LOVE'S CASUISTRY

149

Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend;

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend ;

All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;

Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,

Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.

Celestial as thou art, O pardon love this wrong That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.

CLXIII

2

Shakespeare.

DID not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,
Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.

A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.

Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is :

Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is:

If broken then, it is no fault of mine;

If by me broke, what fool is not so wise

To lose an oath to win a paradise?

Shakespeare.

CLXIV

THE GIFT

FAIN would I have a pretty thing
To give unto my Lady:

I name no thing, nor I mean no thing,
But as pretty a thing as may be.

Twenty journeys would I make,
And twenty ways would hie me,
To make adventure for her sake,
To set some matter by me:

But fain would I have

Some do long for pretty knacks,

And some for strange devices:
God send me that my Lady lacks,
I care not what the price is.

Thus fain.

I walk the town and tread the street,

In every corner seeking

The mercers pull me, going by,
The silk-wives say 'What lack ye?'
'The thing you have not,' then say I:
'Ye foolish knaves, go pack ye!'

But were it in the wit of man
By any means to make it,
I could for money buy it then,
And say, 'Fair Lady, take it!'
Thus fain

151

Thus fain would I have had this

pretty thing

To give unto my Lady;

I said no harm, nor I meant no harm,
But as pretty a thing as may be.

Anon.

CLXV

TO HIS BOOK

HAPPY ye
leaves whenas those lily hands,
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might,
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight:

And happy lines, on which with starry light
Those lamping eyes will deign sometime to look
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,

Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book:

And happy rhymes, bathed in the second book
Of Helicon, whence she derived is,

When ye behold that angel's blessed look,
My soul's long lackèd food, my heaven's bliss:

Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone, Whom if ye please, I care for other none.

Spenser.

CLXVI

UPON JULIA'S RECOVERY

DROOP, droop no more, or hang the head,

Ye roses almost withered;

Now strength and newer purple get,

Each here declining violet ;

O primroses! let this day be

A resurrection unto ye,

TO DAISIES, NOT TO SHUT SO SOON

And to all flowers allied in blood,
Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood:
For health on Julia's cheek hath shed
Claret and cream comminglèd;

And those her lips do now appear

As beams of coral, but more clear.

153

Herrick.

CLXVII

THE BRACELET: TO JULIA

WHY I tie about thy wrist,
Julia, this silken twist ;
For what other reason is 't
But to show thee how, in part,
Thou my pretty captive art?
But thy bond-slave is my heart:
'Tis but silk that bindeth thee,
Knap the thread and thou art free;
But 'tis otherwise with me:

-I am bound and fast bound, so
That from thee I cannot go ;

If I could, I would not so.

Herrick.

CLXVIII

TO DAISIES, NOT TO SHUT SO SOON

SHUT not so soon; the dull-eyed night

Has not as yet begun

To make a seizure on the light,

Or to seal up the sun.