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Title: Speculum Amantis - Love Poems, from Rare Songbooks and Miscellanies of the - Seventeenth Century
Author: Various
Language: English
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SPECULUM AMANTIS.
[Greek: to rhodon akmazei baion chronon; ên de parelthê,
zêtôn heurêseis ou rhodon, alla baton.]
_Incert._
_The season of the rose is brief, make haste to
pluck your posies;
Another day you'll chance to find bare thorns
where bloomed the roses._
SPECULUM AMANTIS:
LOVE-POEMS
FROM RARE SONG-BOOKS AND MISCELLANIES
OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
EDITED BY
A. H. BULLEN.
LONDON:
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1889.
NOTE.--_Five Hundred Copies only printed, each
numbered as issued._
_No._ 133
WARNING AND WELCOME.
Grave moralist, with eyes a-squint,
And pucker'd mouth, pack hence! away!
Your heart is hard as any flint:
Avaunt! Love's feast is spread to-day.
And you, coy maiden, come not nigh,
Lest wanton rhyme assail your ears:
Wait till your chaste zone you untie
And Hymen put to flight your fears.
But, ho! all ye whose brisker veins
Glow with Dan Cupid's genial fire,
Post hitherwards, 'tis worth your pains,
And harken to our tuneful quire.
PREFACE.
In sending out this little anthology of seventeenth-century
love-verses, I must say a few words by way of explanation or apology.
Some eighteen months ago I published a collection of "Lyrics from
the Song-books of the Elizabethan Age" (J. C. Nimmo), and recently
I issued a second collection, "More Lyrics from the Song-books of
the Elizabethan Age" (J. C. Nimmo). Those volumes were addressed to
all classes of readers. They may lie on a drawing-room table without
offence. Philemon may give them to his Amanda on her birthday with the
full assurance that he will run no risk of bringing a blush to the
fair nymph's cheek. I was careful to exclude from those collections
any poems that passed the bounds of conventional propriety. In the
seventeenth century those bounds were not so well defined as in the
present age. John Attey, in 1622, dedicated his "First Book of Airs"
to "The Right Honourable John, Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley,
and Baron of Ellesmere; and the truly Noble and Virtuous Lady, Frances,
Countess of Bridgewater." Among Attey's songs are the audacious verses,
"My days, my months, my years," which I have given in the present
collection (page 15). A noble and virtuous lady now-a-days would be
justly incensed if she found such a lyric in a song-book of which she
had accepted the dedication; but we may be sure that John Attey's
patroness did not withdraw her favour from the composer, or express
herself shocked at his temerity. Manners have changed, and "My days, my
months, my years" is no longer a song for the drawing-room; but snugly
stowed away with its fellows on a top shelf in the library it can do no
harm.
In the present volume I have gathered together from the song-books
the songs that could find no place in the former collections, and I
have included several poems from rare miscellanies of the seventeenth
century.
Although some of the poems here collected will be familiar to
students, I am confident that a considerable portion of the anthology
is unknown. Sir Walter Raleigh is a prominent figure in English
literature. The late Archdeacon Hannah's edition of Raleigh's poems
is a valuable piece of work; and Sir Egerton Brydges, in collecting
what he supposed to be Raleigh's poems, showed commendable industry,
but scant judgment. I therefore count myself fortunate in having
discovered the characteristic poem, "Nature that wash'd her hands in
milk" (page 76), which escaped the researches of previous enquirers.
The last stanza of that poem, "Oh cruel time, which takes in trust,"
with a couple of lines tacked on, was published in Raleigh's _Remains_,
where it is said to have been "found in his bible in the Gatehouse at
Westminster." Every reader has that stanza by heart, but the complete
poem--as given in the Harleian MS.--is printed for the first time.
Aurelian Townsend is a poet about whom I have often felt curiosity. He
was the friend of Carew, and Suckling introduces him into _The Session
of the Poets_. From one of the _Malone MSS._, in the Bodleian Library,
I have recovered the charming verses "To the Lady May;" and I can lay
my hand on other poems of Townsend which have never seen the light.[1]
The poems by Henry Ramsay (page 118), of whom I know nothing, of Bishop
Andrewes (page 121), and of J. Paulin (page 127), are not hackneyed;
and I might refer to many others.
[1] Some time ago I was at the pains to transcribe from a unique MS.
a long poem of Thomas Nashe. It is smoothly written, but very gross.
There must be other poems of Nashe in MS.
The finest of all Cartwright's poems is here--the magnificent "Song
of Dalliance"--beginning, "Hark, my Flora! Love doth call us." It is
ascribed to Cartwright in the unique miscellany (preserved in the
Bodleian), _Sportive Wit: the Muses' Merriment_, 1656, but is not
printed in his Works. Cartwright had a great reputation among his
contemporaries. "My son, Cartwright," said Ben Jonson, "writes all like
a man." "Cartwright was the utmost man could come to" in the opinion
of that excellent prelate, Bishop Fell. All the wits of the age paid
tributes to his memory. Anthony-à-Wood and Lloyd rush into raptures
about him. After reading the various panegyrics on his poems it is a
sad disappointment to turn to the poems themselves. But if Cartwright
wrote other poems equal to "Hark, my Flora!"--not for publication (for
he was "the most florid and seraphical preacher in the University," and
seraphical preachers should not publish Songs of Dalliance), but to be
circulated in manuscript among his friends--then the esteem in which
his poetical abilities were held would be intelligible.
Among the rare miscellanies from which I have quoted are _Wits
Interpreter_, 1655, 1671; _The Academy of Compliments_, 1650; _The
Marrow of Compliments_, 1655; _Sportive Wit_, 1656; _The Mysteries of
Love and Eloquence_ (edited by Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips), 1658;
_Wit and Drollery_, 1661; _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671; _The
Windsor Drollery_, 1672; and _The Bristol Drollery_, 1674. Many poems
are from MSS. preserved in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum.
The Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, with his usual kindness, has helped me when
my knowledge or memory has been at fault. No man has so intimate a
knowledge as Mr. Ebsworth of the floating literature of the second half
of the seventeenth century.
Though not a few of the poems in the present volume could not be
included in anthologies intended for general circulation, I must yet
be allowed to state that I have reprinted nothing that is offensively
gross. There is a great deal of dirt--nasty worthless trash--in the
miscellanies of the Restoration, and with this garbage I have not
chosen to meddle.
DALKEITH, N.B.,
_August, 1888_.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
PAGE
After long service and a thousand vows (_Bristol Drollery_) 19
As Chloe o'er the meadow past (_Sir Charles Sedley_) 122
As I traversed to and fro (_Academy of Compliments_) 36
As youthful day put on his best (_Westminster Drollery_) 63
Away, away! call back what you have said (_Corkine_) 88
Be thou joyful, I am jolly (_Windsor Drollery_) 87
Beauty, since you so much desire (_Campion_) 6
Black eyes, in your dark orbs doth lie (_Howell_) 32
Chloris, forbear awhile (_Sportive Wit_) 93
Chloris, when I to thee present (_Westminster Drollery_) 41
Chloris saw me sigh and tremble (_Vinculum Societatis_) 7
Come, be my Valentine (_Bishop Andrewes_) 121
Come, my Clarinda, we'll consume (_Paulin_) 128
Come, Phillis, let's to yonder grove (_Bristol Drollery_) 7
Constant wives are comforts to men's lives (_Add. MS. 22601_)3
Cupid is an idle toy (_Folly in Print_) 4
Cupid, thou art a sluggish boy (_Mysteries of Love and
Eloquence_) 42
Dear Castadorus, let me rise (_Jordan_) 53
Dear, I must do (_Folly in Print_) 25
Do not ask me, charming Phillis (_New Academy of
Compliments_) 43
Do not rack my bleeding heart (_Ramsay_) 118
Down in a garden sat my dearest love (_Wit's Interpreter_) 9
Dunces in love, how long shall we (_Rawlinson MS.,
Poet. 117_) 10
Fair Chloris in a gentle slumber lay (_Songs and Poems of
Love and Drollery_) 94
Fairest, if you roses seek (_Bristol Drollery_) 72
Fairest thing that shines below (_New Academy of
Compliments_) 109
Gaze not on thy beauty's pride (_Carew_) 84
Go and count her better hours (_Rawlinson MS. Poet. 206_) 67
Go, fickle man, and teach the moon to range (_Hammond_) 124
Hark, my Flora! Love doth call us (_Cartwright_) 10
He or she that hopes to gain (_Harl. MS. 6918_) 120
He that hath no mistress must not wear a favour (_Corkine_) 44
He that intends to woo a maid (_Academy of Compliments_) 14
Her dainty palm I gently prest (_Marrow of Compliments_) 45
I dream'd we both were in a bed (_Herrick_) 40
I have followed thee a year at least (_New Academy of
Compliments_) 107
I pray thee, sweet John, away (_Greaves_) 46
I swear by muscadel (_Duke of Newcastle_) 47
I walk'd abroad not long ago (_Wither_) 101
I will not do a sacrifice (_Wit Restored_) 67
If any hath the heart to kill (_Campion_) 99
If my lady bid begin (_Academy of Compliments_) 1
If shadows be the picture's excellence (_Rawlinson MS.
Poet. 199_) 30
In summer time when birds do sing (_Harl. MS. 7322_) 79
In summer time when grass was mown (_Harl. MS. 791_) 82
Know, falsest man, as my love was (_Hammond_) 125
Know, Sylvia, that your curious twist (_Songs and Poems
of Love and Drollery_) 106
Ladies, whose marble hearts despise (_Munsey_) 78
Ladies, you that seem so nice (_Henry Lawes' Airs
and Dialogues_) 98
Lady, on your eyes I gazed (_Wit's Recreations_) 115
Let common beauties have the power (_Harl. MS. 6917_) 2
Like to the wealthy island thou shalt lie (_New Academy
of Compliments_) 13
Lose no time nor youth, but be (_Mysteries of Love and
Eloquence_) 73
Love in rambling once astray (_Wit at a Venture_) 68
Maids they are grown so coy of late (_Marrow of
Compliments_) 97
Methought the other night (_Jones_) 34
My days, my months, my years (_Attey_) 15
My love hath vowed he will forsake me (_Campion_) 95
My love in her attire doth show her wit (_Davison's
Poetical Rhapsody_) 12
My mistress sings no other song (_Jones_) 16
Naked love did to thine eye (_Sherburne_) 113
Nature, that wash'd her hands in milk (_Sir Walter
Rawleigh_) 76
Nay pish! nay phew! nay faith and will you? fie!
(_Sportive Wit_) 49
Nay, Silvia, now you're cruel grown (_Rawlinson MS.
Poet. 94_) 21
No, Sylvia, 'tis not your disdain (_Songs and Poems of
Love and Drollery_) 39
O how oftentimes have I (_Harl. MS. 7332_) 111
Once I must confess I loved (_Wit Restored_) 83
Once and no more: so said my life (_Wit's Interpreter_) 29
Phillis, for shame, let us improve (_Westminster
Drollery_) 105
Pish, modest sipper, to't again (_New Academy of
Compliments_) 69
Poor Celia once was very fair (_Flatman_) 90
Pretty nymph, why always blushing (_Wit's Cabinet_) 110
Shall we die (_Westminster Drollery_) 74
Sighs, blow out those flames in me (_Rawlinson MS.
Poet. 199_) 119
Silvia, now your scorn give over (_Vinculum Societatis_) 96
Sleepy, my dear? Yes, yes, I see (_Wit's Interpreter_) 17
Sol shines not th[o]rough all the year so bright
(_Bristol Drollery_) 18
Some men desire spouses (_Weelkes_) 104
Still to affect, still to admire (_Harl. MS. 6917_) 3
Sweet, exclude me not, nor be divided (_Campion_) 52
Sweet Jane, sweet Jane, I love thee wondrous well
(_New Academy of Compliments_) 48
Sweet Philomel, in groves and desarts haunting (_Jones_) 62
Take Time, my dear, ere Time takes wing (_Melpomene_) 102
There is not half so warm a fire (_Choice Drollery_) 71
Thine's fair, facetious, all that can (_Wit's Interpreter_) 28
Though that no god may thee deserve (_Marrow of
Compliments_) 60
'Tis not, dear Love, that amber twist (_Wit Restored_) 113
'Tis not how witty nor how free (_Wit's Interpreter_) 61
'Tis true your beauty, which before (_Wit's Recreations_) 86
To bed ye two in one united go (_Baron_) 117
To her whose beauty doth excel (_Wits Interpreter_) 75
Two lovers sat lamenting (_Corkine_) 91
Under the willow-shades they were (_Davenant_) 89
Underneath this myrtle shade (_Windsor Drollery_) 26
What though Flora frowns on me (_Tixall Poetry_) 108
When doth Love set forth desire? (_Academy of
Compliments_) 100
When first Amyntas sued for a kiss (_D'Urfey_) 103
When I do love I wish to taste the fruit (_Harl. MS. 6917_) 5
When Phoebus first did Daphne love (_John Dowland_) 55
Why is your faithful slave disdain'd (_Banquet of Music_) 59
Why, Nanny, quoth he. Why, Janny, quoth she. (_Oxford
Drollery_) 23
Why should passion lead thee blind (_Harl. MS. 791_) 56
Would you be a man of fashion (_Tixall Poetry_) 116
Would you know earth's highest pleasure (_Tixall Poetry_) 116
Yes, I could love if I could find (_Malone MS. 16_) 57
You nimble dreams with cobweb wings (_Sloane MS. 1792_) 51
You that in the midst of night (_Ashmole MS. 38_) 58
Your smiles are not as other women's be (_Townsend_) 126
SPECULUM AMANTIS.
