Schola Cordis or the Heart of it Selfe, gone away from God ::

Vaine trifling Virgin, I my selfe have given
Wholly to thee: and shall I now be driven
To rest contented with a petty part,
That have deserved more then a whole heart?

Ode. 9.

1

More mischiefe yet? was't not enough before
To robbe me wholly of thine heart,
Which I alone
Should call mine owne,
But thou must mock me with a part?
Crowne injury with scorne to make it more?

2

What's a whole heart? scarce flesh enough to serve
A Kite one breakfast: how much lesse,
If it should be
Offer'd to me?
Could it sufficiently expresse
What I for making it at first deserve?

3

I gave't thee whole, and fully furnished
With all its faculties entire,
There wanted not
The smallest jot,
That strictest justice could require
To render it compleatly perfected.

4

And is it reason what I gave in grosse
Should be return'd but by retaile?
To take so small
A part for all,
I reckon of no more availe,
Then where I scatter gold to gather drosse.

5

Give me thine heart but as I gave it thee:
Or give it me at least as I
Have given mine
To purchase thine.
I halv'd it not when I did die:
But gave my self wholly to set thee free.

6

The heart I gave thee was a living heart,
And when thine heart by sinne was slaine,
I laid downe mine
To ransome thine,
That thy dead heart might live againe,
And live entirely perfect, not in part.

7

But whilst thine heart's divided it is dead,
Dead unto me, unlesse it live
To me alone,
It is all one

To keepe all, and a part to give:
For what's a body worth without an head?

8

Yet this is worse, that what thou keep'st from me
Thou dost bestow upon my foes:
And those not mine
Alone but thine,
The proper causes of thy woes,
For whom I gave my life to set thee free.

9

Have I betroth'd thee to my selfe, and shall
The devill, and the world, intrude
Upon my right,
Ev'n in my sight?
Think not thou canst me so delude.
I will have none, unlesse I may have all.

10

I made it all, I gave it all to thee,
I gave all that I had for it:
If I must loose,
I'll rather choose
Mine interest in all to quit:
Or keep it whole, or give it whole to me.

University of Virginia Library

The division of the Heart.

Epigr. 9.

Ode. 9.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10