"Thus stood I baliano'd equally precise,
Till my frail flesh did weigh me down to sin;
Till world and pleasure made me partialize,
And glittering pomp my vanity did win,
When to excuse my fault my lusts begin,
And impious thoughts alleg'd this wanton clause,
That though I sinn'd, my sin had honest cause.
"So well the golden balls cast down before me,
Could entertain my course, hinder my way:
Whereat my wretchless youth stooping to store me,
Lost me the goal, the glory, and the day.
Pleasure had set my well-school'd thoughts to play,
And bid me use the virtue of mine eyes,
For sweetly it fits the fair to wantonize.
"Thus wrought to sin, soon was I train'd from court,
Ta solitary grange, there to attend
The time the king should thither make resort,
Where he love's long desired work should end.
Thither he daily messages doth send,
With costly jewels (orators of love)
Which (ah! too well men know) do women move.
"The day before the night of my defeature,
He greets me with a casket richly wrought;
So rare, that Art did seem to strive with Nature,
T express the cunning workman's curious thought;
The mystery whereof I prying sought,
And found engraven on the lid above,
Amymone, how she with Neptune strove.
"Amymone, old Danaus' fairest daughter,
As she was fetching water all alone
At Lerna whereas Neptune came and caught her,
From whom she striv'd and struggled to be gone,
Bathing the air with cries and pitious moan;
But all in vain, with him she 's forc'd to go,
'T is shame that men should use poor maidens so.
"There might I see described how she lay,
At those proud feet, not satisfy'd with prayer:
Wailing her heavy hap, cursing the day,
In act so pitious to express despair.
And by how much more griev'd, so much more fair.
Her tears upon her cheeks (poor careful girl!)
Did seem against the Sun crystal and pearl:
LX
"Witness the world, wherein is nothing rifer, →
Than miseries unken'd before they come :
Who can the characters of chance decipher,
Written in clouds of our concealed doom?
Which though perhaps have been reveal'd to some,
Yet that so doubtful (as success did prove them)
That men must know they have the Heav'ns above 420
"And now I come to tell the worst of illness; >
Now draws the date of mine affliction near.
Now when the dark had wrapt up all in stillness,
And dreadful black had dispossess'd the clear,
Com'd was the Night (mother of Sleep and Fear)
Who with her sable mantle friendly covers
The sweet stoll'n sport of joyful meeting lovers.
"When, lo! I joy'd my lover, not my love,
And felt the hand of lust most undesir'd;
Enforc'd th' unproved bitter sweet to prove,
Which yields no natural pleasure when 't is hir'd;
Love's not constrain'd, nor yet of due requir'd:
Judge they who are unfortunately wed,
What 't is to come unto a loathed bed.
"But soon his age receiv'd his short contenting,
And sleep seal'd up his languishing desires;
When he turns to his rest, I to repenting,
Into myself my waking thought retires;
My nakedness had prov'd my senses liars.
Now open'd were mine eyes to look therein,
For first we taste the fruit, then see our sin.
"Now did I find myself unparadis'd,
From those pure fields of my so clean beginning: 450
Now I perceiv'd how ill I was advis'd,
My flesh gan loath the new-felt touch of sinning;
Shame leaves us by degrees, not at first winning:
For nature checks a new offence with loathing;
But use of sin doth make it seem as nothing.
"Whose pure clear streams (which lo so fair ap-
Wrought hotter flames (O miracle of love) [pears)" And use of sin did work in me a boldness,
That kindles fire in water, heat in tears,
And make neglected beauty mightier prove,
Teaching afflicted eyes affect to move;
To show that nothing ill becomes the fair,
But cruelty, which yields unto no prayer.
This having view'd, and therewith something
Figur'd I find within the other squares, [mov'd,
Transformed Io, Jove's dearly lov'd,
In her affliction how she strangely fares.
Strangely distress'd (O beauty, born to cares!)
Turn'd to a heifer, kept with jealous eyes,
Always in danger of her hateful spies.
"These precedents presented to my view,
Wherein the presage of my fall was shown,
Might have forewarn'd me well what would ensue,
> And others' harms have made me shun mine own;
But fate is not prevented, though foreknown:
For that must hap, decreed by heavenly powers,
Who work our fall, yet make the fault still ours.
And love in him incorporates such zeal,
That jealousy increas'd with age's coldness;
Fearing to loose the joy of all his weal,
Or doubting time his stealth might else reveal, 460
He's driven to devise some subtile way,
How he might safeliest keep so rich a prey.
"A stately palace he forthwith did build,
Whose intricate innumerable ways,
With such confused errours, so beguil'd
Th' unguided ent'rers with uncertain strays,
And doubtful turnings kept them in delays;
With bootless labour leading them about,
Able to find no way, nor in, nor out.