From _The Academy of Compliments_, 1650.
IF[2] my lady bid begin,
Shall I say "No: 'tis a sin"?
If she bid me kiss and play,
Shall I shrink, cold fool, away?
If she clap my cheeks and spy
Little Cupids in my eye,
Gripe my hand and stroke my hair,
Shall I like a faint heart fear?
No, no, no: let those that lie
In dismal prison, and would die,
Despair and fear; let those that cry
They are forsaken and would fly,
Quit their fortunes; mine are free:
Hope makes me hardy, so does she.
[2] Also found in Dr. John Wilson's _Cheerful Airs_, 1660, and other
collections.
From _Harl. MS._ 6917. fol. 38.
LET common beauties have the power
To make one love-sick for an hour,
Perhaps for one whole day or two;
But so to captivate a heart
As it should never, never part,
None hath that art
But only you.
Let meaner beauties have the skill,
By tempering hopes with fears, to kill
And by degrees a heart undo;
But with a sweet, yet tyrant, eye
At once to bid one look and die,
None hath that power
But only you.
Fair wonder, to those charming eyes
A heart I fain would sacrifice,
Had I but e'er a one in store;
But having lost mine long before,
Well may I sigh, wish, and adore,
But for my life
Can die no more.
From _Harl. MS._ 6917.
A MOTION TO PLEASURE.
STILL to affect, still to admire,
Yet never satisfy desire
With touch of hand, or lip, or that
Which pleaseth best (I name not what),--
Like Tantalus I pining die,
Taking Love's dainties at the eye.
Nature made nothing but for use,
And, fairest, 'twere a gross abuse
To her best work if you it hold
Unused, like misers' ill-got gold,
Or keep it in a virgin scorn,
Like rich robes that are seldom worn.
From _Add. MS._ 22601.
CONSTANT wives are comforts to men's lives,
Drawing a happy yoke without debate;
A playfellow that far off all grief drives;
A steward, early that provides and late:
Faithful and chaste, sober, mild, loving, trusty,
Nurse to weak age and pleasure to the lusty.
From _Folly in Print, or a Book of Rhymes_, 1667.
OF LOVE.
CUPID[3] is an idle toy,
Never was there such a boy:
If there were, let any show
Or his quiver or his bow,
Or the wound by him he got
By a broken arrow shot.
_Money, Money, Money_ makes men bow;
That's the only Cupid now.
Whilst the world continued good,
And men loved for flesh and blood,
Men about them wore a dart
Which did win a woman's heart;
And the women, great and small,
With a certain thing they call
_Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me_, caught the men:
This was th' only Cupid then.
[3] These verses are printed (with some slight alterations) in _Wit's
Interpreter_, 1655. For "_Kiss Me_" (l. 15) _Wit's Interpreter_ gives a
word to rhyme with "_Money_" (l. 7).
From _Harl. MS._ 6917, fol. 87.
WHEN[4] I do love I wish to taste the fruit,
And to attain to what my hopes aspire;
Refusal's better than a lingering suit,
Long hopes do dull and senseless make desire:
And in most desperate case doth he remain
That's sick to death, yet senseless of his pain.
Hope is the bloom, fruition is the fruit;
Hope promises, enjoying is content;
Hope pleads, fruition's an obtained suit;
Enjoying's sweet when hope and fears are spent:
Hopes are uncertain, past pleasures leave some taste,
But sweet fruition always pleaseth best.
[4] "There was probably a close connection here with the Song on
Love, beginning, 'When I do love, I would not wish to speed,'
printed in _Parnassus Biceps_, 1656, p. 82, and reprinted by
Robert Jamieson, in _Popular Ballads_, ii. 311."--_J. W. Ebsworth._
From THOMAS CAMPION'S _Fourth Book of Airs_ (circ. 1617).
BEAUTY,[5] since you so much desire
To know the place of Cupid's fire,
About you somewhere doth it rest,
Yet never harbour'd in your breast,
Nor gout-like in your heel or toe:
What fool would seek love's flame so low?
But a little higher, but a little higher,
There, there, O there lies Cupid's fire.
Think not when Cupid most you scorn
Men judge that you of ice were born;
For, though you cast love at your heel,
His fury yet sometime you feel:
And whereabouts if you would know,
I tell you still not in your toe:
But a little higher, but a little higher,
There, there, O there lies Cupid's fire.
[5] This jocular song must have been written long before the date of
publication, for a quotation from it occurs in _Eastward Ho_, 1605.
(In Campion and Rosseter's _Book of Airs_, 1601, there is a song
beginning, "Mistress, since you so much desire"; but Gertrude, in
_Eastward Ho_, iii. 2--"But a little higher," &c.--was evidently
quoting from the present song).
From _The Bristol Drollery_, 1674.
COME, Phillis, let's to yonder grove,
That I may tell thee how I love;
And how I've suffer'd every day
Since thou hast stol'n my heart away;
How many nights I've lain awake
And sigh'd away for Phillis' sake.
This, Phillis, this shall be our talk
Whilst hand in hand we gently walk;
Then down we'll sit in yonder shade
A myrtle has for lovers made;
And when I've called thee duck and dear,
And wooed thee with a sigh or tear,
If love, or pity on thy swain,
Move Phillis' heart to cure my pain,
Then like two billing turtles we
Will do what none but Love shall see.
From _Vinculum Societatis, or the Tie of Good Company_, 1687.
CHLORIS saw me sigh and tremble,
And then ask'd why I did so;
Love like mine can ill dissemble:--
Chloris 'tis for love of you,
For those pretty tempting graces
Of your smiling lips and eyes,
For those pressing close embraces
When your snowy breasts do rise;
For those joys of which the trial
Only can instruct your heart
What you lose by your denial,
When Love draws his pleasing dart;
For those kisses in perfection
Which a wanton soul like mine,
Form'd by Cupid's own direction,
Could infuse too into thine;
For those shapes, my lovely Chloris,
And a thousand charming things,
For which monarchs might implore you
To beget a race of kings;
And for which I fain would whisper,
But my heart is still afraid,--
Yet 'tis that young ladies wish for
Every night they go to bed.
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
DOWN[6] in a garden sat my dearest love,
Her skin more soft than down of swan,
More tender-hearted than the turtle dove
And far more kind than bleeding pelican.
I courted her; she rose and blushing said,
"Why was I born to live and die a maid?"
With that I plucked a pretty marigold,
Whose dewy leaves shut up when day is done:
"Sweeting," I said, "arise, look and behold,
A pretty riddle I'll to thee unfold:
These leaves shut in as close as cloistered nun,
Yet will they open when they see the sun."
"What mean you by this riddle, sir?" she said;
"I pray expound it." Then I thus begun:
"Are not men made for maids and maids for men?"
With that she changed her colour and grew wan.
"Since that this riddle you so well unfold,
Be you the sun, I'll be the marigold."
[6] In the 1671 edition of _Wit's Interpreter_ this poem is headed
"Love's Riddle Resolved." It is found in several miscellanies of the
time.
["Amplified and spun out, it became a ballad printed for the assigns
of Thomas Symcocke, in _Roxburghe Collection_, l. 242, a probably
unique exemplar, entitled 'The Maid's Comfort.'"--_J. W. Ebsworth._]
_Rawlinson Poetry MS._, 117, fol. 144.
DUNCES in love, how long shall we
Be poring on our A. B. C.?
For such are kisses, which torment
Rather than give my self-content;
Letters from which you scarce will prove
The wisest scholars can spell love.
What though the lily of your hand
Or coral lip I may command?
It is but like him up to th' chin
Whose mouth can touch but take not in.
From _Sportive Wit: the Muses' Merriment_, 1656.
HARK,[7] my Flora! Love doth call us
To that strife that must befall us.
He has robb'd his mother's myrtles
And hath pull'd her downy turtles.
See, our genial posts are crown'd,
And our beds like billows rise;
Softer[8] combat's nowhere found,
And who loses wins the prize.
Let not dark nor shadows fright thee;
Thy limbs of lustre they will light thee.
Fear not any can surprise us,
Love himself doth now disguise us.
From thy waist the girdle throw:
Night and darkness both dwell here:
Words or actions who can know,
Where there's neither eye nor ear?
Shew thy bosom and then hide it;
License touching and then chide it;
Give a grant and then forbear it,
Offer something and forswear it;
Ask where all our shame is gone;
Call us wicked wanton men;
Do as turtles, kiss and groan;
Say[9] "We ne'er shall meet again."
I can hear thee curse, yet chase thee;
Drink thy tears, yet still embrace thee;
Easy riches is no treasure;
She that's willing spoils the pleasure.
Love bids learn the wrestlers'[10] fight;
Pull and struggle whilst[11] ye twine;
Let me use my force to-night,
The next conquest shall be thine.
[7] The poem is headed "Cartwright's Song of Dalliance. Never printed
before." It was printed in the same year, without the author's name,
in _Parnassus Biceps_, where it is headed, "Love's Courtship."
Unquestionably the finest of Cartwright's poems.
[8] _Parnassus Biceps_ reads,--
"Softer lists are nowhere found,
And the strife itself's the prize."
[9] _Parnassus Biceps_,--
"Say thou ne'er shalt joy again."
[10] This is the reading in _Parnassus Biceps_--_Sportive Wit_,
"restless."
[11] _Parnassus Biceps_, "when we twine."
From DAVISON'S _Poetical Rhapsody_, 1602.
MADRIGAL.
MY love in her attire doth shew her wit,
It doth so well become her:
For every season she hath dressings fit,
For winter, spring, and summer.
No beauty she doth miss
When all her robes are on;
But Beauty's self she is
When all her robes are gone.
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
LIKE to the wealthy island thou shalt lie,
And like the sea about it I;
Thou like fair Albion to the sailors' sight,
Spreading her beauteous bosom all in white;
Like the kind Ocean I will be,
With loving arms for ever clasping thee;
But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so
As their fresh banks soft rivers do;
Nor shall the proudest planet boast a power
Of making my full love to ebb an hour:
It never dry or low can prove
Whilst my unwasted fountain feeds my love.
Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear
As if like doves w' engender'd there;
No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure,
In love there's none too much an epicure.
Nought shall my hands or lips control;
I'll kiss thee through, I'll kiss thy very soul.
Yet nothing but the night our sport shall know,
Night that's both blind and silent too.
Alpheus found not a more secret trace
His loved Sicanian fountain to embrace,
Creeping so far beneath the sea,
Than I will do to enjoy and feast on thee.
Men out of wisdom, women out of pride,
The pleasant thefts of love do hide.
That may secure thee, but thou hast yet from me
A more infallible security;
For there's no danger I should tell
The joys which are to me unspeakable.
From _The Academy of Compliments_, 1650.
HE that intends to woo a maid
With youthful heat, must shun the shade.
When Flora's gardens are i' th' prime
Let him and her pluck _May_ and _Time_:[12]
There, where the sun doth shine, birds sing,
Let them two both kiss and fling,
Till summer's fairest carpet spread
Yields them a green and pleasant bed:
If lovers there would strive together,
Chastity would not weigh one feather.
[12] Compare Morley's song, "Thyrsis and Milla," in _More Lyrics_,
pp. 116-7.
From JOHN ATTEY'S _First Book of Airs_, 1622.
MY days, my months, my years
I spend about a moment's gain,
A joy that in th' enjoying ends,
A fury quickly slain;
A frail delight, like that wasp's life
Which now both frisks and flies,
And in a moment's wanton strife
It faints, it pants, it dies.
And when I charge, my lance in rest,
I triumph in delight,
And when I have the ring transpierced
I languish in despite;
Or like one in a lukewarm bath,
Light-wounded in a vein,
Spurts out the spirits of his life
And fainteth without pain.
From ROBERT JONES' _First Book of Airs_, 1601.
MY mistress sings no other song,
But still complains I did her wrong;
Believe her not, it was not so,
I did but kiss her and let her go.
And now she swears I did,--but what?
Nay, nay, I must not tell you that.
And yet I will, it is so sweet
As teehee tahha when lovers meet.
But women's words they are heedless,
To tell you more it is needless;
I ran and caught her by the arm,
And then I kissed her,--this was no harm.
But she, alas! is angry still,
Which sheweth but a woman's will:
She bites the lip and cries "Fie, fie!"
And, kissing sweetly, away she doth fly.
Yet sure her looks bewrays content,
And cunningly her brawls[13] are meant,
As lovers use to play and sport
When time and leisure is too-too short.
[13] Old ed. "brales."
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
TO HIS MISTRESS DESIROUS TO GO TO BED.
SLEEPY, my dear? yes, yes, I see
Morpheus is fallen in love with thee;
Morpheus, my worst of rivals, tries
To draw the curtains of thine eyes,
And fans them with his wing asleep;
Makes drowsy love to play bopeep.
How prettily his feathers blow
Those fleshy shuttings to and fro!
O how he makes me Tantalise
With those fair apples of thine eyes!
