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THE
SONGS AND
SONNETS OF
WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTIPR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
THE
5ONG5 AN D
SONNETS Or
WILLIAM
5HAKT5PEARE
1ILILUST RATED
CHARLES ROBINSON
D U C K.WO ft'lFH
THE NEW
LIBRAR!
LEMOX AND
^TILOEN FOUNDATIONS.
ENGRAVED AND PRINTED
AT THE COMPLETE PRESS
WEST NORWOOD LONDON
CONTENTS
SONGS
REVEILLEZ
FANCY
SILVIA
YOUTH AND LOVE
IT VER ET VENUS
TWO MAIDS WOOING A MAN
RED AND WHITE
LOVE'S DESPAIR
THE LOVER'S OFFERING
A SUPPLICATION
EROS AND ANTEROS
MORNING TEARS
PAGE
I
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1 1
12
V
PRAISE OF THE MISTRESS 13
LOVE THE ONLY STUDENT 14
THE PERJURIES OF LOVE 15
THE LONGING THAT CANNOT BE UTTERED 16
EPITHALAMIUM 17
SONG OF BLESSING 18
MAN AND WOMAN 19
THE YOUTH'S DIRGE 20
DIRGES 21
THE END 22
THE FAIRY LIFE 24
LULLABY 26
THE FAIRY BLESSING 27
A SINNER TORMENTED 29
THE WISDOM OF THE FOOL 30
THE PEDLAR'S SONG 31
PEDLAR'S CRIES 33
BACCHANALIAN SONG 34
A COUNTRY FELLOW'S SONG 35
A CLOWN'S HELEN 36
A CLOWN'S SONG 37
FORESTER'S SONG 38
A SAILOR'S SONG 39
THE POWER OF SONG 40
SPRING 41
WINTER 42
VENERI VICTRICI 43
A SEA DIRGE 44
THE LOST LOVE 45
SNATCHES 46
THE MISANTHROPE 48
NATURE AND MAN 49
THE WORLD'S WAY 5
THE LIFE ACCORDING TO NATURE 51
vi
SONNETS
PAGE
TO HIS FRIEND, THAT HE SHOULD MARRY 55
A REVIVAL 56
LIFE CONTINUED 57
CHILDLESSNESS 58
CHANGE AND CONTINUANCE 59
PERPETUATION 60
FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET 61
HARMONY AND MELODY 62
A WARNING 63
AN APPEAL 64
A MAN'S DUTY 65
ALL THINGS FADE 66
PRESENT AND FUTURE 67
THE PROPHECIES OF LOVE 68
YOUTH AND TIME 69
COUNSELS OF LOVE 70
LOVE AS PAINTER 71
THE UNFADING PICTURE 72
THAT TIME SHOULD SPARE HIS FRIEND 73
FOR PRAISE NOT COMPLIMENT 74
LOVE EQUALIZES HEARTS 75
LOVE'S SPEECH AND SILENCE 76
THE PICTURE 77
A BOAST 7 8
L'ENVOI 79
THE LOVER'S NIGHT THOUGHTS 80
BY NIGHT AND BY DAY 81
AMOR OMNIA VINCIT 82
REMEMBRANCE 83
ALL-CONTAINING LOVE 84
THE VITAL FORCE 85
SUNSHINE AND CLOUD 86
vii
DILEXIT MULTUM 87
A CONFESSION 88
ANOTHER CONFESSION 89
THE RECOMPENSE 90
THE NEW MUSE 91
IDENTITY IN LOVE 92
ALL FOR LOVE 93
A PARDON 94
THEFT NO ROBBERY 95
SHADOW AND TRUTH 96
SOUL AND BODY 97
SOUL AND BODY 98
IN THE COURT OF LOVE 99
THE PICTURE AND THE IDEA too
THE TREASURE OF TREASURES 101
A FOREBODING 102
VIA DOLOROSA 103
THE RETURN 104
CARUM QUOD RARUM 105
REALITY AND SHADOW 106
THE TRUE AND THE FALSE 107
EXEGI MONUMENTUM 108
EBB AND FLOW 109
ABSENCE no
SUBMISSION ABSOLUTE in
NIHIL NOVI, NIHIL INAUDITI 112
REVOLUTIONS 113
ALAS 114
A LESSON 115
A PROTEST 116
TIME AND LOVE 117
TIME AND LOVE 118
THE WORLD'S WAY 119
THE ONE AND ONLY 120
PAGE
AGE UNSHAMED 121
MEDIO DE FONTE 122
INEVITABLE SLANDER 123
THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH 124
SELF-ABASEMENT 125
QUATUOR NOVISSIMA 126
THE POET'S IMMORTALITY 127
RICH AND POOR 128
SWEET MONOTONY 129
WITH AN ALBUM 130
THE TRUE INSPIRATION 131
THE IDEAL 132
THE RIVAL DEFIED 133
A PROPHECY 134
THE TRUE PRAISE 135
OF HIS SILENCE 136
LOVE'S ONE WORD 137
ELOQUENT SILENCE 138
JEALOUSY 139
A RENUNCIATION 140
LOVE'S EXCUSES 141
LOVE'S EXCUSES 142
AN APPEAL OF DESPAIR 143
ALL THINGS IN LOVE 144
THE SOURCE OF LIFE 145
TRUST AND MISTRUST 146
THE LIFE WITHOUT PASSION 147
THE VIRTUE OF BEAUTY 148
THE POWER OF BEAUTY 149
ABSENCE FROM HIS LOVE 150
THE GARDEN OF LOVE 151
THE GARDEN OF LOVE 152
A REAWAKENING 153
INVOCATION 154
ix
SILENT ADORATION 155
WEAK WORDS 156
THE EVER-YOUTHFUL 157
FAIR, KIND, AND TRUE 158
THE BEAUTY OF BEAUTIES 159
AMOR CONTRA MUNDUM 160
THE EVER NEW 161
PROTESTATION 162
AN APOLOGY 163
THE PLAYER'S DEGRADATION 164
THE WORLD WELL LOST 165
THE OMNIPRESENT VISION 166
EYE FLATTERY 167
THE GROWTH OF LOVE 168
TRUE LOVE 169
A SELF ACCUSATION 170
SICK PASSION 171
GOOD FROM EVIL 172
AMANTIUM IRAE 173
DE PROFUNDIS 174
THE TABLETS OF THE MIND 175
DEFIANCE TO TIME 176
THE TRUE STATESMANSHIP 177
THE FREEMAN OF LOVE 178
O CRUDELIS ADHUC 179
OF HIS LADY LOVE 180
AT THE SPINET 181
BEHIND THE VEIL 182
TRUTH WITHOUT DISGUISE 183
THE MISTRESS 184
THE MOURNER'S HOPE 185
FAITH AND UNFAITH 186
SUBTLETIES OF LOVE 187
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 188
THE SAME
BLIND LOVE
CHERISHED FALSEHOOD
HOPE AGAINST HOPE
A LAST PLEA
LOVE IN UNLOVELINESS
APPLES OF THE DEAD SEA
A PICTURE
EROS AND ANTEROS
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
SOUL AND BODY
MADNESS OF LOVE
PASSION-BLINDNESS
A LAST APPEAL
DE PROFUNDIS
VANITAS VANITATUM
YOUTH AND AGE
FAIR AND FALSE
TO-MORROW
FAREWELL
BEAUTY
AN ELEGY
THE PHCENIX AND THE TURTLE
A LOVER'S COMPLAINT
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
PAGE
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
20 1
202
20 3
2O4
2O5
2O6
2O7
208
209
210
2I 3
219
235
LIST OF COLOUR
PLATES
' Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins arise.' Frontispiece
' On a day alack the day !
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair FACING PAGE
Playing in the wanton air.' 16
' These lovers cry Oh ! oh ! they die ! ' 42
' This fair child of mine.' 56
' Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering.' 62
In the Court of Love 98
xiii
' Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of Princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme ;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents FACING PACE
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time.' 108
' Some glory in their birth." 144
' I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.' 176
' My mistress' brows are raven black.' 180
' She burn'd with Jove, as straw with fire flameth ;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-burneth. 206
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain. 218
SONGS
REVEILLEZ
ARK, hark ! the lark at heaven's
gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those
springs
On chaliced flowers that lies ;
And winking mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes :
With every thing that pretty is,
My Lady sweet, arise :
Arise, arise !
FANCY
iLL me where is Fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head ?
How begot, how nourished ?
Reply, reply.
It is engender'd in the eyes,
With gazing fed ; and Fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring Fancy's knell :
I'll begin it, Ding, dong, bell :
Ding, dong, bell.
SILVIA
[O is Silvia ? what is She
That all our swains commend
her?
Holy, fair and wise is she ;
The heaven such grace did lend
her
That she might admired be.
Is she kind as she is fair ?
For beauty lives with kindness ;
Love doth to her eyes repair
To help him of his blindness,
And, being help'd, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing
That Silvia is excelling ;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling :
To her let us garlands bring.
YOUTH AND LOVE
MISTRESS mine, where are you
roaming ?
O stay and hear ; your true-love's
coming
That can sing both high and
low :
Trip no further, pretty sweeting ;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
What is Love ? 'tis not hereafter ;
Present mirth hath present laughter ;
What's to come is still unsure :
In delay there lies no plenty ;
Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty :
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
IT VER ET VENUS
T was a Lover and his Lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey
nonino,
That o'er the green corn-field did
pass
In the spring time, the only
pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding :
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye
These pretty country folks would lie.
This carol they began that hour,
How that a life was but a flower :
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino ;
For love is crowned with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding :
Sweet lovers love the spring.
TWO MAIDS WOOING A MAN
Autolycus Dorcas Mopsa
ET you hence, for I must go
Where it fits not you to know !
D. Whither ?
M. O whither ?
D. Whither ?
M. It becomes thy oath full well
| Thou to me thy secrets tell.
D. Me, too, let me go thither.
M. Or thou goest to the grange or mill.
D. If to either, thou dost ill.
A. Neither.
D. What, neither ?
A. Neither.
D. Thou hast sworn my Love to be.
M. Thou hast sworn it more to me :
Then whither goest ? say, whither ?
RED AND WHITE
She be made of white and red,
Her faults will ne'er be known ;
For blushing cheeks by faults are
bred
And fears by pale white shown :
Then if she fear, or be to blame,
By this you shall not know,
For still her cheeks possess the same
Which native she doth owe !
LOVE'S DESPAIR
AKE, O, take those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn ;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the
morn :
But my kisses bring again ;
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain ;
Seal'd in vain.
8
THE LOVER'S OFFERING
ANG there, my verse, in witness
of my love :
And thou, thrice-crowned
Queen of night, survey
With thy chaste eye, from thy
pale sphere above,
Thy huntress' name that my
full life doth sway.
O Rosalind ! these trees shall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character ;
That every eye which in this forest looks
Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando ; carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive She.
A SUPPLICATION
WEET Mistress, what your name
is else, I know not,
Nor by what wonder you do
hit of mine,
Less in your knowledge and your
grace you show not
Than our earth's wonder, more
than earth, divine.
