Satires and miscellaneous poetry and prose :: :: University of Virginia Library

All Lovers in their Amrous fits
Turn Poets and set up for wits,
Make all their Mistresses of Stars,
And, when their Ladys prove averse,
Confound and damne the stars for doing
Il offices to Cross their woing.
For Lover's by their Lady's kindred,
The Stars, are often Crost, and hindred.

Love is a Boy, and when it's youth
Is past, outlive's it self and truth.

The Devill has him fast enough
Whose stones are in his Cloven hoof.

Love that's the work, and Recreation
And Charter of the first Creation
From whom all Soul's of things derive
The Free Inheritance of Life
That in a short time would expire
But that 'tis lengthned by Desire.
—For how Could Nature live
But that Love give's it a Reprive,
That has no more then one life in't
If Love did not inlarge that Stint.

All Love at first, like Gen'rous wine,
Ferment's, and Frets, until 'tis fine:
But when 'tis setled on the Lee,
And from th' Impurer matter free:
Becomes the Richer stil the older,
And Proves the Pleasanter the Colder.

As He that steal's away a Heart
Has Right to all and evry Part.

What woeman ever durst Resist
A Diamond Locket at a wrist,
Or could Refuse, th' untowardst Lover
Imbroderd and Perfumd all over?

206

For though, the less Love Cost's of Pains
And Slavry 'tis the Clearer Gaines,
As wine (the Friend of Love) Provs Best
That Freely Runs, before 'tis Prest;
Some Lovers are Besotted most
Where most they finde their matters Crost,
As other Beasts are Sharper set
The lesse they are allowd to eat.

Victory in Armes or Love
Are Cozin-Germans one Remove.

Lov's but an Ague in the old,
Whose hot fit come[s] before the Cold.

Lovers, like wrestlers, when they do not lay
Their Hold below the Girdle, use Fair Play.

Love shoots at Random in the Darke,
Yet seldom fayles to hit his marke.

Can any Powr Pretend to aw
Love, Natures Fundamentall Law?
Or offer to give Laws t' a Lover,
They have no Jurisdiction over?
Shall He that with his Magique Bow
Strikes Hearts of Monarks through and through
Submit his own Great Laws of war,
To come t' a Trial at the Bar?
To turn Solicitor, and Prog
Suborn, Forsweare, and Pettifog?

Lovers, that are eternal Haters
Of all Impertinent Spectators,
And hee's less odious that discovers
A Statesman's Cabal, then a Lovers;
That do their Busnes best alone
And care not to be lookd upon
To fight their Duels hand to fist
And neede no Seconds to assist.
------ As those that shite
Abhor to do their Feats in sight.

207

Love like Honor's Priviledgd,
And cannot be by oaths obligd,
No more then what a witnes swear's,
Is valid in his own affaires;
And Love has nothing to pretend,
But its own Interest and end.

Some have been with a look that sour
Sharp-set upon a New amoure
To set an Edge on Fancy with
As Braying of an Ass do's teeth.

For what Fond Lover can hold out
Till things are fairly brought about?
Who shew's he do's not Greatly heed her
That can have Patience to consider.

[Woman]
A most incomparable Creature
For want (especially) of a Better.

None but Lovers are so absurd
To play their false Dice, above Board.

When a Surfet of Delight
Has Duld the Lovers Appetite,
He must have time, til New Desire
Restore againe his Amorous Fire.

Platonique Love
Is from Socratical, but one Remove.

Spanish Gallants with their Lances
At once wound Bulls and Ladys Fancies;
And He subdu's the Noblest Spouse,
That widdow's most Tariffa-Cows.

Why should not some love Age, and uglines,
As wel as stinking meats and rotten cheese?

Some time he thinkes there is no trick
[O]f Love s' endearing as a kick.
Indeed 't were not amiss to venture
Men ought to knock before they enter.

208

Love is to[o] great a Happines
For this world truly to possess;
Could it hold out inviolate
Against those Injurys of fate
Which all Felicitys below
By Cruel Laws are Sentencd to,
It would becom a Bliss too high
For Perishing Mortality,
Translate to earth the Joys above,
For nothing go's to heavn, but Love.

Love that's by Conversation gaind
Must by the same way be maintain'd;
Though Absence rayse the Appetite,
Like Fasting, it destroy's it quite,
When 'tis too long Continu'd.

What makes two Buls such mortal Foes
To fight to Death, but forty Cows?
What Quarrel has a Cock to Cock
But right to evry hen in th' Flock?

Can Love use so preposterous a Course
To take Possession of it's right by force?

When Love to Love returnd becomes unkinde
Desire is but the Feaver of the minde,
That in its hot fit long's to entertaine
That which injoyd do's but increase its Paine.

Love never feard what Horror might attend
In Consequence so it injoyd its end.

Passion do's never fall into Distress
But when Desire turnes Tenant to excess.

O 'tis a Happy and Heavnly Death
When a man Dy's above and a woman beneath.

Do not mine Affection sligh[t]
Cause my Locks with Age are white.

Your Brests have snow without and snow wit[hin]
While Flames of fire in your bright eies are see[n].

209

That Heart must be of Horn or tuffer
That would not yeald to see you suffer.

For though some one way, some another
Yet al are Martyrs to Loves mother.

Love is so far from b'ing derivd
From Likenesses, as 'tis believd,
That it may rather seem to bee
Th' effect of Contrariety:
For all Fair women Love black men,
And black men stil Love them agen;
Low men Love women that are tall,
And they them as Fantastical;
The Bewteous for the ugly burne,
And they an equal flame return.

Expecting Love stands at a Stay
But in th' injoyment post's away.

A woman's Like a Looking glas
That entertains the shape of any face.

If Love between a Man and woman
Be nothing but Desire of union,
No Man would hang himself to fly
That which he cannot have, and Dy.

Love and Fighting is the Sum
Of all Romances from Tom Thumb
To Arthur, Gundibert, and Hudibras,
And all those worthys that De Scudry has.

Doe not unjustly blame
My guiltles brest
For vent'ring to disclose a Flame
It had so long supprest.

In its own Ashes it designd
For ever to have layn
But that my sighs like blasts [of wind]
Make it break out again.

The lylly grows not, nor the Rose
Upon your Chekes, but in my Hose.

210

Love that has substance for its ground
Must be more lasting, firm and sound
Then that which has the slightest Basis
Of Airy Virtu, wit, and Graces.
Which is of such thin Subtlety
In Man it Creepes in at the eie;
But that which its extraction ownes
From Solid Gold and pretious Stones,
Must like its shining Parents, prove
As Solid and as glorious Love.

Not ten among a thousand weare
Their own Complexions nor their haire.

All Ladys what so ere that Dy
Are Fair and good in th' Elegie.

Tho Love, they say, all Natrall things subdues,
The Impotentst the Conqueror Reduce.