 | The character of a London-Diurnall |  |
To Mrs. K. T. who askt him why hee was dumb.
Stay, should I answer (Lady) then
In vaine would be your question.
Should I be dumb, why then againe
Your asking me would be in vaine.
Silence nor speech (on neither hand)
Can satisfie this strange demand.
Yet since your will throwes me upon
This wished contradiction,
I'le tell you how I did become
So strangely (as you heare mee) dumb.
In vaine would be your question.
Should I be dumb, why then againe
Your asking me would be in vaine.
Silence nor speech (on neither hand)
Can satisfie this strange demand.
Yet since your will throwes me upon
This wished contradiction,
I'le tell you how I did become
So strangely (as you heare mee) dumb.
Ask but the Chap-falne Puritan,
'Tis zeale that tongue-ties that good man:
For heat of Conscience, all men hold,
Is th'onely way to catch that cold.
How should loves zealot then forbear
To be your silenc'd Minister?
Nav your Religion which doth grant
A worship due to you my Saint,
Yet counts it that devotion wrong
That does it in the vulgar tongue.
My ruder words would give offence
To such an hallow'd excellence;
As th'English Dialect would vary
The goodnesse of an Ave Mary.
'Tis zeale that tongue-ties that good man:
For heat of Conscience, all men hold,
Is th'onely way to catch that cold.
How should loves zealot then forbear
To be your silenc'd Minister?
Nav your Religion which doth grant
A worship due to you my Saint,
Yet counts it that devotion wrong
That does it in the vulgar tongue.
21
To such an hallow'd excellence;
As th'English Dialect would vary
The goodnesse of an Ave Mary.
How can I speake, that twice am checkt
By this and that religious Sect?
Still dumb, and in your face I spie
Still cause, and still Divinitie.
As soone as blest with your salute,
My Manners taught mee to be mute:
For, least they cancell all the blisse
You sign'd with so divine a kisse,
The lips you seale must needs consent
Unto the tongues imprisonment.
My tongue in hold, my voice doth rise
(With a strange E-la) to my eyes;
Where a gets Baile, and in that sense
Begins a new-found Eloquence.
By this and that religious Sect?
Still dumb, and in your face I spie
Still cause, and still Divinitie.
As soone as blest with your salute,
My Manners taught mee to be mute:
For, least they cancell all the blisse
You sign'd with so divine a kisse,
The lips you seale must needs consent
Unto the tongues imprisonment.
My tongue in hold, my voice doth rise
(With a strange E-la) to my eyes;
Where a gets Baile, and in that sense
Begins a new-found Eloquence.
Oh listen with attentive sight
To what my pratling eyes indite.
Or (Lady) since 'tis in your choice,
To give, or to suspend my voice,
With the same key set ope the doore
Wherewith you lockt it fast before;
Kisse once againe, and when you thus
Have doubly beene miraculous,
My Muse shall write with Handmaids duty
The Golden Legend of your Beauty.
He whom his dumbnesse now confines,
To what my pratling eyes indite.
Or (Lady) since 'tis in your choice,
To give, or to suspend my voice,
With the same key set ope the doore
Wherewith you lockt it fast before;
Kisse once againe, and when you thus
Have doubly beene miraculous,
My Muse shall write with Handmaids duty
The Golden Legend of your Beauty.
But meanes to speake the rest by signes.
| The character of a London-Diurnall | |