IV.

What curfed weed 's this love! but one grain fow,
And the whole field 't will overgrow;

Straight will it choke up and devour
Each wholefome herb and beauteous flow'r;
Nay, unless fomething foon I do,

'Twill kill, I fear, my very laurel too.

V.

But now all's gone';' I now, alas! complain,
Declare, proteft, and threat, in vain;

Since by my own unforc'd confent
The traitor has ny government,

And is fo fettled in the throne,

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2.5

That 't were rebellion now to claim mine own. go

KNOW

THE FRAILTY.

ow 't is fordid, and 't is low, (All this as well as you I know) Which I fo hotly now pursue; (I know all this as well as you) But whilft this curfed flesh i bear,

And all the weakness and the basenefs there,

Alas! alas! it will be always fo.

II.

In vain, exceedingly in vain,

I rage fometimes and bite my chain ;

For to what purpose do I bite

With teeth which ne'er will break it quite ?
For if the chiefest Christian head,

Was by this sturdy tyrant buffeted,

What wonder is it if weak I be flain?

COLDNESS.

I

As water fluid is, till it do grow

Solid and fix'd by cold;

So in warm feafons Love does loosely flow,
Frost only can it hold:

A woman's rigour and disdain

Does his fwift course restrain.

II.

Tho' conftant and confiftent now it be,

Yet when kind beams appear

It melts, and glides apace into the fea,
And lofes itfelf there:

So the Sun's am'rous play

Kiffes the ice away.

INI.

You may in vulgar loves find always this,

But my fubftantial love

Of a more firm and perfect nature is,

No weathers can it move;

Tho' heat diffolve the ice again,

The cryftal folid does remain.

1*.

THEN like fome wealthy island thou shalt lie,
And like the fea about it I;

Thou like fair Albion to the failor's fight,
Spreading her beauteous bofom all in white :
Like the kind Ocean I will be,

With loving arms for ever clasping thee.

II.

But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than fo,
As their fresh banks foft rivers do,
Nor fhall the proudest planet boast a pow'r
Of making my full love to ebb one hour;
It never dry or low can prove,

Whilft thy unwafted fountain feeds my love.
III.

Such heat and vigour fhall our kiffes bear,
As if like doves we' engender'd there.
No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure;
In love there's none too much an epicure.
Nought shall my hands or lips control;
I'll kiss thee thro'; I'll kifs thy very foul.

¡V.

Yet nothing but the night our sports fhall know;
Night, that is both blind and filent too.
Alphæus found not a more secret trace,
His lov'd Sicanian fountain to embrace,

* This poem has no title in any of the editions.

Creeping fo far beneath the fea,

Than I will do t' enjoy and feaft on thee.

V.

Men out of wisdom, women out of pride,
The pleasant thefts of love do hide.

That may fecure thee, but thou 'ast yet from me
A more infallible fecurity;

For there's no danger I should tell

The joys which are to me unspeakable.

SLEEP.

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30

I.

In vain, thou drowsy God! I thee invoke;
For thou, who doft from fumes arife,
Thou, who man's foul doft overshade

With a thick cloud by vapours made,
Canft have no pow'r to fhut his eyes,
Or paffage of his fp'rits to choke,

Whofe flame's fo pure that it fends up no firoke.

Yet how do tears but from fome vapours rife?
Tears that bewinter all my year?

The fate of Egypt I sustain,

And never feel the dew of rain,
From clouds which in the head appear,
But all my too much moisture owe
To overflowings of the heart below.

III.

Thou who doft men (as nights to colours do)

Bring all to an equality;

Come, thou just God! and equal me

Awhile to my disdainful she:
In that condition let me lie,

Till Love does me the favour show;

Love equals all a better way than you.

IV.

Then never more shalt thou b' invok'd by me;
Watchful as fpirits and gods I'll prove:

Let her but grant, and then will I
Thee and thy kinfman Death defy:

For betwixt thee and them that love

Never will an agreement be;

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Thou fcorn'ft th' unhappy, and the happy thee. 28

BEAUTY.

I.

BEAUTY! thou wild fantastick ape,

Who doft in ev'ry country change thy shape!

Here black,there brown, here tawny, and there white; Thou Flatt'rer! which comply'ft with ev'ry fight!

Thou Babel! which confound'st the eye

With unintelligible variety!

Who haft no certain what nor where,
But vary'ft ftill, and doft thyfelf declare
Inconftant, as thy fhe-profeffors are.

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