Equivocates and cheats me still,
Opening and shutting at his will,
Now both, now one! the doting god
Plays with thine eyes at even or odd.
My stammering tongue doubts which it might
Bid thee, good-morrow or good-night.
So thy eyes twinkle brighter far
Than the bright trembling evening star;
So a wax taper, burnt within
The socket, plays at out and in.
Thus doth Morpheus court thine eye,
Meaning there all night to lie:
Cupid and he play Whoop, All-Hid!
The eye, their bed and coverlid.
Fairest, let me thy night-clothes air;
Come, I'll unlace thy stomacher.
Make me thy maiden chamber-man,
Or let me be thy warming-pan.
O that I might but lay my head
At thy bed's feet ith' trundle-bed.
From _The Bristol Drollery_, 1674.
SOL shines not th[o]rough all the year so bright,
As my dear Julia did the other night.
Cynthia came mask'd in an eclipse to see
What gave the world a greater light than she;
But angry soon she disappear'd and fled
Into her inner rooms, and so to bed.
I envied not Endymion's joys that night:
Far greater had I with her lustre-light.
From _The Bristol Drollery_, 1674.
AFTER long service and a thousand vows,
To her glad lover she more kindness shows.
Oft had Amyntas with her tresses play'd
When the sun's vigour, drove 'em to a shade;
And many a time had given her a green gown,
And oft he kissed her when he had her down;
With sighs and motions he to her made known
What fain he would have done: then with a frown
She would forbid him, till the minute came
That she no longer could conceal her flame.
The am'rous shepherd, forward to espy
Love's yielding motions triumph in her eye,
With eager transport straight himself addrest
To taste the pleasures of so rich a feast:
When with resistance, and a seeming flight,
As 'twere t' increase her lover's appetite,
Unto a place where flowers thicker grew
Out of his arms as swift as air she flew:
Daphne ne'er run so light and fast as she
When from the god[14] she fled and turn'd t' a tree.
The youth pursued; nor needs he run amain,
Since she intended to be overta'en.
He dropp'd no apple nor no golden ball
To stay her flight, for she herself did fall,
Where 'mongst the flowers like Flora's self she lay
To gain more breath that she might lose't in play.
She pluck'd a flower, and at Amyntas threw
When he addressed to crop a flower too.
Then a faint strife she seemed to renew;
She smiled, she frown'd, she would and would not do.
At length o'ercome she suffers with a sigh
Her ravish'd lover use his victory,
And gave him leave to punish her delay
With double vigour in the am'rous play;
But then, alas! soon ended the delight;
For too much love had hastened[15] its flight,
And _every_ ravish'd sense too soon awake,
Rapt up in bliss it did but now partake:
Which left the lovers in a state to prove
Long were the pains but short the joys of love.
[14] Old ed. "Gods."
[15] Old ed. "had had hastn'ed."
From _MS. Rawlinson Poet._ 94. fol. 192.
THE[16] RESOLUTION.
NAY, Silvia, now you're cruel grown;
I'll swear you most unjustly frown.
I only asked (in vain) to taste
What you denied with mighty haste;
I asked--but I'm ashamed to tell
What 'twas you took so wondrous ill--
A kiss. But with a coy disdain
You view'd my sighings and my pain;
'Twas but a civil small request,
Yet with proud looks and hand on breast,
You cried "I'm not so eager to be kiss'd,"
Put case[17] that I had loosed your gown,
And then by force had laid you down,
And with unruly hands had teased you,--
Too justly then I had displeased you.
Or had I (big with wanton joys)
Engaged you for a brace of boys,
Then basely left you full of nature,--
This would have been provoking matter.
But I, poor harmless civil I,
Begg'd for the meanest coolest joy,
And saw denial in your eye;
For with a squeamish glance you cried
"I hate the nauseous bliss."
"'Tis well," said I; "since I'm denied,
For rocks of diamonds I'll not kiss."
[16] There are some verses in Thomas Flatman's _Songs and Poems_,
1674, which suggested, or were suggested by, the present poem. They
run thus:--
THE SLIGHT.
I did but crave that I might kiss,
If not her lip, at least her hand,
The coolest lover's frequent bliss;
And rude is she that will withstand
That inoffensive liberty:
She (would you think it?) in a fume
Turn'd her about and left the room:
"Not she!" she vowed, "not she!"
"Well, Charissa," then said I,
"If it must thus for ever be,
I can renounce my slavery
And, since you will not, can be free."
Many a time she made me die,
Yet (would you think it?) I loved the more:
But I'll not take 't as heretofore,
Not I, I'll vow, not I.
"The Resolution" is far the better poem.
[17] Quite in Mr. Browning's vein this expression, "Put case that."
From CAPTAIN WM. HICKS' _Oxford Drollery_, 1671.
A[18] NEW SONG, TO THE NEW JIG-TUNE.
WHY Nanny, quoth he. Why, Janny, quoth she,
Your will, sir?
I love thee, quoth he. If you love me, quoth she,
Do so still, sir.
I'd gi' thee, quoth he. Would you gi' me, quoth she?
But what, sir?
Why, some money, quoth he, O some money, quoth she?
Let me ha't, sir.
I'd ha' thee, quoth he. Would you ha' me, quoth she?
But where, sir?
To my chamber, quoth he. To your chamber, quoth she?
Why there, sir?
I'd kiss thee, quoth he. Would you kiss me, quoth she?
But when, sir?
Why now, quoth he. Neither now, quoth she,
Nor then, sir.
I'd hug thee, quoth he. Would you hug me, quoth she?
How much, sir?
Why a little, quoth he. 'Tis a little, quoth she;
Not a touch, sir.
I am sickish, quoth he. Are you sickish, quoth she?
But why, sir?
'Cause you slight me, quoth he. Do I slight you, quoth she?
'Tis a lie, sir.
I'm dying, quoth he. O dying, quoth she?
Are you sure on't?
'Tis certain, quoth he. Is't certain, quoth she?
There's no cure on't.
Then farewell, quoth he. Ay, and farewell, quoth she,
My true Love.
I am going, quoth he. So am I too, quoth she,
To a new love.
[18] _The Windsor Drollery_, 1672, has a similar copy of verses:--
I'd have you, quoth he?
Would you have me? quoth she;
O where, sir?
In my chamber, quoth he.
In your chamber? quoth she;
Why there, sir?
To kiss you, quoth he.
To kiss me? quoth she;
O why, sir?
'Cause I love it, quoth he.
Do you love it? quoth she;
So do I, sir.
Compare another copy of verses, "O Amis! quoth he. Well, Thomas! quoth
she," in the _Academy of Compliments_, 1671, p. 270.
From _Folly in Print_, 1667.
A SONG IN DIALOGUE.
_Strephon._
DEAR, I must do.
_Phillis._ O I dare not.
_Strephon._ 'Twill not hurt you.
_Phillis._ No, I care not.
_Strephon._ Then I prithee, sweet, tell me the reason.
_Phillis._ Will you marry?
_Strephon._ Yes, to-morrow.
_Phillis._ Till then tarry.
_Strephon._ I would borrow.
_Phillis._ Fruit is best when gathered in season.
From _The Windsor Drollery_, 1672.
(_After Anacreon._)[19]
UNDERNEATH this myrtle shade,
On flowery beds supinely laid,
With odorous oils my head o'erflowing
And around it roses growing,
What should I do but drink away
The heat and troubles of the day?
In this more than kingly state,
Love himself shall on me wait:
Fill to me, Love! nay, fill it up,
And mingled cast into the cup
Wit and mirth, and noble fires,
Vigorous health, and gay desires.
The wheel of life no less will stay
In a smooth than rugged way;
Since it equally doth flee,
Let the motion pleasant be.
Why do we precious ointments shower,
Nobler wines why do we pour,
Beauteous flowers why do we spread
Upon the monuments of the dead?
Nothing they but dust can show
Or bones that hasten to be so.
Crown me with roses while I live,
Now your wines and ointments give:
After death I nothing crave,
Let me alive my pleasures have:
All are stoics in the grave.
[19] A delightful rendering of the fourth ode of Anacreon. I have
found a MS. copy of it in _Rawlinson MS. Poet._, 214, where it is
ascribed (how truly I know not) to "Mr. Tho. Head." It occurs in
several later miscellanies; and in the variorum translation of
Anacreon published at Oxford in 1683. Here is Stanley's rendering
of the same ode: it is good, but far inferior to the version in the
_Drollery_:--
On this verdant lotus laid,
Underneath the myrtle's shade,
Let us drink our sorrows dead,
While Love plays the Ganymed.
Life like to a wheel runs round,
And, ere long, we underground
(Ta'en by Death asunder) must
Moulder in forgotten Dust.
Why then graves should we bedew,
Why the ground with odours strew?
Better whilst alive prepare
Flowers and unguents for our hair.
Come, my fair one, come away;
All our cares behind us lay;
That these pleasures we may know
Ere we come to those below.
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
ON HIS BLACK MISTRESS.
THINE'S fair, facetious,[20] all that can
Delight the airy part of man:
My love is black, thou sayst, her eye
Hath something of severity.
Therefore I love: her spring will last
When all thy flowers are dead and blast
She's wisely framed, with art is made;
Your best night-pieces have most shade.
And, 'cause reserved, think'st thou not mine
Yields not as great a warmth as thine?
Her heat is inward, and she may
More pleasant be another way:
They're slow to yield, but, when they do,
You have both soul and body too.
The quicker eye and nimble tongue
Leaves footsteps for suspicion;
But in her looks and language lies
A very charm for Argus' eyes.
Now pray then tell me, and withal
Pray be not too-too partial,
Doth not one feature[21] now in mine
Appear more lovely than all thine?
No airy objects will me[22] move,
It is the sober black I love:
I love't so well that I protest
I love the blackest parts the best.
[20] So ed. 1671.--Ed. 1655, "factious."
[21] So ed. 1671.--Ed. 1655, "fortune."
[22] So ed. 1671.--Ed. 1655, "we."
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
TWO KISSES.
ONCE and no more: so said my life,
When in my arms inchained
She unto mine her lips did move,
And so my heart she gained.
Thus done, she saith, "Away I must
For fear of being missed;
Your heart's made over but in trust;"
And so again she kissed.
From _Rawlinson MS. Poet._ 199.
ON MRS. BEATA POOLE WITH BLACK EYES.
IF shadows be the picture's excellence
And make it seem more lively to the sense;
If stars in the bright day do lose their light
And shine more glorious in the masque of night,
Why should you think, fair creature, that you lack
Perfection 'cause your eyes and hair be black?
Or that your beauty that so far exceeds
The new-sprung lilies in their maidenheads,
That cherry colour of your cheek and lips,
Should by the darkness suffer an eclipse?
Or is it fit that nature should have made
So bright a sun to shine without a shade?
It seems that nature, when she first did fancy
Your rare composure, studied necromancy;
And when to you those gifts she did impart,
She studied altogether the black art.
She drew the magic circle of your eyes,
And made the chain where, in your hair, she ties
Rebellious hearts. Those blue veins that appear,
Twining Meander-like to either sphere,
Mysterious figures are; and when you list,
Your voice commandeth like an exorcist.
O if in magic you have skill so far,
Vouchsafe to make me your familiar!
Nor hath kind nature her black here reveal'd
On outward parts alone: some lie conceal'd.
As by the spring-head we may often know
The nature of the streams that run below,
So your black hair and eyes do give direction
To make me think the rest of like perfection,--
The rest where all rest lies that blesseth man,
That Indian mine, that straight of Magellan,
That world-dividing gulf where whoso venters
With swelling sails and ravish'd senses enters
Into a world of bliss. Pardon, I pray,
If my rude muse doth seem here to display
Secrets unknown, or hath her bounds o'erpast
In praising sweetness which I ne'er shall taste.
Starved men know there [i]s food, and blind men may,
Though hid from them, yet know there is a day.
A rover in the mark his arrows sticks
Sometimes as well as he that shoots at pricks.
And if I could direct my shaft aright,
The black mark would I hit and miss the white.
From _Choice Drollery_, 1656.
BLACK EYES AND ENTICING FROWNS.[23]
_To Lucina._
BLACK eyes, in your dark orbs doth lie
My ill or happy destiny.
If with clear looks you me behold,
You give me treasures full of gold;
If you dart forth disdainful rays,
To your own dye you turn my days.
That lamp which all the stars doth blind
To modest Cynthia is less kind,
Though you do wear, to make you bright,
No other dress than that of night.
He glitters only in the day;
You in the dark your beams display.
The cunning thief, that lurks for prize,
At some dark corner watching lies;
So that heart-robbing God doth stand
In those black gems, with shaft in hand,
To rifle me of what I hold
More precious far than Indian gold.
Ye pow'rful necromantic eyes,
Who in your circles strictly pries
Will find that Cupid with his dart
In you doth practise the black art;
And by those spells I am possest,
Tries his conclusions in my breast.
Though from those objects frowns arise,
Some kind of frowns become black eyes,
As pointed diamonds being set
Cast greater lustre out of jet.
Those pieces we esteem most rare,
Which in night-shadows postured are.
Darkness in churches congregates the sight;
Devotion strays in open daring light.
[23] "This poem was written by James Howell. It is printed among his
Poems, 1664, p. 68. Also in Poems collected by P. F. [= P. Fisher],
1663. See my Note in _Choyce Drollery_, reprint, 1876, p. 298."--_J.
W. Ebsworth._
From ROBERT JONES' _Second Book of Songs and Airs_, 1601.
