To Julia
HER eyes the glow-worme lend thee,
The shooting-starres attend thee,
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
No Will-o’-th’-wispe mislight thee,
Nor snake nor slow-worm bite thee;
But on thy way,
Not making stay,
Since ghost there ’s none...
I Prithee send me back my heart,
Since I cannot have thine;
For if from yours you will not part,
Why then shouldst thou have mine?
Yet, now I think on ’t, let it lie;
To find it were in vain;
For thou ’st a thief in either eye
Would steal it back again.
Why should two hearts in one breast lie,
And yet not...
Of all the torments, all the cares,
With which our lives are curst;
Of all the plagues a lover bears,
Sure rivals are the worst!
By partners in each other kind,
Afflictions easier grow;
In love alone we hate to find
Companions of our woe.
Sylvia, for all the pangs you see
Are laboring in my breast,
I...
Part First
my dear and only love, I pray,
This noble world of thee
Be governed by no other sway
But purest monarchie.
For if confusion have a part,
Which virtuous souls abhore,
And hold a synod in thy heart,
I ’ll never love thee more.
Like Alexander I will reign,
And I will reign alone,
My...
Margarita first possessed,
If I remember well, my breast,
Margarita first of all;
But when awhile the wanton maid
With my restless heart had played,
Martha took the flying ball.
Martha soon did it resign
To the beauteous Catharine.
Beauteous Catharine gave place
(Though loath and angry she to part
With the...
Victorious men of earth, no more
Proclaim how wide your empires are:
Though you bind in every shore,
And your triumphs reach as far
As night or day,
Yet you proud monarchs must obey,
And mingle with forgotten ashes, when
Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.
Devouring famine, plague, and war,
...
From “Fair Virtue”
SHALL I, wasting in despair,
Die, because a woman ’s Fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care,
’Cause another’s rosy are?
Be She fairer than the Day,
Or the flowery meads in May!
If She be not so to me,
What care I, how Fair She be?
Should my heart be grieved or pined,
’Cause I see a woman...
Give me more love or more disdain;
The torrid or the frozen zone
Brings equal ease unto my pain;
The temperate affords me none;
Either extreme, of love or hate,
Is sweeter than a calm estate.
Give me a storm; If it be love,
Like Danaë in a golden shower,
I swim in pleasure; if it prove
Disdain, that torrent will...
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Pr’y thee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can’t move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Pr’y thee, why so pale?
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Pr’y thee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can’t win her,
Saying nothing do ’t?
Pr’y thee, why so mute?
Quit, quit,...
“WHEN your beauty appears,
In its graces and airs,
All bright as an angel new dropt from the skies,
At distance I gaze, and am awed by my fears,
So strangely you dazzle my eyes!
“But when without art
Your kind thoughts you impart,
When your love runs in blushes through every vein,
When it darts from your...