"Within the closed bosom of which frame, 47
That serv'd a centre to that goodly round,
Were lodgings, with a garden to the same,
With sweetest flowers that e'er adorn'd the ground,
And all the pleasures that delight hath found
T'entertain the sense of wanton eyes,
Fuel of love, from whence lust's flames arise.
"Here I enclos'd, from all the world asunder, The minotaur of Shame kept for disgrace; The monster of Fortune, and the world's wonder, 480 Liv'd cloist'red in so desolate a case:
None but the king might come into the place,
With certain maids that did attend my need,
And he himself came guided by a thread.
LXX
"O Jealousy! daughter of Envy and Love,
Most wayward issue of a gentle sire;
Foster'd with fears, thy father's joys t' improve ;*
Mirth-marring monster, born a subtle liar;
Hateful unto thyself, flying thine own desire;
Feeding upon suspect, that doth renew thee;
Happy were lovers if they never knew thee.
"Thou hast a thousand gates thou enterest by,
Condemning trembling passions to our heart:
Hunder'd-ey'd Argus, ever waking spy,
Pale hag, infernal fury, pleasure's smart,
Envious observer, prying in every part;
Suspicious, fearful, gazing still about thee;
O would to God that love could be without thee.
"Thou did'st deprive (through false suggesting fear) Him of content, and me of liberty, 500 The only good that women hold so dear, And turn'st my freedom to captivity, First made a prisoner ere an enemy: Enjoin'd the ransom of my body's shame, Which though I paid, could not redeem the same. "What greater torment ever could have been, Than to enforce the fair to live retir'd? For what is beauty if it be not seen? Or what is 't to be seen, if not admir'd? And though admir'd, unless in love desir'd?
510 Never were cheeks of roses, locks of amber,
Ordain'd to live imprison'd in a chamber.
"Nature created beauty for the view,
(Like as the fire for heat, the Sun for light :)
The fair do hold this privilege as due,
By ancient charter, to live most in sight,
And she that is debarr'd it, hath not right.
In vain our friends from this do us dehort,
For beauty will be where is most resort.
If I unluckily had never stray'd,
But liv'd at home a happy country maid.
"Whose unaffected innocency thinks 540
No guileful fraud, as doth the courtly liver!
She's deck'd with truth; the river, where she drinks,
Doth serve her for her glass; her counsel-giver
She loves sincerely, and is loved ever.
Her days are peace, and so she ends her breath,
(True life that knows not what 's to die till death.)
"So should I never have been regist'red,
In the black book of the unfortunate;
Nor had my name, enrol'd with maids misled,
Which bought their pleasures at so high a rate: 55D
Nor had I taught (through my unhappy fate)
This lesson (which myself learnt with expense)
How most it hurts, that most delights the sense.
LXXX
"Shame follows sin, disgrace is duly given;
Impiety will out, never so closely done:
No walls can hide us from the eye of Heaven;
For shame must end what wickedness begun;
Forth breaks reproach when we least think thereon; &
And this is ever proper unto courts,
That nothing can be done, but Fame reports. 560
"Fame doth explore what lies most secret hidden,
Ent'ring the closet of the palace-dweller;
Abroad revealing what is most forbidden:
Of truth and falsehood both an equal teller,
"T is not a guard can serve for to expell her:
The sword of justice cannot cut her wings,
Nor stop her mouth from uttering secret things.
"And this our stealth she could not long conceal,
From her whom such a forfeit most concern'd,
The wronged queen, who could so closely deal, 510
That she the whole of all our practice learn'd,
And watch'd a time when least it was discern'd,
In absence of the king, to wreak her wrong,
With such revenge as she desired long.
"The labyrinth she enter'd by that thread,
That serv'd a conduct to my absent lord;
Left there by chance, reserv'd for such a deed,
Where she surpris'd me whom she so abhor'd:
Enrag'd with madness, scarce she speaks a word,
But flies with eager fury to my face, 580
Offering me most unwomanly disgrace..
"Witness the fairest streets that Thames doth visit," Look how a tigress that hath lost her whelp,
10 The wondrous concourse of the glitt'ring fair;
For what rare woman, deck'd with beauty, is it,
That thither covets not to make repair?
The solitary country may not stay her.
Here is the centre of all beauties best,
Excepting Delia, left t' adorn the west.
"Here doth the curious, with judicial eyes,
Contemplate beauty gloriously attir'd:
And herein all our chiefest glory lies,
To live where we are prais'd and most desir'd.
O! how we joy to see ourselves admir'd,
Whilst niggardly our favours we discover; →
We love to be belov'd, yet scorn the lover.
