Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

• 214 *

UPON LOVE:

BY WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER

I BRING ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Like, and dislike ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Stroke ye, to strike ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Love will be-fool ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Heat ye, to cool ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Love, gifts will send ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Stock ye, to spend ye.

I bring ye love.

Ans. Love

Ques. What will love do?
will fulfil ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do?
Ans. Kiss ye, to kill ye.

* 215 *

LOVERS HOW THEY COME AND PART

A GYGES ring they bear about them still,
To be, and not seen when and where they will;
They tread on clouds, and though they sometimes fail,
They fall like dew, and make no noise at all:

So silently they one to th' other come,
As colours steal into the pear or plum,
And air-like, leave no pression to be seen
Where'er they met, or parting place has been.

*216*

THE KISS:

A DIALOGUE

i AMONG thy fancies, tell me this,
What is the thing we call a kiss?
2 I shall resolve ye what it is :—

It is a creature born and bred
Between the lips, all cherry-red,
By love and warm desires fed,—

Chor. And makes more soft the bridal bed.

2 It is an active flame, that flies

First to the babies of the eyes,

And charms them there with lullabies,—
Chor. And stills the bride, too, when she cries.

2 Then to the chin, the cheek, the ear,
It frisks and flies, now here, now there :
'Tis now far off, and then 'tis near,—
Chor. And here, and there, and

every where. I Has it a speaking virtue? 2 Yes. I How speaks it, say? 2 Do you but this,-Part your join'd lips, then speaks your kiss ; Chor. And this Love's sweetest language is.

1 Has it a body? 2 Ay, and wings,
With thousand rare encolourings;

And as it flies, it gently sings

Chor. Love honey yields, but never stings.

* 217 *

COMFORT TO A YOUTH THAT HAD LOST HIS LOVE

WHAT needs complaints,

When she a place

Has with the race

Of saints?

In endless mirth,

She thinks not on

What's said or done

In earth:

She sees no tears,

Or any tone

Of thy deep groan

She hears;

Nor does she mind,
Or think on't now,

That ever thou

Wast kind :

But changed above,
She likes not there,
As she did here,
Thy love.

-Forbear, therefore,
And lull asleep

Thy woes, and weep

No more.

. 218

ORPHEUS

ORPHEUS he went, as poets tell,
To fetch Eurydicé from hell;
And had her, but it was upon
This short, but strict condition;
Backward he should not look, while he
Led her through hell's obscurity.
But ah ! it happen'd, as he made
His passage through that dreadful shade,
Revolve he did his loving eye,

For gentle fear or jealousy ;

And looking back, that look did sever
Him and Eurydicé for ever.

* 219 *

A REQUEST TO THE GRACES

PONDER my words, if so that any be
Known guilty here of incivility;

Let what is graceless, discomposed, and rude,
With sweetness, smoothness, softness be endued:
Teach it to blush, to curtsey, lisp, and show
Demure, but yet full of temptation, too.
Numbers ne'er tickle, or but lightly please,
Unless they have some wanton carriages :-
This if ye do, each piece will here be good
And graceful made by your neat sisterhood.

*220*

A HYMN TO VENUS AND CUPID

SEA-BORN goddess, let me be
By thy son thus graced, and thee,
That whene'er I woo, I find
Virgins coy, but not unkind.
Let me, when I kiss a maid,
Taste her lips, so overlaid
With love's sirop, that I may
In your temple, when I pray,
Kiss the altar, and confess
There's in love no bitterness.

* 221 *

TO BACCHUS:

A CANTICLE

WHITHER dost thou hurry me,
Bacchus, being full of thee?

This way, that way, that way, this,--
Here and there a fresh Love is;
That doth like me, this doth please ;
-Thus a thousand mistresses

I have now yet I alone,
Having all, enjoy not one!

« AnteriorContinuar »