METHOUGHT[24] the other night
I saw a pretty sight
That pleased me much;
A fair and comely maid,
Not squeamish nor afraid
To let me touch,
Our lips most sweetly kissing,
Each other never missing;
Her smiling looks did show content
And that she did but what she meant.
And as her lips did move
The echo still was love,
"Love, love me, sweet!"
Then with a maiden blush,
Instead of crying "Push!"[25]
Our lips did meet:
With music sweetly sounding,
With pleasures all abounding,
We kept the burthen of the song,
Which was that love should take no wrong.
And yet, as maidens use,
She seemed to refuse
The name of love,
Until I did protest
That I did love her best,
And so will prove:
With that, as both amazed,
Each at the other gazed,
My eyes did see, my hands did feel,
Her eyes of fire, her breast of steel.
O when I felt her breast
Where love did rest,
My love was such
I could have been content
My best blood to have spent
In that sweet touch:
But now comes that which vext us,
There was a bar betwixt us,
A bar that barred me from that part
Where nature did contend with art.
If ever love had power
To send one happy hour,
Then show thy might,
And take such bars away
Which are the only stay
Of love's delight.
All this was but a dreaming,
Although another meaning.
Dreams may prove true as thoughts are free;
I will love you, you may love me.
[24] Old ed. "My thought." The first two stanzas of this poem (which
becomes somewhat enigmatical towards the end) are also found in _The
Westminster Drollery_.
[25] Old ed. "pish;" but "push" (required for the rhyme), the reading
in _The Westminster Drollery_, is an old form of "pish."
From _The Academy of Compliments_, 1650.
AS I traversed to and fro,
And in the fields was walking,
I chanced to hear two sisters
That secretly were talking.
The younger to the elder said,
Prithee why do'st not marry?
In faith, quoth she, I'll tell to thee
I mean not long to tarry.
When I was fifteen years of age
Then I had suitors many,
But I, a wanton peevish wench,
Would not sport with any;
Till at the last, I sleeping fast,
Cupid came to woo me,
And like a lad that was stark mad
He swore he would come to me.
And then he lay down by my side
And spread his arms upon me,
And I being 'twixt sleep and wake
Did strive to thrust him from me,
But he with all the power he had
Did lie the harder on me.
And then he did so play with me
As I was play'd with never;
The wanton boy so pleased me,
I would have slept for ever.
And then methought the world turn'd round
And Phoebus fell a-skipping,
And all the nymphs and goddesses
About us two were tripping.
Then seemed Neptune as he had pour'd
His Ocean streams upon us,
But Boreas with his blust'ring blasts
Did strive to keep him from us.
Limping Vulcan he came
As if he had been jealous,
Venus follow'd after him
And swore she'd blow the bellows.
Mars called Cupid Jack-an-apes,
And swore he would him smother:
Quoth Cupid, Said I so to thee
When thou lay'st with my mother?
Juno, then, and Jupiter
Came marching with Apollo;
Pan came in with Mercury,
And then began the hollo;
Cupid ran and hid himself,
And so of joys bereft me:
For suddenly I did awake,
And all these fancies left me.
From _Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery_. By T. W.[26] 1654.
TO SYLVIA FROWNING.
NO, Sylvia, 'tis not your disdain,
Nor scorn, nor cruelty, nor hate,
Shall make my sadder verse complain
Or my well kindled fame abate:
Such goblins fright Love from a coward heart,
But one resolved like mine can make them start.
Contract thy brow, and let thine eye
Dart thunderbolts of anger still;
Storm me with all th' artillery,
With which Love's rebels use to kill:
I'll not retreat till I or conqueror be
Or martyr of thy cruelty and thee.
Shoot, Sylvia, then, and spare not till
Thy magazine of anger's spent:
If I survive and love thee still,
I know thou then must needs relent:
Patience in suffering oft-times hath o'ercome
A tyrant's rage, and made him change his doom.
But if I fall unto[27] thy hate
And stubborn scorn a sacrifice,
I shall be happy in that fate
Whilst with me all my torment dies:
Thus shall my constancy for thy disdain
Either begin my bliss or end my pain.
[26] _Rawlinson MS. Poet._ 211, contains very many, if not all, of
the poems in this collection. On the fly-leaf of the MS. is a note,
"Charles Williams his booke written with Thomas."
[27] Old ed. "into."
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
I[28] DREAM'D we both were in a bed
Of roses almost smothered;
But when I heard thy sweet breath say
"Faults done by night will blush by day,"
I kiss'd thee panting, and I call
The night to record that was all.
But ah, if empty dreams so please,
Love give me more such nights as these.
[28] These dainty verses are by Robert Herrick.
From _The Westminster Drollery_, 1671.
CHLORIS, when I to thee present
The cause of all my discontent;
And show that all the wealth that can
Flow from this little world of man
Is nought but constancy and love,
Why will you other objects prove?
O do not cozen your desires
With common and mechanic fires:
That picture which you see in gold
In every shop is to be sold:
And diamonds of richest price
Men only value with their eyes.
But look upon my loyal heart
That knows to value every part,
And loves thy hidden virtue more
Than outward shape, which fools adore:
In that you'll all the treasures find
That can content a noble mind.
From _The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence_, 1658.
CUPID CONTEMNED.
CUPID, thou art a sluggish boy
And dost neglect thy calling;
Thy bow and arrows are a toy;
Thy monarchy is falling.
Unless thou dost recall thy self
And take thy tools about thee,
Thou wilt be scorn'd by every elf,
And all the world will flout thee.
Rouse up thy spirit like a god,
And play the archer finely,
Let none escape thy shaft or rod
'Gainst thee have spoke unkindly:
So mayst thou chance to plague that heart
That cruelly hath made me smart.
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
DO[29] not ask me, charming Phillis,
Why I lead you here alone
By this bank of pinks and lilies
And of roses newly blown.
'Tis not to behold the beauty
Of those flowers that crown the spring,
'Tis to--but I know my duty
And dare never name the thing.
'Tis at worst but her denying:
Why should I thus fearful be?
Every minute, gently flying,
Smiles and says "Make use of me."
What the sun does to those roses
While the beams play sweetly in,
I would--but my fear opposes
And I dare not name the thing.
Yet I die if I conceal it:
Ask my eyes, or ask your own,
And if neither dare reveal it,
Think what lovers think alone.
On this bank of pinks and lilies,
Might I speak what I would do,
I would--with my lovely Phillis--
I would--I would--ah, would you?
[29] These verses are found in many later Miscellanies. [It was
variously entitled "The Fearful Lover," "Pinks and Lilies; or, Phillis
at a Non-plus." An answer to it begins, "Forbid me not t'enquire, Why
you meet me here alone."--_J. W. Ebsworth._]
From WILLIAM CORKINE'S _Airs_, 1610.
HE that hath no mistress must not wear a favour,
He that wooes a mistress must serve before he have her;
He that hath no bedfellow must [learn to] lie alone,
And he that hath no lady must be content with Joan:
And so must I, for why, alas! my love and I am parted:
False Cupid, I will have thee whipped and have thy mother carted!
From _The Marrow of Compliments_, 1655.
HER dainty palm I gently prest
And with her lip I play'd;
My cheek upon her panting breast
And on her neck I laid:
And yet we had no sense of wanton lust,
Nor did we then mistrust.
With pleasant toil we breathless grew,
And kiss'd in warmer blood;
Upon her lips the honey-dew
Like drops on roses' stood:
And on those flowers play'd I the busy bee,
Whose sweets were such to me.
But kissing and embracing we
So long together lay,
Her touches all inflamed me
And I began to stray;
My hands presumed too far, they were too bold,
My tongue unwisely told.
From THOMAS GREAVES' _Songs_, 1604.
"I PRAY thee, sweet John, away!
I cannot tell how to love thee!"
"Pish, phew, in faith all this will not move me."
"O me, I dare not before our marriage-day:
If this will not move thee, gentle John,
Come quickly kiss me and let me be gone.
(Down a down!)
"Nay, will ye, faith? this is more than needs,
This fooling I cannot abide;
Leave off! or in faith I must chide.
See now, faith, here are proper deeds:
Have done, have done then! I now bewail my hap,
Repentance follows with an after-clap.
Ay me, my joys are murdered with a frown,
And sorrow pulls untimely pleasure down."
(Down a down!)
From DR. JOHN WILSON'S _Cheerful Airs or Ballads_, 1660.
I SWEAR[30] by muscadel
That I do love thee well
And more than I can tell;
By the white claret and sack
I do love thy Black, black, black.
So lovely and so fair,
O'ershadowed with thy hair,
So nimble just like air:
All these set me on love's wrack
For thy sweeter Black, black, black.
No goddess 'mongst them all
So slender and so tall,
And graceful too withal:
Which makes my sinews to crack
For thy dainty Black, black, black.
Thy kind and loving eye,
When first I did espy,
Our loves it did descry,
Dumb speaking "What d'ye lack?"
Mine answered, "Thy Black, black, black."
[30] "This was written by Willm. Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and
sung in his 'Variety' (printed 1649), at the Black Friars
Theatre."--_J. W. Ebsworth._
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
SWEET Jane, sweet Jane, I love thee wondrous well,
But I'm afraid
Thou'lt die a maid
And so lead apes to[31] hell.
For why,[32] my dear, 'tis pity it should be so
Thou'rt better than[33]
To take a man
And keep thee from the foe.
Thou art so pretty and fine,
And wondrous handsome too;
Then be not coy,
Let's get a boy:
Alas! what should we do?
I see thy brow,
And well I know
What colour is below:
Then do not jest,
But smile the rest:
I'faith I know what I know.
[31] Qy. "in"?
[32] "For why" = because.
[33] An old form of "then." I restore it (old ed. reads "then") for
the sake of the rhyme.
From _Sportive Wit; the Muses' Merriment_, 1656.
A MAIDEN'S DENIAL.[34]
NAY pish! nay phew! nay, faith and will you? fie!
A gentleman and use me thus! I'll cry.
Nay, God's body, what means this? Nay, fie for shame,
Nay faith, away! Nay, fie, you are to blame.
Hark! somebody comes! hands off, I pray!
I'll pinch, I'll scratch, I'll spurn, I'll run away.
Nay, faith, you strive in vain, you shall not speed
You mar my ruff, you hurt my back, I bleed.
Look how the door stands ope, somebody sees!
Your buttons scratch, in faith you hurt my knees.
What will men say? Lord, what a coil is here!
You make me sweat; i' faith, here's goodly gear.
Nay, faith, let me entreat you, if you list;
You mar my clothes, you tear my smock, but, had I wist
So much before, I would have shut you out.
Is it a proper thing you go about?
I did not think you would have used me this,
But now I see I took my aim amiss.
A little thing would make me not be friends:
You've used me well! I hope you'll make amends.
Hold still, I'll wipe your face, you sweat amain:
You have got a goodly thing with all your pain.
Alas! how hot am I! what will you drink?
If you go sweating down what will men think?
Remember, sir, how you have used me now;
Doubtless ere long I will be meet with you.
If any man but you had used me so,
Would I have put it up? in faith, sir, no.
Nay, go not yet; stay here and sup with me,
And then at cards we better shall agree.
[34] This song was printed from a MS. in the Sloane Collection, by
Ritson, in _Antient Songs_, 1790. It is in _Egerton MS._ 923, fol. 65,
and _Ashmole MS._ 38, No. 272.
["Cf. _Oxford Drollery_ (3 stanzas), ii. 89, 'Nay pish, nay fie! you
venter to enter,' which is by Thomas Jordan, or before 1664. There
is much closer resemblance (beyond accidental coincidence) to 'Loves
Follies,' a four stanza song in _Merry Drollery_, 1661, 'Nay, out upon
this fooling, for shame!'"--_J. W. Ebsworth._]
From _Sloane MS._ 1792. fol. 6.
ON DREAMS.
YOU nimble dreams, with cobweb wings,
That fly from brain to brain,
And represent a world of things
With much ado and little pain:
You visit ladies in their beds,
And are most busy in their ease;
You put such fancies in their heads
That make them think of what you please.
How highly am I bound to you
(Safe messengers of secrecy)
That made my mistress think on me
Just in the place where I would be!
O that you would me once prefer
To be in place of one of you,
That I might go to visit her
And she might swear her dream were true!
From THOMAS CAMPION'S _Two Books of Airs_ (circ. 1613).
SWEET, exclude me not, nor be divided
From him that ere long must bed thee;
All thy maiden doubts law hath decided;
Sure[35] we are and I must wed thee.
Presume then yet a little more:
Here's the way, bar not the door.
Tenants, to fulfil their landlords' pleasure,
Pay their rent before the quarter;
'Tis my case, if you it rightly measure;
Put me not then off with laughter:
Consider then a little more,
Here's the way to all my store.
Why were doors in love's despite devised,
Are not laws enough restraining?
Women are most apt to be surprised,
Sleeping, or sleep wisely feigning.
Then grace me yet a little more:
Here's the way, bar not the door.
[35] Affianced.
From THOMAS JORDAN'S _Poetical Varieties_,[36] 1637.
A DIALOGUE BETWIXT CASTADORUS AND ARABELLA IN BED.
