To our bodies turn we then, that so

Weak men on love reveal'd may look ;

70

Love's mysteries in souls do grow,

But yet the body is his book.

And if some lover, such as we,

Have heard this dialogue of one,

Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change when we're to bodies gone.

LOVE'S DEITY.

I LONG to talk with some old lover's ghost,
Who died before the god of love was born.
I cannot think that he, who then loved most,
Sunk so low as to love one which did scorn.
But since this god produced a destiny,
And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be,

I must love her that loves not me.

Sure, they which made him god, meant not so much,
Nor he in his young godhead practised it.

But when an even flame two hearts did touch,
His office was indulgently to fit

Actives to passives. Correspondency
Only his subject was; it cannot be
Love, till I love her, who loves me.

1. 72. 1669, the book

1. 76. 1635, grown

ΙΟ

1. 14. 1635, if I love, who loves not me; 1669, till I love her, that loves me

But every modern god will now extend
His vast prerogative as far as Jove.
To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend,
All is the purlieu of the god of love.
O! were we waken'd by this tyranny
To ungod this child again, it could not be
I should love her, who loves not me.

Rebel and atheist too, why murmur I,

As though I felt the worst that love could do? Love may make me leave loving, or might try

A deeper plague, to make her love me too; Which, since she loves before, I'm loth to see. Falsehood is worse than hate; and that must be, If she whom I love, should love me.

LOVE'S DIET.

To what a cumbersome unwieldiness

And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,

But that I did, to make it less,

And keep it in proportion,

Give it a diet, made it feed upon

That which love worst endures, discretion.

1. 19. 1669, Were we not weakened

Above one sigh a day I allow'd him not,
Of which my fortune, and my faults had part;
And if sometimes by stealth he got

A she sigh from my mistress' heart,
And thought to feast on that, I let him see
'Twas neither very sound, nor meant to me.

If he wrung from me a tear, I brined it so
With scorn or shame, that him it nourish'd not ;
If he suck'd hers, I let him know

'Twas not a tear which he had got;

His drink was counterfeit, as was his meat;

ΙΟ

For eyes, which roll towards all, weep not, but sweat.

Whatever he would dictate I writ that,

But burnt her letters when she writ to me;

20

And if that favour made him fat,

I said, "If any title be

Convey'd by this, ah! what doth it avail,
To be the fortieth name in an entail?"

1. 18. 1669, Her eyes

1. 19. So 1633, 1669; 1650, Whate'er might him distaste, I still writ that

1. 20. So 1635; 1633, my letters; 1669, my letters which she writ

1. 21. So 1635; 1633, that that

1. 24. 1669, fortieth man

Thus I reclaim'd my buzzard love, to flie

At what, and when, and how, and where I choose. Now negligent of sports I lie,

And now, as other falconers use,

I spring a mistress, swear, write, sigh, and weep;
And the game kill'd, or lost, go talk or sleep.

THE WILL,

BEFORE I sigh my last gasp, let me breathe,
Great Love, some legacies; I here bequeath
Mine eyes to Argus, if mine eyes can see ;
If they be blind, then, Love, I give them thee;
My tongue to Fame; to ambassadors mine ears ;
To women or the sea, my tears:

Thou, Love, hast taught me heretofore

30

By making me serve her who had twenty more, That I should give to none, but such as had too much before.

My constancy I to the planets give ;

My truth to them who at the court do live;
Mine ingenuity and openness,

To Jesuits; to buffoons my pensiveness;
My silence to any, who abroad hath been;

My money to a Capuchin :

Thou, Love, taught'st me, by appointing me To love there, where no love received can be, Only to give to such as have an incapacity.

10

1. 30. So 1635; 1633, and sleep 1. 18, 1669, no good capacity

My faith I give to Roman Catholics;

All my good works unto the Schismatics
Of Amsterdam; my best civility
And courtship to an University;
My modesty I give to soldiers bare;

My patience let gamesters share :

Thou, Love, taught'st me, by making me Love her that holds my love disparity,

Only to give to those that count my gifts indignity.

I give my reputation to those

Which were my friends; mine industry to foes;
To schoolmen I bequeath my doubtfulness;

My sickness to physicians, or excess;

To nature all that I in rhyme have writ ;

And to my company my

wit:

Thou, Love, by making me adore

Her, who begot this love in me before,

20

30

Taught'st me to make, as though I gave, when I do but restore.

To him for whom the passing-bell next tolls,
I give my physic books; my written rolls

Of moral counsels I to Bedlam give ;

My brazen medals unto them which live

In want of bread; to them which pass among
All foreigners, mine English tongue :
Thou, Love, by making me love one
Who thinks her friendship a fit portion

40

For younger lovers, dost my gifts thus disproportion.

1. 36. So 1635; 1633, did but