience, only we possess  
The Souls we have, which have the lives we hold;  
And Hope Sustains the Soul in heaviness:  
So patient hope is frail Life's strongest Hold.  
If both those virtues then in one must join  
To make our Souls, and Bodies join in one  
(Else Death, and Dolour, will frail Life purloin  
Who join to unjoine that Conjunction.)  
We must invoke the Heavens to give us Hope  
Well armed with Patience, sith we live thereby  
Secured in Dolours, which to Death lie open,  
And makes us live, when Death and Dolours die.  
Then, patient Hope, the Soul of our Life's Soul,  
Arm thou my Soul thereby to guard her life,  
And Passions fury with thy power control,  
So shall I strive in rest, and rest in strife:  
For no way look I, but my sights annoyed  
With Troops of Sorrows, menacing my wrack;  
And, in my spacious Mind, no place is void  
For Camps of Cares that seek my Soul to Sack:  
For if I live, I can but live in sin:  
And if I sin (I joy) I can but grieve,  
So when fin ends, my griefs and Cares begin  
And cease not till I cease to sin, or live.  
Yet, what I would He knows that knows my will▪  
Which [though perverse] is pre●t his grace to serve:  
Which Grace engenders Hope on my Good will  
And makes me patient, sith I ill deserve.  
Thus patient Hope, by Grace got on my Will,  
Doth make me well to live, in spite of iii.   

In vindicando criminosa est celerity.  
WHat gain gets witless Courage but the loss  
Of Life, or Limb, Lands, Country, Goods, or fame,  
Or to the Gallows goes by weeping Cross,  
And, desperate, dies to his Souls death, and shame.  
Would any that had Courage, Wit, and Grace  
(As point to part this life) Man's life bereave  
To make a crying Sin his Soul to chase,  
And never, till she dies, the Chase to leave?  
None would that would be wise and valiant:  
Then so we ought to live, as dying still,  
Sith of our death our life is ignorant  
Then who (but Fiends) would live in Hell, to kill?  
Admit in private Quarrels (fist to fist)  
Thou hast slain all that durst thy power oppose:  
Nay say that no man durst the same resist  
Sith like a God, thou couldst of life dispose,  
Were it hnmane? much less were it diuíne  
To glory but in bathing but in blood?  
Were it not savage, and too leonine  
For any that would fain be great, and good?  
O Then what Quarrel but the public one  
Can make a wise, and valiant man to fight?  
What stain takes honest-reputation  
By taking wrong, to make itself more right?  
Can but the Lie (one silly Syllable)  
(By Time made much more heinous then by Truth)  
Make great men make their Humours suitable,  
To horse-leeches, that have, by blood, their growth?  
Or can the Love but of an hateful Quean  
[For such no better be, though Queens they are]  
brooch precious blood, as if that were the mean  
To measure out sound Love for such cracked Ware?  
Can but an odd Look, or a simple Smile  
(Which may be taken well as well as ill)  
Make men their Hearts and Hands with blood defile:  
So, blood (like water) for but Looks to spill?  
Then Men are Monsters, Monsters! all too good  
Is every name that is too monstrous  
For such as live, alone, but to suck blood,  
Which all do hate, that are magnanimous:  
For all great Minds desire such things to do  
That are as good, as great; else, scorn the same  
For Valour they'll be praised, and Virtue too,  
Else Valour they esteem the price of Shame.  
And no where can the same so well be shown  
As with offensive Arms in countries right:  
And with defensive, guard the overthrown  
From the Oppressor's merciless despite.  
Else Fights uncivil, savage, and too bad  
For Beasts, much more for Men, whom Angels serve,  
All Quarrels else, are monstrous, moody, mad,  
And mortal hate of God and man deserve.  
Yet by such sucking blood we see some swell  
Unto that Greatness that they scarce can hold;  
On Gore they ground great Houses where they dwell  
Which often sink, in blood, as Reason, would.  
Many that have nought else but daring Hearts  
And leaf their Lives, for Nothing to Despair  
On this World's Stage, do oft play Princes parts,  
To which they climb by Blood, a slppry stair▪  
And desperate Resolution so is held  
Up by the Chin, while it doth bathe in blood  
(By Greatness, of small worth) that it doth wield,  
The world at will, and s●ld, if ere, withstood.  
Yea, oft it makes Authority to shake  
Sith they owe others lives that loathe their own;  
And so it doth his own Conditions make  
As if it could at will put up and down.  
This Lady's love; for, this doth Ladies win,  
(Faint heart they say, (I'll owe the rest for shame)  
This is a World-commanding graceful sin  
In the Conceit of each conceited Dame!  
He that dares jowl together highest Heads  
(Though he may fail in that too high attempt)  
The High his haughty Resolution dreads,  
While he, as Cravens, holds them in Contempt.  
●o thus may Reason reason 'gainst a Wrong  
That Passion doth approve, and use, as right:  
I used [the more my vice] this virtue long  
If it be Virtue viciously to fight.  
What now! vaunts Wit, and veils the same with skill?  
Would it be known it was to Courage Knit?  
Do I condemn, yet glory in mine ill?  
So, crack of Courage with, and without Wit?  
Here lie I open to Wits privy Nips,  
Or open Thumps, lay on, Wit spare me not:  
And I'll oreturne as thou shalt offer Trips  
Sith through my weakness thou the best haste got.  
Yet stay thy Wisdom, wit, and hold thy hand,  
Use thou the Conquest like a Conqueror:  
That is, foil thou the ill which thee withstand;  
But, let the faultless never feel thy power▪  
For 'tis not simply ill a truth to tell,  
(Though it perhaps be told for scarce good end)  
And doubtful words, with Letters Love doth spell  
That always only, doth the best intend.  
But sith all those that know me, knew me such  
As once I was, my Line sare of less force  
(Unless my hate, of what I was, I touch)  
To draw Sword-drawers to a quiet Course.  
for stealest thou Thief, and yet exhorst to Truth?  
Or Kill'st thou Butcher, yet dehortst from Blood?  
Shall he persuade us who revenge pursuth  
That mercy is the best revenging mood?  
I am turned Craven, and am held-therein  
By Love, which holds for true divinity,  
That Faith's Devotion is but deadly sin  
If it be not devout in Charity.  
Then he that makes his life a lasting Brawl  
And seems to feed on nought but Wounds, and Gore  
May pray for grace, to change his life withal,  
But, other prayers make his sins the more.  
And they that love their sins to multiply  
Still let ●hem pray in Hate, and thirst of Blood:  
So shall they live (while they make others die)  
To die the death of Dogs, in damned mood.  
Now, if this Charm of Words want violence  
To make these braving Spirits less bloudy-bold  
And bring them into loves Circumference,  
Sufficeth me I Conjured as I could:  
But, if thereby they wax more turbulent  
I can but rue, but they shall more repent!   