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak ;
Lay open to my earthy-gross conceit,
Smother'd in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
The folded meaning of your words' deceit.
Against my soul's pure truth why labour you
To make it wander in an unknown field ?
Are you a god ? would you create me new ?
Transform me then, and to your power I'll yield !
EROS AND ANTEROS
RT thou, god, to shepherd turn'd,
That a maiden's heart hath
burn'd ?
Why, thy godhead laid apart,
Warr'st thou with a woman's
heart ?
Whiles the eye of man did woo
me,
That could do no vengeance to me.
If the scorn of your bright eyne
Hath power to raise such love in mine,
Alack, in me what strange effect
Would they work in mild aspect !
Whiles you chid me, I did love ;
How then might your prayers move !
He that brings this love to thee
Little knows this love in me :
And by him seal up thy mind ;
Whether that thy youth and kind
Will the faithful offer take
Of me and all that I can make ;
Or else by him my love deny,
And then I'll studv how to die.
ii
MORNING TEARS
'O sweet a kiss the golden sun gives
not
To those fresh morning drops
upon the rose,
As thy eye-beams, when their
fresh rays have smote
The night of dew that on my
cheeks down flows :
Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright
Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light ;
Thou shinest in every tear that I do weep :
No drop but as a coach doth carry thee ;
So ridest thou triumphing in my woe.
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,
And they thy glory through my grief will show :
But do not love thyself ; then thou wilt keep
My tears for glasses, and still make me weep.
O Queen of queens ! how far dost thou excel,
No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.
12
PRAISE OF THE MISTRESS
F love make me forsworn, how
shall I swear to love ?
Ah, never faith could hold, if
not to beauty vow'd !
Though to myself forsworn, to
thee I'll faithful prove ;
Those thoughts to me were
oaks, to thee likeosiersbow'd.
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 !
LOVE THE ONLY STUDENT
TUDY me how to please the eye
indeed
By fixing it upon a fairer eye,
Who dazzling so, that eye shall be
his heed,
And give him light that it was
blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun
That will not be deep-search 'd with saucy looks :
Small have continual plodders ever won
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
Too much to know is to know nought but fame,
And every godfather can give a name.
THE PERJURIES OF LOVE
[D 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,
Exhalest 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 ?
THE LONGING THAT CANNOT
BE UTTERED
N a day alack the day !
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air :
Through the velvet leaves the
wind,
All unseen, can passage find ;
That the Lover, sick to death,
Wish himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow
Air, would I might triumph so !
But, alack, my hand is sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn ;
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet !
Do not call it sin in me,
That I am forsworn for thee ;
Thou, for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiope were,
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.
16
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
AS TV,.
TILOtN h
c
EPITHALAMIUM
HEN is there mirth in Heaven,
When earthly things made even
Atone together !
Good duke, receive thy daughter ;
Hymen from heaven brought
her,
Yea, brought her hither,
That thou mightest join her hand with his
Whose heart within his bosom is.
SONG
Wedding is great Juno's crown :
O blessed bond of board and bed
'Tis Hymen peoples every town ;
High Wedlock then be honoured :
Honour, high honour and renown,
To Hymen, god of every town !
B
SONG OF BLESSING
ONOUR, riches, marriage-bless-
ing,
Long continuance, and increas-
ing,
Hourly joys be still upon you !
Juno sings her blessings on you.
Earth's increase, foison plenty,
Barns and garners never empty,
Vines with clustering bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burthen bowing ;
Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest !
Scarcity and want shall shun you ;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
18
MAN AND WOMAN
GH no more, ladies, sigh no
more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never :
-Then sigh not so, but let them
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into, Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no more,
Of dumps so dull and heavy ;
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy :
-Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into, Hey nonny, nonny.
THE YOUTH'S DIRGE
OME away, come away, Death,
And in sad cypres let me be
laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath ;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all
with yew,
O, prepare it !
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strown ;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be
thrown :
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave
To weep there.
20
DIRGES
WEET Flower, with flowers thy
bridal bed I strew,
O woe ! thy canopy is dust and
stones ;
Which with sweet water nightly
I will dew,
Or, wanting that, with tears
distilled by moans :
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
Pardon, Goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight ;
For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb they go.
Midnight, assist our moan ;
Help us to sigh and groan,
Heavily, heavily :
Graves, yawn and yield your dead
Till death be uttered,
Heavily, heavily.
21
AR no more the heat o' the
furious winter's
sun
Nor the
rages ;
Thou thy worldly task hast
done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy
wages :
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o' the great ;
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ;
Care no more to clothe and eat ;
To thee the reed is as the oak :
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone ;
Fear not slander, censure rash ;
Thou hast finish'd joy and moan :
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
22
No exerciser harm thee !
Nor no witchcraft charm thee !
Ghost unlaid forbear thee !
Nothing ill come near thee !
Quiet consummation have ;
And renowned be thy grave !
THE FAIRY LIFE
HERE the bee sucks, there suck
I :
In a cowslip's bell I lie ;
There I couch when owls do
cry.
On the bat's back' I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
II
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands :
Courtsied when you have and kiss'd
The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there ;
And, sweet Sprites, the burthen bear :
Hark, hark !
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark :
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark ! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.
24
Ill
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's sphere ;
And I serve the fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be :
In their gold coats spots you see,
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours :
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
LULLABY
"OU spotted snakes with double
tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not
seen ;
Newts and blind-worms, do no
wrong,
Come not near our fairy Queen !
Weaving spiders, come not here ;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence !
Beetles black, approach not near ;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby ;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, Lulla, lulla, lullaby :
Never harm
Nor spell nor charm
Come our lovely lady nigh :
So, Good Night, with lullaby.
26
THE FAIRY BLESSING
OW the hungry lion roars
And the wolf behowls the moon,
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching
loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite
In the church-way paths to glide :
And we Fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic : not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house :
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.
Through the house give glimmering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire :
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier ;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.
27
First, rehearse your song by rote,
To each word a warbling note :
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessed be ;
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate !
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be ;
And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand ;
Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,
Shall upon their children be.
With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait :
And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace, with sweet peace ;
And the owner of it blest
Ever shall in safety rest.
Trip away ; make no stay ;
Meet me all by break of day.
28
A SINNER TORMENTED
[E on sinful fantasy !
Fie on lust and luxury !
Lust is but a bloody fire
Kindled with unchaste desire,
Fed in heart, whose flames aspire
As thoughts do blow them, higher
and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually ;
Pinch him for his villany ;
Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.
29
THE WISDOM OF THE FOOL
THERS that wear rags
Do make their children blind ;
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,
Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
That, Sir, which serves and seeks for gain
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry ; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly ;
The knave turns fool that runs away ;
The fool no knave, perdy.
3
THE PEDLAR'S SONG
EN daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh ! the doxy over the
dale,
Why then comes in the sweet o'
the year ;
For the red blood reigns in the
winter's pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh ! the sweet birds, O, how they sing !
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge ;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lyra chants,
With heigh ! with heigh ! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
But shall I go mourn for that, my dear ?
The pale moon shines by night :
And when I wander here and there,
I then do most go right.
If tinkers may have leave to live
And bear the sow-skin budget,
Then my account I well may give
And in the stocks avouch it.
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a :
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad, tires in a mile-a.
PEDLAR'S CRIES
AWN as white as driven snow ;
Cypress black as e'er was crow ;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses
Masks for faces and for noses ;
Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber ;
I Golden quoifs and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears :
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel :
Come buy of me, come ; come buy, come buy ;
Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry :
Come buy.
Will you buy any tape,
Or lace for your cape,
My dainty duck, my dear-a ?
Any silk, any thread,
Any toys for your head,
Of the new'st and finest, finest wear-a ?
Come to the pedlar ;
Money's a medler
That doth utter all men's ware-a.
33
BACCHANALIAN SONG
OME, thou Monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne !
In thy fats our cares be drown 'd,
With thy grapes our hairs be
crown 'd :
Cup us, till the world go round,
Cup us, till the world go round !
34
A COUNTRY FELLOW'S SONG
O nothing but eat, and make good
cheer,
And praise God for the merry
year ;
When flesh is cheap and females
dear,
And lusty lads roam here and
/
there
So merrily,
And ever among so merrily.
Be merry, be merry, my wife has all ;
For women are shrews, both short and tall :
'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome merry Shrove-tide :
Be merry, be merry !
A cup of wine that's brisk and fine,
And drink unto the leman mine ;
And a merry heart lives long-a.
Fill the cup, and let it come ;
I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.
35
A CLOWN'S
HELEN
S this fair face the cause, quoth
she,
Why the Grecians sacked
Troy ?
Fond done, done fond,
Was this King Priam's joy ?
With that she sighed as she stood,
With that she sighed as she stood,
And gave this sentence then ;
Among nine bad if one be good,
Among nine bad if one be good,
There's yet one good in ten.
A CLOWN'S SONG
HEN that I was and a little tiny
boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the
rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every
day.
But when I came to man's estate,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate.
But when I came, alas ! to wive,
By swaggering could I never thrive.
But when I came unto my beds,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.
37
FORESTER'S SONG
HAT shall he have that kill'd the
deer ?
His leather skin and horns to
wear.
Then sing him home ;
Take thou no scorn to wear the
horn ;
It was a crest ere thou wast born :
Thy father's father wore it,
And thy father bore it !
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.
A SAILOR'S SONG
HE master, the swabber, the boat-
swain and I,
The gunner and his mate,
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian
and Margery,
But none of us cared for Kate ;
For she had a tongue with a
tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang !
She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did
itch :
Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang !
39
THE POWER OF SONG
RPHEUS with his lute made trees
And the mountain tops that
freeze
Bow themselves when he did
sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung ; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music in such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
40
SPRING
HEN daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-
white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with
delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men ; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo ;
Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear !
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws
And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men ; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo ;
Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear !
4 1
WINTER
IEN icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows
his nail
And Tom bears logs into the
hall
And milk comes frozen home
in pail,
When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit ;
Tu-who ; a merry note ;
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw
And birds sit brooding in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit ;
Tu-who ; a merry note ;
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
42
These lovers cry O\ oh ! they die ! ' (page 43)
I
(r> 33*q) ' v - ^ -n^ v - Ao\0 ./.>> iv
Tu-who ;
/
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTVH, LENOX AND
TiLDEN FOUNDATIONS
c
VENERI VICTRICI
OVE, Love, nothing but Love,
still more !
For, O, love's bow
Shoots buck and doe :
The shaft confounds,
Not that it wounds,
But tickles still the sore.
These lovers cry Oh ! oh ! they die !
Yet that which seems the wound to kill,
Doth turn oh ! oh ! to ha ! ha ! he !
So dying love lives still :
Oh ! oh ! a while, but ha ! ha ! ha !
Oh ! oh ! groans out for ha ! ha ! ha !
Heigh-ho !
43
A SEA DIRGE
ULL fathom five thy father lies ;
Of his bones are coral made ;
Those are pearls that were his
eyes :
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell :
Ding-dong.
Hark ! now I hear them, Ding-dong, bell.