_Arabella._
DEAR Castadorus, let me rise,
Aurora 'gins to jeer me:
She tells me I do wantonise.
_Castadorus._ I prithee, sweet, lie near me.
Let red Aurora blush, my dear,
And Phoebus laughing follow;
Thou only art Aurora here,
Let me be thy Apollo.
It is to envy at our bliss
That they do rise before us:
Is there such hurt in this or this?
_Arabella._ Nay, fie! why, Castadorus!
_Castadorus._ What, Arabella, can one night
Of wanton dalliance tire you?
I could be ever if I might:
One hour let me desire you.
_Arabella._ Fie, fie, you hurt me; let me go!
If you so roughly use me,
What can I say or think of you.
_Castadorus._ I prithee, Love, excuse me.
Thy beauty and my love defend
I should ungently move thee:
'Tis kisses sweet that I intend:
Is it not I that love thee?
_Arabella._ I do confess it is, but then--
Since you do so importune
That I should once lie down again--
Vouchsafe to draw the curtain.
Aurora and Apollo, too,
May visit silent fields;
By my consent they ne'er shall know
The bliss our pleasure yields.
[36] Mr. Ebsworth kindly pointed out to me that this dialogue belongs
to Jordan. I had taken it from _Wit and Drollery_, 1656. The earlier
text is more correct. There is an MS. copy of it in _Harleian MS._
3511 fol. 108.
From JOHN DOWLAND'S _Third Book of Songs or Airs_, 1603.
WHEN Phoebus first did Daphne love,
And no means might her favour move,
He craved the cause: "The cause," quoth she,
"Is I have vowed virginity."
Then in a rage he sware and said,
Past fifteen years that none should live a maid.
If maidens then shall chance be sped
Ere they can scarcely dress their head,
Yet pardon them, for they be loth
To make God Phoebus break his oath:
And better 'twere a child were born
Than that a God should be foresworn.
In Wit's Interpreter, 1655, and other
Miscellanies, a third stanza is given:--
"Yet silly they, when all is done,
Complain our wits their hearts have won,
When 'tis for fear that they should be
With Daphne turn'd into a tree:
And who would so herself abuse
To be a tree, if she could chuse?"
The younger Donne printed the verses among the _Poems by William, Earl
of Pembroke, and Benjamin Ruddier_, 1660, ascribing them to the Earl.
Donne's authority carries no weight.
From _Harl. MS._ 791, fol. 54.
WHY[37] should passion lead thee blind
'Cause thy mistress is unkind?
She's yet too young to shew delight
And is not plumed for Cupid's flight;
She cannot yet in height of pleasure
Pay her lover equal measure,
But like the rose new blown doth feed
The eye alone but bears no seed.
She is yet but in her spring,
Cold in love till Cupid bring
A hotter season with his fire,
Which soon will ripen her desire.
Autumn will shortly come and greet her,
Making her taste and colour sweeter:
Her ripeness then will soon be such
As she will fall even with a touch.
[37] This poem is ascribed by the younger Donne to William Herbert,
Earl of Pembroke. It was very popular, and is found in many MS.
collections. "Go, soul, the body's guest," is ascribed by Donne to
Pembroke. People must have been very credulous in the second half of
the seventeenth century. (See _Windsor Drollery_, 1672; _Add. MS._
10309, &c.).
From _Malone MS._ 16.
YES[38] I could love if I could find
A mistress fitting to my mind;
Whom neither pride nor gold could move
To buy her beauty, sell her love;
Were neat, yet cared not to be fine,
And loved me for myself, not mine;
Were rather comely than too fair,
White skinn'd and of a lovely hair;
Not ever-blushing, nor too bold;
Not ever-fond, nor yet too cold;
Not sullen-silent, nor all tongue;
Nor puling weak, nor manlike strong;
Modestly full of pleasing mirth,
Yet close as centre of the earth;
In whom you no passion see
But when she looks or speaks of me;
Who calls to bed with melting eyes;
As sweet and fresh as morn, doth rise:
If such a one you chance to find,
She is a mistress to my mind.
[38] There is a printed copy of this poem, widely different from the
MS. version, in the second book of _The Treasury of Music_, 1659.
After l. 6, the printed copy reads:--
"Not lady-proud nor city-coy,
But full of freedom, full of joy;
Not wise enough to rule a state,
Nor so much fool to be laugh'd at;
Nor childish young, nor beldam old;
Not fiery hot, nor icy cold;
Not richly proud, nor basely poor;
Not chaste, yet no reputed whore.
If such a one I chance to find,
I have a mistress to my mind."
Compare the song in Ben Jonson's _Poetaster_, ii. 1--
"If I freely may discover
What would please me in my lover," &c.
which probably suggested the present poem.
From _Ashmole MS._ 38, No. 196.
YOU that in the midst of night
Can acquaint mine eyes with light,
Also can command the day,
When you please, to go or stay;
Nothing can your powers resist
Whilst your shining eyes persist.
O do but smile! show more delight
In adding lustre to the night,
That your admirer now may say
Night's more clearer than the day.
From _The Banquet of Music_, 1688.
WHY is your faithful slave disdain'd?
By gentle arts my heart you gain'd,
O keep it by the same.
For ever shall my passion last,
If you will make me once possest
Of what I dare not name.
Though charming are your wit and face,
'Tis not alone to hear and gaze
That will suffice my flame.
Love's infancy on hopes may live,
But you to mine full grown must give
Of what I dare not name.
When I behold your lips, your eyes,
Those snowy breasts that fall and rise,
Fanning my raging flame;
That shape so made to be embraced;
What would I give I might but taste
Of what I dare not name?
In Courts I never wish to rise,
Both wealth and honour I despise,
And that vain breath call'd Fame;
By Love I hope no crowns to gain,
'Tis something more I would obtain--
'Tis that I dare not name.
From _The Marrow of Compliments_, 1655.
THE LOVER PITHILY PERSUADING HIS MISTRESS TO RELINQUISH HER VIRGIN
RESOLVES.
_Beauteous Mistress_,
THOUGH that no God may thee deserve,
Yet for thy own sake (whom I serve)
Abandon cold Virginity,
The Queen of Love's sole enemy.
Practise the gesture of a nun
When your flowery youth is done:
Pallas joys in single life
'Cause she cannot be a wife.
Love then, and be not tyrannous;
Heal the heart thou hast wounded thus.
Stain not thy youth with avarice;
Fair fools love to be counted nice.
The corn dies if it be not reapt,
Beauty is lost too strictly kept.
Come then (dearest) let's not tarry;
One day more and we will marry.
_Which he humbly begs, who is wholly
yours not to be disobliged_,
T. W.
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
'TIS[39] not how witty, nor how free,
Nor yet how beautiful she be,
But how much kind and true to me:
Freedom and wit none can confine,
And beauty like the sun doth shine,
But Kind and True are only thine.
Let others with attention sit
To listen and admire her wit;
That is a rock where I ne'er split.
Let others dote upon her eyes
And burn their hearts for sacrifice:
Beauty's a calm where danger lies.
Yet Kind and True have been long tried,
A[40] harbour where we may confide
And safely there at anchor ride:
From change of winds there we are free,
Nor need we fear storms' tyranny,
Nor pirate though a prince he be.
[39] This poem is also found in _The Academy of Compliments_ and other
collections.
[40] Old ed. "And."
From ROBERT JONES' _First Book of Songs and Airs_, 1601.
SWEET Philomel in groves and desarts haunting
Oft glads my heart and ears with her sweet chaunting,
But then her tunes delight me best,
When perched with prick against her breast
She sings "Fy, fy!" as if she suffered wrong,
Till, seeming pleased, "Sweet, sweet!" concludes her song.
Sweet Jinny sings and talks and sweetly smileth,
And with her wanton mirth my griefs beguileth,
But then methinks she pleaseth best
When, while my hands move love's request,
She cries "Fy, fy!" and, seeming loth, gainsays,
Till better pleased "Sweet, sweet!" content bewrays.
From _The Westminster Drollery_. (_The Second Part._) 1672.
THE VALENTINE.
AS youthful day put on his best
Attire to usher morn
And she to greet her glorious guest
Did her fair self adorn,
Up did I rise, and hid mine eyes
As I went through the street,
Lest I should one that I despise
Before a fairer meet.
And why
Was I,
Think you, so nice and fine?
Well did I wot
(Who wots it not?)
It was Saint Valentine.
In fields by Phoebus great with young
Of flowers and hopeful buds,
Resembling thoughts that freshly sprung
In lovers' lively bloods,
A damsel fair and fine I saw,
So fair and finely dight,
As put my heart almost in awe
To attempt a mate so bright:
But O
Why so?
Her purpose was like mine,
And readily
She said as I
"Good morrow, Valentine."
A fair of love we kept a while:
She for each word I said
Gave me two smiles, and for each smile
I her two kisses paid.
The violet, made haste to appear
To be her bosom-guest,
With first primrose that grew this year,
I purchased for[41] her breast:
To me
Gave she
Her golden lock for mine;
My ring of jet,
For her bracelet,
I gave my Valentine.
Subscribed with a line of love,
My name for her I wrote;
In silk for me her name she wove
Whereto this was her mot,[42]
"As shall this year thy truth appear,
I still, my dear, am thine";
"Your mate today, and love for aye,
If you so say," was mine.
While thus
On us
Each other's favours shine,
"No more have we
To change," quoth she,
"Now farewell, Valentine."
"Alas," said I, "let friends not seem
Between themselves so strange;
The jewels both we dear'st esteem
You know are yet to change."
She answers, "No," yet smiles as though
Her tongue her thought denies;
Who truth of maiden's mind will know
Must seek it in her eyes.
She blush'd,
I wish'd
Her heart as free as mine,
She sight[43] and sware
"In sooth you are
Too wanton, Valentine."
Yet I such further favour won
By suit and pleasing play,
She vow'd what now was left undone
Should finish'd be in May;
And though perplex'd with such delay
As more augments desire,
'Twixt present grief and promised joy,
I from my mate retire:
If she
To me
Preserve her vows divine
And constant troth,
She shall be both
My love and Valentine.
[41] Old ed. "from."
[42] Motto.
[43] Sighed.
From _Rawlinson MS. Poet._ 206.
ON A WATCH SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN.[44]
GO and count her better hours,
They more happy are than ours.
The day that gives her any bliss
Make it again as long as 'tis;
The hour she smiles, O let that be
By thy art increased to three.
But if she frown on thee or me,
Know night is made by her not thee:
Be swift in such an hour and soon
Make it night though it be noon,
And stay her times who is the free
Fair sun that governs thee and me.
[44] Also in _Wit's Recreations_ (with slightly altered text).
From _Wit Restored_, 1658.
A SONG TO HIS MISTRESS.
I WILL not do a sacrifice
To thy face or to thy eyes,
Nor unto thy lily palm,
Nor thy breath, that wounding balm;
But the part to which my heart
In vows is seal'd
Is that mine of bliss divine
Which is conceal'd.
What's the golden fruit to me
If I may not pluck the tree?
Bare enjoying all the rest
Is but like a golden feast,
Which at need can never feed
Our love-sick wishes:
Let me eat substantial meat,
Not view the dishes.
From _Wit at a Venture: or Clio's Privy Garden_, 1674.
THE SURPRISING LOVER.
LOVE, in rambling once astray,
Was benighted in his way;
With cold and tiresome cares opprest,
He creeps in fair Lucina's breast
To shelter there and take his rest.
The nymph, not dreaming of her fate,
And of an unexpected guess[45]
Much less,
To come so late,
Slep[t] on: the youth, recov'ring heat,
Prepares his arms to try a feat.
The deed scarce done, the nymph awakes
And in the act the youngster takes,
Strangely surprised, yet well contented too
That she enjoyed so sweet a bed-fellow.
Then, viewing well her guess all o'er,
She liked his presence more and more;
Telling him, rather than he should begone,
She'd nurse and keep him as her own;
And if he'd vow ne'er to depart,
She'd find him lodging next her heart.
[45] Old form of "guest."
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
PISH,[46] modest sipper, to't again!
My sweetest joy,
The wine's not coy
As women are.
My dearest puling, prithee then,
Prithee, my fair,
Once more bedew those lips of thine,
Mend thy draught and mend the wine.
Since it hath tasted of thy lip
(Too quickly cloy'd),
How overjoy'd
It cheerfully
Invites thee to another sip.
Methinks I see
The wine perfumed by thee, my fair:
Bacchus himself is dabbling there.
Once more, dear soul, nay prithee try;
Bathe that cherry
In the sherry,
The jocund wine
Which sweetly smiles and courts thy eye
As more divine;
Though thou take none to drink to me,
Takes pleasure to be drunk by thee.
Nay, my fair, off with't, off with it clean!
Well, I perceive
Why this you leave;
My love reveals
And makes me guess what 'tis you mean:
Because at meals
My lips are kept from kissing thee,
Thou needs wilt kiss the glass to me.
[46] There is an inferior version of this poem in _Wit's Interpreter_.
From _Choice Drollery_, 1656.
AGAINST FRUITION.
THERE is not half so warm a fire
In the fruition as desire.
When I have got the fruit of pain
Possession makes me poor again:
Expected forms and shapes unknown
Whet and make sharp tentation.
Sense is too niggardly for bliss,
And pays me dully with what is;
But fancy's liberal and gives all
That can within her vastness fall.