Blessed is the Man that doth meditate honest things by Wisdom. Ecclus. 14. 21.  
DId Wisdom write, or speak the world to please  
She were not wisdom in a pleasing Sense:  
Then who doth please with any one of these  
Doth please unwísely, but the World, or Sense.  
Then áre they worldly wise, or sensual  
That do so write òr speak; but none of those  
Can be in them whose words can sweeten Gall  
Which Sweets do rest where sweetest Souls repose.  
And they repose but in the Sweet of Sweets  
[God only wise] or Bodies of the Blessed:  
In whom true Wisdom, Grace and Nature meets,  
Whose graceful Words are naturally expressed.  
If Words enchant the Sense, and not the Soul  
That Charm of Words conjures no holy sprite:  
For, Such, such Words (not Such, such Words) controls  
Soule-pleasing Words must, then, be rare, and right.  
Yet though a Sonnet be as right, as rare  
For Number, Measure, Weight, or Noucl●●●▪  
Yet, if it sounds so, but to Senses Ear,  
The Soul, as harsh, doth hold that Harmony.  
Then all our Strains that relish double Love,  
(Sweet double-Relishe, worthy treble praise)  
To Soul, and Body) Soul and Body move.  
(With joy) to listen, as to angels L●ies!  
These be the Airs that get the Air of Fame,  
[Of Fame whose Air, divinely is refined]  
That feeds, with purest praise imm●rt all Name;  
Fitting the nature, of each mighty Mind.  
And, they are only mighty that disdain,  
All that, that disagrees with Mightiness:  
As is light Love, frail Fancies, Shadows vain,  
Weak wit, base Bliss, World's weal, or Wretchedness.  
Then [as to Nature cursed, but kind to Grace]  
I herehave made a rod myself to beat,  
Whose highest reach in Strains of Love, is base,  
Sith Lightness incasures them with heavy Feet.  
Yet if this Lightness heavy make the Light  
In Summing up my Numbers total Sum,  
I hope the weight thereof▪ will be of weight  
Their Lightness [if it rise] to overcome:  
For, they are too Light that in Those but weigh  
What Lustres▪ not what Lovers ought to say.   

Sic transit gloria Mundi.  
LIfe, stay; or if thou wilt not, let my Soul  
Move with thee to the Rest, Thou movest to:  
The Twine, by which thou hangest, Time up doth roll  
On Heavens round reeling Spheres, which thee vnd●os  
Thenô my Soul let Truth thy Virtues woe.  
To join their Force t' enforce th'infirmity  
Of this Life's excess in Deficiency.  
For, truth to say, we Be, and Be not both;  
We Be, in show,, but Be not as we ought:  
If then we Be not but in show, in sooth▪  
We Are as if we Were not; Ought, and Nought,  
Dying as soon as we to Life are brought:  
Twixt Generation, and Corruption.  
The Mean inclines but to destruction.  
And, if we strain the Circle of our Thought  
To comprehend some Essence of the same,  
It is as if to catch a Shade we sought,  
Or closed our Fist to hold the blast of Fame:  
Yet, that is air, but Man is but in Name●  
Then, look how much a Name hath being found,  
So much hath Man, which is a Sound, unsound.  
Unsound it is: for, were it sound it were  
That which frail Man is nothing less than like:  
For, Sounds have Being: yea, they plain appear,  
And, on the Organs of our Hearing strike:  
Of which those Organs are, with us, to seek:  
For, while the Sound resounde●h we are gone:  
So, are we Sounds that have not Time, nor Tone●  
Then, Reason seeking for a real Thing  
Of Humane-nature, foully is deceived:  
Because the same hath no continuing,  
But runs her Race ere really perceived:  
Whose Life, of Life, is instantly bereaved  
A Dream? a Shade? o no: it's not so much,  
A shadow of a Dream, at most, is such.  
That's the Similitude the Lord of Life  
Doth use to show our Lives unbeeing▪ Being:  
What! in the World, where all things are so ●ife,  
Is nought but Nothing to the same agreeing?  
Which not appears, nor scarce supposed by Seeing!  
And, being scarce supposed: than it is  
To Nothing next, or Nothing's like to This▪  
And, as we cannot bathe twice in one Brook  
Sith still it runs the same and not the same●  
So, twice on our Estates we cannot look  
And see it One, so soon it altars Frame:  
We are and are not strait, like Light'ning Flame ':  
At once we go▪ and come▪ ye, go, ere come,  
Which is the Sum of all of all, and Some▪  
And, if we live long Lifts extremity  
We die as many Deaths as Ages live:  
The Life of Youth, is Death of Infan●le.  
The Death of Youth, doth Life to Manhood give;  
So, of the rest Death rests in Lives Deprive:  
To Day dies Yesterday, to Morrow shall  
This Day be dead, and Night●s their funeral▪  
We change each Day as Days do rise, and fall:  
And, what is changed continues not the same:  
If not the same, the same Is not at all:  
For, Change transsormes the Nature, and the Name,  
Our Passions are as sickle, as too blame:  
Now This, then That, than next to This, and That,  
Still changing, well I wot, t' I wot not what.  
Thus, is our Sense deceived, mistaking that  
Which but appears, for that which 〈◊〉, in deed,  
And so our Sense, our Sense, doth captivate  
To misconceit, Corrupting Fancies Creed,  
Which takes Not-beeing in ttue beings steed:  
For, that is truly-false what ere it is,  
That is but true in Show, and so is This.  
To be, in deed, aeternal is to Be,  
To Be aeternal, is to Be alone:  
To Be alone, excluds the pronoun, We,  
Yet We do stand by that Trin-Vnion,  
Though we therewith hold no Comparison:  
And yet we look most like that Trini●y  
In understanding, Will, and Memory!  
time's like a Leaking Vessel which contames  
Both Generations, and Corruptions:  
The Fates (like Danaus' daughters) take the pains  
To fill the same, as oft as out it runs;  
From whencè do flow Times daughters, Slaves, and Sons▪  
And these are Terms that to Times Turns agree  
Before, and After; Hath been, and shall Bee.  
Which show that no Time (but Eternity)  
Hath Being; for, we cannot say that Is  
Which yet, is not; and, Now, doth cease to Be▪  
Or if we say Time Is, Time shrinks at This;  
Which cannot stand to prove that Term for His:  
For, NOW (the Notion, which Denoteth Time)  
Is Past, while Present, and is Last, while Prime!  
Then, if Time Be, it is Past, or Future;  
The Past, Is not; the Future, Being wants:  
Because it is to come, and most unsure,  
For, Time still hovers where no Being haunts,  
Sith Time, and Being still are Diserepants:  
Then, That (as erst was said) Eternal is  
Which Is, in Deed, and only ONE is This!  
Of whom it cannot properly be said  
He Hath Been, or Shall Be: These Turns of Time  
Can never stand with That that's ever stayed,  
Yet far above Times highest Turns doth climb,  
And, is the First, and Last, and lasts in Prime:  
Who by this NOW, spreads his Eternity  
Unto the boundless Bounds of Deity!  
For, he is ONE, and One Is, and no more!  
For, as what ●s, aught to be only ONE:  
So, only ONE ought to Be evermore,  
Which Is, still Is, Is, only, and alone  
The Cause of All, And caused is of None!  
To Him, alone, that Is, and only Is  
Bee only Praise, sith Praise is only His!  Non est mortale quod oped.  