44
THE LOST LOVE
OW should I your true-Love know
From another one ?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone ;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers ;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.
45
SNATCHES
HEY bore him barefaced on the
bier ;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
nonny ;
And in his grave rain'd many a
tear :
You must sing a-down, a-down
An you call him a-down-a.
And will he not come again ?
And will he not come again ?
No, no, he is dead :
Go to thy death-bed :
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll :
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan :
God ha' mercy on his soul !
ii
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me !
Her boat hath a leak,
And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee !
46
Ill
Sleepest or wakest them, jolly shepherd ?
Thy sheep be in the corn ;
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm.
47
THE MISANTHROPE
MMORTAL gods, I crave no pelf ;
I pray for no man but myself :
Grant I may never prove so fond,
To trust man on his oath or bond ;
Or a harlot, for her weeping ;
Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping ;
Or a keeper with my freedom ;
Or my friends, if I should need 'em.
Amen. So fall to't :
Rich men sin, and I eat root.
48
NATURE AND MAN
LOW, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude ;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho ! sing heigh-ho ! unto
the green holly :
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere
folly :
Then, heigh-ho, the holly !
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot :
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho ! sing heigh-ho ! unto the green holly :
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere
folly :
Then, heigh-ho, the holly !
This life is most jolly.
D
49
THE WORLD'S WAY
HY, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play ;
For some must watch while some
must sleep :
So runs the world away.
THE LIFE ACCORDING TO NATURE
NDER the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come
hither !
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats
And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither :
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
SONNETS
TO THE
ONLIE BEGETTER
OF THESE
INSUING SONNETS
MR. W. H.
ALL HAPPINESSE
AND
THAT ETERNITIE
PROMISED BY OUR
EVER-LIVING POET
WISHETH THE
WELL-WISHING
ADVENTURER IN
SETTING FORTH
T. T.
TO HIS FRIEND, THAT HE SHOULD
MARRY
ROM fairest creatures we desire
increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might
never die,
But as the riper should by time
decease,
His tender heir might bear his
memory :
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own blood buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
55
A REVIVAL
EN forty winters shall besiege
thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy
beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so
gazed on now,
Will be a tatter 'd weed, of small
worth held :
Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer ' This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'
Proving his beauty by succession thine !
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
OW8LE5 ROUIN50N
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTVR,
TILDEN l
LIFE CONTINUED
OOK in thy glass, and tell the face
thou viewest
Now is the time that face should
form another ;
Whose fresh repair if now thou
not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world,
unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry ?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity ?
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime :
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.
57
CHILDLESSNESS
THRIFTY loveliness, why dost
thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy ?
Nature's bequest gives nothing,
but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to
those are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give !
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live ?
For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.
Then how, when nature calls thee to begone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave ?
Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
CHANGE AND CONTINUANCE
[OSE hours, that with gentle
work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye
doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very
same
And that unfair which fairly doth
excel ;
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there ;
Sap check 'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where :
Then, were not summer's distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was :
But flowers distill'd, though they with winter
meet,
Leese but their show ; their substance still lives
sweet.
59
PERPETUATION
EN let not winter's ragged hand
deface
In thee thy summer, ere them be
distill'd :
Make sweet some vial ; treasure
thou some place
With beauty's treasure, ere it be
self-kill'd.
That use is not forbidden usury
Which happies those that pay the willing loan ;
That's for thyself to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one ;
Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee :
Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity ?
Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conquest and make worms thine
heir.
60
FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET
O ! in the orient when the gracious
light
Lifts up his burning head, each
under eye
Doth homage to his new-appear-
ing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred
majesty ;
And having climb 'd the steep-up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage ;
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,
The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are
From his low tract and look another way :
So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon,
Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.
61
HARMONY AND MELODY
SIC to hear, why hear'st thou
music sadly ?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy
delights in joy.
Why lov'st thou that which thou
receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure
thine annoy ?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing :
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming
one,
Sings this to thee : ' thou single wilt prove none.'
A WARNING
S it for fear to wet a widow's eye
That thou consum'st thyself in
single life ?
Ah ! if thou issueless shalt hap
to die,
The world will wail thee, like a
makeless wife ;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind.
Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it ;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused, the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murderous shame commits.
AN APPEAL
OR shame ! deny that thou bear'st
love to any,
Who for thyself art so improvi-
dent.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art
beloved of many,
But that thou none lov'st is most
evident ;
For thou art so possess 'd with murderous hate
That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind !
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love ?
Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove :
Make thee another self for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
64
A MAN'S DUTY
S fast as thou shalt wane, so fast
thou growest
In one of thine, from that which
thou departest ;
And that fresh blood which
youngly thou bestowest
Thou mayst call thine when thou
from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase ;
Without this, folly, age, and cold decay :
If all were minded so, the times should cease
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom Nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish :
Look, whom she best endow'd she gave the more ;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty
cherish :
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
ALL THINGS FADE
HEN I do count the clock that
tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in
hideous night ;
When I behold the violet past
prime,
And sable curls all silver 'd o'er
with white ;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow ;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make
defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee
hence.
66
PRESENT AND FUTURE
THAT you were yourself ! but,
Love, you are
No longer yours than you your-
self here live :
Against this coming end you
should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to
some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination ; then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should
bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold ?
O, none but unthrifts ! Dear my Love, you know
You had a father : let your son say so.
67
THE PROPHECIES OF LOVE
T from the stars do I my judge-
ment pluck ;
And yet methinks I have astro-
nomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons'
quality ;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find :
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert ;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate :
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
68
YOUTH AND TIME
HEN I consider everything that
grows
Holds in perfection but a little
moment,
That this huge stage presenteth
nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret in-
fluence comment ;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheer'd and check'd even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease
And wear their brave state out of memory ;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night ;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
69
COUNSELS
OF LOVE
T wherefore do not you a
mightier way
Make war upon this bloody
tyrant, Time ?
And fortify yourself in your decay
With means more blessed than
my barren rhyme ?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens yet unset
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit :
So should the lines of life that life repair,
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.
To give away yourself keeps yourself still,
And you must live, drawn by your own sweet
skill.
70
LOVE AS PAINTER
O will believe my verse in time
to come,
If it were fill'd with your most
high deserts ?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is
but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows
not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say ' This poet lies ;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow 'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song :
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice ; in it and in my rhyme.
THE UNFADING PICTURE
HALL I compare thee to a sum-
mer's day ?
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate :
Rough winds do shake the darling
buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too
short a date :
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd ;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest ;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou growest :
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this ; and this gives life to thee.
THAT TIME SHOULD SPARE
HIS FRIEND
VOURING Time, blunt thou
the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her
own sweet brood ;
Pluck the keen teeth from the
fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix
in her blood ;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets ;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime :
O, carve not with thy hours my Love's fair brow
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen ;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time : despite thy wrong,
My Love shall in my verse ever live young.
73
FOR PRAISE NOT COMPLIMENT
O is it not with me as with that
Muse
Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his
verse,
Who heaven itself for ornament
doth use
And every fair with his fair doth
rehearse,
Making a couplement of proud compare
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,
With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O, let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my Love is as fair
As any mother's child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air :
Let them say more that like of hearsay well ;
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
LOVE EQUALIZES HEARTS
Y glass shall not persuade me I am
old,
So long as youth and thou are of
one date ;
But when in thee time's furrows
I behold
Then look I death my days
should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me :
How can I then be elder than thou art ?
O, therefore, Love, be of thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will ;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain ;
Thou gav'st me thine, not to give back again.
75
LOVE'S SPEECH AND SILENCE
S an unperfect actor on the stage
Who with his fear is put besides
his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with
too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance
weakens his own heart,
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense
More than that tongue that more hath more
express 'd.
O, learn to read what silent love hath writ :
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
THE PICTURE
NE eye hath play'd the painter,
and hath stell'd
Thy beauty's form in table of my
heart ;
My body is the frame wherein
'tis held,
And perspective it is best painter's
art.
For through the painter must you see his skill,
To find where your true image pictured lies ;
Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done :
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun
Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee ;
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art ;
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
77
A BOAST
ET those who are in favour with
their stars
Of public honour and proud titles
boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such
triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour
most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd :
Then happy I, that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove, nor be removed.
L'ENVOI
ORD of my love, to whom in
vassalage
Thy merit hath my duty strongly
knit,
To thee I send this written
embassage,
To witness duty, not to show my
wit :
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it,
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul's thought, all naked, will bestow it ;
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tatter'd loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect :
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee ;
Till then not show my head where thou mayst
prove me.
79
THE LOVER'S NIGHT THOUGHTS
EARY with toil, I haste me to my
bed,
The dear repose for limbs with
travel tired ;
But then begins a journey in my
head,
To work my mind, when body's
work's expired :
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see :
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo ! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind
For thee and for myself no quiet find.
BY NIGHT AND BY DAY
OW can I then return in happy
plight
That am debarr'd the benefit of
rest ?
When day's oppression is not
eased by night,
But day by night, and night by
day, oppress 'd ?
And each, though enemies to cither's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me ;
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the
heaven :
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not, thou gild'st the
even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief's strength
seem stronger.
81
AMOR OMNIA VINCIT
HEN, in disgrace with fortune
and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast
state
And trouble deaf heaven with my
bootless cries'
And look upon myself and curse
my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least ;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising
Haply I think on Thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate ;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth
brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
82
REMEMBRANCE
IEN to the sessions of sweet
silent thought
summon up remembrance of
things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I
sought,
And with old woes new wail my
dear time's waste :
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish 'd sight :
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear Friend,
All losses are restored, and sorrows end.
ALL-CONTAINING LOVE
HY bosom is endeared with all
hearts,
Which I by lacking have sup-
posed dead,
And there reigns love and all
love's loving parts,
And all those friends which I
thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye
As interest of the dead, which now appear
But things removed, that hidden in thee lie !
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give,
That due of many now is thine alone :
Their images I loved I view in thee,
And thou, all they, hast all the all of me.
84
THE VITAL FORCE
F them survive my well-contented
day,
When that churl Death my bones
with dust shall cover,
And shalt by fortune once more
re-survey
These poor rude lines of thy
deceased lover,
Compare them with the bettering of the time,
And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
O then vouchsafe me but this loving thought :
' Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing
age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
To march in ranks of better equipage :
But since he died, and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love.'
SUNSHINE AND CLOUD
ULL many a glorious morning
have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with
sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the
meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with
heavenly alchemy ;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace :
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all-triumphant splendour on my brow ;
But out, alack ! he was but one hour mine ;
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth ;
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun
staineth.
86
DILEXIT MULTUM
HY didst thou promise such a
beauteous day
And make me travel forth without
my cloak,
To let base clouds o'ertake me in
my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten
smoke ?
"Pis not enough that through the cloud thou break
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For TO man well of such a salve can speak
Thrc heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace :
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief ;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss :
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross.
