University of Virginia Library

35. To his coy Mistres

What vthers doth discourage and dismay
Is vnto me a pastime and a play.
I sport in hir deneyalls and doe know
Weman loue best that does loue least in show.
Tuo sudden fauors may abate delight;
When modest coynes sharpes the appetite,
I grow the hotter for hir cold neglect
And more inflam'd when sho showes least respect.
Heat may aryse from rocks, from flints so fyre,
So from hir coldnes I doe strik desyre.
Sho knoweinge this, perhapes, resolues to try
My faith and patience, offeringe to denay
What e're I aske of hir, that I may be
More taken with hir, for hir slightinge me.
When fishes play with baites, best, anglers say,
To mak them bite, is drawe the baite away;
So dallies sho wt me till, to my smart,
Both bait and hooke stickes fastened in my hart.
And now I am become hir foolishe prey;
And, that sho knowes I cannot break away,
Let hir resolue no longer to be free
From Cupides bondes, and bind hir self to me;
Nor let hir wex me longer wt dispair
That they be crewell that be younge and fair.
It is the old, the creased, and the blake
That are vnkynd and for affectione lacke.
I'le ty hir eyes wt lynes, hir eares wt moanes
Hir marble hart, I'le pearce wt hydious groanes
That nather eyes, eares, hart sall be at rest
Till sho forsaike hir sier to loue me best;
Nor will I raise my seige nor leaue my feild
Till I haue mead my waliant Mistres yeeld.