Respice finem.  
_●Hen as I hear Times sober Tongue (the Clock)  
Call on me every how●e to mind nune end.  
It strikes nigh heart with fear at every stroke  
Because so ill Time, Life, and Breath I spend.  
Then strait resolve I, to bestow them all  
Upon that Lord of all, that gave them nice  
When lo, the World upon me strait doth call  
And bids me look to it, lest poor I be.  
Twixt these two Calls I patted am intwaine:  
The first my Spirit, the last my Flesh attends:  
So twixt them two my pleasure is but pain:  
For each the other evermore offends.  
Sin tenders me all joys, that ravish Sense,  
And Sense doth pine if from Them It be held:  
Grace offers joys of much more excellence,  
And feign my spirit would with Them befild.  
But in frail Flesh Sense such a Caesar is  
That It Commands it to withstand the Spirit,  
While it doth feed the Flesh with Earthly Bliss:  
And so, my Spirit is vexed with that delight.  
Thus, while I am distracted in desire  
Time (in his Language, after some Hours pause)  
Tells me he flies, and bids me to retire  
Before Confusion catch me in his jaws.  
O Time (that thus endeerst me to thy love)  
I constantly adore thy sicklnesse,  
That never movest, but dost my Senses move  
To mind thy flight, and this life's trickelnesse.  
O that I could make thee Eternity!  
And honour thee, for this, with state divine  
That with the God of Glory, thou and I  
Might, like the Sun and Moon, for evershine!  
Teach me, o learned long-experienced Time  
To glorify thee with some heaunly Art,  
Whose humble Muse would to thy Temples climb  
To Lawrel-Crowne them, ere from Thee I part.  
O let me be the Triton of thy praise:  
Teach me to Trumpet forth thine Excellence:  
Let me [though most unworthy] grace thy Days  
Wi●h all that may delight Intelligence.  
Let me by thee [dear Time] be brought to Death  
Ere I abuse thee in the least degrees.  
For, he wins Bliss that doth but lose his Breath  
To be still found, from Times Abuses free.  
Then now, o now, (sith now my Days decline)  
Let me this Moment enter in the Way  
Of V●rtue, Grace, and holy Discipline,  
And being in, thence, let me never stray  
Procrastination doth but Plagues protract,  
Due to protraction of Conversion:  
Then, Time with Plagues my way ward Will co-act  
To turn to Gracé, ere my subversion.  
Let it sufflce that I have thee abused  
Since I was borne, in Wrongs not to be borne:  
Then be thou, by me, hence forth rightly used,  
Or let me, by Thee, die, or live forlorn:  
For, I am weary, now of wronging Thee,  
Then let me flee from Vice as thou dost Flee.   

A blind man cannot see the default of his Eyes.  
WEll, what of this? this restless toil for State,  
What is the end of that which Care begins?  
And, without Worlds of Gifts, gets Worlds of Hate,  
Is this the All Pride (at All casting) wins?  
Must Truths Disciples, Graces Officers,  
Sacred Apostles (Saints by calling) strive  
For Headship by uncivill-civil Wars  
Though they believe they meanly aught to live?  
Nay, but for this, if those resplendent Spirits  
That do surround the highest Celestial Throne  
Advance themselves above their place, and Merits  
For which they worthily were overthrown,  
Then, judgement where dost thou enthrone thy State  
That should be in the Kingdom of the Brain?  
Dost thou that Seat (sith Pride usurps it) hate?  
And only in the Humble dost thou reign?  
Then, where are they? true judgement tell me where?  
If neither with the Angels, Saints, nor Men  
They may be found, (as it doth well appear)  
Where shall we seek for these so humble then?  
Or is the total Sum of All, but One  
Who was made truly humble for us all?  
And dost thou rest in him (meek Lamb) alone  
Leving us to ourselves to rise, or fall?  
Then, woe to us that mad are for thy want,  
And do we wot not what in what we do:  
Who seek, for nought, each other to supplant:  
For, Lordships have their Loads made fast thereto.  
We strive for That which bringeth us but strife  
With grief and care among, oft wrack withal:  
We venture life, to win a weary life;  
And rise, by all means, by all means to fall.  
So we be up but for a day, we deem  
Our Neck well broken; ● its worth a Neck  
But for an how●e a King to Be, or seem  
Unto his Mates before to give the Check.  
If we can catch a place above our Peers  
(Although we come thereby by peerless ●in)  
We ween us no small fools (as it appears)  
When we [alas the while] stark mad have been▪  
Such is our ●udgement, snch our temperance,  
And such the state of those that State affect;  
Whose State, and Stay hath such continuance  
As they that seek it; no time in effect!  
Then, o my Soul since thou canst thus discourse  
(As many can whose Courses are stark nought)  
Be better stayed, or run a better Course  
Far from the rise of any mounting thought.  
Look in the Inwards of these outward Things;  
And note the Lining of the royal'st rob;  
It's powdered ermine, peppered to with Stings  
That, like a Nettle, makes the wearer rub.  
If thou affect a Kingdom, let it be  
Heaun, or the happy Kingdom of CONTENT:  
Which blessed Kingdoms are ordained for Thee  
If thou affect but thine own government.  
Be Queen but of thyself and thou shalt be  
In Heaun Crowned with Immortality,  
Where Saints, and Angels shall still honour thee,  
For swaying well thy little Signiory.  
And sith thy Pilgrimage is almost past  
Thou needst the less Vi●ticum for it:  
For, being tired to load thyself at last,  
With needless * Trash, would show nor grace, nor wit.  
Care for no more than thou mayst bear, with speed,  
To bear thy Charges through this Vale of woe.  
Superfluous things give others that have need,  
The less thy Lode the better thou shalt go.  
Little serves soone-suffized Necessity  
[Whose Stomach, small and cold disiests not much)  
But nothing can Opinion satisfy,  
Which being more than full for more doth grudge.  
The greedy-ritch doe* want the wealth they hold  
Who pine with Tantalus amidst their Store; 
Instructa inopia est in divitijs eupiditas.   
And (Midas-like) e'en famish with their Gold,  
The more they have, their misery th● more.  
The next degree to Nothing Nature serves  
Sith she with less than Little is content,  
The hedgerows meat, the River drink reserves  
To keep her in good plight, and better bend.  
The Birds find meat for seeking every where,  
The Highest hand still strews it in their way;  
And so may temprate men still find it there  
Where ere the Birds do find their stomach Stay.  
For Cresses, Roòtes, Hips Haws, Sloes, and such Cates,  
Are Common, (as the Air) to take, and eat,  
This meat serves Nature though it serve not States,  
And longest-livers had no other meat.  
Let Gluttons glut their Guts until they crack  
With all the Kickshaws Cookrie can devise;  
And let them lay on load upon their Back  
Of gaudy Gear; thou needest none; then be wise.  
Puft-panch doth soonest the Kite a pudding yield;  
Full Gorges belch, if not much rather spew,  
Most fulsomely: for being overfilled,  
Itself with hate doth then itself pursue▪  
At Best; these full Ones can themselves but stretch  
Upon their ivory Beds, or feed their lust:  
For, they must still be feeding till they catch  
That which wilfeede on them till they be dust,  
And what's a costly Coat but cumbrous  
Unto the Maker and the Wearer too;  
To keep off cold and heat we Clothes should use,  
Which Howse-wives cloth doth Without more a do.  
And so the same be sound, and sweet, we may  
In Clothing of that kind best stir, or stand;  
When as these Garments rich, and over gay  
Do rather us, than we do them, command.  
If Garments m●st distinguish needs, Degrees  
[though Virtue makes the plainest Coat to shine]  
Yet more than needs with no Degree agrees:  
So saith King james, so saith the Word divine.  
No more of this; enough, if not too much  
(But near too much against too much is said)  
Is said hereof, and Great ones will but grudge  
Sith with their Business I am busied:  
They hird me not: then, proffered service stinks,  
No more my Muse; thy Lady on thee winks.   

