Go then to where the bishop stays, To make you one, his way, which divers ways Must be effected, and when all is past, And that you are one, by hearts and hands made fast, You two have one way left, yourselves to entwine, Besides this bishop's knot, O Bishop Valentine. 5. But oh, what ails the sun, that here he stays, Stays he new light from these to get? So slowly paced in this procession? The feast, with gluttonous delays, Is eaten, and too long their meat they praise, Alas, did not antiquity assign A night, as well as day, to thee, O Valentine? 6. They did, and night is come; and yet we see What mean these ladies, which (as though So nicely about the bride; A bride, before a good-night could be said, But now she is laid; what though she be? 7. Here lies a she sun, and a he moon here, She gives the best light to his sphere, Or each is both, and all, and so They unto one another nothing owe, And yet they do, but are So just and rich in that coin which they pay, They quickly pay their debt, and then Take no acquittances, but pay again; No such occasion to be liberal. More truth, more courage in these two do shine, Than all thy turtles have, and sparrows, Valentine. 8. And by this act of these two phoenixes Nature again restored is, For since these two are two no more, As Satyrs watch the sun's uprise, will stay Others near you shall whispering speak, This will be tried to-morrow after nine, Till which hour, we thy day enlarge, O Valentine. III. COME live with me, and be my love, There will the river whispering run When thou wilt swim in that live bath, If thou to be so seen beest loth, Let others freeze with angling reeds, With strangling snare, or windowy net: Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, IV. A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING+. As virtuous men pass mildly 'away, So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move. "Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love. Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears, But trepidation of the spheres, Sleave-silk, knotted or tangled silk.-JOHNSON. + This was written to his wife, on his going into France, about the year 1609. Walton appears to have quoted it from memory, as he differs widely from the original edition.-ED. Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit But we by a love, so much refined, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Like gold to aery thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must V. THE WILL. BEFORE I sigh my last gasp, let me breathe, If they be blind, then, Love, I give them thee; * Richard of England was satiated with the glory and misfortunes of his first adventure, and he presumed to deride the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the presence of kings. "You advise me," said Plantagenet, "to dismiss my three daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence; I bequeath them to the most deserving; my pride to the knights templars, my avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my incontinence to the prelates.-GIBBON, chap. LX. My tongue to fame; to ambassadors mine ears; Thou love, hast taught me heretofore By making me serve her who had twenty more, That I should give to none, but such, as had too much before. My constancy I to the planets give, My truth to them, who at the court do live; To Jesuits; to buffoons my pensiveness; Thou love taught'st me, by appointing me My faith I give to Roman Catholics; Thou love taught'st me, by making me Only to give to those that count my gifts indignity. I give my reputation to those Which were my friends; mine industry to foes; To schoolmen I bequeath my doubtfulness; My sickness to physicians, or excess; To nature, all that I in rhyme have writ; And to my company my wit; Thou love, by making me adore Her, who begot this love in me before, Taught'st me to make, as though I gave, when I did but restore. To him for whom the passing-bell next tolls, I give my physic books; my written rolls Of moral counsels, I to Bedlam give; |