You have broke promise twice,
Deare, to undoe me;

If you prove faithlesse thrice,
None then will wooe you.

TO THE GENEROUS READER.

SEE, and not see; and if thou chance t'espie
Some aberrations in my poetry,

Wink at small faults, the greater ne❜rthelesse
Hide, and with them, their father's nakedness.
Let's doe our best, our watch and ward to keep:
Homer himself, in a long work, may sleep.

TO CRITICKS.

ILE write, because Ile give

You criticks means to live:

For sho'd I not supply

The cause, th' effect wo'd die.

DUTY TO TYRANTS.

GOOD princes must be pray'd for: for the bad,
They must be borne with and in rev'rence had.
Doe they first pill thee, next, pluck off thy skin?
Good children kisse the rods that punish sin.
Touch not the tyrant; let the gods alone
To strike him dead that but usurps a throne.

BEING ONCE BLIND, HIS REQUEST TO
BIANCHA.

WHEN age or chance has made me blind,
So that the path I cannot find;

And when my falls and stumblings are
More then the stones i'th'street by farre;
Goe thou afore, and I shall well
Follow thy perfumes by the smell:
Or be my guide, and I shall be
Led by some light that flows from thee.
Thus held or led by thee, I shall
In wayes confus'd nor slip or fall.

UPON BLANCH.

BLANCH Swears her husband's lovely, when a

scald

Has blear❜d his eyes; besides, his head is bald: Next, his wilde eares, like lethern wings full

spread,

Flutter to flie, and beare away his head.

NO WANT WHERE THERE'S LITTLE.

To bread and water none is poore;
And having these, what need of more?
Though much from out the cess be spent,
Nature with little is content.

BARLY-BREAK OR LAST IN HELL.

WE two are last in hell: what may we feare
To be tormented, or kept pris'ners here?
Alas! if kissing be of plagues the worst,
We'll wish in hell we had been last and first.

THE DEFINITION OF BEAUTY.

BEAUTY no other thing is, then a beame
Flasht out between the middle and extreame.

TO DIANEME.

DEARE, though to part it be a hell,
Yet, Dianeme, now farewell:

Thy frown, last night, did bid me goe,
But whither, onely grief do's know.

I doe beseech thee, ere we part,

(If mercifull as faire thou art;

Or else desir'st that maids sho'd tell

Thy pitty by loves-chronicle)

O Dianeme, rather kill

Me, then to make me languish stil!
'Tis cruelty in thee to th❜height,

Thus, thus to wound, not kill out-right;
Yet there's a way found, if thou please,
By sudden death to give me ease;

Bequeath to me one parting kisse:

So sup'rabundant joy shall be
The executioner of me.

TO ANTHEA LYING IN BED.

So looks Anthea, when in bed she lyes,
Orecome, or halfe betray'd, by tiffanies,
Like to a twi-light, or that simpring dawn,
That roses shew when misted o're with lawn.
Twilight is yet, till that her lawnes give way;
Which done, that dawne turnes then to perfect
day.

TO ELECTRA.

MORE white then whitest lillies far,
Or snow, or whitest swans you are:
More white then are the whitest creames,
Or moone-light tinselling the streames :
More white then pearls, or Juno's thigh,
Or Pelops arme of yvorie.

True, I confesse, such whites as these
May me delight, not fully please,
Till, like Ixion's cloud, you be

White, warme, and soft to lye with me.

A COUNTRY LIFE: TO HIS BROTHER,
M. THO. HERRICK.

THRICE, and above blest, my soules halfe, art thou,

In thy both last and better vow :
Could'st leave the city, for exchange to see
The countrie's sweet simplicity;

And it to know, and practice, with intent
Το grow the sooner innocent,

By studying to know vertue, and to aime
More at her nature then her name.

The last is but the least; the first doth tell
Wayes lesse to live, then to live well;
And both are knowne to thee, who now can'st live
Led by thy conscience, to give

Justice to soone-pleas'd nature, and to show
Wisdome and she together goe,

And keep one centre. This with that conspires,
To teach man to confine desires;

And know that riches have their proper stint
In the contented mind, not mint.

And can'st instruct, that those who have the itch
Of craving more, are never rich.

These things thou know'st to th’height, and dost

prevent

That plague, because thou art content With that Heav'n gave thee with a warie hand, (More blessed in thy brasse then land)