There is no greater plague than Boldness and Power, when they are accompanied with Ignorance.  
WHen Heaun and Earth, and all their Furniture,  
Were made, their maker made Man last of all;  
As being his Masterpiece, chief Creature,  
For whom the rest were made: He, General.  
To whom such perfect Wisdom was assigned  
That without Learning He knew all that was:  
And named each Thing according to their kind  
Which Names, to us (as we) from Him, do pass.  
Who being thus made (made, I may double say,  
Sith He was double made, made Man, and Great:  
Great, like his God, God's Creatures all to ●way)  
And, in an Earthly Heaun, held his Seat:  
Whereas He would, He lived: so 〈◊〉 his Will  
Rested His life, or death, His Weal, or Woe  
And, while His Will his Makers did fulfil  
So long he knew but what he joyed to know,  
He knew all that was made was perfect good.  
But knew, save God, nought unmade, perfect Evil)  
And so He knew not, or misunderstood,  
The name and nature of the crafty Devil.  
He lived as free from Want, as Wickedness  
As long as in his Goodwil was no want:  
Then Earth bare fruit, untilled, in blessed excess:  
For God himself the same did sow, and plant.  
Rivers of Nectar ran an golden Sand  
(With siluer-cleerenesse) through that Pardice;  
That, had he thirsted, Drink was straight at hand,  
And all that might him free from prejudice.  
The Tree of Life (to keep off Age, and Death,)  
There still did flourish, in eternal springe:  
So, like to Gods, immortal was His Breath:  
For, all he Fed on Health to Him, did bring▪  
So, his Flesh, health: His Spirit, tranquillity  
Enjoyed, in height of highest excellence,  
Which height came near the highest Felicity:  
For, with Him God still made his residence.  
He naked was, and yet He knew it not:  
For, Cold, or Heat could tell Him no such thing;  
Much less could Shame: for, Shame of Ill's begot;  
And Ill he knew not, nor whence It did spring.  
The Spring of joy (the Highest) did ever feed  
His passing pleasures Streams, with fresh supply:  
So, still he was as far (in show, as Deed)  
From want of joy, as joys satiety.  
The Cause whereof, in Him wrought rare Effects,  
Who, without Labour, his Lords Hests could keep:  
Whose Heart burnt, like a Beacon, with Affects  
that showed, in Danger, he did never sleep.  
Who if he stirred; and exercised his Limbs,  
'Twas not for need, but them to recreate:  
Which stirred not till in Pleasure's Seas he swims▪  
For, still he bathed therein, in restful state!  
And yet the more those boundless Seas to make  
With new springtides of joy, [as yet unfelt)  
God, of his Rib, a sleep, makes him a Make,  
On whom, (awake) for joy, his heart doth melt.  
And seeing Her [for all he saw ●e knew]  
bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh●said he)  
This Creature is: for, in myself the grew,  
And as myself I'll love, her while we Be.  
This! nay (alas) This nought is to the Good  
That He enjoyed in that earthly Heau●t,  
Which by Man's Thought cannot be understood.  
Whereof [alas] we through him are bereaun:  
For, He was warned but one Tree not to touch,  
The Tree of Knowledge, by which well he knew  
He naked was, and shamed to know so much:  
For Shame doth Evil evermore ensue.  
Then evil was it that he knew, and did,  
When through his serpentine seduced wife  
He tasted of The Tree which was forbid:  
So, Lost we, with Him, Paradise, and life,  
None otherwise then by our Laws we see  
The Sons plagued for the Sires successively;  
For, if the Sire a proved Traitor be  
he's plagued himself, and his Posterity.  
Which with highest justice, just proportion holds;  
So wills the Highst, whose Will gives justice form●  
Whose Grace true justice evermore enfolds  
Then neither can or will he It deform.  
Hence comes it that from Love we fall to Lust  
(Fowl Lust that's but the Excrement of Love)  
And hence it is we prove in both unjust  
When Lust another Way our Mind doth move.  
Thus was a Woman made the Instrument  
Wherewith the Devil did man's Ear allure  
To hear the Siren Sins first Strains consent,  
Which drew him on to Death, which we endure.  
And what but Women cause our Sonnetting  
Wherein we show what languishnes we have  
Within our Souls for them, which often bring  
Our Minds to nought, and Bodies to the Grave?  
Whose Tongues drew virtue from the Tongue of Eve  
(If it be Virtue which to Vice doth draw)  
To make us love, then, What they List, believe:  
For, Loves as free from Reason, as from Law.  
O Women (that were made, but for Mens●ake  
To help, and comfort them in weal, and woe)  
Why do yourselves your selves their plaguers make,  
And Cross the Cause of your creation so?  
Do not, o do not so degenerate:  
From what ye should be, by creation:  
You give us life, and life abbreviate  
So make and mar our Generation:  
But if you will be like your Mother Eue.  
When you have us undone, help us to live.   

In iudicando criminosa est celeritas.  
TO cut off life by Law of such whose Crimes  
Fall out as evil, from an hopeful good  
May prove, though just, injurious to the Times  
Wherein they live, in deed, or likelihood:  
For, justice though she equal be to all  
Yet, by advice of Prudence she doth spare  
Hopeful Delinquents though they foully fall  
Only because they oft most hopeful are:  
For had Miltiades at first been slain  
When he in Chersonesus tyrannized,  
Where had the Battle been got on the Plain  
Of Marrathon, that's so immortalized?  
Or else had Cimon, or Themistocles  
Been done to death for their lascivious life  
(For which proscribd was Al●ibiades)  
How had the Athenians conquest been so rise?  
The Battles near the flood Eurimedon  
Had not been gained to their past, gainful good;  
Nor from the Mountain Artemision  
Had they sent streaming down their Foeman's Blood:  
For, royal Minds, great Hearts, and active Ha●ds  
(With nimble Wit among) can nought effect  
But what with wonder (if not glory) stands  
Sith mean Attempts they do (as base) reject.  
Nor can their Nature's motion idle be  
That is so restless quick, and violent,  
(Still working like a Billow of the Sea)  
Till it be stayed in some mood premanent.  
But as unskilful Husbandmen reject,  
The fattest Grounds sith they bear Weeds, or wo●se:  
When expert'st Husbands those in chief ellect  
Sith well they wot, fat Grounds make fat their Purse.  
So do, at first, great Wits, and haughty Sprights  
Produce strange fruits that feed but●leane Decay  
Which we detesting ween they had their rights  
To be cut off, and rid out of the way:  
Which doth proceed from judgement most depraved,  
Though in desire that justice might take place,  
Sith if those Men had been in mercy saved  
They for that mercy might their Country grace:  
For when with judgements best-discerning Eye  
We see good matter in an evil Man,  
As Courage, wit, and great activity  
We long must hope, he will do well, that can:  
For, Age with Virtue is Cooperative.  
Youths prone to Vice, sith Vice doth cocker it:  
So they, in time, great matters may achieve  
That may their King, and Kingdom benefit:  
Then each wise judges judgement hath this scope  
To spare the hopeless Felon full of hope.   

