Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put thy by-past perils in her way!
Counsel may stop awhile 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 forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms, that preach in our behoof.
O appetite! from judgment stand aloof.

The one a palate hath, that needs will taste,
Tho' reason weep, and cry, it is my last.

For further I could say this man's untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling,
Heard where his plants in other 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 adult'rate 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;
What's to you sworn, to none was ever said.
For feasts of love I have been call'd unto;
Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow:

All my offences, that abroad you see,
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
Love made them not, with 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.

Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
Or my affection put to the smallest teen,
Or any of my leisures ever charmed:

Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
Kept hearts in liveries, but my own was free,
And reign'd commanding in his monarchy.

Look here what tributes wounded fancy sent me,
Of pallid 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 twisted metal amorously empleach'd,
I have receiv'd from many a several fair;
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
With the annexions of fair gems inrich'd;

And deep-brain'd sonnets, that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality :

The diamond! why 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invis'd properties did tend:
The deep green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend:
The heaven-hued saphyr, and the ophal blend
With objects manifold; each several stone,
With wit well blazon'd, smil'd, or made some moan.

Lo all these trophies of affection hot,

Of pensive and subdu'd desires, the tender;
Nature hath charg'd 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 smiles unto 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.

Lo! this device was sent me from a nun,
Or sister sanctify'd of holiest note,
Which late her noble suit in court did shun;
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms doat:
For she was sought by spirits of rfchest 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, mast'ring what not strives?
Playing the place which did no form receive;
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gives!
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle 'scapeth, by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.
Q! 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 religious eye:

Not to be tempted, would she be immured;
And now to tempt, all liberty procured.
How mighty then are you, O hear me tell!
The broken bosoms that to me belong,
Have empty'd 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,
Must for your victory us all congest,

As compound love to physick your cold breast.
My parts had power to charm a sacred sun;
Tho' disciplin'd, I dieted in grace,

Believ'd her eyes, when they t' assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place.
O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee had neither string, 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 enflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth

Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame? [shame,
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst
And sweetness in the suffering pang it bears,
The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

Now all these hearts, that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with 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 wat'ry eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights, till then, were level'd on my face;
Each cheek a river running from a fount,
With brinish current downward flow'd apace.
Oh how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who glaz'd with crystal gate the glowing roses,
That flame thro' water which their hue incloses..
Oh, 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?
Oh, cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath!
Both fire from hence, and chill extincture hath.
For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolv'd my reason into tears;
There my white stole of chastity I daft,
Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears,
Appear to him, as he to me appears,

All melting, tho' our drops this difference bore,
His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.

In him a plenitude of subtle matter,

Apply'd to cautless, all strange forms receives
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness and he takes and leaves
In either's aptness, as it best deceives:

To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white, and swoon at tragick shows:
That not a heart which in his level came,
Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim.
Showing fair nature is both wild and tame :
And veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim;
Against the thing he sought, he would exclaim;
When he most burnt in heart-wish'd luxury,
He preach'd pure maid, and prais'd cold chastity.
Thus merely with the garment of a grace,
The naked and concealed fiend he cover❜d;
That the unexperienc'd gave the tempter place,

Which like a cherubim above them hover'd:
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ah, me! 1 fell and yet do question make,
What I should do again for such a sake.

Oh! that infected moisture of his eye!
Oh! that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd!
Oh that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly!
Oh! that sad breath his spungy lungs bestow'd!
Oh! all that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'd!
Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
And new pervert a reconciled maid.

THE AMOROUS EPISTLE OF PARIS TO HELEN.

Health unto Leda's daughter, Priam's son
Sends in these lines, whose health cannot be won
But by your gift, in whose power it may lie
To make me whole or sick; to live or die.
Shall I then speak? or doth my flame appear
Plain without index? Oh; 'tis that I fear!
My love without discovering smile takes place,
And more than I could wish, shines in my face;
When I could rather in my thoughts desire
To hide the smoke, 'till time display the fire:
Time, that can make the fire of love shine clear,
Untroubled with the misty smoke of fear.
But I dissemble it; for who, I pray,
Can fire conceal? that will itself betray.
Yet if you look I should affirm that plain

In words, which in my count'nance I maintain,

I burn, I burn, my faults I have confess'd,

My words bear witness how my looks transgress'd.

Oh! pardon me, that have confess'd my error,
Cast not upon my lines a look of terror;

But as your beauty is beyond compare,

Suit unto that your looks (oh! you most fair!)
That you my letter have receiv'd by this,
The supposition glads me, and I wish

By hope encourag'd, hope that makes me strong,
You will receive me in some sort ere long.
I ask no more, than what the queen of beauty
Hath promis'd me, for you are mine by duty.
By her I claim you, you for me were made,
And she it was my journey did persuade.