If so, why then are not these verses hurld,
Like sybels leaves throughout the ample world? What is a jewell, if it be not set
Forth by a ring, or some rich carkanet?
But being so, then the beholders cry
See, see a jemme as rare as Bælus eye:
Then publick praise do's runne upon the stone,
For a most rich, a rare, a precious one.
Expose your jewels then unto the view,
That we may praise them, or themselves prize you.
Vertue conceal'd, with Horace you'l confesse,
Differs not much from drowzie slothfulnesse.
I AM of all bereft,
Save but some few beans left,
Whereof at last to make
For me and mine a cake:
Which eaten, they and I
Will say our grace and die.
LITTLENESSE NO CAUSE OF LEANNESSE.
ONE feeds on lard, and yet is leane ;
And I, but feasting with a beane,
Grow fat and smooth. The reason is,
Jove prospers my meat more then his.
UPON ONE WHO SAID SHE WAS ALWAYS YOUNG.
You say y'are young; but when your teeth are told
To be but three, Black-ey'd, wee'l think y'are old.
HUNCKS has no money, he do's sweare or say,
About him, when the taverns shot's to pay.
If he ha's none in 's pockets, trust me, Huncks
Ha's none at home, in coffers, desks, or trunks.
THE JIMMALL RING,* OR TRUE-LOVE KNOT.
THOU sent'st to me a true-love knot, but I
Return'd a ring of jimmalls, to imply
Thy love had one knot, mine a triple tye.
THE PARTING VERSE, OR CHARGE TO HIS
SUPPOSED WIFE WHEN HE TRAVELLED.
Go hence, and with this parting kisse,
Which joyns two souls, remember this:
Though thou beest young, kind, soft, and faire,
And may'st draw thousands with a haire,
*Originally a sort of double ring, but sometimes made triple, (as here,) or even quadruple.
Yet let these glib temptations be
Furies to others, friends to me.
Looke upon all, and though on fire
Thou set❜st their hearts, let chaste desire
Steere thee to me; and thinke, me gone,
In having all, that thou has none.
Nor so immured wo'd I have
Thee live, as dead and in thy grave;
But walke abroad, yet wisely well
Stand, for my comming, Sentinell.
And think, as thou do'st walke the street,
Me, or my shadow thou do'st meet.
I know a thousand greedy eyes
Will on thy feature tirannize,
my short absence: yet behold
Them like some picture, or some mould
Fashion'd like thee; which though 't 'ave eares
And eyes, it neither sees or heares.
Gifts will be sent, and letters, which
Are the expressions of that itch
And salt which frets thy suters; fly
Both, lest thou lose thy liberty:
For that once lost, thou't fall to one,
Then prostrate to a million.
But if they wooe thee, do thou say,
As that chaste queen of Ithaca
Did to her suitors, this web done,
(Undone as oft as done) I'm wonne.
I will not urge thee, for I know,
Though thou art young, thou canst say no,
And no again, and so deny
Those thy lust-burning incubi.
Let them enstile thee fairest faire,
The pearle of princes, yet despaire
That so thou art, because thou must
Believe, love speaks it not, but lust,
And this their flatt'rie do's commend
Thee chiefly for their pleasures end.
I am not jealous of thy faith,
Or will be; for the axiome saith,
He that doth suspect do's haste
A gentle mind to be unchaste.
No, live thee to thy selfe, and keep
Thy thoughts as cold as is thy sleep;
And let thy dreames be only fed
With this, that I am in thy bed;
And thou then turning in that sphere,
Waking shalt find me sleeping there.
But yet if boundlesse lust must skaile
Thy fortress, and will needs prevaile,
And wildly force a passage in,—
Banish consent, and 'tis no sinne
Of thine; so Lucrece fell, and the
Chaste Syracusian Cyane;
So Medullina fell, yet none
Of these had imputation
For the least trespasse, 'cause the mind
Here was not with the act combin❜d.
The body sins not; 'tis the will
That makes the action good or ill;
And if thy fall sho'd this way come,
Triumph in such a martidome.
I will not over-long enlarge
To thee this my religious charge.
Take this compression, so by this
Means I shall know what other kisse
Is mixt with mine, and truly know,
Returning, if't be mine or no.
Keepe it till then. And now my spouse,
For my wisht safety pay thy vowes
And prayers to Venus; if it please
The great blew ruler of the seas,
Not many full-fac't moons shall waine,
Lean-horn'd, before I come again,
As one triumphant when I find
In thee all faith of woman-kind.
Nor wo'd I have thee thinke that thou
Had'st power thy self to keep this vow:
But having scapt temptations shelfe,
Know vertue taught thee, not thy selfe.
TO HIS KINSMAN, SIR THO. SOAME.
SEEING thee, Soame, I see a goodly man,
And in that good a great patrician;
Next to which two, among the city-powers
And thrones, thy selfe one of those senatours
Not wearing purple only for the show,
(As many conscripts of the citie do,)
But for true service worthy of that gowne,
The golden chain too, and the civick crown.
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