Ah ! but those tears are pearl which thy love
sheds,
And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
A CONFESSION
O more be grieved at that which
thou hast done :
Roses have thorns, and silver
fountains mud ;
Clouds and eclipses stain both
moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in
sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are ;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense
Thy adverse party is thy advocate
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence :
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an accessary needs must be
j
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
88
ANOTHER CONFESSION
ET me confess that we two must
be twain,
Although our undivided loves
are one :
So shall those blots that do with
me remain
Without thy help by me be borne
alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love's sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name.
But do not so ; I love thee in such sort
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
THE RECOMPENSE
S a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds
of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune's
dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth
and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store :
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give
That I in thy abundance am sufficed,
And by a part of all thy glory live.
Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee :
This wish I have ; then ten times happy me !
90
THE NEW MUSE
OW can my Muse want subject to
invent
While thou dost breathe, that
pour'st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too
excellent
For even 7 vulgar paper to re-
hearse ?
O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight ;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thyself dost give invention light ?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which rhymers invocate ;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
If my slight Muse do please these curious days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
9 1
IDENTITY IN LOVE
HOW thy worth with manners
may I sing,
When thou art all the better part
of me ?
What can mine own praise to
mine own self bring ?
And what is't but mine own when
I praise thee ?
Even for this let us divided live,
And our dear love lose name of single one,
That by this separation I may give
That due to thee which thou deserv'st alone.
O Absence, what a torment wouldst thou prove,
Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive,
And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
By praising him here who doth hence remain !
ALL FOR LOVE
AKE all my loves, my Love, yea,
take them all ;
What hast thou then more than
thou hadst before ?
No love, my Love, that thou
mayst true love call ;
All mine was thine, before thou
hadst this more.
Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest ;
But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself ref usest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty ;
And yet, love knows, it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites ; yet we must not be foes.
93
A PARDON
OSE petty wrongs that liberty
commits,
When I am sometime absent
from thy heart,
Thy beauty and thy years full
well befits,
For still temptation follows where
thou art.
Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won,
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed ;
And when a woman woos, what woman's son
Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed ?
Ay me ! but yet thou mightst my seat forbear,
And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their riot even there
Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth ,-
Hers, by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine, by thy beauty being false to me.
94
THEFT
NO ROBBERY
HAT them hast her, it is not all
my grief ;
And yet it may be said I loved
her dearly ;
That she hath thee, is of my
wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me
more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye :
Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love
her ;
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss ;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross :
But here's the joy ; my friend and I are one ;
Sweet flattery ! then she loves but me alone.
95
SHADOW AND TRUTH
HEN most I wink, then do mine
eyes best see,
For all the day they view things
unrespected ;
But when I sleep, in dreams
they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in
dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make
bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so !
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay !
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show
thee me.
SOUL AND BODY
the dull substance of my flesh
were thought,
Injurious distance should not
stop my way ;
For then, despite of space, I
would be brought
From limits far remote, where
thou dost stay.
No matter then although my food did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee ;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah ! thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan ;
Receiving nought by elements so slow
But heavy tears, badges of cither's woe.
97
SOUL AND BODY
[E other two, slight air and
purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever
I abide ;
The first my thought, the other
my desire,
These, present-absent, with swift
motion slide.
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy ;
Until life's composition be recured
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me :
This told, I joy ; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
98
,
In tie Court of Love
99)
, slight
ith thee,
,
jf n/
de.
For when these qui- gone
In tender emt:
My life, being made of two al
Sinks down to death, oppr<
Until life's composition be recured
ft messengers , J from
Hut now v. igain, ass
> me :
Thi
!
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
IN THE COURT OF LOVE
INE eve and heart are at a mortal
war
How to divide the conquest of
thy sight ;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's
sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom
of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impanneled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part :
As thus ; mine eye's due is thy outward part,
And my heart's right thy inward love of heart.
99
o
THE PICTURE AND THE IDEA
ETWIXT mine eye and heart a
league is took,
And each doth good turns now
unto the other ;
When that mine eye is famish'd
for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs him-
self doth smother,
With my Love's picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart ;
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part :
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away art present still with me ;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee ;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.
100
THE TREASURE OF TREASURES
OW careful was I, when I took
my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to
thrust,
That to my use it might unused
stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure
wards of trust !
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and
part ;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
101
A FOREBODING
AINST that time, if ever that
time come,
When I shall see thee frown on
my defects,
When-as thy love hath cast his
utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised
respects ;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity,
f
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part :
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.
102
VIA DOLOROSA
OW
heavy do I journey on the
way
When what I seek, my weary
travel's end,
Doth teach that ease and that
repose to say
Thus far the miles are measured
from thv friend ! '
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider loved not speed, being made from thee :
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heavily he answers with a groan
More sharp to me than spurring to his side ;
For that same groan doth put this in my mind ;
My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.
103
THE RETURN
US can my love excuse the
slow offence
Of my dull bearer when from
thee I speed :
From where thou art why should
I haste me thence ?
Till I return, of posting is no
need.
O, what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow ?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind ;
In winged speed no motion shall I know :
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace ;
Therefore desire, of perfect 'st love being made,
Shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race ;
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade ;
Since from thee going he went wilful-slow,
Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go.
104
CARUM QUOD RARUM
O am I as the rich, whose blessed
key
Can bring him to his sweet up-
locked treasure,
The which he will not every
hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of
seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so seldom and so rare,
Since, seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide
To make some special instant special-blest
By new unfolding his imprison'd pride.
Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had, to triumph, being lack'd, to hope.
I0 5
REALITY AND SHADOW
HAT is your substance ? whereof
are you made,
That millions of strange shadows
on you tend ?
Since every one hath, every one,
one shade,
And you, but one, can every
shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you ;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new :
Speak of the spring and foison of the year ;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear ;
And you in every blessed shape we know :
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
1 06
THE TRUE AND THE FALSE
HOW much more doth beauty
beauteous seem,
By that sweet ornament which
truth doth give !
The rose looks fair, but fairer
we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth
in it live :
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds
closes :
dis-
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so ;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made :
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distils your truth.
107
EXEGI MONUMENTUM
OT marble, nor the gilded monu-
ments
Of princes, shall outlive this
powerful rhyme ;
But you shall shine more bright
in these contents
Than unswept stone besmear'd
with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth ; your praise shall still find
room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
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THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTIR, LENOX AND
TILOEN FUUNOT,ONS
I
EBB AND FLOW
|WEET Love, renew thy force ;
be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than
appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding
is allay 'd,
To-morrow sharpen'd in his
former might :
So, Love, be thou ; although to-day thou fill
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness.
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness.
Let this sad interim like the ocean be
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
Come daily to the banks, that, when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view ;
Else call it winter, which being full of care
Makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd,
more rare.
109
ABSENCE
ING your slave, what should
I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of
your desire ?
I have no precious time at all
to spend,
Nor services to do, till you re-
quire.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu ;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love, that in your will
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.
no
SUBMISSION ABSOLUTE
HAT god forbid that made me
first your slave,
I should in thought control your
times of pleasure,
Or at your hand the account of
hours to crave,
Being your vassal, bound to
stay your leisure !
O let me suffer, being at your beck,
The imprison'd absence of your liberty ;
And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check,
Without accusing you of injury.
Be where you list, your charter is so strong
That you yourself may privilege your time
To what you will ; to you it doth belong
Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime.
I am to wait, though waiting so be hell ;
Not blame your pleasure, be it ill or well.
in
NIHIL NOVI, NIHIL INAUDITI
there be nothing new, but that
which is
Hath been before, how are our
brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention,
bear amiss
The second burden of a former
child !
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done !
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame ;
Whether we are mended, or whether better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
112
REVOLUTIONS
IKE as the waves make towards
the pebbled shore,
( So do our minutes hasten to
their end ;
Each changing place with that
which goes before
f In sequent toil all forwards do
contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown 'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow :
And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
H
ALAS
S it thy will thy image should
keep open
My heavy eyelids to the wear) 7
night ?
Dost thou desire my slumbers
should be broken,
While shadows like to thee
do mock my sight ?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenour of thy jealousy ?
O, no ! thy love, though much, is not so great :
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake ;
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake :
For thee watch I whilst thou dost wake else-
where,
From me far off, with others all too near.
114
A LESSON
IN of self-love possesseth all mine
eye
And all my soul and all my every
part ;
And for this sin there is no
remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my
heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account ;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read ;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
A PROTEST
GAINST my Love shall be, as I
am now,
With Time's injurious hand
crush'd and o'erworn ;
When hours have drain 'd his
blood and fill'd his brow
With lines and wrinkles ; when
his youthful morn
Hath travell'd on to age's steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now he's king
Are vanishing or vanish'd out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring ;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding age's cruel knife,
That he shall never cut from memory
My sweet Love's beauty, though my lover's life :
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green.
116
TIME AND LOVE
HEN I have seen by Time's fell
hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn
buried age ;
When sometime lofty towers I see
down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal
rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store ;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That Time will come and take my Love away :
-This thought is as a death, which cannot
choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
117
TIME AND LOVE
NCE brass, nor stone, nor earth,
nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their
power,
How with this rage shall beauty
hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than
a flower ?
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays ?
O fearful meditation ; where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid ?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back ?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid ?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my Love may still shine bright.
118
THE WORLD'S WAY
IRED with all these, for restful
death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar
born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in
jollity,
: And purest faith unhappily for-
sworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive Good attending captain 111 :
-Tired with all these, from these would I be
^ gone
Save that, to die, I leave my Love alone.
119
THE ONE AND ONLY
H ! wherefore with infection
should he live,
And with his presence grace
impiety,
That sin by him advantage
should achieve
And lace itself with his society ?
Why should false painting imitate his cheek
And steal dead seeing of his living hue ?
Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
Roses of shadow, since his rose is true ?
Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is,
Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins ?
For she hath no exchequer now but his,
And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.
O ! him she stores, to show what wealth she had
In days long since, before these last so bad.
1 20
AGE UNSHAMED
HUS is his cheek the map of days
outworn,
When beauty lived and died as
flowers do now,
Before these bastard signs of fair
were born,
Or durst inhabit on a living brow ;
Before the golden tresses of the dead,
The right of sepulchres, were shorn away
To live a second life on second head ;
Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay :
In him those holy antique hours are seen,
Without all ornament, itself and true,
Making no summer of another's green,
Robbing no old to dress his beauty new ;
And him as for a map doth Nature store,
To show false Art what beauty was of yore.
121
MEDIO DE
FONTE
HOSE parts of thee that the
world's eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of
hearts can mend ;
All tongues, the voice of souls,
give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as
foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd ;
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds ;
Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes
were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds :
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.
122
INEVITABLE SLANDER
HAT thou art blamed shall not
be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet
the fair ;
The ornament of beauty is sus-
pect,
A crow that flies in heaven's
sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time ;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present 'st a pure unstained prime.
Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days
Either not assail'd, or victor being charged ;
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
To tie up envy evermore enlarged :
If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst
owe.
