Let me think any rival's letter mine,

And at next nine

Keep midnight's promise; mistake by the way
The maid, and tell the lady of that delay;
Only let me love none; no, not the sport
From country grass to confitures of court,
Or city's quelque-choses; let not report
My mind transport.

This bargain's good; if when I'm old, I be
Inflamed by thee,

If thine own honour, or my shame and pain,
Thou covet most, at that age thou shalt gain.
Do thy will then; then subject and degree
And fruit of love, Love, I submit to thee.
Spare me till then; I'll bear it, though she be
One that love me.

1. 12. 1669, her delay

1. 15. So 1635; 1633, 1669 omit not

1. 19. 1669, or pain

1. 24. So 1635; 1633, 1669, loves me

THE CANONIZATION.

FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love; Or chide my palsy, or my gout;

My five grey hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace;

Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas! alas! who's injured by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd? Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground? When did my colds a forward spring remove? When did the heats which my veins fill

Add one more to the plaguy bill? Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move, Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly,

We're tapers too, and at our own cost die, And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.

1. 3. So 1633, 1635, true grey hairs; 1669, five. . .

fortunes

1. 14. 1669, reins

1 17. 1669, whom

1. 15. 1669, one man

1. 18. 1669, While

ΙΟ

20

The phoenix riddle hath more wit

By us; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.

We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,

We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns all shall approve
Us canonized for love;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage;

30

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage; Who did the whole world's soul contract, and

drove

Into the glasses of your eyes;

So made such mirrors, and such spies,

That they did all to you epitomize-
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love.

1. 29. So 1669; 1633, tombs and

1. 35. 1635, those

1. 45. So 1669; 1633, our love

40

THE TRIPLE FOOL.

I AM two fools, I know,

For loving, and for saying so

In whining poetry;

But where's that wise man, that would not be I, If she would not deny?

Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,

I thought, if I could draw my pains

ΙΟ

Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay. Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

But when I have done so,

Some man, his art and voice to show,
Doth set and sing my pain;

And, by delighting many, frees again
Grief, which verse did restrain.

To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
But not of such as pleases when 'tis read.
Both are increased by such songs,

For both their triumphs so are published,
And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.
Who are a little wise, the best fools be.

1. 4. 1669, the wiser man

20

1. 10. 1669, number

1. 13. 1669, or voice

LOVERS' INFINITENESS.

IF yet I have not all thy love,

Dear, I shall never have it all;

I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall;

And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,
Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent ;
Yet no more can be due to me,

Than at the bargain made was meant.

If then thy gift of love were partial,

That some to me, some should to others fall,
Dear, I shall never have thee all.

1Ο

Or if then thou gavest me all,

All was but all, which thou hadst then;

But if in thy heart since there be or shall

New love created be by other men,

Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears, In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,

This new love may beget new fears,

For this love was not vow'd by thee.

And yet it was, thy gift being general;

The ground, thy heart, is mine; what ever shall

Grow there, dear, I should have it all.

20

1.9. 1669, was

1. 12. 1669, givest

1. 11. 1635, it all

1. 17. 1635, in letters

1. 21. So 1633, 1669; 1635, was mine