Part 7

“Only for my two loves’ sake, In whose love I pleasure take; Only two do me delight With their ever-pleasing sight; Of all men to thee retaining, Grant me with those two remaining.

“So shall I to thee always With my reeds sound mighty praise: And first lamb that shall befall, Yearly deck thine altar shall, If it please thee to be reflected, And I from thee not rejected.”

So I left him in that place, Taking pity on his case; Learning this among the rest, That the mean estate is best; Better filléd with contenting, Void of wishing and repenting.

DIRGE.

RING out your bells, let mourning shows be spread, For Love is dead: All Love is dead, infected With plague of deep disdain: Worth, as nought worth, rejected, And faith fair scorn doth gain. From so ungrateful fancy; From such a female frenzy; From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us.

Weep, neighbours, weep, do you not hear it said That Love is dead: His death-bed, peacock’s folly: His winding-sheet is shame; His will, false-seeming holy, His sole executor, blame. From so ungrateful fancy; From such a female frenzy; From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us.

Let dirge be sung, and trentals rightly read, For Love is dead: Sir Wrong his tomb ordaineth My mistress’ marble heart; Which epitaph containeth, “Her eyes were once his dart.” From so ungrateful fancy; From such a female frenzy; From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us.

Alas! I lie: rage hath this error bred; Love is not dead, Love is not dead, but sleepeth In her unmatchéd mind: Where she his counsel keepeth Till due deserts she find. Therefore from so vile fancy, To call such wit a frenzy: Who Love can temper thus, Good Lord, deliver us.

STANZAS TO LOVE.

AH, poor Love, why dost thou live, Thus to see thy service lost; If she will no comfort give, Make an end, yield up the ghost!

That she may, at length, approve That she hardly long believed, That the heart will die for love That is not in time relieved.

Oh, that ever I was born Service so to be refused; Faithful love to be forborn! Never love was so abused.

But, sweet Love, be still awhile; She that hurt thee, Love, may heal thee; Sweet! I see within her smile More than reason can reveal thee.

For, though she be rich and fair, Yet she is both wise and kind, And, therefore, do thou not despair But thy faith may fancy find.

Yet, although she be a queen That may such a snake despise, Yet, with silence all unseen, Run, and hide thee in her eyes:

Where if she will let thee die, Yet at latest gasp of breath, Say that in a lady’s eye Love both took his life and death.

A REMEDY FOR LOVE.

PHILOCLEA and Pamela sweet, By chance, in one great house did meet; And meeting, did so join in heart, That th’ one from th’ other could not part: And who indeed (not made of stones) Would separate such lovely ones? The one is beautiful, and fair As orient pearls and rubies are; And sweet as, after gentle showers, The breath is of some thousand flowers: For due proportion, such an air Circles the other, and so fair, That it her brownness beautifies, And doth enchant the wisest eyes.

Have you not seen, on some great day, Two goodly horses, white and bay, Which were so beauteous in their pride, You knew not which to choose or ride? Such are these two; you scarce can tell, Which is the daintier bonny belle; And they are such, as, by my troth, I had been sick with love of both, And might have sadly said, ‘Good-night Discretion and good fortune quite;’ But that young Cupid, my old master, Presented me a sovereign plaster: Mopsa! ev’n Mopsa! (precious pet) Whose lips of marble, teeth of jet, Are spells and charms of strong defence, To conjure down concupiscence.

How oft have I been reft of sense, By gazing on their excellence, But meeting Mopsa in my way, And looking on her face of clay, Been healed, and cured, and made as sound, As though I ne’er had had a wound? And when in tables of my heart, Love wrought such things as bred my smart, Mopsa would come, with face of clout, And in an instant wipe them out. And when their faces made me sick, Mopsa would come, with face of brick, A little heated in the fire, And break the neck of my desire. Now from their face I turn mine eyes, But (cruel panthers!) they surprise Me with their breath, that incense sweet, Which only for the gods is meet, And jointly from them doth respire, Like both the Indies set on fire:

Which so o’ercomes man’s ravished sense, That souls, to follow it, fly hence. No such-like smell you if you range To th’ Stocks, or Cornhill’s square Exchange; There stood I still as any stock, Till Mopsa, with her puddle dock, Her compound or electuary, Made of old ling and young canary, Bloat-herring, cheese, and voided physic, Being somewhat troubled with a phthisic, Did cough, and fetch a sigh so deep, As did her very bottom sweep: Whereby to all she did impart, How love lay rankling at her heart: Which, when I smelt, desire was slain, And they breathed forth perfumes in vain. Their angel voice surprised me now; But Mopsa, her Too-whit, Too-whoo, Descending through her oboe nose, Did that distemper soon compose.

And, therefore, O thou precious owl, The wise Minerva’s only fowl; What, at thy shrine, shall I devise To offer up a sacrifice? Hang Æsculapius, and Apollo, And Ovid, with his precious shallow. Mopsa is love’s best medicine, True water to a lover’s wine. Nay, she’s the yellow antidote, Both bred and born to cut Love’s throat: Be but my second, and stand by, Mopsa, and I’ll them both defy; And all else of those gallant races, Who wear infection in their faces; For thy face (that Medusa’s shield!) Will bring me safe out of the field.

VERSES.

To the tune of the Spanish song, “Si tu señora no ducles de mi.”

O FAIR! O sweet! when I do look on thee, In whom all joys so well agree, Heart and soul do sing in me. This you hear is not my tongue, Which once said what I conceived; For it was of use bereaved, With a cruel answer stung. No! though tongue to roof be cleaved, Fearing lest he chastised be, Heart and soul do sing in me.

O fair! O sweet! when I do look on thee, In whom all joys so well agree, Just accord all music makes; In thee just accord excelleth, Where each part in such peace dwelleth, One of other beauty takes. Since then truth to all minds telleth, That in thee lives harmony, Heart and soul do sing in me.

O fair! O sweet! when I do look on thee, In whom all joys so well agree, They that heaven have known do say, That whoso that grace obtaineth, To see what fair sight there reigneth, Forcéd are to sing alway: So then since that heaven remaineth In thy face, I plainly see, Heart and soul do sing in me.

O fair! O sweet! when I do look on thee, In whom all joys so well agree, Sweet, think not I am at ease, For because my chief part singeth; This song from death’s sorrow springeth: As to swan in last disease: For no dumbness, nor death, bringeth Stay to true love’s melody: Heart and soul do sing in me.