285

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, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense,
'gainst shame;

And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,

The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

286

Poems.

Love's counsellors should fill the bores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense.

287

31-iii. 2.

Love is full of unbefitting strains;

9-iii. 2.

All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain;
Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye
Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms,
Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll

To every varied object in his glance.

290

Love is a smoke raised with a fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;

* Love.

8-v. 2.

Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

291

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow;
By his best arrow with the golden head;
By the simplicity of Venus' doves;

35-i. 1.

By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves;
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Trojan under sail was seen!
By all the vows that ever man have broke,
In numbers more than ever women spoke;-
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

292

He says, he loves my daughter:

I think so too; for never gazed the moon
Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read,

7—i. 1.

As 'twere, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain,
I think there is not half a kiss to choose,
Who loves another best.*

293

13-iv. 3.

O, that I thought it could be in a woman,
To feed for ayet her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or, that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you

Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas,
I am as true as truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.

294

If ever (as that ever may be near)

26-iii. 2.

*The other best.

† Ever.

Meet with an equal.

You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,
Then shall you know the wounds invisible
That love's keen arrows make.

295

10-iii. 5.

Time, force, and death,

Do to this body what extremes you can;

But the strong base and building of my love
Is as the very centre of the earth,

Drawing all things to it.

296

26-iv. 2.

you leaden messengers,

That ride upon the violent speed of fire,

Fly with false aim; move the still-piercing air,
That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord!

297

11-iii. 2.

Leave you your power to draw,

And I shall have no power to follow you.

7-ii. 2.

298

Sweet silent hours of marriage joys.

24-iv. 4.

299

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.-
That strain again; it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.

300

Love is like a child,

4-i. 1.

That longs for every thing that he can come by.

301

Tell this youth what 'tis to love.

It is to be all made of sighs and tears;
It is to be all made of faith and service ;-
It is to be all made of fantasy,

2-iii. 1.

All made of passion, and all made of wishes;
All adoration, duty, and observance,

All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,
All purity, all trial, all observance.*

10-v. 2.

302

My love's

More richer than my tongue.

34-i. 1.

303

I have done penance for contemning love;
Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,

With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs;
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
O, love's a mighty lord;

And hath so humbled me, as, I confess,

There is no woe to his correction,†

Nor, to his service, no such joy on earth!

Now, no discourse, except it be of love;

Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.

304

2-ii. 4.

O brawling love! O loving hate!

O any thing, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

305

I leave myself, my friends, and all for love.
Thou hast metamorphosed me;

35-i. 1.

Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
War with good counsel, set the world at nought;
Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.

*Perhaps, obedience.

2-i. 1.

† No misery that can be compared to the punishment inflicted by love.

306

The gifts, she looks from me, are pack'd and lock'd
Up in my heart: which I have given already,

But not deliver'd.

307

13-iv. 3.

Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.

19-v. 2.

Here comes the lady ;-O, so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint:
A lover may bestride the gossamers,*
That idle in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

311

35-ii. 6.

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity† and pitch soe'er,

But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.

312

She bids you,

Upon the wanton rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,

4-i. 1.

The long white filament which flies in the air. Value. Fantastical to the height. This expression is fine; intimating that the god of sleep would not only sit on his eyelids, but that he should sit crowned, that is, pleased and delighted.