So long I have my tongue and pen constrained, And ye, my tears, her rocky heart may move : Therefore, my sighs, sigh in her ear my grief; And in her heart, my tears, imprint my love. But cease, vain sighs; cease, cease, ye fruitless tears; Tears cannot pierce her heart, nor sighs her ears. HIS FAREWELL, TO HIS UNKIND AND INCONSTANT MISTRESS. Sweet, if you like and love me still, And do not from your promise start, When your fair hand gave me your heart; As you are dear to me; Then yours I am and will be ever, Nor time nor place my love shall sever; But faithful still I will persever, Like constant marble stone, Loving but you alone. But if you favour more than me, If others do the harvest gain, That's due to me for all my pain; If you delight to range, And oft to chop and change; Then get you some new-fangled mate; BEN JONSON. 1573-1637. ["The Poetaster." 1601.] SONG. IF I freely may discover What would please me in my lover, I would have her fair and witty, Savouring more of court than city; A little proud, but full of pity; Light and humorous in her toying; Oft building hopes, and soon destroying; Long, but sweet in the enjoying; Neither too easy, nor too hard, All extremes I would have barred. She should be allowed her passions, "Tis a virtue should not save her. Thus, nor her delicates would cloy me, ["Epicone; or, The Silent Woman." 1609.] SONG. Still to be neat, still to be dressed, Though art's hid causes are not found, Give me a look, give me a face, They strike mine eyes, but not my heart. ["The Forest." 1616.] ΤΟ CELIA. Come, my Celia, let us prove, "Tis no sin love's fruit to steal, But the sweet theft to reveal: To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been. TO THE SAME. Kiss me, sweet: the wary lover Or the drops in silver Thames, Or the stars that gild his streams, In the silent summers-nights, When youths ply their stolen delights; That the curious may not know How to tell 'em as they flow, And the envious, when they find What their number is, be pined. TO CELIA. Drink to me only with thine eyes, Or leave a kiss but in the cup, |