Which when she beheld to bleed,
She repented of the deed,
And would fain have chang'd the fate,
But the pity comes too late.
Loser-like, now, all my wreak
Is, that I have leave to speak;
And in either prose, or song,
To revenge me with my tongue;
Which how dexterously I do,
Hear, and make example too.
EE 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
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 sooth her :
And from her arched brows, such a grace
Sheds itself through the face,
As alone there triumphs to the life
All the gain, all the good of the elements' strife.
Have you seen but a bright lily grow,
Before rude hands have touch'd it?
Have you mark'd but the fall o' the snow
Before the soil hath smutch'd it?
Have you felt the wool of the bever?
Or swan's down ever?
Or have smelt o' the bud of the briar?
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white! O so soft! O so sweet is she!"
HIS DISCOURSE WITH CUPID.
OBLEST Charis, you that are
Both my fortune and my star,
And do govern more my blood,
Than the various moon the flood,
Hear, what late discourse of you,
Love and I have had; and true.
Mongst my Muses finding me,
Where he chanced your name to see
Set, and to this softer strain ;
Sure, said he, if I have brain,
This, here sung, can be no other,
By description, but my mother!
So hath Homer praised her hair;
So Anacreon drawn the air
Of her face, and made to rise
Just about her sparkling eyes,
Both her brows bent like my bow.
By her looks I do her know,
2 The last two stanzas of the "Triumph" are given in the Devil's an Ass, so that the opening one alone can bear the stamp of "fifty years."
Which you call my shafts. And see!
Such my mother's blushes be,
As the bath your verse discloses
In her cheeks, of milk and roses;
Such as oft I wanton in :
And, above her even chin,
Have you placed the bank of kisses,
Where, you say, men gather blisses,
Ripen'd with a breath more sweet,
Than when flowers and west-winds meet.
Nay, her white and polish'd neck,
With the lace that doth it deck,
Is my mother's hearts of slain
Lovers, made into a chain !
And between each rising breast,
Lies the valley call'd my nest,
Where I sit and proyne my wings
After flight; and put new stings
To my shafts her very name
With my mother's is the same.
I confess all, I replied,
And the glass hangs by her side,
And the girdle 'bout her waist,
All is Venus, save unchaste.
But alas, thou seest the least
Of her good, who is the best
Of her sex but couldst thou, Love,
Call to mind the forms that strove
For the apple, and those three
Make in one, the same were she.
For this beauty yet doth hide
Something more than thou hast spied.
Outward grace weak love beguiles :
She is Venus when she smiles ;3
But she's Juno, when she walks,
And Minerva when she talks.
3 She is Venus when she smiles, &c.] From Angerianus:
CLAIMING A SECOND KISS BY DESERT.
HARIS, guess, and do not miss,
Since I drew a morning kiss
From your lips, and suck'd an air
Thence, as sweet as you are fair,
What my muse and I have done :
Whether we have lost or won,
If by us the odds were laid,
That the bride, allow'd a maid,
Look'd not half so fresh and fair,
With the advantage of her hair,*
And her jewels to the view
Of the assembly, as did you!
Tres quondam nudas vidit Priameius heros
Luce deas; video tres quoque luce deas:
Hoc majus, tres uno in corpore; Cælia ridens
Est Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens.
This quotation (says Dr. Farmer) recalls to my memory a very extraordinary fact. A few years ago, at a great court on the continent, a countryman of ours (sir Charles Hanbury Williams) exhibited, with many other candidates, his complimental epigram on the birth-day, and carried the prize in triumph:
O Regina orbis prima et pulcherrima: ridens
Es Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens.
The compliment has since passed through other hands, and was, not long ago, applied to one who had as little of Venus and Juno in her, as her panegyrist had of originality. Minerva had nothing to do with either.
4 With the advantage of her hair.] Brides, in Jonson's days, were always led to the altar, with their hair hanging down. To this he alludes in several of his masques; and H. Peacham, in describing the marriage of the princess Elizabeth with the Palsgrave, says that "the bride came into the chapell with a coronet of pearle on her head, and her haire disheveled, and hanging down over her shoulders."
Or that did you sit or walk,
You were more the eye and talk
Of the court, to-day, than all
Else that glister'd in Whitehall;
So, as those that had your sight,
Wish'd the bride were chang'd to-night,
And did think such rites were due
To no other Grace but you !
Or, if you did move to-night
In the dances, with what spite
Of
your peers you were beheld,
That at every motion swell'd
So to see a lady tread,
As might all the Graces lead,
And was worthy, being so seen,
To be envied of the queen.
Or if you would yet have staid,
Whether any would upbraid
To himself his loss of time;
Or have charg'd his sight of crime,
To have left all sight for you.
Guess of these which is the true;
And, if such a verse as this,
May not claim another kiss.
ON COLOUR OF MENDING THE FORMER.
OR Love's sake, kiss me once again,
I long, and should not beg in vain.
Here's none to spy, or see ;
Why do you doubt or stay?
I'll taste as lightly as the bee,
That doth but touch his flower, and flies away.
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