Fortuna vitrea est, quae cum splendet, frangitur. Publi.  
_● GREATNESS what great Good dost thou contain,  
●allure the Will to be in love with thee?  
●st souraigne-Good to be a Sovereign  
When highest degree of Ills threats that Degree?  
Who buys a Crown with never-ending Care  
Buys Gold too dear by all that Life is worth:  
For, Care doth nought but Life to Death prepare,  
Yet, unprepared to meet Death flieth forth:  
For, Kingdoms Cares so many are, and great,  
That they constrain the Thought but them to mind;  
That though untimely Death they do beget,  
Yet Thought [though free] from thought thereof they bind!  
Then, o my Soul, poor Soul! rich in Conceit,  
(Which dost conceive King's glittering misery  
To be (as 'tis) false pomp, true perils Bait)  
Suffice thee still with mere Sufficiency.  
Make me aswell content to be the least.  
As others are well pleased the Greatest to be;  
Sith Man in honour lives, and dies a Beast:  
For, Men prove oft base Beasts in high degree.  
Let mine ambition reach but to Content,  
And that Content reach but the Mean to touch:  
That's All; sith it's omni-sufficient  
More meet for richest Minds then more than Much  
There may I fi●t by virtues surest side,  
(For in the Mean sheedoth herself install)  
Secure from wrack, while those that Sceptres guide  
Do find no mean between their Rise, and Fall▪  
Where I may, all unseen, see all the rest  
Of this World's Revolutions; and make use  
Of Best, and Worst discreetly for my best  
And store my Mind with Matter for my Muse:  
Like a Spectator that doth fit at ease  
Secure upon the Shore, and thence doth see,  
How others are near sinking on the Seas  
In ceaseless Storms that full of danger be:  
Or like a looker on a Tragedy  
Within the Middle Room, among the Mean,  
I see the fall of State and Majesty  
While 'mongst the Presse●a Pillar sure I lean:  
So see I others sorrows with delight  
Though others sorrows do but make me sad:  
But plagues to see, which on ourselves might light,  
Free from their fall, makes Nature, grieving, glad.  
Where while I see some Phaeton strive to guide  
The Sun of Souraigntie, I see him set  
All, in Combustion; so dissolves, through pride,  
All Movers causing his Ambition's heat.  
Where I may see but late-Court-Minions  
Live like to Sponge [hard squizd] alive, and dead  
Through change of Kings, or King's opinions:  
For, when their Heads fail off! off falls their Head.  
Or if they find more grace in Fortune's Frowns  
To live (as in an Hell) a Living Death  
They well may Chronicle what holds in Crowns  
Which turn about (like Fanes) eun with a Breath.  
There may I Nobles see unnobly strive  
Who shall be greatest in grace, for want of grace,  
Who by the damage of each other thrive  
And grace themselves b'each others great disgrace.  
While (unperceaud) I laugh to see how they  
(Like Fiends) each other restlestly torment,  
And, bless my state that on their Plagues may play  
In my Minds merry Kingdom of CONTENT.  
In few, there may I see how all Estates  
That lifted are above the myrry Mean  
Do, falling stand twixt Dangers and Debates,  
Whiles of their Falls I make a swelling Scene.  
So that this World, the Sea of misery,  
Becomes my Helicon, and Streams affords,  
To make my Muse to flow, still swellinghie,  
In matter far above the reach of Words.  
Then, you that, shouldering, buckle for the best  
Holding the Mean [the best of all] the worst]  
Rest you, or else my Muse shall never rest  
To make your States, and Strifes loathed as accursed.  
And you, o you unpassiond peaceful Hearts  
That with me live secure in mean estate,  
Be joyful though you play but simple Parts  
Ye simply play the best, bl●●hst, freest from hate.  
And though these great Ones scorn our Case, and Core,  
Let us laugh at them sith we know they dote▪   

A Dump upon the death of the most noble Henry late Earl of Pembroke.  
DEath, hath deprived 〈◊〉 of my dearest friend;  
My Dearest friend is dead, and laid in Grave:  
〈◊〉 Grave He rests until the World shall end:  
The World shall end, and end shall all I hangs have:  
All Things have end, on Earth, that Nature wrought;  
That Nature wrought shall unto Dust be brought:  
To Dust be brought the worthiest Wights on Ground;  
On Ground who lives, in Ground consume he must:  
Consume he must whom ●rorow doth confound:  
Sorrow doth confound the Mind that Care doth rust:  
That Care doth rust, full soon Care will devour▪  
Care will devour where Care hath greatest power:  
Where Care hath greatest power it frets the Heart:  
It frets the Heart, and doth perplex the Spirit:  
The Spirit perplexed ptocures the Body's smart:  
The Body's smart doth quite expel delight:  
Expel delight, than Life is like to Death:  
To Death I yield▪ yet cannot lose my Breath:  
My Breath, why did it not forsake me than:  
Me than, eun then, when that my friend deceased:  
My friend deceased, eun as my joys began:  
My joys began, eun as my joys surceased:  
My joys surceased eun as my friend did die.  
My friend did die, and so would God might I.   

