SONGS AND SONNETS.

THE FLEA.

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;

Yet this enjoys before it woo,

And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two; And this, alas! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

This

1. 3. 1669, Me it suck'd first and now it sucks thee,
1. 5. 1669, Confess it.
1. 6. 1669, or shame.
1. II. 1669, nay

VOL. I.

I

or 1. 9. 1669, could

IO

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true; then learn how false fears be;

Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

L 22. 1669, that blood

20

THE GOOD-MORROW.

I WONDER, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?
'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

10

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally;

If our two loves be one, or thou and I

Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

Love just alike in all, none of these loves can die.

20

SONG.

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear,

No where

Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know;
Such a pilgrimage were sweet.

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet.

1. 3. 1669, times past

1. 11. 1669, go see

ΙΟ

20

Though she were true when you met her,
And last till you write your letter,

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two or three.

WOMAN'S CONSTANCY.

Now thou hast loved me one whole day,
To-morrow when thou leavest, what wilt thou say?
Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?
Or say that now

We are not just those persons which we were?
Or that oaths made in reverential fear

Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?

Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,

So lovers' contracts, images of those,

Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose? 10 Or, your own end to justify,

For having purposed change and falsehood, you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could
Dispute, and conquer, if I would;
Which I abstain to do,

For by to-morrow I may think so too.

1. 27. 1669, ere she come

1. 8. So 1633, 1669; 1635, For as, lines 8-10 being in brackets.