123
THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH
O longer mourn for me when I am
dead
Than you shall hear the surly
sullen bell
Give warning to the world that
I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest
worms to dwell :
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it ; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O ! if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
124
SELF-ABASEMENT
LEST the world should task you
to recite
What merit lived in me, that
you should love
After my death, dear Love, forget
me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy
prove ;
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart :
O, lest your true love may seem false in this,
That you for love speak well of me untrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you :
For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.
125
QUATUOR NOVISSIMA
HAT time of year thou mayst in
me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or
few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake
against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late
the sweet bird sang :
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest :
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish 'd by :
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more
strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
h
126
THE POET'S IMMORTALITY
UT be contented : when that fell
arrest
Without all bail shall carry me
away,
My life hath in this line some
interest,
Which for memorial still with
thee shall stay.
When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
The very part was consecrate to thee :
The earth can have but earth, which is his due ;
My spirit is thine, the better part of me :
So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
The prey of worms, my body being dead,
The coward conquest of a wretch's knife,
Too base of thee to be remembered.
The worth of that is that which it contains.
And that is this, and this with thee remains.
127
RICH AND POOR
O are you to my thoughts as food
to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are
to the ground ;
And for the peace of you I hold
such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth
is found ;
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure ;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure ;
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starved for a look ;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
128
SWEET MONOTONY
HY is my verse so barren of new
pride,
So far from variation or quick
change ?
Why with the time do I not glance
aside
To new-found methods and to
compounds strange ?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed.
O, know, sweet Love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument ;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent :
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
129
WITH AN ALBUM
HY glass will show thee how thy
beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious
minutes waste ;
The vacant leaves thy mind's
imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning
mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory ;
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look, what thy memory can not contain
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver 'd from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
130
THE TRUE INSPIRATION
O oft have I invoked thee for my
Muse
And found such fair assistance in
my verse,
As every alien pen hath got my
use,
And under thee their poesy dis-
perse.
Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing
And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
Have added feathers to the learned's wing,
And given grace a double majesty.
Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
Whose influence is thine and born of thee :
In others' works thou dost but mend the style,
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be ;
But thou art all my art, and dost advance
As high as learning my rude ignorance.
THE IDEAL
HILST I alone did call upon thy
aid,
My verse alone had all thy gentle
grace,
But now my gracious numbers
are decay 'd,
And my sick Muse doth give
another place.
I grant, sweet Love, thy lovely argument
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,
Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent
He robs thee of and pays it thee again.
He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word
From thy behaviour ; beauty cloth he give
And found it in thy cheek ; he can afford
No praise to thee but what in thee doth live.
Then thank him not for that which he doth say,
Since what he owes thee thou thyself dost pay.
132
THE RIVAL DEFIED
HOW I faint when I of you do
write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use
your name,
And in the praise thereof spends
all his might,
To make me tongue-tied, speak-
ing of your fame !
But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark inferior far to his
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride ;
Or, being wreck'd, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building and of goodly pride :
Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this ; my love was my decay.
[ 33
A PROPHECY
R I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth
am rotten ;
From hence your memory death
cannot take,
Although in me each part will be
forgotten.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die :
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse
When all the breathers of this world are dead ;
You still shall live such virtue hath my pen-
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths
of men.
THE TRUE PRAISE
GRANT thou wert not married
to my Muse,
And therefore mayst without at-
taint o'erlook
The dedicated words which
writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing
every book.
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Finding thy worth a limit past my praise,
And therefore art enforced to seek anew
Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.
And do so, Love ; yet when they have devised
What strained touches rhetoric can lend,
Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized
In true plain words by thy true-telling friend ;
And their gross painting might be better used
Where cheeks need blood ; in thee it is abused.
135
OF HIS SILENCE
NEVER saw that you did paint-
ing need,
And therefore to your fair no
painting set ;
I found, or thought I found, you
did exceed
The barren tender of a poet's
debt ;
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself being extant well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory, being dumb ;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
136
LOVE'S ONE WORD
HO is it that says most ? which
can say more
Than this rich praise, that you
alone are you ?
In whose confine immured is the
store
Which should example where
your equal grew.
Lean penury within that pen doth dwell
That to his subject lends not some small glory ;
But he that writes of you, if he can tell
That you are you, so dignifies his story.
Let him but copy what in you is writ,
Not making worse what nature made so clear,
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
Making his style admired even 7 where.
You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
Being fond of praise, which makes your praises
worse.
137
ELOQUENT SILENCE
Y tongue-tied Muse in manners
holds her still
While comments of your praise,
richly compiled,
Reserve their character with
golden quill
And precious phrase by all the
Muses filed.
I think good thoughts whilst others write good
words,
And like unletter'd clerk still cry ' Amen '
To every hymn that able spirit affords
In polish'd form of well-refined pen.
Hearing you praised, I say ' 'Tis so, 'tis true,'
And to the most of praise add something more ;
But that is in my thought, whose love to you,
Though words come hindmost, holds his rank
before.
Then others for the breath of words respect,
Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect.
138
JEALOUSY
AS it the proud full sail of his great
verse,
Bound for the prize of all-too-
precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in
my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb
wherein they grew ?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead ?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors of my silence cannot boast ;
I was not sick of any fear from thence :
But when your countenance fill'd up his line,
Then lack'd I matter ; that enfeebled mine.
A RENUNCIATION
AREWELL ! thou art too dear
for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st
thy estimate :
The charter of thy worth gives
thee releasing ;
My bonds in thee are all deter-
minate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting ?
And for that riches where is my deserving ?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not
knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking ;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter ;
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.
140
LOVE'S EXCUSES
HEN thou shall be disposed to set
me light,
And place my merit in the eye of
scorn,
Upon thy side against myself I'll
fight
And prove thee virtuous, though
thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted,
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory :
And I by this will be a gainer too ;
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.
141
LOVE'S EXCUSES
that them didst forsake me for
some fault,
And I will comment upon that
offence ;
Speak of my lameness, and I
straight will halt,
Against thy reasons making no
defence.
Thou canst not, Love, disgrace me half so ill,
To set a form upon desired change,
As I'll myself disgrace : knowing thy will,
I will acquaintance strangle and look strange,
Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell,
Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong
And haply of our old acquaintance tell.
For thee against myself I'll vow debate,
For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate.
142
AN APPEAL OF DESPAIR
HEN hate me when thou wilt ; if
ever, now ;
Now, while the world is bent my
deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune,
make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-
loss :
Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scaped this
sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe ;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come ; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune's might ;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.
H3
ALL THINGS IN LOVE
|OME glory in their birth, some in
their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in
their bodies' force,
Some in their garments, though
new-fangled ill,
Some in their hawks and hounds,
some in their horse :
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest :
But these particulars are not my measure ;
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,
Of more delight than hawks or horses be ;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast :
Wretched in this alone, that them mayst take
All this away and me most wretched make.
144
' Some glory in their birth .
...
p.e in t-
ijunct p
i it finds a joy al
Bur particulars are not my measure ;
All ; ;hese I better in one general best.
m
s better than high birth to :
cr than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,
more delight than "hawks or h
11 men's pride I boast :
retched
WAilLtS 8BINS
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
TILDtls (-OIK.-
L.
THE SOURCE OF LIFE
UT do thy worst to steal thyself
away,
For term of life thou art assured
mine,
And life no longer than thy love
will stay,
For it depends upon that love of
thine.
Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,
When in the least of them my life hath end.
I see a better state to me belongs
Than that which on thy humour doth depend ;
Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.
O what a happy title do I find,
Happy to have thy love, happy to die !
But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot ?
Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not.
K
H5
TRUST AND MISTRUST
O shall I live, supposing thou art
true,
Like a deceived husband ; so
love's face
May still seem love to me, though
alter'd new ;
Thy looks with me, thy heart in
other place :
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In many's looks the false heart's history
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange ;
But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell ;
Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be
Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show !
146
THE LIFE WITHOUT PASSION
HEY that have power to hurt and
will do none,
That do not do the thing they
most do show,
Who, moving others, are them-
selves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to tempta-
tion slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense ;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die :
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity :
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds ;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
THE VIRTUE OF BEAUTY
OW sweet and lovely dost thou
make the shame
Which, like a canker in the
fragrant rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy
budding name !
O, in what sweets dost thou thy
sins enclose !
That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
Making lascivious comments on thy sport,
Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise ;
Naming thy name blesses an ill report.
O, what a mansion have those vices got
Which for their habitation chose out thee,
Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot,
And all things turn to fair that eyes can see !
Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege ;
The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.
148
THE POWER OF BEAUTY
OME say thy fault is youth, some
wantonness,
Some say thy grace is youth and
gentle sport ;
Both grace and faults are loved of
more and less ;
Thou mak'st faults graces that
to thee resort.
As on the finger of a throned queen
The basest jewel will be well esteem'd,
So are those errors that in thee are seen
To truths translated and for true things deem'd.
How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks translate !
How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state !
But do not so ; I love thee in such sort
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
149
ABSENCE FROM HIS LOVE
OW like a winter hath my absence
been
From thee, the pleasure of the
fleeting year !
What freezings have I felt, what
dark days seen !
What old December's bareness
every where !
And yet this time removed was summer's time ;
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease :
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit ;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute ;
Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
ROM you have I been absent in
the spring,
When proud-pied April dress'd
in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in
every thing,
Ji That heavy Saturn laugh'd and
leap'd with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they
grew ;
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose ;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
HE forward violet thus did I
chide :
Sweet thief, whence didst thou
steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my Love's breath ?
The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for
complexion dwells
In my Love's veins thou hast too
grossly dyed.
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair :
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair ;
A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both
And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath ;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see
But sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee.
A REAWAKENING
HERE art thou, Muse, that thou
forget'st so long
To speak of that which gives thee
all thy might ?
Spend 'st thou thy fury on some
worthless song
Darkening thy power to lend
base subjects light ?
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem
In gentle numbers time so idly spent ;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise, resty Muse, my Love's sweet face survey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there ;
If any, be a satire to decay,
And make Time's spoils despised every where :
Give my Love fame faster than Time wastes life ;
So thou prevent 'st his scythe and crooked knife.
INVOCATION
TRUANT Muse, what shall be
thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty
dyed ?
Both truth and beauty on my
Love depends ;
So dost thou too, and therein
dignified.
Make answer, Muse : wilt thou not haply say,
Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd ;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay ;
But best is best, if never intermix'd ? '
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb ?
Excuse not silence so ; for't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb,
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Muse ; I teach thee how
To make him seem long hence as he shows now.
SILENT ADORATION
Y love is strengthen'd, though
more weak in seeming ;
I love not less, though less the
show appear :
That love is merchandized whose
rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish
every where.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days :
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the
night,
But that wild music burthens every bough
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.
'55
WEAK WORDS
LACK, what poverty my Muse
brings forth,
That having such a scope to show
her pride,
The argument all bare is of more
worth
Than when it hath my added
praise beside !
O blame me not, if I no more can write !
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well ?
For to no other pass my verses tend
Than of your graces and your gifts to tell ;
And more, much more, than in my verse can sit
Your own glass show's you when you look in it.
156
THE EVER-YOUTHFUL
1|O me, fair friend, you never can be
old,
For as you were when first your
eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still.
Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook
three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah ! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived ;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived :
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred ;
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
FAIR, KIND, AND TRUE
ET not my love be call'd idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and
praises be
To one, of one, still such, and
ever so.
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence ;
Therefore my verse to constancy confined,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
' Fair, kind, and true ' is all my argument,
' Fair, kind, and true ' varying to other words ;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope
affords.
' Fair, kind, and true ' have often lived alone,
Which three till now never kept seat in one.
158
THE BEAUTY OF BEAUTIES
[EN in the chronicle of wasted
time
I see descriptions of the fairest
wights,
And beauty making beautiful old
rhyme
In praise of ladies dead and
lovely knights ;
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have express 'd
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring ;
And, for they look'd but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing :
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
'59
AMOR CONTRA MUNDUM
OT mine own fears, nor the
prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on
things to come
Can yet the lease of my true love
control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined
doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
And the sad augurs mock their own presage ;
Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,
Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes :
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass
spent.
are
1 60
THE EVER NEW
HAT'S in the brain that ink may
character
Which hath not figured to thee
my true spirit ?
What's new to speak, what new
to register,
That may express my love or thy
dear merit ?
Nothing, sweet boy ; but yet, like prayers divine,
I must each day say o'er the very same,
Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,
Even as when first I hallow 'd thy fair name.
So that eternal love in love's fresh case
Weighs not the dust and injury of age,
Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place,
But makes antiquity for aye his page,
Finding the first conceit of love there bred
Where time and outward form would show
dead.
it
161
PROTESTATION
NEVER say that I was false of
heart,
Though absence seem'd my flame
to qualify.
As easy might I from myself
depart
As from my soul, which in thy
breast doth lie :
That is my home of love : if I have ranged,
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe, though in my nature reign'd
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stain'd,
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good ;
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose ; in it thou art my all.
162
AN APOLOGY
LAS, 'tis true I have gone here
and there
And made myself a motley to the
view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold
cheap what is most dear ;
Made old offences of affections
new ;
Most true it is that I have look'd on truth
Askance and strangely : but, by all above,
These blenches gave my heart another youth,
And worse essays proved thee my best of love.
Now all is done, have what shall have no end :
Mine appetite I never more will grind
On newer proof, to try an older friend,
A god in love, to whom I am confined :
Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,
Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.
163
THE PLAYER'S DEGRADATION
FOR my sake do you with fortune
chide
The guilty goddess of my harmful
deeds,
That did not better for my life
provide
Than public means which public
manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand :
Pity me then and wish I were renew'd ;
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection ;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
164
THE WORLD WELL LOST
OUR love and pity doth the
impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp 'd
upon my brow ;
For what care I who calls me
well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my
good allow ?
You are my all the world, and I must strive
To know my shames and praises from your tongue ;
None else to me, nor I to none alive,
That my steel 'd sense or changes right or wrong.
t
In so profound abysm I throw all care
Of others' voices, that my adder's sense
To critic and to flatterer stopped are.
Mark how. with my neglect I do dispense :
You are so strongly in my purpose bred
That all the world besides, methinks, are dead.
165
THE OMNIPRESENT VISION
INCE I left you, mine eye is in
my mind ;
And that which governs me to go
about
Doth part his function and is
partly blind,
Seems seeing, but effectually is
out ;
For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape, which it doth latch :
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch ;
For if it see the rudest or gentlest sight,
The most sw T eet favour or deformed 'st creature,
The mountain or the sea, the day or night,
The crow or dove, it shapes them to your feature :
Incapable of more, replete with you,
My most true mind thus makes mine eye untrue.
EYE FLATTERY
R whether doth my mind, being
crown'd with you,
Drink up the monarch's plague,
this flattery ?
Or whether shall I say, mine eye
saith true,
And that your love taught it this
alchemy,
To make of monsters and things indigest
Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
Creating every bad a perfect best,
As fast as objects to his beams assemble ?
O, 'tis the first ; 'tis flatter} 7 in my seeing,
And my great mind most kingly drinks it up :
Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing,
And to his palate doth prepare the cup :
If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin
That mine eye loves it and doth first begin.
167
THE GROWTH OF LOVE
HOSE lines that I before have
writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not
love you dearer :
Yet then my judgment knew no
reason why
My most full flame should after-
wards burn clearer.
But reckoning time, whose million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp 'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering
things ;
Alas, why, fearing of time's tyranny,
Might I not then say ' Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest ?
Love is a babe ; then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow ?
168
TRUE LOVE
ET me not to the marriage of true
minds
8 Admit impediments. Love is
not love
Which alters when it alteration
finds,
Or bends with the remover to
remove :
O no ! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken ;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be
taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come ;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
169
A SELF ACCUSATION
CCUSE me thus : that I have
scanted all
Wherein I should your great
deserts repay,
Forgot upon your dearest love to
call,
I Whereto all bonds do tie me day
by day ;
That I have frequent been with unknown minds
And given to time your own dear-purchased right ;
That I have hoisted sail to all the winds
Which should transport me farthest from your
sight.
Book both my wilfulness and errors down
And on just proof surmise accumulate ;
Bring me within the level of your frown,
But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate ;
Since my appeal says, I did strive to prove
The constancy and virtue of your love.
SICK PASSION
IKE as, to make our appetites
more keen,
With eager compounds we our
palate urge ;
As, to prevent our maladies un-
seen,
We sicken, to shun sickness,
when we purge :
Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,
To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding,
And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness
To be diseased ere that there was true needing.
Thus policy in love, to anticipate
The ills that were not, grew to faults assured ;
And brought to medicine a healthful state,
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured :
But thence I learn, and find the lesson true,
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.
171
GOOD FROM EVIL
HAT potions have I drunk of
Siren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as
hell within,
Applying fears to hopes and
hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to
win !
What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never !
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted
In the distraction of this madding fever !
O benefit of ill ! now I find true
That better is by evil still made better ;
And ruin'd love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuked to my content,
And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
172
AMANTIUM IRAE
HAT you were once unkind be-
friends me now,
And for that sorrow which I then
did feel
Needs must I under my trans-
gression bow,
Unless my nerves were brass or
hammer'd steel.
For if you were by my unkindness shaken
As I by yours, you've pass'd a hell of time,
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken
To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime.
O that our night of woe might have remember'd
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,
And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd
The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits !
But that your trespass now becomes a fee ;
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.
DE PROFUNDIS
IS better to be vile than vile
esteem 'd,
When not to be receives reproach
of being,
And the just pleasure lost which
is so deem'd
Not by our feeling but by others'
seeing :
For why should others' false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood ?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good ?
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own :
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel ;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be
shown ;
Unless this general evil they maintain,
All men are bad, and in their badness reign.
174
THE TABLETS OF THE MIND
HY gift, thy tables, are within my
brain
' Full character'd with lasting
memory,
Which shall above that idle rank
remain
Beyond all date, even to eternity ;
Or at the least, so long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to subsist ;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd.
That poor retention could not so much hold,
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score ;
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
To trust those tables that receive thee more :
To keep an adjunct to remember thee
Were to import forgetfulness in me.
'75
DEFIANCE TO TIME
O, Time, thou shalt not boast
that I do change :
Thy pyramids built up with
newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing
strange ;
They are but dressings of a
former sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past,
For thy records and what we see do lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste.
This I do vow and this shall ever be ;
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.
176
' I will be trite, despite thy scthe and thee.'
Time, them shall not I
that I do
Thv pyramids bu
e nothing novel, r;
strange ;
They are but dressr
aier sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
And rather make them born to our desire
heard them tolc
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
t wonderir.g at the present nor the past,
For thy records and what we see do lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste. .
This I ' <i this shall ever be ;
I will be ;spite thy scythe and thee.
176
i.HARiri ROBINSON
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTVR,
TILDEN f(
c
THE TRUE STATESMANSHIP
IF my dear love were but the child
of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard
be unfather'd,
As subject to Time's love or to
Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers
with flowers gather 'd.
No, it was builded far from accident ;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls :
It fears not policy, that heretic,
Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,
But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with
showers.
To this I witness call the fools of time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for
crime.
M
177
THE FREEMAN OF LOVE
ERE'T aught to me I bore the
canopy,
With my extern the outward
j
honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which prove more short than
waste or ruining ?
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,
For compound sweet foregoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent ?
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art,
But mutual render, only me for thee.
Hence, thou suborn'd informer ! a true soul,
When most impeach'd, stands least in thy
control.
178
O CRUDELIS ADHUC
THOU, my lovely boy, who in
thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass,
his sickle, hour ;
Who hast by waning grown, and
therein show'st
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet
self grow'st ;
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure !
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure :
Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render Thee.
179
OF HIS LADY LOVE
N the old age black was not
counted fair,
Or if it were, it bore not beauty's
name ;
But now is black beauty's suc-
cessive heir,
And beauty slander'd with a
bastard shame :
For since each hand hath put on nature's power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'd face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress' brows are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
Slandering creation with a false esteem :
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says, beauty should look so.
1 80
' My mistress' brows are raven black.'
.
it bou
now is black bea;
cessive heir,
tsm And beauty slande<
bastard shan'
For since each hand hath put on nature'.
Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'ci
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bo\\
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
refore.my mistre&s, 1 browsjare raven black,
.&3B\o swtssu vta.iwno ii^rasw ^wv
eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
-u,ch who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
'dering creation with a false esteem :
o tit :n, becoming of their woe,
very tongue says, beauty should 1
1 80
YORK
>RARY
AT THE SPINET
OW oft, when thou, my music,
music play'st,
Upon that blessed wood whose
motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when
thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear
confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest
reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand !
To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
181
BEHIND THE VEIL
HE expense of spirit in a waste of
shame
Is lust in action ; and till action,
lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody,
full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not
to trust,
Enjoy 'd no sooner but despised straight ;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad ;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so ;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme ;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe ;
Before, a joy proposed ; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows ; yet none knows
well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
TRUTH WITHOUT DISGUISE
Y mistress' eyes are nothing like
the sun ;
Coral is far more red than her
lips' red ;
If snow be white, why then her
breasts are dun ;
If hairs be wires, black wires
grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks ;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound ;
I grant I never saw a goddess go ;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground :
And yet, by heaven, I think my Love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
183
THE MISTRESS
HOU art as tyrannous, so as thou
art,
As those whose beauties proudly
make them cruel ;
For well thou know'st to my dear
doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most
precious jewel.
Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.
And, to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another's neck, do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place.
In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.
184
THE MOURNER'S HOPE
INE eyes I love, and they, as
pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torments me
with disdain,
Have put on black, and loving
mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon
my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the gray cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers-in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west,
As those two mourning eyes become thy face :
O, let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty herself is black
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
FAITH AND UNFAITH
ESHREW that heart that makes
my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my
friend and me !
Is't not enough to torture me
alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet 'st
friend must be ?
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou, harder, hast engross'd :
Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken ;
A torment thrice threefold thus to be cross'd.
