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EPITHAMALIONS:

OR

MARRIAGE SONGS.

AN EPITHALAMION On Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the Lady Elizabeth, being married on St. Valentine's day.

I.

HAIL, Bishop Valentine! whose day this is,

All the air is thy diocese,

And all the chirping choristers

And other birds are thy parishioners:
Thou marry'st 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 black-bird speed as soon
As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon;

The husband cock locks out, and strait is sped,

And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bcd.
This day more chearfully than ever shine;

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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

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(Which was of fowl and beasts the cage and park)
Did not contain; one bed contains thro' 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 th'rough thy day, O Valen-

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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

[tine!

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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.

Since thou dost this day in new glory shine,

May all men date records from this day, Valentine!

IV.

Come forth, come forth! and as one glorious flame
Meeting another grows the same,

So meet thy Frederick, and so

To an unseparable union go;

Since separation

Falls not on such things as are infinite,
Nor things which are but once an disunite;
You're twice inseparable, great, and one.
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 y' are one, by hearts and hands made fast,
You two have one way left yourselves t' entwine,
Besides this Bishop's knot of Bishop Valentine.

V.

But, oh! what ails the sun, that hence he stays
Longer to-day than other days?

Stays he new light from these to get?

And finding here such stars is loth to set?
And why do you two walk

So slowly pac'd in this procession?

Is all your care but to be look'd upon,
And be to others spectacle and talk?
The feast with gluttonous delays

Is eaten, and too long their meat they praise.

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The masquers come late, and I think will stay,
Like Fairies, till the cock crow them away.
Alas! did not Antiquity assign

A night as well as day to thee, old Valentine?

VI.

They did, and night is come; and yet we see
Formalities retarding thee.

What mean these ladies, which (as tho'
They were to take a clock in pieces) go
So nicely about the bride?

A bride, before a good-night could be said,
Should vanish from her clothes into her bed,
As souls from bodies steal, and are not spy'd.
But now she 's laid: what tho' she be?
Yet there are more delays; for where is he?
He comes,
and passeth thro' sphere after sphere;
First her sheets, then her arms, then any where.
Let not this day, then, but this night, be thine;
Thy day was but the eve to this, O Valentine!

VII.

Here lies a she sun, and a he moon there;

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

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So just and rich in that coin which they pay,

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That neither would, nor needs, forbear nor stay;

Neither desires to be spar'd nor to spare:

They quickly pay their debt, and then

Take no acquittances, but pay again:

They pay, they give, they lend, and so let fall

No cccasion to be liberal.

More truth, more courage, in these two do shine

Than all thy turtles have, and sparrows, Valentine!

VIII.

And by this act of these two phoenixes

Nature again restored is;

For since these two are two no more,

There's but one phoenix still, as was before.
Rest now, at last, and we

(As Satyrs watch the sun's uprise) will stay
Waiting when your eyes opened let out day,
Only desired, because your face we see;
Others near you shall whisp'ring speak,
And wagers lay, at which side day will break,
And win, by observing then whose hand it is
That opens first a curtain, her's or his.
This will be try'd to-morrow after nine,

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ΓΙΟ

Till which hour we thy day enlarge, O Valentine! 112

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