University of Virginia Library

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, THE LADY Dorothea Shirley.

Madame, who make the glory of your blood
No priviledge at all to be lesse good;
Pardon the rudenesse of a Comedy,
That (taught too great ambition) would fly
To kisse your white hand, and receive from thence
Both an authority, and innocence.
'Tis not this great man, nor that Prince, whose fame
Can more advance a Poem, than your name,
To whose cleere vertue truth is bound, and we,
That there is so much left for History.
I doe acknowledge custome, that to men
Such Poems are presented; but my pen
Is not engag'd nor can allow too farre
A Salick Law in Poetry, to barre
Ladies th'inheritance of wit, whose soule
Is active, and as able to controule,
As some 'usurpe the Chaire, which write a stile
To breath the Reader better than a mile;
But no such empty titles buy my flame;
Nor will I sinne so much, to shew their name
In print; some servile Muses be their drudge,
That sweat to finde a Patron, not a Iudge.
To you, great Lady, then, in whom doe meet
Candor and Iudgement, humble as your feet
I vow these Papers, wishing you may see
Ioyes multiplied, to your eternitie.