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward,
But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail ;
Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard ;
Thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol :
And yet thou wilt ; for I, being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
186
SUBTLETIES OF LOVE
O, now I have confess'd that he is
thine,
And I myself am mortgaged to
thy will,
Myself I'll forfeit, so that other
mine
Thou wilt restore, to be my
comfort still :
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous and he is kind ;
He learn'd but surety-like to write for me
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake ;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost ; thou hast both him and me :
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
187
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
HOEVER hath her wish, thou
hast thy ' Will,'
And ' Will ' to boot, and ' Will
in overplus ;
More than enough am I that vex
thee still,
To thy sweet will making addi-
tion thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine ?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine ?
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still
And in abundance addeth to his store ;
So thou, being rich in ' Will,' add to thy ' W T ill '
One will of mine, to make thy large ' Will ' more.
Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill ;
Think all but one, and me in that one ' Will.'
1 88
THE SAME
F thy soul check thee that I come
so near,
Swear to thy blind soul that I was
thy ' Will,'
And will, thy soul knows, is
admitted there ;
Thus far for love my love-suit,
Sweet, fulfil.
' Will ' will fulfil the treasure of thy love,
Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one.
In things of great receipt with ease we prove
Among a number one is reckon'd none :
Then in the number let me pass untold,
Though in thy stores' account I one must be ;
For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold
That nothing me, a something sweet to thee :
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lovest me, for my name is ' Will.'
BLIND LOVE
HOU blind fool, Love, what dost
thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not
what they see ?
They know what beauty is, see
where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the
worst to be.
If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks
Be anchor'd in the day where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied ?
Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world's common
place ?
Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face ?
In things right true my heart and eyes have err'd,
And to this false plague are they now transferr'd.
190
CHERISHED FALSEHOOD
HEN my Love swears that she is
made of truth
I do believe her, though I know
she lies,
That she might think me some
untutor'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false
subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue :
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust ?
And wherefore say not I that I am old ?
O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told :
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.
HOPE AGAINST HOPE
CALL not me to justify the wrong
That thy unkindness lays upon
my heart ;
Wound me not with thine eye
but with thy tongue ;
Use power with power and slay
me not by art.
Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere, but in my sight,
Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside :
What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy
might
Is more than my o'er-press'd defence can bide ?
Let me excuse thee : ah ! my Love well knows
Her pretty looks have been mine enemies,
And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
That they elsewhere might dart their injuries :
Yet do not so ; but since I am near slain,
Kill me outright with looks and rid my pain.
192
A LAST PLEA
wise as them art cruel ; do not
press
My tongue-tied patience with too
much disdain ;
Lest sorrow lend me words and
words express
The manner of my pity-wanting
pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, Love, to tell me so ;
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know
For if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee :
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart
go wide.
N
'93
LOVE IN UNLOVELINESS
faith, I do not love thee with
mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors
note ;
But 'tis my heart that loves what
they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased
to dote ;
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone :
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be :
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
APPLES OF THE DEAD SEA
OVE is my sin and thy dear virtue
hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on
sinful loving :
O, but with mine compare thou
thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not
reproving ;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee ;
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied !
195
A PICTURE
O ! as a careful housewife runs to
catch
One of her feather'd creatures
broke away,
Sets down her babe and makes
all swift despatch
In pursuit of the thing she would
have stay,
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent ;
So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I, thy babe, chase thee afar behind ;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind :
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy ' Will,'
If thou turn back, and my loud crying still.
196
EROS AND ANTEROS
WO loves I have of comfort and
despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest
me still :
The better angel is a man right
fair,
The worser spirit a woman
colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell ;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell :
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
197
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
HOSE lips that Love's own hand
did make
Breathed forth the sound that
said ' I hate '
To me that languish 'd for her
sake ;
But when she saw my woeful
state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that, ever sweet,
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet ;
' I hate ' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away ;
' I hate ' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying ' not you.'
SOUL AND BODY
OOR soul, the centre of my sinful
earth,
[Foil'd by] these rebel powers
that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and
suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so
costly gay ?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge ? is this thy body's end ?
Then, Soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store ;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross ;
Within be fed, without be rich no more :
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying
then.
199
MADNESS OF LOVE
Y love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth
the disease,
Feeding on that which doth pre-
serve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to
please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest ;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly express 'd ;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee
bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
200
PASSION-BLINDNESS
ME, what eyes hath Love put in
my head,
Which have no correspondence
with true sight !
Or, if they have, where is my
judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they
see aright ?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so ?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's ' eye ' is not so true as all men's ' no ' :
How can it ? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vex'd with watching and with tears ?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view ;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love ! with tears thou keep'st me
blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
201
A LAST APPEAL
ANST thou, O cruel ! say I love
thee not,
When I against myself with thee
partake ?
Do I not think on thee, when I
forgot
Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy
sake ?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend ?
On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon ?
Nay, if thou lour'st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan ?
What merit do I in myself respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes ?
But, Love, hate one, for now I know thy mind ;
Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind.
202
DE PROFUNDIS
FROM what power hast thou this
powerful might
With insufficiency my heart to
sway ?
To make me give the lie to my
true sight,
And swear that brightness doth
not grace the day ?
Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,
That in the very refuse of thv deeds
/ J
There is such strength and warrantise of skill
That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds ?
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more
The more I hear and see just cause of hate ?
O, though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state :
If thy unworthiness raised love in me,
More worthv I to be beloved of thee.
203
VANITAS VANITATUM
N loving thee them know'st I am
forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn, to
me love swearing,
In act thy bed-vow broke and
new faith torn
In vowing new hate after new
love bearing.
But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty ? I am perjured most ;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost,
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,
And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see ;
For I have sworn thee fair ; more perjured I,
To swear against the truth so foul a lie !
204
YOUTH AND AGE
RABBED Age and Youth cannot
live together :
Youth is full of pleasance, age is
full of care ;
Youth like summer morn, age
like winter weather ;
Youth like summer brave, age
like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short ;
Youth is nimble, age is lame ;
Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold ;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee ; Youth, I do adore thee ;
O, my Love, my Love is young !
Age, I do defy thee : O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,
For methinks thou stay'st too long.
205
FAIR AND FALSE
AIR is my Love, but not so fair as
fickle ;
Mild as a dove, but neither true
nor trusty ;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as
glass is, brittle ;
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron,
rusty :
j
A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.
Her lips to mine how often hath she join'd,
Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing !
How many tales to please me hath she coin'd,
Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing !
Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,
Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were
jestings.
She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth ;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-burneth ;
She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the framing ;
She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning.
Was this a lover, or a lecher whether ?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.
1 She burn'd ^ love, as straw with fife flameth
Mieburn'd "t love, as soon as straw fut-burneth.
'
.le ;
iiicl as a dove, but n<
nor trust-,
Brighter than glass, an.
glass 13, brittle ;
^> >fter than wax, and yet
I'isty :
A lily pale, with danask dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor nono falser to deface her.
Her lips to mine how often hath she join'd,
Between each k : ss her oaths of true love swei:
How manv tales to please me hath she coin'd,
'"' '
5fewwA-\t TfV,?. U> S<ppl.lS> ,9'JO\ U>,y n - W Q SAG .
Yet in tne midst ofall ner purt pretestings,
Her faith, hisr oaths, her tears and all
jestings.
She burn'ci , as straw with fire flameth ;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-bin
She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the fra;
She bade >st, and yet she fell a-turning.
Was this a lover, or a lecher whether ?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.
206
">
/
f
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
TO-MORROW
ORD, how mine eyes throw gazes
to the east !
My heart doth charge the watch ;
the morning rise
Doth cite each moving sense from
idle rest.
Not daring trust the office of
mine eyes,
While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,
And wish her lays were tuned like the lark ;
For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,
And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night :
The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty ;
Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight ;
Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with
sorrow ;
For why , she sigh'd, and bade me come to-morrow.
Were I with her, the night would post too soon ;
But now are minutes added to the hours ;
To spite me now, each minute seems a moon ;
Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers !
Pack night, peep day ; good day, of night now
borrow :
Short, night, to-night, and length thyself to-
morrow.
207
FAREWELL
OD night, good rest. Ah, neither
be my share :
She bade good night that kept
my rest away ;
And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd
with care,
To descant on the doubts of my
decay.
Farewell, quoth she, and come again to-morrow :
Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow
Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether :
'T may be, she joyed to jest at my exile,
'T may be, again to make me wander thither :
Wander, a word for shadows like myself,
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.
208
BEAUTY
AUTY is but a vain and doubtful
good ;
A shining gloss that vadeth sud-
denly ;
A flower that dies when first it
'gins to bud ;
A brittle glass that's broken
presently :
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.
And as goods lost are seld or never found,
As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither 'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once, 's for ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
O
209
AN ELEGY
WEET Rose, fair Flower, un-
timely pluck'd, soon vaded,
Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in
the spring !
Bright orient pearl, alack, too
timely shaded !
Fair creature, kill'd too soon by
death's sharp sting !
Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree,
And falls, through wind, before the fall should
be.
I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have ;
For why, thou left'st me nothing in thy will :
And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave ;
For why, I craved nothing of thee still :
O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee,
Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.
210
THE PHCENIX
AND THE
TURTLE
-
THE PHCENIX AND THE TURTLE
ET the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings
obey.
But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near !
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king :
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice .white
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender makest
With the breath thou giv'st and takest,
'Mongst our mourners shall thou go.
213
Here the anthem doth commence
Love and constancy is dead ;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one ;
Two distincts, division none :
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder ;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight ;
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same ;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
214
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded,
That it cried, How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one !
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene.
215
THRENOS
Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest ;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity :
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be ;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she ;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair ;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
216
A LOVER'S
COMPLAINT
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain.' (page 219)
(pis
^k^
, :.
JHE NE\
PUBLIC 1.
AST^'R
TILDtU
A LOVER'S COMPLAINT
ROM off a hill whose concave
womb re-worded
A plaintful story from a sistering
vale,
My. spirits to attend this double
voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-
tuned tale ;
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.
Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcass of a beauty spent and done :
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit ; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.
Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,
Laundering the silken figures in the brine
That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,
And often reading what contents it bears ;
As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all size, both high and low.
219
Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,
As they did battery to the spheres intend ;
Sometimes diverted, their poor balls are tied
To the orbed earth ; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on ; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix 'd.
Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim 'd in her a careless hand of pride ;
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside ;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.
A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set ;
Like usury, applying wet to wet,
Or monarch's hands that let not bounty fall
Where want cries some, but where excess begs
all.
220
Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood ;
Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud ;
Found yet moe letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
Enswathed, and seal'd to curious secrecy.
These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,
And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear ;
Cried " O false blood, thou register of lies,
\Vhat unapproved witness dost thou bear !
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned
here ! '
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh-
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours, observed as they flew
Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew,
And, privileged by age, desires to know
In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.
221
So slides he down upon his grained bat,
And comely-distant sits he by her side ;
When he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance with his hearing to divide :
If that from him there may be aught applied
Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
'Tis promised in the charity of age.
