THE RELIC.

WHEN my grave is broke up again
Some second guest to entertain,

-For graves have learn'd that woman-head,
To be to more than one a bed-

And he that digs it, spies

A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will not he let us alone,

And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls at the last busy day

Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?

If this fall in a time, or land,

Where mass-devotion doth command,
Then he that digs us up will bring
Us to the bishop or the king,
To make us relics; then

Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I

A something else thereby ;

All women shall adore us, and some men.
And, since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.

ΙΟ

20

First we loved well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what we loved, nor why;
Difference of sex we never knew,

No more than guardian angels do;
Coming and going we

Perchance might kiss, but not between those meals;

Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals,

Which nature, injured by late law, sets free.
These miracles we did; but now alas!
All measure, and all language, I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.

30

THE DAMP.

WHEN I am dead, and doctors know not why, And my friends' curiosity

Will have me cut up to survey each part, When they shall find your picture in my heart, You think a sudden damp of love

Will thorough all their senses move,

And work on them as me, and so prefer
Your murder to the name of massacre,

1. 25. So 1635; 1633, no more we knew 1. 26. So 1635; 1633, Than our

1. 28. 1669, yet between

1. 4. 1669, And

1. 30. 1669, set free

Poor victories; but if you dare be brave,

And pleasure in your conquest have, 10
First kill th' enormous giant, your Disdain;
And let th' enchantress Honour, next be slain ;
And like a Goth or Vandal rise,
Deface records and histories

Of your own arts and triumphs over men,
And without such advantage kill me then,

For I could muster up, as well as you,
My giants, and my witches too,

Which are vast Constancy and Secretness ;
But these I neither look for nor profess;
Kill me as woman, let me die

As a mere man; do you but try

Your passive valour, and you shall find then,
Naked you have odds enough of any man.

1. 10. 1669, the conquest

1. 24. So 1635; 1633, In that

20

THE DISSOLUTION.

SHE's dead; and all which die
To their first elements resolve;
And we were mutual elements to us,
And made of one another.

My body then doth hers involve,
And those things whereof I consist hereby
In me abundant grow, and burdenous,
And nourish not, but smother.

My fire of passion, sighs of air,
Water of tears, and earthy sad despair,
Which my materials be,

But near worn out by love's security,
She, to my loss, doth by her death repair.
And I might live long wretched so,

But that my fire doth with my fuel grow.

Now, as those active kings

Whose foreign conquest treasure brings,

10

Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break,, This-which I am amazed that I can speak

This death, hath with my store

My use increased.

And so my soul, more earnestly released,

Will outstrip hers; as bullets flown before

20

A later bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.

1. 12. So 1635; 1633, ne'r

A JET RING SENT.

THOU art not so black as my heart,

Nor half so brittle as her heart, thou art; What wouldst thou say? shall both our properties by thee be spoke,

-Nothing more endless, nothing sooner broke?

Marriage rings are not of this stuff;

Oh, why should ought less precious, or less tough, Figure our loves? except in thy name thou have bid

it say

"I'm cheap, and nought but fashion; fling me away."

Yet stay with me since thou art come,

Circle this finger's top, which didst her thumb; 10 Be justly proud, and gladly safe, that thou dost dwell with me;

She that, O! broke her faith, would soon break thee.