University of Virginia Library

Whoever loves, if he doth not propose
The right true end of loue, hee's one that goes
To sea for nothinge but to make him sicke:
Love is a beare-whelpe borne, if we ore-licke
Our loue, and force it newe strange shapes to take,
We erre, and of a lump a monster make.
Were not a calf a monster, that were grown
Faced like a man, though better than his own?
Perfection is in vnity: preferr
One woman first, and then one thing in her.
I, when I valew gold, may thinke uponn
The ductilness, the applicatyon,
The wholsomenes, the ingenuetye,
From rust, from soile, from fire for ever free:
But if I loue it, 'tis because 'tis made
(By our new nature) use, the sowl of trade.

All this in woman we might think upon
(If women had them), and yet loue but one.
Can men more iniure women then to say
They love them for that, by which they're not they?
Makes virtue woman? must I coole my blood
Till I both be, and fynd one, wise and good?
Let barren angels loue soe, but if wee
Make love to woman, virtue is not shee,
As bewtie's not, nor wealth; he that strais thus,
From her to her's, is more adulterous
Then if he tooke her mayd. Serch every sphære
And firmament, our Cupid is not there:
He's an infernall god, and undergrownd,
With Pluto dwells, where gold and fyre abound;
Men to such gods their sacrifizing coles
Did not on altars lay, but in pytts and holes:
Although we see cælestiall bodyes move
Above the earth, the earth we tyll and loue:
So we her aires contemplate, words, and hart,
And virtues; but we love the centrique part.

Nor is the sowle more worthy, or more fytt
For love, then this, as infinyte as it.
But in attayning this desirèd place
How much they err, that set out at the face!
The hayre a forrest is of ambushes,
Of springges, snares, fetters, and manacles:
The browe becalms us, when 'tis smooth and plaine;
And when 'tis wrinkled, shipwracks us againe.
Smooth, 'tis a paradice, where we wold haue
Immortal stay; but wrinkled, 'tis our grave.
The nose (like to the first meridian) runns
Not betwixt east and west, but 'twixt two sunns;
It leaves a cheeke, a rosie hemispheare
On eyther syde, and then directs us where
Upon the islands Fortunate wee fall,
Not faint Canaries, but ambrosiall
And swelling lipps to which when we are come,
We anchor there, and thinke ourselves at home,
For they seeme all: there syrens' songes, and there
Wise Delphique oracles, doe fill the eare;
There in a creeke, where chosen pearls do swell,
The Remora, her cleaving toungue, doth dwell.
These and the glorious promontory, her chynn,
Being past, the straits of Helespont, between
The Sestos and Abidos of her brests,
(Not of two lovers, but two loves, the nests)
Succeeds a bowndless sea, but yet thyne eye
Some island moles may scattred there discry,
And sayling towards her India, in the way
Shall at her faire Atlantique navill stay,
Though thence the current be thy pylot made,
Yet ere thou be where thou would'st be embaide,
Thou shalt vpon another forrest sett,
Where many shipwrack and no further gett.
When thou art there, consider thou thy chace
Maskt longer by beginninge at the face.

Rather sett out belowe; practize my art;
Some simmetrie the foot hath with that part,
Which thou dost seek, and is as mapp for that;
Lovely enough to stopp, but not stay att:
Least subject to disguise and change it is;
Men say the Devil never can change his.
It is the embleme, that hath figurèd
Firmnes; 'tis the first part that comes to bedd.
Civilitie we see refyned: the kisse
(Which at the face begun) transplanted is,
Since to the hand, since to the imperiall knee,
Now at the Papall foote delights to bee:
If kings thinke that the nearer way, and doe
Rise from the foot, lovers may doe so too.
For as free sphæres move faster farr then can
Byrds, whom the ayre resists; so may that man,
Which goes this emptie and ethireall way,
Then if at bewtie's enemies he stay.
Rich Nature hath in woman wisely made
Two purses, and their mowths aversly laid:
Then they, which to the lower tribute owe,
That way, which that exchequor looks, must goe:
He who doth not, his error is as great,
As who by clyster gives the stomack meate.