I (aid unto Laughter, what art thou mad? And to Mixth what dost thou▪ Eccles. 2. 2.  
AMong the 〈◊〉 Sin 〈◊〉 for heedless Flesh  
(Though Lust be more attractive in her power]  
None takes so soon [sigh 〈◊〉 doth it refresh]  
As Mirth; For, Mirth doth joy, and health procure.  
The Grave, and Light will, lightly, merry be  
Mirth so doth tickle Spleened of either kind  
For recreation, o●e; the other, glees  
And bo●h, because therein they pleasure find.  
It is Earth's Heaven, yet It doth hale to Hell:  
But so doth hale, as, with bewitching 〈◊〉.  
It makes them willing whom it doth compel  
To joy in Pleasure: which procureth Smart.  
When Fortune smiles who then laughs not outright?  
And oft (mad merry] plays not with each straw?  
Makes Pleasure, all their pain; their care, Delight?  
These, Mirth, with Ropes of Vanity, doth draw.  
These, in the Night, think how to spend the Day  
[If thinking-sad Ambition let them not]  
In pas-time, so, Time passeth with ill play  
Till they lose All, and He the same hath got.  
In weal, we float on Pleasure's Streams, with ease,  
In sugared satisfaction of our Sense:  
And often seek to sound those sensual Seas  
With the decep'st reach of our Intelligence.  
Then we embozom all that Mirth can yield:  
Musutions, Players: Buffoons, Birds-and Beasts  
Do▪ at their pleasure, us (most wanton) wield:  
And, dearer than our Wisdoms deem their lests.  
A Zane (farther off from Wit, than Grace  
(And yet as far from Grace, as Grace, from Sin)  
That can at Feasts, prate with a brazen face)  
(When sober wit's kept out) must needs come in.  
Our Dainties will not down with out some such,  
A Shamelesse-gracelesse, wittlesse Thing we get  
To make us Fat, as fools, with Laughing much  
And on his folly feed, to make us eat.  
My Lady she will laugh as mad she were  
(Lord! why should Mirth make sober Ladies mad?)  
If she but see Him, like an Ass, to fleer;  
So she (kind Mule) to see an Ass is glad.  
And when such Buffoons ball, and Cornets sound  
(The Guests loud-Laughing) Who can then be heard  
That speaks like Phi●●pps Page, as shrill, as sound,  
That Voice hath then no grace and les●e regard?  
And, if one sober Soul, among the rest,  
Do mind the rest of thei● Excess, in This  
Some seeming wiseman makes him strait a jest,  
While all, as at a Goose, like Geese do 〈◊〉.  
Then one Goose (that seems reason most t'affect)  
Yields him a reason for their hissing so:  
And saith that Wisdom doth herself reject,  
When she comes out of season ought to do.  
This Diu'l with reason, dammnes Divinity;  
And, with his Wisdom, stops self wisdoms Mouth:  
Which saith, all Seasons we should mortify  
Our Ears, to hear the lively Word of TRUTH!  
Paul, hold thy peace; thou blessed Saint be still:  
(Though if thou preach not, thou sayst, woe to Thee)  
Lest they do hiss thee too, for thy good will;  
Who hold all Geese that not madd-mirry be.  
Tell them they ought in season, and without  
To hear the Word of Life; they, dead in sin,  
Will, for thy zeal, requite thee with a flout;  
For so to quite such zeal they used have bin●  
The most voluptuous over-wanton rig  
Proud Plenty, scorns meek Piety's Womanhood:  
And, swelling Supra-aboundance looks so bog  
That nought it sees so Low as Sober●moode.  
Variety of Crowns, Robes, Mirth, and Meat  
And all that ravish, Sense, with sweetest delight  
These are the Heau'ns● desired of the GREAT  
Who ween no Heaven nor Hell is out of sight.  
Frolic great●great Ones, while these Heauns you hold  
Sith you will not attend true Wisdoms Words,  
Laugh and be fat, sith all you touch is Gold,  
Though that food your Souls famishment affords.  
Soul? tush, what Soul? how idly dost thou chat,  
Mad Muse, that now [they think] dost Poetize.  
There is no Soul, nor no such Thing as that;  
These are but Fictions, Law-confirming Lies.  
What resurrection? Pish, who ever came  
From Death, to Life? Who can cadavers raise?  
Some say a Nazarite once did the same,  
But Tacitus nor Machiavelli to says.  
These were wise Men, in deed, and known for such,  
If such had said it, we might trust their Word:  
But, fow'r poor Fellows poorly it doth touch,  
That often with themselves do scarce accord.  
Who had no action in the Common weal  
No Office, no Command, nor no great Brain,  
Yet we [for sooth] for vain Souls only heal  
Must credit them in all their prattle vain.  
These are the damned discourses of these Devils;  
Thus, their blasphemous Tongues ●erlde the Truth;  
Whose greatest goddess is in greatest Evils:  
And growing Great, through Mischief, have their growth▪  
Great Wit should have great Grace the same to guide;  
Or Wits own greatness will itself oppress▪  
Or make it run to rage, itself beside▪  
And sink the Owner in the deep'st distress.  
If Wit, and Wealth concur, to Hell they run,  
If Grace, in mighty measure, stay them not:  
Who are undone, if they be not undone  
Before they do receive their later lot:  
For, Frolic Fate is most unfortunate  
If sanctified Discretion hold not in  
Unruly Nature, then, in sober gate:  
For, from Abundance, springs abundant sin..  
In Wealths excess to be most continent  
Is most miraculous, and seldom seen:  
For, Appetite is then most violent,  
And Passion, with high-hand, grows Reason's Queen.  
Then pleasure's Active, and most Passive, Sense:  
Madd-Mirhes rude-hand the Soul a sunder tears:  
Which is distracted by joys violence,  
Aswell as by Griefs Gripes, or sudden Fears.  
If he that doth the happiest State possess  
Look well within him, and without him too  
He lightly shall see cause of heaviness,  
Seeing All to threaten him quite to undo.  
But hardly shall he find a cause of mirth  
(Though he sought all the World the same to find)  
Sith Sorrow only is our ●ight of Birth,  
With Labour of our Body, Soul, and Mind.  
O Mirth (strong Strumpett!) Whore to Worldly-Weale,  
O Laughter (Light Thing!) Bawd to both those Beasts,  
Why do you not your Luxury conceal  
But that bewray which Modesty detests?  
It is because ye are mad; as are those  
That willingly still rest at your dispose.   

Omnium rerum vicissitudo est. Terence.  
AS I me sat upon a River side  
And marked the Water how it passed away,  
And how that past, with like, was strait supplied,  
That still is past, and still held at a stay,  
Me thought t●was like this 
* 〈…〉  Sea of sorrows Tide,  
Wherein the Race of Mankind runneth so:  
For, down the Stream of Days, to Death we glide,  
And still Some come, as fast as Others go.  
And as the Stream with many Reaches runs:  
So runs our Course, with many wayward Reaches:  
This, Ill it runs to, and that Good it shuns;  
And, to ruune out of Course, makes many Breaches.  
Then, with myself I thus discoursed, at last,  
I, with the rest, am running down this Stream:  
Here now, there then, then, presently am passed,  
Like Streams swift Course, if not much more extreme:  
For, ah, I cannot think how swift I flee  
But I flee swifter than that Thought, to Death:  
For, Times lest Parts, than Thoughts much breefer be,  
Which Thought, with thought, my 〈◊〉 me shorteneth!  
I am orewheldmed in Thoughts, as deep as Hell  
And high as Heaven; when thus my state I weigh:  
And twixt those Thoughts I (as intraunced) do dwell,  
While Time draws me to Death the nearest way:  
For, Thought breeds Melancholy, which doth breed  
The Enemies of Health; and, they do sow  
(In Flesh's Earth) our Dissolutions Seed,  
That us dissolves when it begins to grow.  
If from myself I do myself divide  
(The longer, so, to keep myself entire)  
And give my Sense delight, my Thoughts to guide  
To Mirth, abroad for health: they strait re●ire:  
And, sooner can long married Men forget  
They married are, than I forget the Thought  
To which I owe myself, as duest Debt,  
Since I was matched to Ill and knew it Nought:  
For, if I let my easi-mooving Mind  
(With lightest shock turn from his weighty Point)  
It rests no where, but in this Point, by Kind;  
So, Lightest Purposes doth disappoint.  
The Elements, though still at War in me,  
Do yet, in firm accord, mine end conspire:  
For, It they hasten, sith they disagree;  
Which well agrees to make m● unintire.  
Then, o why should I add sad care, to Care  
When one's of power, the Pow'res of Life, to foil?  
Why should I care to spend, and care to spare,  
To spare a Life which sparing doth but spoil?  
Why should I care to live, sith die I should  
If I would live quite free from Thought▪ and Care?  
For, Thought's the Deed by which this life we hold,  
Which yet determines Life, ere Thought beware,  
Suppose with cark, past Care, I could obtain  
A golden Crown (but better t'wrere of bay)  
And with Hell-paines a triple One attain,  
What got I but more Care to end my Days?  
And were Time stayed, and Life most steadfast too  
Such endless Kings, had got but endless Cares:  
And so the longer Life, the more ado:  
The more ado, the Doer worse fares.  
While thus my Thoughts are temp'ring, lo, with Time,  
Time hath stolen on me, to steal me away:  
Away, with Time, I go: hark, hark, the Chime  
Saith musics charming Notes Time cannot stay:  
And, if not Music. no Mirth under Sun  
Hath power to stay Him; but, Mirth Pas-time is:  
By It, the sooner, Time away doth run:  
Then▪ Life is wretched both in Bale, and Bliss!  
If it be wretched, loathsome is it then▪  
If so, then so we are, to love it so:  
Men-Beasts we be, that reason want of Men,  
To Love our Prison, peril, pain, and wo.  
Thus while, with healthfulbreath, I breath out This  
I can contemn this Life, and those condemn  
That are in Love with it, as with their bliss,  
But, were Death near, I might be one of Them.  
Yet, let me not my dying Heart belly  
(Which dieth as it lives, in thought of Death)  
It nought (but Hean'n) desires more than to die;  
And, yield, to endlest rest, my weary breath.  
weighed, I well may term it, that still toils,  
To keep a toilsome Life from endless rest:  
So, wrongeth Life the more, the more it moils:  
Which is at worst, when it is at the best!  
O Breath, frail Breath! (base-Daughter of the Air)  
Fly to thy Mother, me no longer grieve:  
Nor, would I die, because I do despair  
But die, because I hope, in rest, ●o live.  
Here is but Toil, and thou hold'st me to It;  
Which I abide, sith Thou abidst in me:  
So, but loss win I, by thy benefit,  
The loss of Rest, that restless am through thee:  
Yet, till thy Giver take thee, make no haste:  
For, I was borne to toil▪ for rest, at last.   