Veil therefore still, while I divine
The treasure of this hidden mine,
And make imagination tell
What wonders doth in beauty dwell.
From _The Bristol Drollery_, 1674.
TO A YOUNG LADY IN A GARDEN.
_The Rose's Speech._
FAIREST, if you roses seek,
Take the nearest like your cheek.
I, the damask, would presume
To tender you my sweet perfume;
I am young, like you, a bud,
Peeping thorough my green hood,
Blushing only 'cause I see
Fresher roses grow on thee.
Crop me then and let me lie
In the sun-shine of thine eye
Till full-blown; then let me grow
In thy bosom, next thy snow,
That I may find, when my leaves fall,
In that sweet place a funeral.
Then, Celia, be you like the rose,
Who its season wisely chose;
Do not keep your maiden flower
Beyond its time, its full ripe hour.
Like the rose, you need not offer;
But when a worthy hand doth proffer,
Refuse not, Celia: on my life
You'll wear as fresh when you're a wife.
Let not your beauties untouch'd die,
Or wither'd and neglected lie;
Rather let them thrive i' th' light
Of his am'rous eager sight,
That when at last they fall and spread
It may be sweetly on his bed.
From _The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence_, 1658.
LOSE NO TIME.
LOSE no time nor youth but be
Kind to men, as they to thee;
The fair lilies that now grow
In thy cheeks, and purely show,
The cherry and the rose that blow,
If too long they hang and waste,
Winter comes that all will blast.
Thou art ripe, full ripe for men;
In thy sweets be gather'd then.
From _Westminster Drollery_ (_Second Part_), 1672.
ONE AND HIS MISTRESS A-DYING.
SHALL we die
Both thou and I,
And leave the world behind us?
Come, I say,
And let's away,
For nobody here doth mind us.
Why do we gape?
We cannot scape
The doom that is assign'd us;
When we are in grave,
Altho' we rave,
There is nobody needs to bind us.
The clerk shall sing,
The sexton ring,
And old wives they shall wind us;
The priest shall lay
Our bones in clay,
And nobody there shall find us.
Farewell wits,
And folly's fits,
And griefs that often pined us!
When we are dead
We'll take no heed
What nobody says behind us.
Merry nights,
And false delights,
Adieu! ye did but blind us:
We must to mould,
Both young and old,
Till nobody's left behind us.
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
A HEALTH TO HIS MISTRESS.
TO her whose beauty doth excel
Story, we toss these cups and sell
Sobriety a sacrifice
To the bright lustre of her eyes.
Each soul that sips here is divine:
Her beauty deifies the wine.
From _Harl. MS._ 6917. fol. 48.
A POEM OF SIR WALTER RAWLEIGH'S.[47]
NATURE that wash'd her hands in milk
And had forgot to dry them,
Instead of earth took snow and silk
At Love's request to try them,
If she a mistress could compose
To please Love's fancy out of those.
Her eyes he would should be of light;
A violet breath, and lips of jelly;
Her hair not black, nor over-bright;
And of the softest down her belly:
As for her inside he 'ld have it
Only of wantonness and wit.
At Love's entreaty such a one
Nature made, but with her beauty
She hath framed a heart of stone;
So as Love, by ill destiny,
Must die for her whom Nature gave him,
Because her darling would not save him.
But Time, which Nature doth despise,
And rudely gives her love the lie,
Makes Hope a fool, and Sorrow wise,
His hands do[th] neither wash nor dry;
But being made of steel and rust,
Turns snow and silk and milk to dust.
The light, the belly, lips, and breath,
He dims, discolours,[48] and destroys;
With those he feeds, but fills not, Death,
Which sometimes were the food of joys:
Yea Time doth dull each lively wit,
And dries all wantonness with it.
Oh cruel Time, which takes in trust,
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wander'd all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
[47] This is the heading in the MS. Archdeacon Hannah, in his valuable
edition of Raleigh's poems, makes no mention of this MS. poem. The
last stanza, with a couple of lines tacked on, was printed in
Raleigh's _Remains_, where it is stated to have been "found in his
bible in the Gatehouse at Westminster." The whole poem is very much in
Raleigh's manner; and I congratulate myself upon its discovery.
[48] MS. "discovers."
From _Add. MS._ 2218, fol. 32 (compared with a copy in _Wit and
Drollery_, 1661).
CUPID'S HOLIDAY.
LADIES, whose marble hearts despise,
Love's soft impressions; whose chaste eyes
Ne'er shot glance but might beseem
Diana and her maiden team
Of icy virgins; hence, away!
Disturb not our licentious play,
For now 'tis Cupid's Holiday.
Go, glory in the empty name
Of virgin; let your idle flame
Consume itself, while we enjoy
Those pleasures which fair Venus' boy
Grants to those whose mingled thighs
Are trophies of his victories,[49]
From whence new pleasures still arise.
Those only are admitted here
Whose looser thoughts ne'er knew a fear
Of man's embraces; whose fair face
Can give enjoyment such a grace
As wipes away the hated name
Of lust, and calls their amorous flame
A virtue free from fear or shame.
With them we'll number kisses till
We pose arithmetic, and fill
Our hearts with pleasure[50] till it swells
Beyond those bounds where blushing dwells:
Then will we ourselves entomb
In those joys which fill the womb,
Till sleep possesseth Cupid's room.
At waking no repentance shall
With our past sweetness mingle gall;
We'll kiss again till we restore
Our strength again to venture more:
Then we'll renew again our play,
Admitting of no long delay
Till we end our holiday.
W. MUNSEY.[51]
[49] This line is omitted in the MS.
[50] Both the MS. and printed copy read "pleasures."
[51] I have at present no information about "W. Munsey," whose name is
attached to this (not very valuable) poem in the MS. In Rawlinson MS.
117, fol. 151, a copy of "I saw fair Chloris walk alone" (which has
been attributed, without evidence, by some to Carew, and by others to
Herrick) is subscribed "Munsey." The well-known poem, "In the nonage
of a winter's day," usually ascribed to Carew, is signed in _Rawlinson
MS. Poet._, 210, "W. Munsey."
From _Harl. MS._ 7332, fol. 47.
IN summer-time, when birds do sing,
And country maids are making hay,
As I went forth myself alone
To view the meadows fresh and gay,
The country maidens I espied
With fine lawn aprons as white as snow,
And crimson ribands about their arms,
Which made a pretty country show.
The young men fell a-prating,
And took the maidens from hay-making
To go and tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble
Up and down the green meadow.
The next day being holiday,
And country maids they would be seen,
Each took his sweet-heart by the hand
And went to dance upon the green:
The country maids incontinent[52]
Unto the green assembled were,
Adorned with beauty's ornament,[53]
Their cheeks like roses and lilies fair:
The young men fell a-skipping,
The maidens nimbly fell a-tripping,
They could not dance, but tumble, tumble, [tumble]
Up and down[54] the green meadow.
The old men that had lived long
And viewed full many a summer's day,
Came gently walking by themselves
To see them keep their holiday:
The married men of middle age
Brought forth their wives to see that sport,
And they put on their best array,
Unto the green they did resort:
There music sweetly sounding,
The maidens' hearts with joys abounding,
They could not dance, but tumble, tumble, tumble
Up and down the green meadow.
When they with tumbling well had sweat,
And tumbling joys had tasted well,
And Phoebus almost lost his heat,
Each did return where they did dwell:
Their wives unto their husbands said
The pretty sports which they had seen,
Wish'd them to teach them in their bed[55]
As did the lovers on the green:
The young men joyful-hearted
Each took his lass and so departed,
When they no more could tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble
Up and down the green meadow.
[52] Immediately, without delay.
[53] MS. "ornaments."
[54] MS. "vppon downe."
[55] MS. "beds."
From _Harleian MS._ 791, fol. 55.
IN summer time when grass was mown
And country maids were treading of hay,
Then forth walked I in a fair morning
Thinking to pass the time away.
Fair lovely nymphs might there be seen
With fine lawn aperns[56] white as snow,
And crimson ribbons 'bout their arms,
Which made a pretty summer show.
There young lovers fell a-prating,
And called their lovers from hay-making
To go and tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble
Up and down the meadow.
Then the old wives fell a-laughing,
And held their sides with extreme coughing,
To see them tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble
Up and down the meadows.
[56] Old form of _aprons_.
From _Wit Restored_, 1658.
WOMEN.
ONCE I must confess I loved
And expected love again,
But, so often as I proved,
My expectance was in vain.
Women joy to be attempted,
And do glory when they see
Themselves from love's force exempted,
And that men captived be.
If they love they can conceal it,
And dissemble when they please,
Whenas men will straight reveal it
And make known their heart's disease.
Men must beg and crave their favour,
Making many an idle vow,
Whilst they, froward in behaviour,
Fain would yield but know not how.
Sweet stol'n-sport to them is grateful,
And in heart they wish to have it;
Yet they do account it hateful
Upon any terms to crave it.
But, would men not go about it,
But leave off at all to woo,
Ere they would be long without it,
They would beg and crave it too.
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
GAZE[57] not on thy beauty's pride,
Tender maid, in the false tide
That from lovers' eyes do[th] slide.
Let thy faithful crystal show
How thy colours come and go;
Beauty takes a foil from woe.
Love, that in those smooth streams lies,
Under Pity's fair disguise,
Will thy melting heart surprise.
Nets of Passion's finest thread
(Snaring poems) will be spread
All to catch thy maidenhead.
Then beware: for those that cure
Love's disease, themselves endure
For a reward a calenture.
Rather let the lover pine
Than his pale cheek should assign
A perpetual blush to thine.
[57] Attributed to Thomas Carew.
From _Wit's Recreations_, 1640.
LOVE BEGOTTEN BY PITY.
'TIS true your beauty,[58] which before
Did dazzle each bold gazer's eye,
And forced e'en rebel hearts t' adore
Or from its conquering splendor fly,
Now shines with new increase of light,
Like Cynthia at her full most bright.
Yet, though you glory in th' increase
Of so much beauty, dearest fair,
They err who think this great access,
Of which all eyes th' admirers are,
Or art's or nature's gifts should be:
Learn then the hidden cause from me.
Pity in thee, in me desire
First bred: before I durst but aim
At fair respect: now that close fire
Thy love hath fann'd into a flame,
Which, mounting to its proper place,
Shines like a glory 'bout thy face.
[58] Old ed. "beauties."
From _The Windsor Drollery_, 1672.
BE[59] thou joyful, I am jolly;
In thy pleasure's my delight.
Art th' inclined to melancholy?
I am of that humour right;
For I can joy, or joys can slight.
Art thou liberal of embraces?
I can also lavish be.
Or dost thou scorn to yield such graces?
I can scorn as well as thee:
Of these I can be nice or free.
Dost thou joy I should attain thee?
Then I will thy servant be;
Or if my presence do disdain thee,
I will never wait on thee;
For I can love or let thee be.
If to singing thou'lt apply thee,
I can warble notes to thee:
Or if to[60] sighing, I'll sigh by thee;
To thy passions I'll agree,
For I'm to all thy humours free.
Dost thou joy I should come near thee
With a heart both firm and true?
Or dost thou fly my sight and jeer me?
Unto lovers that's not new;
For I can stay or bid adieu.
[59] There is a somewhat similar copy of verses in _Choice Drollery_,
1656:--
"If at this time I am derided,
And you please to laugh at me,
Know I am not unprovided
Every way to answer thee,
Love or hate, Whate'er it be," &c.
[60] Old ed. "by."
From WILLIAM CORKINE'S _Second Book of Airs_, 1612.
AWAY, away! call back what you have said
When you did vow to live and die a maid:
O if you knew what chance to them befell
That dance about with bobtail apes in hell,
Yourself your virgin girdle would divide
And put aside the maiden veil that hides
The chiefest gem of nature; and would lie
Prostrate to every peasant that goes by,
Rather than undergo such shame: no tongue can tell
What injury is done to maids in hell.
From _The Windsor Drollery_, 1672.
UNDER[61] the willow-shades they were
Free from the eye-sight of the sun,
For no intruding beam could there
Peep through to spy what things were done:
Thus sheltered they unseen did lie,
Surfeiting on each other's eye;
Defended by the willow shades alone,
The sun's heat they defied and cool'd their own.
Whilst they did embrace unspied,
The conscious willow seem'd to smile,
That them[62] with privacy supplied,
Holding the door, as 'twere, the while;
And when their dalliances were o'er,
The willows, to oblige them more,
Bowing, did seem to say, as they withdrew,
"We can supply you with a cradle too."
[61] Mr. Ebsworth reminds me that this is Theocles' song, by Sir
William Davenant, sung in Act iii. of "The Rivals," 1668.
[62] Old ed. "they."
From _The Treasury of Music_, 1669.
CÆLIA'S[63] COMPLAINT.
POOR Cælia once was very fair,
A quick bewitching eye she had;
Most neatly look'd her braided hair,
Her dainty cheek would make you mad:
Upon her lips did all the Graces play,
And on her breasts ten thousand Cupids lay.
Then many a doting lover came,
From seventeen till twenty-one;
Each told her of his mighty flame,
But she foresooth affected none:
One was not handsome, 'tother was not fine,
This of tobacco smelt and that of wine.