" Father," she says, " though in me you behold
The injury of many a blasting hour,
Let it not tell your judgement I am old ;
Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power :
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself, and to no love beside.
" But, woe is me ! too early I attended
A youthful suit it was to gain my grace
Of one by nature's outwards so commended,
That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face :
Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place ;
And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodged and newly deified.
222
' His browny locks did hang in crooked curls ;
And every light occasion of the wind
Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find :
Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
For on his visage was in little drawn
What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.
Small show of man was yet upon his chin ;
His phoenix down began but to appear
Like unshorn velvet on that termless skin
Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear
Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear ;
And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
If best were as it was, or best without.
' His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and therefore free ;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
223
" Well could he ride, and often men would say
That horse his mettle from his rider takes :
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, zvhat course, what stop
he makes !
And controversy hence a question takes,
Whether the horse by him became his deed,
Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.
" But quickly on this side the verdict went :
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish 'd in himself, not in his case ;
All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions ; yet their purposed trim
Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.
" So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind of arguments and question deep
All replication prompt and reason strong
For his advantage still did wake and sleep :
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will :
224
" That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old ; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted :
Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted ;
And dialogued for him what he would say,
Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.
' Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind ;
Like fools that in th' imagination set
The goodly objects which abroad they find
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd :
And labouring in more pleasures to bestow them
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe
them :
' So many have, that never touch 'd his hand,
Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.
My woeful self that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,
Reserved the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
225
' Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired yielded ;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded :
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
' But ah ! who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destined ill she must herself assay ?
Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put the by-past perils in her way ?
Counsel may stop a while what will not stay ;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.
' Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof ;
To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O Appetite, from Judgement stand aloof !
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though Reason weep, and cry It is thy last.
226
" For further I could say This mans untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling ;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling ;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling ;
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.
" And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he gan besiege me : Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid :
That's to ye sworn to none was ever said ;
For feasts of love I have been calVd unto,
Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.
' All my offences that abroad you see
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind ;
Love made them not : zvith acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind :
They sought their shame that so their shame did find,
And so much less of shame in me remains,
By how much of me their reproach contains.
227
' Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,
Or my affections put to the smallest teen,
Or any of my leisures ever charm' d :
Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harm'd ;
Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
And reign' d, commanding in his monarchy.
' Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me
Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood ;
Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood ;
Effects of terror and dear modesty,
Encamp' d in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
' And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
With tzvisted metal amorously impleach'd,
I have received from many a several fair,
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
With the annexions of fair gems enrich' d,
And deep-brain' d sonnets that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.
228
" The diamond, why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invised properties did tend ;
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend ;
The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
With objects manifold : each several stone,
With wit well blazon d, smiled or made some moan.
" Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render,
That is, to you, my origin and ender ;
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
" O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise ;
Take all these similes to your own command,
Hallow' d with sighs that burning lungs did raise ;
What me your minister, for you obeys,
Works under you : and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels in combined sums.
229
" Lo, this device was sent me from a mm,
Or sister sanctified, of holiest note ;
Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dole ;
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
To spend her living in eternal love.
" But, O my sweet, what labour is 't to leave
The thing we have not, mastering what not
strives,
Playing the place which did no form receive,
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves ?
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.
" O, pardon me, in that my boast is true :
The accident which brought me to her eye
Upon the moment did her force subdue,
And now she would the caged cloister fly :
Religious love put out Religion's eye :
Not to be tempted, would she be immured ;
And now, to tempt, all liberty procured.
230
' How mighty then you are, O hear me tell !
The broken bosoms that to me belong
Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
And mine I pour your ocean all among :
I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
J\lust for your victory us all congest,
As compound love to physic your cold breast.
' My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,
Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,
Believed her eyes when they to assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place :
O most potential love ! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.
When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example ? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame !
Love's arms are peace, Against rule, 'gainst sense,
'gainst shame,
And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.
231
' Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, ivith bleeding groans they pine ;
And supplicant their sighs to you extend,
To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.
" This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face ;
Each cheek a river running from a fount
With brinish current downward flow'd apace :
O, how the channel to the stream gave grace !
Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue encloses.
" O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear !
But with the inundation of the eyes
What rocky heart to water will not wear ?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here ?
O cleft effect ! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.
232
" For, lo, his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolved my reason into tears ;
There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
Shook off my sober guards and civil fears ;
Appear to him, as he to me appears,
All melting ; though our drops this difference bore,
His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.
" In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness ; and he takes and leaves,
In cither's aptness, as it best deceives,
To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows :
" That not a heart which in his level came
Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
Showing fair nature is both kind and tame ;
And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim :
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim ;
When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury,
He preach'd pure maid, and praised cold chastity.
233
" Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd ;
That th' unexperient gave the tempter place,
Which like a cherubin above them hover 'd.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd ?
Ay me ! I fell ; and yet do question make
What I should do again for such a sake.
" O that infected moisture of his eye,
O that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
O that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
O that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
O all that borrow'd motion, seeming owed,
Would yet again betray the fore-betray 'd,
And new pervert a reconciled maid ! '
234
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
PAGE
Accuse me thus : that I have scanted all 170
Against my Love shall be, as I am now 116
Against that time, if ever that time come 102
Ah ! wherefore with infection should he live 120
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth 156
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there 163
Art thou, god, to shepherd turn'd 1 1
As a decrepit father takes delight 90
As an unperfect actor on the stage 76
As fast as thou shall wane, so fast thou growest 65
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good 209
Being your slave, what should I do but tend no
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan 186
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took 100
Be wise as thou art cruel ; do not press 193
Blow, blow, thou winter wind 49
But be contented : when that fell arrest 127
But do thy worst to steal thyself away 145
But wherefore do not you a mightier way 70
Canst thou, O cruel ! say I love thee not 202
Come away, come away, Death 20
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me 46
Come, thou Monarch of the vine 34
Come unto these yellow sands 24
Crabbed Age and Youth cannot live together 205
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws 73
Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye 15
Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer 35
Fair is my Love, but not so fair as fickle 206
Farewell ! thou art too dear for my possessing 140
Fathers that wear rags 30
235
Fear no more the heat o' the sun 22
Fie on sinful fantasy 29
For shame ! deny that thou bear'st love to any 64
From fairest creatures we desire increase 55
Full many a glorious morning have I seen 86
From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded 219
From you have I been absent in the Spring 151
Full fathom five thy father lies 44
Get you hence, for I must go 6
Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share 208
Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love 9
Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings i
Honour, riches, marriage-blessing 18
How can I then return in happy plight 81
How can my muse want subject to invent 91
How careful was I, when I took my way 101
How heavy do I journey on the way 103
How like a winter hath my absence been 150
How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st 181
How should I your true-Love know 45
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame 148
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse 135
I never saw that you did painting need 136
If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love 13
If my dear love were but the child of state 177
If She be made of white and red
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought 97
If there be nothing new, but that which is 112
If thou survive my well-contented day 85
If thy soul check thee that I come so near 189
Immortal gods, I crave no pelf 48
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes 194
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn 204
In the old age black was not counted fair 180
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye 63
Is it thy will thy image should keep open 114
It was a Lover and his Lass 5
236
Lawn as white as driven snow 33
Let me confess that we two must be twain 89
Let me not to the marriage of true minds 169
Let not my love be call'd idolatry 158
Let the bird of loudest lay 213
Let those who are in favour with their stars 78
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore 113
Like as, to make our appetites more keen 171
Lo ! as a careful housewife runs to catch 196
Lo ! in the orient when the gracious light 61
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest 57
Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east 207
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage 79
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate 195
Love, Love, nothing but Love, still more 43
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war 99
Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath stell'd 77
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly 62
My glass shall not persuade me I am old 75
My love is as a fever, longing still 200
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming 155
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun 183
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still 138
No longer mourn for me when I am dead 124
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck 68
No, Time, thou shall not boast that I do change 176
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 108
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul 160
Now the hungry lion roars 27
O, call not me to justify the wrong 192
O, for my sake do you with fortune chide 164
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might 203
O, how I faint when I of you do write 133
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem 107
O, how thy worth with manners may I sing 92
O, lest the world should task you to recite 125
237
PAGE
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head 201
O Mistress mine, where are you roaming 4
On a day alack the day 16
O, never say that I was false of heart 162
Or I shall live your epitaph to make 134
Orpheus with his lute made trees 40
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you 167
O, that you were yourself ! but, Love, you are 67
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power 179
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends 154
Over hill, over dale 25
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth 199
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault 142
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day 72
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more 19
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea 118
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind 166
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye 115
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd 47
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key 105
So are you to my thoughts as food to life 128
So is it not with me as with that Muse 74
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill 144
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness 149
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse 131
So, now I have confess'd that he is thine 187
So shall I live, supposing thou art true 146
So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not 12
Study me how to please the eye indeed 14
Sweet Flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew 21
Sweet Love, renew thy force ; be it not said 109
Sweet Mistress, what your name is else, I know not 10
Sweet Rose, fair Flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded 210
Take all my loves, my Love, yea, take them all 93
Take, O, take those lips away 8
Tell me where is Fancy bred 2
That god forbid that made me first your slave 1 1 1
238
PAGE
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect 123
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief 95
That time of year thou mayst in me behold' 126
That you were once unkind befriends me now 173
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame 182
The forward violet thus did I chide 152
The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I 39
The other two, slight air and purging fire 98
Then hate me when thou wilt ; if ever, now 143
Then is there mirth in Heaven 17
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface 60
They bore him barefaced on the bier 46
They that have power to hurt and will do none 147
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me 185
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame 59
Those lines that I before have writ do lie 168
Those lips that Love's own hand did make 198
Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view 122
Those petty wrongs that liberty commits 94
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art 184
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes 190
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence 104
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn 121
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts 84
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain 175
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear 130
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry 119
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem 'd 174
To me, fair friend, you never can behold 157
Two loves have I of comfort and despair 197
Under the greenwood tree 5 1
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend 58
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse 139
Was this fair face the cause, quoth she 36
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed 80
Wedding is great Juno's crown 17
Were't aught to me I bore the canopy 178
W T hat is your substance ? whereof are you made 106
239
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears 172
What shall he have that kill'd the deer 38
What's in the brain that ink may character 161
When daffodils begin to peer 3 1
When daisies pied and violets blue 41
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow 56
When I consider every thing that grows 69
When I do count the clock that tells the time 66
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced 1 17
When icicles hang by the wall 42
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes 82
When in the chronicle of wasted time 159
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see 96
When -my Love swears that she is made of truth 191
When that I was and a little tiny boy 37
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought 83
When thou shall be disposed to set me light 141
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget 'st so long 153
Where the bee sucks, there suck I 24
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid 132
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy ' Will ' 188
Whose is it that says most ? which can say more 137
Why is my verse so barren of new pride 129
Who is Silvia ? what is She 3
Who will believe my verse in time to come 71
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day 87
Why, let the stricken deer go weep 50
You spotted snakes with double tongue 26
Your love and pity doth the impression fill 165
ENGRAVED AND PRINTED
AT THE COMPLETE PRESS
WEST NORWOOD LONDON
a 7 1926
