A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet;
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set,
Like usury applying wet to wet;
Or monarch's hands, that let no bounty fall,
Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.
Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud:
Found yet more letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk, feat and affectedly
Enswath'd and seal'd to curious secrecy.
These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes,
And often kiss'd, and often gave a tear;
Cry'd, O false blood! thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness dost him bear!
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man, that graz'd his cattle nigh,
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours observed as they flew ;
Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew:
And, privileg'd by age, desires to know,
In brief, the grounds and motives of her woe.
So slides he down upon his grained bat,
And comely distant sits he by her side;
When he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance with his hearing to divide ;
If that from him there may be ought apply'd,
Which may her suffering ecstacy assuage:
'Tis promis'd in the charity of age.
Father, she says, tho' in me you behold
The injury of many a blasting hour,
Let it not tell your judgment I am old;
Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power:
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-apply'd
Love to myself, and to no love beside.
But woe is me! too early I attended
A youthful suit; it was to gain my grace;
O! one by nature's outward so commended,
That maiden's eyes stuck over all his face ;
Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place ;
And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodg'd, and newly deify'd.
His browny locks did hang in crooked curls,
And every light occasion of the wind
Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find;
Each eye that saw him did inchant the mind;
For on his visage was in little drawn,
What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.
Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
His phoenix down began but to appear,
Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear;
Yet show'd his visage by that cost most dear :
And nice affections wavering, stood in doubt
If best 'twere as it was, or best without.
His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongu'd he was, and thereof free:
Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm,
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly tho' they be.
His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth,
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
Well could he ride, and often men would say,
That horse his mettle from his rider takes;
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he
And controversy hence a question takes,
Whether the horse by him became his deed,
Or he his, manag'd by th' well-doing steed?
But quickly on this side the verdict went;
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case;
P VOL. IX.
All aids themselves made fairer by their place,
Can for additions yet their purpose trim,
Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him
So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kinds of arguments and questions deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep,
To make the weeper laygh, the laugher weep.
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will.
That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old, and sexes both inchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted;
Consent's bewitched, ere he desire have granted;
And dialogu'd for him what he would say,
Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.
Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind ;
Like fools that in th' imagination set
The goodly objects, which abroad they find,
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd;
And labouring in more pleasures to bestow them,
Than the true gouty landlord, who doth own them.
So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart:
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee simple, not in part,
What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,
Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desir'd, yielded :
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I my honour shielded :
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new bleeding, which remain'd the foil
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
But ah! however shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill, she must her self assay !
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put thy by-past perils in her way!
Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay:
For when we rage, advice is often seen,
By blunting us, to make our wits more keen.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof:
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms, that preach in our behoof.
O appetite! from judgment stand aloof.
The one a palate hath, that needs will taste,
Tho' reason weep, and cry, it is my last.
For further I could say this man's untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling,
Heard where his plants in other orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling,
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling:
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adult'rate heart.
And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid;
What's to you sworn, to none was ever said.
For feasts of love I have been call'd unto;
Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow:
All my offences, that abroad you see,
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
Love made them not, with acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind :
They sought their shame, that so their shame did find. And so much less of shame in me remains,
By how much of me their reproach contains.
Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
Or my affection put to the smallest teen,
Or any of my leisures ever charmed:
Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
Kept hearts in liveries, but my own was free,
And reign'd commanding in his monarchy.
Look here what tributes wounded fancy sent me,
Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood;
Figuring, that they their passions likewise lent me,
Of grief and blushes aptly understood;
In bloodless white, and the encrimson'd mood,
Effects of terror, and dear modesty,
Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
And lo behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously empleach'd,
I have receiv'd from many a several fair;
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
With the annexions of fair geins inrich'd;
And deep-brain'd sonnets, that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality:
The diamond! why 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invis'd properties did tend:
The deep green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend:
The heaven-hued saphyr, and the ophal blend
With objects manifold; each several stone,
With wit well blazon'd, smil'd, or made some moan.
Lo all these trophies of affection hot,
Of pensive and subdu'd desires, the tender;
Nature hath charg’d me, that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render:
That is, to you my origin and ender.
For these of force must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
O! then advance (of yours) that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise!
Take all these smiles unto your own command,
Hallow'd with sighs, that burning lungs did raise ;
What me your minister for you obeys,
Works under you, and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels, in combined sums.
Lo! this device was sent me from a nun,
Or sister sanctify'd of holiest note,
Which late her noble suit in court did shun
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms doat:
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
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