Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Question
From whence was first this furie hurld,
This Jealousie into the world?
Came she from Hell?

Ans.
No there doth raigne
Eternall hatred, with disdaine,
But she the Daughter is of Love,
Sister of Beauty.

Reply.
Then above
She must derive from the third Spheare
Her heavenly Off-spring.

Ans.
Neither there
From those immortall flames, could shee
Draw her cold frozen Pedigree.

Quest.
If nor from heaven nor hell, where then
Had she her birth?

An.
I'th'hearts of men,
Beauty, and Feare did her create,
Younger then Love, Elder then Hate,
Sister to both, by Beauties side
To love, by Feare to Hate ally'de:
Despoyre her issue is, whose race
Of fruitfull mischiefes drownes the space

101

Of the wide earth in a swolne flood
Of wrath, revenge, spight, rage, and blood.

Quest.
Oh how can such a spurious line
Proceed from Parents so divine?

Ans.
As streames, which from their Crystall spring
Doe sweet and cleare their waters bring,
Yet mingling with the brackish maine,
Nor taste, nor colour they retaine.

Qu.
Yet Rivers 'twixt their owne bankes flow
Still fresh, can jealousie doe so?

An.
Yes, whilst shee keepes the stedfast ground
Of Hope, and Feare, her equall bound;
Hope sprung from favour, worth, or chance,
Towar'ds the faire object doth advance;
Whil'st Feare, as watchfull Sentinell
Doth the invading Foe repell;
And Jealousie thus mixt, doth prove
The season, and the salt of love:
But when Feare takes a larger scope,
Stifling the child of Reason, Hope,
Then sitting on th'usurped throne,
She like a Tyrant rules alone,
As the wilde Ocean unconfin'de,
And raging as the Northern-winde.

102

2. Feminine Honour.

In what esteeme did the Gods hold
Faire Innocence, and the chaste bed,
When scandall'd vertue might be bold
Bare-foot, upon sharpe Cultures, spread
O're burning coles to march, yet feele
Nor scorching fire, nor piercing steele?

Why, when the hard edg'd Iron did turne
Soft as a bed of Roses blowne,
When cruell flames forgot to burne
Their chaste pure limbes, should man alone
'Gainst female Innocence conspire,
Harder then steele, fiercer then fire?

Oh haplesse sex! Vnequall sway
Of partiall Honour! Who may know
Rebels from subjects that obey,
When malice can on vestals throw
Disgrace, and Fame fixe high repute
On the close shamelesse Prostitute?

103

Vaine Honour! thou art but disguise
A cheating voyce, a jugling art,
No judge of vertue, whose pure eyes
Court her owne Image in the heart,
More pleas'd with her true figure there,
Then her false Eccho in the care.

3. Separation of Lovers.

Stop the chafed Bore, or play
With the Lyons paw, yet feare
From the Lovers side to teare
Th'Idoll of his soule away.

Though Love enter by the sight
To the heart, it doth not flye
From the mind, when from the eye
The faire objects take their flight.

But since want provokes desire,
When we lose what wee before
Have enjoy'd, as we want more,
So is Love more set on fire.

104

Love doth with an hungrie eye
Glut on Beautie, and you may
Safer snatch the Tygers prey
Then his vitall food deny.

Yet though absence for a space,
Sharpen the keene Appetite,
Long continuance, doth quite
All Loves characters efface.

For the sense not fed, denies
Nourishment unto the minde,
Which with expectation pinde,
Love of a consumption dyes.

4. Incommunicabilitie of Love.

Qvest.
By what power was Love confinde
To one object? who can binde,
Or fixe a limit to the free-borne minde?

An.
Nature; for as bodyes may
Move at once but in one way,
So nor can mindes to more then one love stray.

105

Reply.
Yet I feele a double smart
Loves twinn'd-flame, his forked dart.

An.
Then hath wilde lust, not love possest thy heart.

Qu.
Whence springs love?

An.
From beauty.

Qu.
Why
Should th'effect not multiply
As fast i'th'heart, as doth the cause i'th'eye?

An.
When two Beauties equall are,
Sense preferring neither fayre,
Desire stands still, distracted 'twixt the paire.

So in equall distance lay
Two fayre Lambes in the Wolfe's way;
The hungry beast will sterve e're chuse his prey.

But where one is chiefe, the rest
Cease, and that's alone possest
Without a Rivall Monarch of the breast.