Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

THE UNDERTAKING.

I HAVE done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did;
And yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.

It were but madness now to impart
The skill of specular stone,

When he, which can have learn'd the art
To cut it, can find none.

So, if I now should utter this,
Others-because no more

Such stuff to work upon, there is—
Would love but as before.TM

But he who loveliness within

Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who colour loves, and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also do

Virtue in woman see,

And dare love that, and say so too,

And forget the He and She;

1. 18. So 1635; 1633, Virtue attired in woman see

IO

20

And if this love, though placed so,
From profane men you hide,
Which will no faith on this bestow,
Or, if they do, deride;

Then you have done a braver thing
Than all the Worthies did;
And a braver thence will spring,
Which is, to keep that hid,

THE SUN RISING.

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

Late school-boys and sour prentices,

Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,

Call country ants to harvest offices;

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of

time.

[ocr errors]

L 3. 1669. look on us

1. 6. 1669, or sour

Thy beams so reverend, and strong

Why shouldst thou think?

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
If her eyes have not blinded thine,

Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay." 20

She's all states, and all princes I;
Nothing else is;

Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world's contracted thus ;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere.

1. 11. 1635,

Thy beams so reverend, and strong

Dost thou not think

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long?
1. 18. 1635, left them

30

THE INDIFFERENT.

I CAN love both fair and brown;

Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want

betrays;

Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and

plays;

Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town;

Her who believes, and her who tries;

Her who still weeps with spongy eyes,

And her who is dry cork, and never cries.

I can love her, and her, and you, and you;
I can love any, so she be not true.

Will no other vice content you?

ΙΟ

Will it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers? Or have you all old vices spent and now would find out others?

Or doth a fear that men are true torment you?

O we are not, be not you so;

Let me and do you-twenty know;

Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go.
Must I, who came to travel thorough you,

Grow your fix'd subject, because you are true?

1. 3. 1669, Her who loves lovers best, and her who

sports and plays

1. 12. 1669, vices worn

1. 17. So 1635; 1633 travaile

Venus heard me sigh this song;

And by love's sweetest part, variety, she swore,

20

She heard not this till now; it should be so no more.
She went, examined, and return'd ere long,
And said, "Alas! some two or three
Poor heretics in love there be,

Which think to stablish dangerous constancy.
But I have told them, 'Since you will be true,
You shall be true to them who're false to you.'"

LOVE'S USURY.

FOR every hour that thou wilt spare me now,
I will allow,

Usurious god of love, twenty to thee,

When with my brown my grey hairs equal be.
Till then, Love, let my body range, and let
Me travel, sojourn, snatch, plot, have, forget,
Resume my last year's relict; think that yet
We'd never met.

[blocks in formation]

1. 6. So 1633, 1669; 1635, match, plot, have, forget

1. 7. 1669, relique

« AnteriorContinuar »