But 'tother day it was my fate
To walk along that way alone;
I saw no coach before her gate,
But at her door I heard her moan:
She dropt a tear, and sighing seem'd to say
"Young ladies, marry, marry while you may!"
[63] This poem is by Thomas Flatman, and is printed among his _Songs
and Poems_, 1669.
["Also in _Westminster Drollery_, _Windsor Drollery_, and _Pills to P.
Mel._, iii. 153. The music to it was composed by Roger Hill."--_J. W.
Ebsworth._]
From WILLIAM CORKINE'S _Second book of Airs_, 1612.
TWO lovers sat lamenting
Hard by a crystal brook,
Each other's heart tormenting,
Exchanging look for look,
With sighs and tears bewraying
Their silent thoughts delaying:
At last coth[64] one,
"Shall we alone
Sit here our thoughts bewraying?
Fie, fie, O fie,
O fie it may not be:
Set looking by,
Let speaking set us free."
Then thus their silence breaking,
Their thoughts too long estranged
They do bewray by speaking,
And words with words exchanged:
Then one of them replied,
"Great pity we had died
Thus all alone
In silent moan
And not our thoughts descried.
Fie, fie, O fie,
O fie that had been ill
That inwardly
Silence the heart should kill."
From looks and words to kisses
They made their next proceeding,
And as their only blisses
They therein were exceeding.
O what a joy is this
To look, to talk, to kiss!
But thus begun,
Is now all done?
Ah, all then nothing is!
Fie, fie, O fie,
O fie it is a hell
And better die
Than kiss and not end well.
[64] "Coth" = quoth.
From _Sportive Wit_, 1656.
CHLORIS,[65] forbear a while,
Do not o'erjoy me,
Urge not another smile
Lest it destroy me;
That beauty passeth most
And is best taking,
Which is soon won, soon lost,
Kind, yet forsaking:
I love a coming Lady, 'faith I do,
But now and then I'd have her scornful too.
O'ercloud those eyes of thine,
Bopeep thy features,
Warm with an April shine,
Scorch not thy creatures;
Still to display thy ware,
Still to be fooling,
Argues how rude you are
In Cupid's schooling:
Disdain begets a smile, scorn draws us nigh,
'Tis 'cause I would, and cannot, makes me try.
Chloris, I'd have thee wise:
When gallants view thee,
Courting do thou despise,
Fly those pursue thee:
Fast moves an appetite
Makes hunger greater;
Who's stinted of delight
Falls to't the better:
Be coy and kind betimes, be smooth and rough,
And buckle now and then, and that's enough.
[65] "This was written by Henry Bold; it is in his _Poems Lyrique_,
1664, p. 6."--_J. W. Ebsworth._ (I suspect Bold stole it: he was a
notorious pilferer.)
From _Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery_. By T. W., 1654.
FAIR Chloris in a gentle slumber lay,
Sleep taking rest
In her calm breast,
Whilst her veil'd eyes seem'd to eclipse the day
The wanton sun would court her fain,
Peep'd here and there, but all in vain.
The leafy boughs a guard had made,
Planting between their envious shade;
Whereat he chid his idle beams, that he
Should want an eye whereby himself might see.
From CAMPION and ROSSETER'S _Book of Airs_, 1601.
MY love hath vowed he will forsake me,
And I am already sped;
Far other promise he did make me
When he had my maidenhead.
If such danger be in playing
And sport must to earnest turn,
I will go no more a-maying.
Had I foreseen what is ensued,
And what now with pain I prove,
Unhappy then I had eschewed
This unkind event of love:
Maids foreknow their own undoing,
But fear naught till all is done,
When a man alone is wooing.
Dissembling wretch, to gain thy pleasure,
What didst thou not vow and swear?
So didst thou rob me of the treasure
Which so long I held so dear.
Now thou provest to me a stranger:
Such is the vile guise of men
When a woman is in danger.
That heart is nearest to misfortune
That will trust a feigned tongue;
When flatt'ring men our loves importune
They intend us deepest wrong.
If this shame of love's betraying
But this once I cleanly shun,
I will go no more a-maying.
From _Vinculum Societatis, or the Tie of Good Company_, 1687.
SILVIA, now your scorn give over
Lest you lose a faithful lover:
If this humour you pursue,
Farewell Love and Silvia too.
Long have I been unregarded,
Sighs and tears still unrewarded:
If this does with you agree,
Troth, good Madam, 'twon't with me.
From _The Marrow of Compliments_, 1655.
MAIDS[66] they are grown so coy of late
Forsooth they will not marry;
Though they be in their teens and past,
They say that they can tarry.
But if they knew how sweet a thing
It were in youth to marry,
They'd sell their petticoats, smocks, and all
Ere they so long would tarry.
The wench that is most coy of all,
If she had time and leisure,
Would lay by all her several thoughts
And turn to love and pleasure;
For even the wisest heads sometimes
Put on the face of folly,
And maids do nevermore repent
Than when they are too holy.
Winter nights are long, you know,
And bitter cold the weather;
Then who's so fond to lie alone
When two may lie together?
And is't not brave when summer's robes
Have all the fields encowled
To have a green gown on the grass
And wear it uncontroul'd?
[66] D'Urfey printed these verses in his _Pills to Purge Melancholy_,
1700, ii. 93, as "The Silly Maids."
From HENRY LAWES' _Airs and Dialogues_, 1653.
A[67] CAUTION TO FAIR LADIES.
LADIES, you that seem so nice,
And as cold in show as ice,
And perhaps have held out thrice;
Do not think but in a trice
One or other may entice,
And at last by some device
Set your honours at a price.
You whose smooth and dainty skin,
Rosy lips, or cheeks, or chin,
All that gaze upon you win,
Yet insult not: sparks within
Slowly burn ere flames begin,
And presumption still hath been
Held a most notorious sin.
[67] This poem is ascribed by Lawes to Henry Harrington, son to Sir
Henry Harrington. It is found among the _Fancies and Fantasticks_
appended to _Wit's Recreations_.
["It has also been accredited to Dr. Henry Hughes; the initials suggest
the ambiguity. It is also in Playford's _Select Ayres_, 1659, p.
26."--_J. W. Ebsworth._]
From THOMAS CAMPION'S _Fourth Book of Airs_ (circ. 1617).
IF any hath the heart to kill,
Come rid me of this woeful pain,
For while I live I suffer still
This cruel torment all in vain;
Yet none alive but one can guess
What is the cause of my distress.
Thanks be to heaven, no grievous smart,
No maladies my limbs annoy:
I bear a sound and sprightful heart
Yet live I quite deprived of joy;
Since what I had in vain I crave,
And what I had not now I have.
A love I had so fair, so sweet,
As ever wanton eye did see;
Once by appointment we did meet:
She would, but ah! it would not be.
She gave her heart, her hand she gave:
All did I give, she naught could have.
What hag did then my powers forespeak,
That never yet such taint did feel?
Now she rejects me as one weak,
Yet am I all composed of steel.
Ah! this is it my heart doth grieve:
Now, though she sees, she'll not believe.
From _The Academy of Compliments_, 1650.
WHEN doth Love set forth desire?
In prime of youth, men say.
And when again will it retire?
When beauty falls away.
Then you in youth that think on this,
Taste what the sweetness of love is.
The night comes not at lovers' call;
Being come, stays not their leisure;
Hours that are sweet are swift withall,
And attend not on our pleasure:[68]
Then you in youth, that think on this,
Taste what the sweet of beauty is.
[68] Old ed. "leasure."
From JOHN COTGRAVE'S _Wit's Interpreter_, 1655.
I[69] WALK'D abroad not long ago,
But will not tell you whither;
It is where flowers of beauty grow
And fair ones flock together.
And Cupid will great wonders show
If ever you come thither.
For like two suns, two beauties bright
Did shining sit together,
As tempted by their double light
Mine eyes were fix'd on either;
And both at once so show'd their might,
I loved, but knew not whether.
Such equal sweetness Venus gave
That she preferr'd not either;
That when for love I sought to crave,
I knew not well of whether:
For one while this I liked to have,
And then I that had rather.
A lover of the choicest eye
Might have been pleased with either,
And so I must confess should I,
Had they not been together:
Now both must love or both deny,
In one enjoy I neither.
But, happy chance, I feel no smart
To curse my coming thither;
For, since that my divided heart
I[n] choosing knew not whether,
Love angry grew and did depart:
And now I care for neither.
[69] I ought perhaps to omit this poem, for it is fairly well known.
The writer was George Wither, in whose _Fair Virtue_, 1622, it first
appeared. There are other versions in the _Marrow of Compliments_,
1655, and similar collections.
From _Melpomene; or the Muses' Delight_, 1678.
FADING BEAUTY.
TAKE Time, my dear, ere Time takes wing:
Beauty knows no second spring.
Marble pillars, tombs of brass,
Time breaks down, much more this glass.
Then ere that tyrant Time bespeak it,
Let's drink healths in't first, then break it.
At twenty-five in women's eyes
Beauty does fade, at thirty dies.
From _Comes Amoris_, 1687.
WHEN[70] first Amyntas sued for a kiss
My innocent heart was tender,
That though I pushed him away from the bliss,
My eyes declared my heart was won.
I fain an artful coyness would use
Before the fort I did surrender;
But Love would suffer no more such abuse,
And soon alas! my cheat was known.
He'd sit all day, and laugh and play;
A thousand pretty things would say;
My hand he'd squeeze, and press my knees,
Till further on he got by degrees.
My heart, just like a vessel at sea,
Would toss when Amyntas was near me.
But ah, so cunning a pilot was he,
Through doubts and fears he'd still sail on;
I thought in him no danger could be,
So wisely he knew how to steer me;
And soon, alas! was brought t'agree
To taste of joys before unknown.
Well might he boast his pain not lost,
For soon he found the golden coast,
Enjoyed the ore, and touched the shore
Where never merchant went before.
[70] This song is by Tom D'Urfey, and is printed in the first volume
of his _Pills to Purge Melancholy_. In _Comes Amoris_ the reading is
"Aminta."
From THOMAS WEELKES' _Airs or Fantastic Spirits_, 1608.
SOME men desire spouses
That come of noble houses,
And some would have in marriage
Ladies of courtly carriage:
Fa la la!
But few desire, as I do,
The maidenhead of a widow.
Fa la la!
Some think fair youth will cherish
Strength that begins to perish;
I'll have no colts to taming,
Let me be young'st at gaming.
Fa la la!
I'll get o'er, I'll go nigh to,
The maidenhead of a widow.
Fa la la!
From _The Westminster Drollery_, 1671.
THE ADVICE.[71]
PHILLIS, for shame! let us improve
A thousand several ways
These few short minutes stol'n by love
From many tedious days.
Whilst you want courage to despise
The censure of the grave,
For all the tyrants in your eyes,
Your heart is but a slave.
My love is full of noble pride,
And never will submit
To let that fop Discretion ride
In triumph o'er our wit.
False friends I have, as well as you,
That daily counsel me
Vain friv'lous trifles to pursue
And leave off loving thee.
When I the least belief bestow
On what such fools advise,
May I be dull enough to grow
Most miserably wise.
[71] "With music by Pelham Humphrey, in Playford's _Choice Ayres_, i.
34. Twice given in _Windsor Drollery_. Believed to be by Charles, Earl
of Dorset."--_J. W. Ebsworth._
From _Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery_. By T. W., 1654.
TO SYLVIA,
_On a Bracelet of her Hair._
KNOW, Sylvia, that your curious twist,
Which charms my heart and decks my wrist,
On which I gaze so oft and pay
Thousands of kisses every day,
Is not so much my love and care
'Cause tis composed of your hair;
And yet it truly may be said
Sun-beams are woven of coarser thread;
Nor do I therefore like 't so much
Because I find the art is such
That if Arachne, when she strove
With Pallas, the like web had wove,
She had her skill and wrath o'ercome
And gain'd a triumph, not a doom:
No, Sylvia, I the truth will tell;
I do not therefore like 't so well
Because it is thy hair and art,
But that it is thy gift, dear heart.
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
I HAVE followed thee a year at least,
And never stopped myself to rest,
But yet can thee o'ertake no more
Than this day can the day that went before.
In this our fortunes equal prove
To stars which govern them above;
Our stars they move for ever round
With the same distance still betwixt them found.
In vain, alas! in vain I strive
The wheel of fate faster to drive,
Since if around it swifter fly,
She in it mends her pace as much as I.
Hearts by Love strangely shuffled are,
That there can never meet a pair;
Tamelier than worms are lovers slain;
The wounded heart ne'er turns to wound again.
From _Tixall Poetry_,[72] 1813.
TO FLORA.
WHAT though Flora frowns on me?
'Tis but a chance of destiny.
The wisest I have heard to say,
'Tis dusk before the break of day.
Why should I curse that hour of night
That brings the day to light?
Each angry look appears to me
As witness of her modesty;
And blustering storms do but forerun
The lustre of a brighter sun;
Which when appeased, I'm full possess'd
Her frowns are but in jest.
I know, fair Flora, in thy breast
A killing anger cannot rest:
Yet for my humour I will love
Though thou to me a fury prove:
I know thy soul is so refined
Thou wilt at last prove kind.
[72] From the section containing _Poems Collected by the Right
Honourable Lady Aston_ (p. 136).
From _The New Academy of Compliments_, 1671.
FAIREST thing that shines below,
Why in this robe dost thou appear?
