Sweet fellow pris'ners, 'twas a cruel art Shirley's Bird in a Cage. John Ford's Lady's Trial. Death is the pledge of reft, and with one bail, Two prifons quits; the body, and the jail. A prifon is in all things like a grave, Bishop King, Than dead men; nor fo good. The foul once fled Nature, in spite of fortune, gave us minds, Bishop King. Sir Ralph Freeman's Imperiale. Doft thou ufe me as fond children do Their birds, fhew me my freedom in a string; And when thou't play'd with me a while, then pull Me back again, to languifh in my cage? Sir W. Davenant's Unfortunate Lovers. Her sweetness is imprifon'd now, Like Like weeping roses in a ftill; and is Sir W. Davenant's Love and Honour. This difmal place brings it again to thought! Where ftorms ingender; which with sudden blafts The stiffeft piles of art. Ibid. Captivity Is th'inheritance of all things finite; Marriage Broker. INCONSTANCY. O fair Cynthia, why do others term thee Be match'd in my fweet miftrefs, have chriften'd Courfe, which fince her firft creation alters Nothing thought more admirable, or commendable Their buds, are nothing worth till they be blown ; : Fruit And fhall we fay then they be changeable, For that they grow from feeds to leaves, from leaves To To buds, from buds to their perfections? Then, why be not twigs that become trees; Not delighting in her greatest beauty; Beauty, and latter minute of her age, Ev'n as one heat another heat expels, Lilly's Endimion. Or as one nail by ftrength drives out another; Is by a newer object quite forgotten. 1. Shakespear's Two Gentlemen of Verona. It is the leffer blot, modesty finds; Women to change their fhapes, than men their minds, 2. Than men their minds? 'Tis true: Oh heaven! Were man But conftant, he were perfect; that one error Fills him with faults; makes him run through all fins : Inconftancy falls off, ere it begins. Now thou haft lov'd me one whole day, Ibid. To-morrow, when thou leav'ft, what wilt thou fay? Wilt thou then antedate fome new-made vow ? Or fay, that now We are not just thofe perfons, which we were? Or, that oaths made in reverential fear Of love and his wrath, any may forswear? Or Or your own end to justify, For having propos'd change and falfhood, you Dr. Donne Let us examine all the creatures, read Our conftitutions vary; herbs, and trees There is no mufick in a voice, That is but one, and ftill the fame ; "Shirley's Traytor. To fright poor lovers from a better choice. Jofeph Rutter's Shepherds Holiday. Truth on mens tongues, the fays, does feldom fit, But what they rafhly fwear, they foon forget: She fays, they write in fand, when they take oaths, And keep their vows, juft as they wear their cloaths, Whilft only they be new, and fresh i'th' fashion; But once grown old, like words they speak in paffion, They lay them by forgot; and their words leave With watery eyes to wail the faith they gave To their more wat'ry vows; and then in pride, In fcorn's triumphal chariot will they ride Over their spoils; and tyrannoufly, glory How many female trophies deck their story: So quick-heel'd Thefeus of two conquefts vapour, Poor Ariadne, and the Minotaure; And And leaves fame in the labyrinth, to tell Baron. Oh men In thy fair breaft, and once-fair foul, When you had thrown the bond away ? Nor muft we only part in joy; Our tears as well must be unkind : You are not, Cynthia, better pleas'd than I, Through this dark night of blind inconftancy, Perhaps fo foon I could not difengage, Having a greater score; Some birds will longer hover round the cage, Though 'twas their goal before. Heath. Yet |