EPITHALAMIONS, OR MARRIAGE SONGS.

EPITHALAMIONS,

OR MARRIAGE SONGS.

AN EPITHALAMION, OR MARRIAGE SONG, ON THE LADY ELIZABETH AND COUNT PALATINE BEING MARRIED ON

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

I.

HAIL, Bishop Valentine, whose day this is!
All the air is thy diocis,

And all the chirping choristers
And other birds are thy parishioners;

Thou marriest every year

The lyric lark, and the grave whispering dove,
The sparrow, that neglects his life for love,
The household bird with the red stomacher;

Thou mak'st the blackbird speed as soon

As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon;

The husband cock looks out and straight is sped,
And meets his wife which brings her feather-bed:
This day more cheerfully than ever shine,

This day, which might inflame thyself, old Valentine!

II.

Till now thou warm'dst with multiplying loves
Two larks, two sparrows, or two doves;
All that is nothing unto this,

For thou this day couplest two phoenixes;
Thou mak'st a taper see

What the sun never saw; and what the ark
(Which was of fowls1 and beasts the cage and park)
Did not contain, one bed contains, through thee,
Two phoenixes, whose joined breasts

Are unto one another mutual nests

Where motion kindles such fires as shall give
Young phoenixes, and yet the old shall live,
Whose love and courage never shall decline,
But make the whole year through thy day, O
Valentine.

III.

Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun;
Thyself from thine affection

Tak'st warmth enough, and from thine eye

All lesser birds will take their jollity.

Up, up, fair bride, and call

Thy stars from out their several boxes, take
Thy rubies, pearls, and diamonds forth, and make
Thyself a constellation of them all,

And by their blazing signify

That a great princess falls, but doth not die;
Be thou a new star that to us portends

Ends of much wonder, and be thou those ends.

1 fowl, 1669.