Difficilia quae●pulchra.  
THE Coaeternall, 〈…〉 WORD,  
Self WISDOMS wised● me, Image of the HIGHST,  
Sole KING of Kings, of Lords the only LORD  
And, heaunly HEAD of CHRISTIANS, ●ESVS CHRIST,  
In complete Time, took FLESH, by MIRACLE,  
Of a pure VIRGIN, through HIS Work that was  
The Prompter of each sacred ORACLE,  
That did fore-show how THIS should come to pass:  
With his unvalued Wonder working BLOOD,  
To manumis●vile Man▪ a Slave to Sin,  
Was borne in bethlehem without, 〈◊〉  
And, without all that State doth glo●y in.  
His THRONE, a Manger, and, a Crach▪ his Cradle:  
His ROBES, course Rags, poor Relics of mean Linen.  
His WAITERS Beasts, his covert, 〈◊〉 Stable:  
That worse no Begget ever borne had been in:  
Where, yet, forthwith, by Angels glorifying▪  
Shepherds agnition, worship of the WISE,  
The guiding STAR Old Symeons Prophesying,  
And Doctors wondering, ALL, HIM GREAT Agnize,  
Who, in his youth, grew quickly old in grace  
With GOD, and Man; for GOD, and Man was HE:  
Baptized by him which made and gave Him place,  
That HE to all might Piety's Pattern be:  
Conquering his FLESH with fasting, unconstrained,  
The World with meekness, and the Fiend, with 〈◊〉▪  
And when the WEEKS of DANIEL end attained  
He●●●light and sought RIGHTS Ruins to repair:  
Sometimes, with Words, that wonder-mazed men,  
Sometimes, with Deeds, that Angels did admire:  
With mercy, still, with justice, seldom when)  
He made (as HE was) God and man entire.  
He taught EARTH, Truth: and HELL, to know her error:  
He showed the MEEDE ordained for Good, and Bad:  
Then to confirm All [to Alls joy, and terror)  
He calmed the Elements: reformed the mad:  
Healed all Diseases: brought, to life the Dead:  
The quickt ' obedience: secret thoughts, to light;  
To sins restraint, or to be banished,  
And lastly to the Devil, fear and flight!  
These [Notwithstanding) and much more than these,  
(For, all the World the Books would not comprise  
That of his Acts should hold the working-Seas,  
Which to a boundless Magnitude do risel  
He was, (alas, when he had undergon  
All Pains and Passions (Sin all only saved)  
Proper to Man [yet had his Godhead shown)  
By his own People scorned and depraud!  
Yea, by his own (his own chief Officer  
judas, betraying Him) He was accused,  
Arraigned, condemned, bound, seurgd, hauled here, and there,  
With Thorns, Crowned, crucified, and worse abused!  
So He, (All being fulfilled: the Sun obsurd,  
The Earth, all, quaking, graves self-opening,  
And, NATURES Frame dissolving] Death, endured:  
Life, thereby, to his Enemies, to bring!  
Then, being interred, lost Hell: and, rose again  
In triumph, having conquered Death, and Sin:  
And forty Days, (with HIS) on Earth did reign  
A Man-GOD glorifid, without, and in!  
And, of his age, the three and thirtieth Year,  
He, in the sight of his Saints, did ascend  
To Heaun, with glory, triumph, joy and cheer,  
And sits on his right Hand that Him did send!  
From whence [being now our Spokesman] He shall come  
(When all this All shall melt in funeral fire)  
On Quick, and Dead to give his final Doom:  
When, as their Works shallbe, shallbe their Hire.  
Then, Good, and Bade divided, endlessly,  
The Worle refined, and all things put in frame,  
To this great judge, the total EMPERY  
shallbe given up, of this Great-double FRAME!  
To whom Celestial, and Terrestrial Knees,  
And Knees infernal, shall for ever bow:  
And, every Tongue confess, and Eye that sees,  
That HE is All, in All, in High, and Low,  
Unto His glory that Was, is, and shall  
(In all Eternity) be ALL, in All!   

I long for Life, unlike to Death.  
SO runs the Tenor of the Treble Ills  
Existing by the Mean of three fell Foes,  
The Flesh, the World the Devil ever spills  
Us miserable miserable Men with mortal Blows.  
Yet, like Fiends, taking pleasure but in pain,  
[In pain that to no perfect profit tends]  
We seek to rule, and if we can to reign;  
And rule, and reign but for unruly Ends▪  
O Rest [the Image of that Saboth sweet  
Wherein sweet Saints do from their Labours rest!  
O rich repose of Spirit, for Angels meet!]  
How do I toil to be of Thee possessed?  
Then Sloth it is not that delights my Will,  
Nor, would mine Understanding idle be;  
But, both desire to be in Action still,  
Yet rest in action like the Trinity!  
The Date of my life's Lease is near expired,  
Yet labour I for life, sith still I swim  
In sorrows Seas, as one as nearly tried  
As he is near the Bottom, or the Brim.  
I scarce can keep me Head above the Waves  
With all my Labours, my Stars are so cross!  
Yea, under Water oft my Science saves  
From Death, my Life, which Storms of Troubles toss.  
But as the Deluge, swelling more, and more▪  
Made th'ark thereby to Heau'n-warde mount a pace:  
So, when Afflictions Waves increase their Store  
They lift me up thereby the more to Grace.  
Yet, as they multiply, their struggle so  
That they turmoil my Body, toil my Mind:  
For, both in anguish float when Sorrows flow;  
And, sorrows flow from Fortune's Ebb, by kind▪  
So, that I cannot yet that Rest attain  
Which my poor Soul, and Spirit so requires;  
I, longing, labour for it, yet in vain:  
For, base Defect withstands my high Desires.  
And by how much the more for it I long  
So much the more I do World's weal neglect;  
Wherein myself and my Desires I wrong:  
That are the more suppressed by that Defect.  
I was not moulded, sure in earthly Mould,  
(Though of the Filth thereof my Flesh was framed)  
For, if I were, then sure it fit me should;  
But, nothing less, whereof I am ashamed.  
I see some Men (who when we weigh their Wit,  
We, as miraculous, their wealth admire]  
To this World's Mould do make themselves as fit  
As if their Wit, and metal were all Fire!  
Yea some mere Blocks, that are as bluut, as base,  
Rise from still lying but in Du●t, and Dung,  
To high estate [which standeth with therir Case]  
Though Fate, through too much right, them too much wrong!  
Yet I [whose Brains are placed in bette● Cells  
And have the influence of clearer light)  
Can compass nothing by Wits magick-Spells  
[These charming Numbers] but mine own delight.  
I stolen am from myself, by nine sweet Queen's  
[Who do predominate my Wit, and Will)  
While Time steals from me both my Life, and Means;  
And leaves me nought to live with, but my Skill.  
Yet from Time's Wings I steal his blackest Plumes  
(The Night) to rest in motion of my Muse;  
And till my Wit by stealth of Time consumes,  
In spite of Want, this wealth of wit I'll use.  
And with Aurora [raiser of the Muse]  
I'll wake if Rests friend [Sleep] should rest mine Eyes:  
To steal from Time, what I may iustl●e use,  
So to supply Times want with's own Supplies!  
And for the Stuff whereof I'll draw my Lines  
It shall be such as from his Throne shall come,  
Whose Muse-immortalizing Spirit them twines,  
And (Silkworm like) I'll work me in my Tomb.  
Where, though I, poor Worm, from my Labours rest  
My Works well woven by some more dextrous wit  
May line perhaps the Notebookes of the best;  
Yea, for Apparel of the Mind be fit.  
And though the Viperous Iron Teeth of Time  
May gnaw away, to wrack, through my Works Womb,  
Yet if my Spirit, thereby above Him climb  
Let my Lines ruynd be, to give Him Room:  
For, though content, I could be, dead, to live  
In Fame's strongest Fort (though Paper be the Wall,  
And Sense of Fame my life cannot survive)  
Yet if I rise thereby let my Fame fall:  
For, what feels Naso that a Work composed  
That lives, and shall, till Time be Toothless quite,  
Sith hee●s disposed, where now he's indisposed  
To feel a Wind that is so vain, and light?  
Yet heer●s the Wind that bears the World away  
Though it be weaker than the lightest Mind:  
Then, weak is That so weak a Wind doth sway;  
And ●ie they ought that live but for such Wind.  
But, Virtue for herself (and not for Fame  
That as an Handmaid her attendeth still)  
I chiefly do desire, and let my name  
Die in her life, so she may make my Will,  
And, with her leave, to give (and make no waste)  
My Time to draw Divine Lines to the last.   

