TURN ALL THY THOUGHTS TO EYES
TURN all thy thoughts to eyes, Turn all thy hairs to ears, Change all thy friends to spies And all thy joys to fears: True love will yet be free In spite of jealousy.
Turn darkness into day, Conjectures into truth, Believe what th' envious say, Let age interpret youth: True love will yet be free In spite of jealousy.
Wrest every word and look, Rack every hidden thought, Or fish with golden hook; True love cannot be caught: For that will still be free In spite of jealousy.
THE man of life upright, Whose guiltless heart is free From all dishonest deeds, Or thought of vanity;
The man whose silent days
In harmless joys are spent, Whom hopes cannot delude, Nor sorrow discontent;
That man needs neither towers
Nor armour for defence,
Nor secret vaults to fly
From thunder's violence:
He only can behold With unaffrighted eyes The horrors of the deep
And terrors of the skies.
Thus, scorning all the cares That fate or fortune brings, He makes the heaven his book, His wisdom heavenly things;
Good thoughts his only friends, His wealth a well-spent age, The earth his sober inn And quiet pilgrimage.
ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX
A PASSION OF MY LORD OF ESSEX
HAPPY were he could finish forth his fate In some unhaunted desert, most obscure From all societies, from love and hate
Of worldly folk; then might he sleep secure; Then wake again, and ever give God praise,
Content with hips and haws and bramble-berry; In contemplation spending all his days,
And change of holy thoughts to make him merry; Where, when he dies, his tomb may be a bush, Where harmless Robin dwells with gentle thrush.
ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA
You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light,
You common people of the skies, What are you, when the Moon shall rise?
Ye violets that first appear,
By your pure purple mantles known Like the proud virgins of the year,
As if the spring were all your own,- What are you, when the Rose is blown?
Ye curious chanters of the wood
That warble forth dame Nature's lays, Thinking your passions understood
By your weak accents; what's your praise When Philomel her voice doth raise?
So when my Mistress shall be seen In sweetness of her looks and mind, By virtue first, then choice, a Queen, Tell me, if she were not design'd Th' eclipse and glory of her kind?
CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE
How happy is he born and taught That serveth not another's will; Whose armour is his honest thought And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not his masters are, Whose soul is still prepared for death, Not tied unto the world with care Of public fame, or private breath;
Who envies none that chance doth raise Or vice; Who never understood How deepest wounds are given by praise; Nor rules of state, but rules of good:
Who hath his life from rumours freed, Whose conscience is his strong retreat; Whose state can neither flatterers feed Nor ruin make oppressors great;
Who God doth late and early pray More of his grace than gifts to lend; And entertains the harmless day With a well-chosen book or friend:
-This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all.
EDWARD DE VERE, EARL OF OXFORD
[1550-1604]
A RENUNCIATION
IF women could be fair, and yet not fond, Or that their love were firm, not fickle still, I would not marvel that they make men bond By service long to purchase their good will; But when I see how frail those creatures are, I muse that men forget themselves so far.
To mark the choice they make, and how they change, How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan; Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range, These gentle birds that fly from man to man; Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist, And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?
Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both, To pass the time when nothing else can please, And train them to our lure with subtle oath, Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease; And then we say when we their fancy try, To play with fools, O what a fool was I!
BEN JONSON
[1573-1637]
SIMPLEX MUNDITIIS
STILL to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast; Still to be powdr'd, still perfumed: Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art's hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
Give me a look, give me a face That makes simplicity a grace; Robes loosely flowing, hair as free: Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all th' adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
SEE the Chariot at hand here of Love, Wherein my Lady rideth!
Each that draws is a swan or a dove,
And well the car Love guideth.
As she goes, all hearts do duty Unto her beauty;
And enamour'd do wish, so they might But enjoy such a sight,
That they still were to run by her side, Through swords, through seas, whither she would ride.
Do but look on her eyes, they do light All that Love's world compriseth!
Do but look on her hair, it is bright As Love's star when it riseth!
Do but mark, her forehead's smoother Than words that soothe her;
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