Wouldst thou a white most perfect show,
Thou must at all no garments wear:
For thou wilt seem much whiter so
Than winter when 'tis clad in snow.
'Tis not the linen shows so fair,
Her skin shines through and makes it bright;
So clouds themselves like suns appear
When the sun pierces them with light;
So, lilies in a glass enclose,
The glass will seem as white as those.
Thou now one heap of beauty art,
Nought outwards or within is foul;
Condensed beams make every part,
The body's clothed like the soul,
Thy soul which does itself display
Like a star placed i' th' milky way.
Such robes the saints departed wear,
Woven all with light divine;
Such their exalted bodies are,
And with such full glory shine:
But they regard no mortal's pain,
Men pray (I fear) to both in vain.
Yet, seeing thee so gently pure,
My hopes will needs continue still;
Thou wouldst not take this garment, sure,
When thou hadst an intent to kill:
Of peace and yielding who would doubt
When the white flag he sees hung out?
From _Wit's Cabinet_, n. d.
VIRGINS ADMONISHED.
PRETTY nymph, why always blushing?
If thou love'st why art thou so coy?
In thy cheeks these roses flushing
Shew thee fearful of thy joy.
What is man that thou shouldst dread
To change with him a maidenhead?
At first all virgins fear to do it
And but trifle away their time,
And still unwilling to come to it
In foolish whining spend their time;
But when they once have found the way,
Then they are for it night and day.
From _Harl. MS._ 7332. fol. 242.
O HOW oftentimes have I
Joyfully
Under green trees in the shade
My seat made,
Dainty birds for to hear sing
And the woods with music ring.
But the case is altered quite:
My delight
Is to hear my mistress dear
Singing clear;
That music's sweet harmony
Makes with joy my heart to die.
O how oftentimes have I
Joyfully
Seen so many pleasant flowers
After showers
Blushingly to show their pride,
As if still they should abide.
But the case is altered quite:
My delight
Is to see how prettily,
When that I
Have stol'n a kiss, she will blush
And in jest me from her push.
Adieu, then, without delay,
I do say,
Old delights, unpleasant toys;
For no joys
Ye now have which me do please
Or can comfort or can ease.
But pray come without delay,
I do say,
My new delight, most pleasant joy,
And no toy;
It is you which me do please,
And can comfort and can ease.
From _Wit Restored_, 1658.
TO B. R. FOR HER BRACELETS.
'TIS not, dear Love, that amber twist,
Which circles round thy captive wrist,
Can have the power to make me more
Your prisoner than I was before;
Though I that bracelet dearer hold
Than misers would a chain of gold.
Yet this but ties my outward part:
Heart-strings alone can tie my heart.
'Tis not that soft and silken wreath,
Your hands did unto mine bequeath,
Can bind with half so powerful charms
As the embraces of your arms;
Although not iron bands, my fair,
Can bind more fiercely than your hair.
Yet that will chain me most will be
Your heart in True Love's-knot to me.
'Tis not those beams, your hairs, nor all
Your glorious outside doth me thrall;
Although your looks have force enow[73]
To make the stateliest tyrants bow,
Nor any angel could deny
Your person his idolatry.
Yet I do not so much adore
The temple, but the goddess more.
If then my soul you would confine
To prison, tie your heart to mine;
Your noble virtues, constant love,
The only pow'rful chains will prove
To bind me ever; such as those
The bands of death shall ne'er unloose,
Until I such a prisoner be
No liberty can make me free.
[73] Old ed. "enough."
By SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE.
ICE AND FIRE.
NAKED love did to thine eye,
Fairest, once to warm him fly;
But its purer flame and light
Scorch'd his wings and spoil'd his sight.
Forced from thence, he went to rest
In the soft couch of thy breast;
But there met a frost so great
As his torch extinguish'd straight!
When poor Cupid, being constrain'd
His cold bed to leave, complain'd,
"What a lodging's here for me,
If all ice and fire she be!"
From _Wit's Recreations_, 1663.
ON THE EYES AND BREASTS OF THE LADY ON WHOM HE WAS ENAMOURED.
LADY, on your eyes I gazed;
When amazed
At their brightness,
On your breasts I cast a look,
No less took
With their whiteness:
Both I justly did admire,
These all snow and those all fire.
Whilst these wonders I survey'd,
Thus I said
In suspense:
Nature could have done no less,
To express
Her providence,
Than that two such fair worlds might
Have two suns to give them light.
From _Tixall Poetry_,[74] 1813.
A SONG[75] FOR DRINKING.
WOULD you be a man of fashion?
Would you lead a life divine?
Take a little dram of passion
In a lusty dose of wine.
If the nymph have no compassion,
Vain it is to sigh and groan:
Love was but put in for fashion,
Wine will do the work alone.
A SONG FOR LOVE.
WOULD you know earth's highest pleasure?
Would you rival gods above?
Drink rich wines, but drink with measure,
But fear no excess in love.
Or if wine you quite give over,
You will nothing lose thereby;
All is rapture to a lover,
So in love he live or die.
[74] From the section containing _Poems Collected by the Honourable
Herbert Aston_ (pp. 307, 308).
[75] "This was a song of 1683, set to music by Captain Pack, and not
improbably to his own words. It was printed in 1684 in Playford's
_Choice Ayres_, v. 14, and parodies soon followed. Cf. _Roxburghe
Ballads_, iv. 350."--_J. W. Ebsworth._
From _Wit at a Venture: or Clio's Privy Garden_, 1674.[76]
EPITHALAMIUM.
TO bed ye two in one united go,
To pleasures killing;
Embrace and struggle till your spirits flow,
Embrace more willing
Than th' loving palms (great union's wonder),
That ne'er bore any fruit asunder.
Be young to each when winter and grey hairs
Your head shall climb;
May your affections like the merry spheres
Still move in time,
And may (with many a good presage)
Your marriage prove your merry age.
[76] "This appeared twenty-four years earlier, being by Robert Baron,
among his _Poems_, 1650, p. 65."--_J. W. Ebsworth._
From _Rawlinson MS. Poet._ 199.
TO HIS MISTRESS FEIGNING TO CONCEAL LOVE.
DO not rack my bleeding heart;
Fling away, or show thy dart;
Delay is a worse pain
Than proud disdain.
Do not starve my ling'ring soul,
That still waits till thou control;
And either send home mine
Or give me thine.
Dost thou love me as thine own?
O then smile and do not frown:
Love soured with debate
Is worse than hate.
Dost thou hate me as too vile?
O then frown and do not smile:
Hate sweetened so will prove
Worse than love.
Sourest friend and sweetest foe,
Do not love and hate me too:
O 'tis a double ill
To wound and kill!
Quickly, quickly, speak my fate:
Dost thou love or dost thou hate?
Lest I too soon remove
And hate thy love.
HE. RAMSAY.
From _Rawlinson MS. Poet._ 199.
A SONG.
SIGHS, blow out those flames in me,
Or else allay them, ye cold fears,
Till so their heat chastised be;
And then I'll quench them with my tears.
But oh! my tears but oil will prove
To feed the flame of my desire:
My fears they stir the coals of love,
My sighs like bellows blow the fire.
But surely I'll not fail of this:
I'll sigh away my soul in air,
Leaving my body cold as is
Her love to me or my despair.
W. R.
From _Harl. MS._ 6917. fol. 86.
HE or she that hopes to gain
Love's best sweet without some pain,
Hopes in vain.
Cupid's livery no one wears
But must put on hopes and fears,
Smiles and tears,
And, like to April weather,
Rain and shine both together,
Both or neither.
From _Harl. MS._ 4955. fol. 146. (By DR. ANDREWES.[77])
PHILLIS INAMORATA.
COME, be my valentine!
I'll gather eglantine,
Cowslips and sops-in-wine,
With fragrant roses.
Down by thy Phillis sit,
She will white lilies get,
And daffadilies fit
To make thee posies.
I have a milk-white lamb,
New-taken from the dam,
It comes where'er I am
When I call "Willy:"
I have a wanton kid
Under my apron hid,
A colt that ne'er was rid,
A pretty filly.
I bear in sign of love
A sparrow in my glove,
And in my breast a dove,
This shall be all thine:
Besides of sheep a flock,
Which yieldeth many a lock,
And this shall be thy stock:
Come be my valentine!
[77] Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, a prelate of rare
virtue and high ability. This is the best of his poems.
By SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.
THE FALL.
AS Chloe o'er the meadow past
I viewed the lovely maid:
She turned and blushed, renewed her haste,
And feared by me to be embraced:
My eyes my wish betrayed.
I trembling felt the rising flame,
The charming nymph pursued;
Daphne was not so bright a game,
Tho' great Apollo's darling dame,
Nor with such charms endued.
I followed close, the fair still flew
Along the grassy plain;
The grass at length my rival grew,
And catched my Chloe by the shoe;
Her speed was then in vain.
But, oh! as tottering down she fell,
What did the fall reveal?
Such limbs description cannot tell;
Such charms were never in the Mall,
Nor smock did e'er conceal.
She shrieked; I turned my ravished eyes
And, burning with desire,
I helped the Queen of Love to rise:
She checked her anger and surprise,
And said, "Rash youth, retire;
"Begone, and boast what you have seen;
It shan't avail you much:
I know you like my form and mien,
Yet since so insolent you've been,
The Parts disclosed you ne'er shall touch."
From _Poems_. By W[ILLIAM] H[AMMOND], 1655.
THE FORSAKEN MAID.
GO, fickle man, and teach the moon to change,
The winds to vary, the coy bee to range:
You that despise the conquest of a town
Rendered without resistance of one frown.
Is this of easy faith the recompense?
Is my prone love's too prodigal expense
Rewarded with disdain? did ever dart
Rebound from such a penetrable heart?
Diana, in the service of whose shrine
Myself to single life I will confine,
Revenge thy votaress; for unto thee
The reeling Ocean bends his azure knee.
And since he loves upon rough seas to ride,
Grant such an Adria whose swelling tide
And stormy tongue may his false vessel wrack
And make the cordage of his heart to crack.
ANOTHER.
KNOW, falsest man, as my love was
Greater than thine or thy desert,
My scorn shall likewise thine surpass:
And thus I tear thee from my heart.
Thou art so far my love below
That than my anger thou art less;
I neither love nor quarrel now,
But pity thy unworthiness.
Go join, before thou think to wed,
Thy heart and tongue in wedlock's knot;
Can peace be reaped from his bed
Who with himself accordeth not?
Go learn to weigh thy words upon
The balance of reality,
And having that perfection
Attained, come then and I'll scorn thee.
From _Malone MS._ 13. fol. 53.
TO THE LADY MAY.
YOUR smiles are not, as other women's be,
Only the drawing of the mouth awry;
For breasts and cheeks and forehead we may see,
Parts wanting motion, all stand smiling by:
Heaven hath no mouth, and yet is said to smile
After your style:
No more hath earth, yet that smiles too,
Just as you do.
No simpering lips nor looks can breed
Such smiles as from your face proceed:
The sun must lend his golden beams,
Soft winds their breath, green trees their shade,
Sweet fields their flowers, clear springs their streams,
Ere such another smile be made:
But these concurring, we may say
"So smiles the spring and so smiles lovely May."
AU. TOWNSEND.[78]
[78] The author of a couple of masques. He was a friend of Carew; and
is introduced into Suckling's _Session of the Poets_.
From _Harl. MS._ 6918. fol. 92.
LOVE'S CONTENTMENT.
COME, my Clarinda, we'll consume
Our joys no more at this low rate;
More glorious titles let's assume
And love according to our state.
For if Contentment wears a crown
Which never tyrant could assail,
How many monarchs put we down
In our Utopian commonweal?
As princes rain down golden showers
On those in whom they take delight,
So in this happier court of ours
Each is the other's favourite.
Our privacies no eye dwells near,
But unobserved we embrace;
And no sleek courtier's pen is there
To set down either time or place.
No midnight fears disturb our bliss,
Unless a golden dream awake us;
For care we know not what it is,
Unless to please doth careful make us.
We fear no enemy's invasion,
Our counsel's wise and politic;
With timely force, if not persuasion,
We cool the homebred schismatic.
All discontent thus to remove,
What monarch boasts but thou and I?
In this content we live and love,
And in this love resolve to die:
That when, our souls together fled,
One urn shall our mix'd dust enshrine,
In golden numbers may be read
"Here lie Content's late King and Queen."
J. PAULIN.
_L'ENVOI._
_WITH faith unfeigned and constant heart
Still worship at Love's shrine:
Love's votaries ne'er feel any smart,
Nor at their yoke repine._
_Your lady kind shall multiply
Her kisses without measure;
Your days will slide unclouded by,
Your nights be crowned with pleasure._
_Love one, one only: if you stray,
By random fires beguiled,
In vain for grace you'll plead and pray,
From Love's sweet court exiled._
Chiswick Press
PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE,
LONDON, E.C.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
except in obvious cases of typographical errors.
In "I HAVE followed thee a year at least" (p107) the first line of the
last verse ends with "arc". This has been changed to "are"
A missing footnote anchor [19] has been added to "UNDERNEATH this
myrtle shade" (p 26).
Italics are shown thus _italic_.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Speculum Amantis - Love Poems, from Rare Songbooks and Miscellanies of the - Seventeenth Century" ***
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