An Ode in commendation of Music.  
O Sacred Music, Nurse of Raptures high,  
Which feedest the Soul with divine Symphony,  
What Words can praise Thee?  
Whose Virtue tunes the discord of the Spheres,  
And ties thereto Divine: and human Ears;  
Then can Wind raise Thee?  
Whose sweetest Airs do breath forth Wonders Wind,  
Which mounts, above itself, the heaviest Mind  
In spite of Nature:  
Whose holy Accents are so full of force  
As can the Soul from Body quite divorce  
Of sullen saint Creature!  
What is so dull of Spirit that hath but life  
That loves thee not? Or who so full of strife  
To hate thy Concord's?  
Sith thou art She, who, with Soule-pleasing Strains,  
All petuerse Passions of the Mind constrains  
To cease their Discords!  
Our Souls (whom some supposed but Music were,  
Because they moaned are as It doth steer)  
Do glorify Thee!  
The sacred Quires that ring about the Throne  
Of that more sacred ESSENCE, Three, in One,  
Do sanctify Thee!  
That Holy, Holy, Holy which They cry  
That are Sub-chaunters of heavens Harmony  
Records, thy glory;  
What shall I say? both Heaven, and Earth conspires  
To raise the same past reach of what aspires  
If transitory!  
And, in a Word, if I mightcensure Thee  
That, next my Nearest, art beloved of me)  
Thou art that Pleasure,  
Who, in thy sweetest Notes, (as well I note)  
Hast [like that Bliss that by sweet Concord's got]  
Nor Mean, nor Measure!   

Nihil tam bene dictum, quod non fuit dictum prius.  
WEre all the Wits that mortal Brains immure  
(By supposition, or in Deed) made one,  
Yea though they were most subtle made, and pure,  
By all the Helps that Wit can think upon,  
They could not [though they did themselves distract  
With straining hard] a new Invention frame;  
For, each new Deed doth turn into some Act  
[In some years compass] past, before the same.  
Our Actions, and Inventions are fast fixed.  
Unto the Sphere of Uniformity:  
Though oft the same, with Diffrences, be mixed,  
Yet they, with Like, past, hold conformity:  
Fo●, as the heaunly Orbs, in wheeling, cause  
The Stars to meet in oft conjunction,  
For, from the like, the like Time often draws  
That rightest were in opposition:  
So, do our Words, and Deeds, with Turns of Time,  
Turn in't themselves: then, out, then in again;  
And, as a Wheel doth roundly fall, and climb:  
So, Fashions, out of use, come in amain.  
We cannot think of that hath not been thought:  
For, our more studious Ancients strained their Brains  
Beyond ours reach, though we in vain, have sought  
To strain our Wits beyond their Wisdoms Strains.  
To instance would but breed satiety;  
But, briefly, Let us cite some few, For All▪  
Who hath past Plato, in Philosophy?  
Who Homer for the Art Poetical?  
In Oratory Craft, who hath outstripped  
The Facher of the Romaine-eloquence▪  
Whose Tongue, and Pen were so in honey dipped  
That now we lick him, to make sweet our Sense.  
Then, for the Mathematics, who compares  
With Archimedes (Wonder of all Times)  
And who, for Music, with Amphion dares  
Play for the Prize, whose fame past Wonder climbs!  
What Painter will not blush a Line to draw  
With Zeuxis; whose bright name, bright Fame doth dim?  
What Imager would not seem rude, and raw  
Before Pygmalion, if he wrought with him?  
By this small Touch, we well may taste the Whole  
Huge body-politic of Artsmen past:  
Which is a like through out; which Bodies Soul  
Holds all that All are learning, to the last.  
We may suppose w'have lighted on a Vain  
Without this Body, when out Muse doth flow  
In some Invention, past the modern Strain;  
But, Self-conceit makes us imagine so:  
For, read All extant, and if some, or all  
Of thy Conceit were not comprizd in some  
Thou art a Spirit, and no Man Natural  
Who speaks as he is taught, or else is dumb.  
This, idle-painfull-foolish-witty Work  
Pardon me Patience to call it so]  
I may conceive in no Conceit did lurk  
Before, from mine, it (thus made run) did flow:  
But, God doth know on whose Vain I have lighted,  
I know not, sith, I know, I know non such:  
Yet, For inditing, I may be indicted  
For taking That which I ought not to touch.  
If so I have, it was through ignorance  
Of what right Others had, to what I have;  
And if Theirs be my Wits poor maintenance  
Prove it; and I am theirs, to spi●l, or save.  
But, some there are that take most greedily  
From the old Store, sith they know Nought is new:  
If then they write both well, and speedily  
They but engross the Deeds that others drew.  
Yet, sooth to say, how ever some may vaunt  
They scorn to steal, yet They, yea, and their Heirs  
Take [by their leaves] and yet the World enchant  
With coniating Words, to think it only Theirs!  
Old Pictures well refreshed, do seem as new:  
And none but Artists know them to be old:  
Then, they earn praise, as those that first them drew,  
Who make them, newly, their old beauty hold.  
The●s nothing new: no, not so much as Sin:  
For, what sin now is done, but hath been done  
When the World's Face was washed for soil therein  
Which from most fowl, to Filthier far did run.  
And though the World doth wax still worse and worse,  
It's since that Deluge, which then scowrd her Scums:  
And so it must grow worse and worse, perforce,  
Until her second, and last cleansing comes,  
Which, being by Fires (as erst weak Waters) Mean,  
It, ever after, shal●● new, and clean!   

Inough's as good as a feast.  
WE Bows unbend: and flack the Viols Strings?  
That used so, we them may longer use:  
Then, if our Muse be ever on her Wings  
She will the lesser while fly like our Muse.  
The body by repletion, compotent,  
And by evacuation, fit for it  
Successively, doth Nature most Content:  
So, must we use the Mind, the Muse, the Wit:  
Then, here, an end of that which we began  
On no Foundation that had any end  
But such as makes our Muse an Artisan,  
That can, in every Kind herself transcend:  
But, o, light Rhymes▪ be dark to all but those  
That can your Rhyme, and Reason well dispose.  jucundum nihil est nisi quod refict varietas. 
FINIS.