The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 53

Ask me why the stalk is weak And bending (yet it doth not break)?

I will answer: These discover What fainting hopes are in a lover.

581. THE t.i.tHE. TO THE BRIDE.

If nine times you your bridegroom kiss, The tenth you know the parson's is.

Pay then your t.i.the, and doing thus, Prove in your bride-bed numerous.

If children you have ten, Sir John Won't for his tenth part ask you one.

_Sir John_, the parson.

582. A FROLIC.

Bring me my rosebuds, drawer, come; So, while I thus sit crown'd, I'll drink the aged Caecub.u.m, Until the roof turn round.

_Drawer_, waiter.

_Caecub.u.m_, Caecuban, an old Roman wine.

583. CHANGE COMMON TO ALL.

All things subjected are to fate; Whom this morn sees most fortunate, The evening sees in poor estate.

584. TO JULIA.

The saints'-bell calls, and, Julia, I must read The proper lessons for the saints now dead: To grace which service, Julia, there shall be One holy collect said or sung for thee.

Dead when thou art, dear Julia, thou shalt have A trentall sung by virgins o'er thy grave: Meantime we two will sing the dirge of these, Who dead, deserve our best remembrances.

_Trentall_, a service for the dead.

585. NO LUCK IN LOVE.

I do love I know not what, Sometimes this and sometimes that; All conditions I aim at.

But, as luckless, I have yet Many shrewd disasters met To gain her whom I would get.

Therefore now I'll love no more As I've doted heretofore: He who must be, shall be poor.

586. IN THE DARK NONE DAINTY.

Night hides our thefts, all faults then pardon'd be; All are alike fair when no spots we see.

Lais and Lucrece in the night-time are Pleasing alike, alike both singular: Joan and my lady have at that time one, One and the self-same priz'd complexion: Then please alike the pewter and the plate, The chosen ruby, and the reprobate.

_Lais and Lucrece_, opposite types of incontinence and purity. Cp.

665, 885.

587. A CHARM, OR AN ALLAY FOR LOVE.

If so be a toad be laid In a sheep's-skin newly flay'd, And that tied to man, 'twill sever Him and his affections ever.

590. TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, MASTER JOHN WINGFIELD.

For being comely, consonant, and free To most of men, but most of all to me; For so decreeing that thy clothes' expense Keeps still within a just circ.u.mference; Then for contriving so to load thy board As that the messes ne'er o'erlade the lord; Next for ordaining that thy words not swell To any one unsober syllable: These I could praise thee for beyond another, Wert thou a Winstfield only, not a brother.

_Consonant_, harmonious.

591. THE HEADACHE.

My head doth ache, O Sappho! take Thy fillet, And bind the pain, Or bring some bane To kill it.

But less that part Than my poor heart Now is sick; One kiss from thee Will counsel be And physic.

592. ON HIMSELF.

Live by thy muse thou shalt, when others die Leaving no fame to long posterity: When monarchies trans-shifted are, and gone, Here shall endure thy vast dominion.

593. UPON A MAID.

Hence a blessed soul is fled, Leaving here the body dead; Which since here they can't combine, For the saint we'll keep the shrine.

596. UPON THE TROUBLESOME TIMES.

O times most bad, Without the scope Of hope Of better to be had!

Where shall I go, Or whither run To shun This public overthrow?

No places are, This I am sure, Secure In this our wasting war.

Some storms we've past, Yet we must all Down fall, And perish at the last.

597. CRUELTY BASE IN COMMANDERS.

Nothing can be more loathsome than to see Power conjoin'd with Nature's cruelty.

599. UPON LUCIA.

I ask'd my Lucia but a kiss, And she with scorn denied me this; Say then, how ill should I have sped, Had I then ask'd her maidenhead?