"Yet would to God my foot had never mov'd'
From country safety, from the fields of rest;
To know the danger to be highly lov'd,
And live in pomp to brave among the best:
Happy for me, better had I been bless'd,
Runs fiercely ranging through the woods astray;
And seeing herself depriv'd of hope or help,
Furiously assaults what 's in her way,
To satisfy her wrath (not for a prey);
So fell she on me in outrageous wise,
As could disdain and jealousy devise.
"And after all her vile reproaches us'd,
She forc'd me take the poison she had brought, 59°
To end the life that had her so abus'd,
And free her fears, and ease her jealous thought;
No cruelty her wrath could leave unwrought;
No spiteful act that to revenge is common;
(No beast being fiercer than a jealous woman.)
"Here take,' said she, thou impudent unclean,
Base graceless strumpet, take this next your heart;
Your love-sick heart, that overcharg'd hath been
With pleasure's surfeit, must be purg'd with art;
This potion hath a power that will convert b
To nought these humours that oppress you so;
And, girl, I'll see you take it ere I go.
And let thy heart pity thy heart's remorse,
And be thyself the mourner and the corse.
"What! stand you now amaz'd; retire you back?"
Tremble you, minion? come, dispatch with speed;
There is no help, your champion now we lack,
And all these tears you shed will nothing steed;
Those dainty fingers needs must do the deed:
Take it, or I will drench you else by force,
And trifle not, lest that I use you worse.'
"Having this bloody doom from hellish breath,
My wofull eyes on every side I cast;
Rigour about me, in my hand my death,
Presenting me the horrour of my last;
All hope of pity and of comfort past.
No means, no power, no forces to contend,
My trembling hands must give myself my end.
"Those hands that beauty's ministers had been,
They must give death, that me adorn'd of late,
That mouth that newly gave consent to sin,
610 Must now receive destruction in thereat ;
That body which my lust did violate,
Must sacrifice itself t' appease the wrong.
(So short is pleasure, glory lasts not long.)
LXXX
"And she no sooner saw I had it taken,
But forth she rushes (proud with victory)
And leaves m' alone, of all the world forsaken,
Except of Death, which she had left with me.
(Death and myself alone together be.) →
To whom she did her full revenge refer.
3 Oh, poor weak conquest both for him and her!
"Then straight my conscience summons up my sin
Tappear before me in a hideous face;
Now doth the terrour of my soul begin,
When ev'ry corner of that hateful place
Dictates mine errour, and reveals disgrace;
Whilst I remain oppress'd in every part,
Death in my body, horrour at my heart.
"Down on my bed my loathsome self I cast, The bed that likewise gives in evidence 640Against my soul, and tells I was unchaste,
Tel's I was wanton, tells I follow'd sense,
And therefore cast, by guilt of mine offence,
Must here the right of Heaven needs satisfy,
And where I wanton lay, must wretched die.
"Here I began to wail my hard mishap,
My sudden, strange, unlook'd-for misery,
Accusing them that did my youth entrap,
To give me such a fall of infamy.
And poor distressed Rosamond,' said I,
5 Is this thy glory got, to die forlorn
In deserts where no ear can hear thee mourn >
"Nor any eye of pity to behold
The wofull end of thy sad tragedy;
But that thy wrongs unseen, thy tale untold,
Must here in secret silence bury'd lie,
And with thee, thine excuse together die?
Thy sin reveal'd, but thy repentance hid,
Thy shame alive, but dead what thy death did.
"Yet breathe out to these walls the breath of moan,
Tell th' air thy plaints, since men thou canst not tell.
And though thou perish desolate alone,
Tell yet thyself, what thyself knows too well:
Utter thy grief, wherewith thy soul doth swell.
Condole thee here, clad all in black despair,
With silence only, and a dying bed;
Thou that of late, so flourishing, so fair,
Did'st glorious live, admir'd and honoured:
And now from friends, from succour hither led,
Art made a spoil to lust, to wrath, to death,
And in disgrace, forc'd here to yield thy breath.
"Did Nature (for this good) ingeniate,
To show in thee the glory of her best;
Framing thine eye the star of thy ill fate,
Making thy face the foe to spoil the rest?
O beauty! thou an enemy profess'd
To chastity, and us that love thee most,
Without thee, how w' are loath'd, and with thee lost!
“You, you that proud with liberty and beauty, 68^
(And well may you be proud that you be so)
Glitter in court, lov'd and observ'd of duty;
Would God I might to you but ere I go
Speak what I feel, to warn you by my woe,
To keep your feet in cleanly paths of shame,
That not enticing may divert the same.
Seeing how 'gainst your tender weakness still,
The strength of wit, and gold, and all is bent;
And all th' assaults that ever might or skill
Can give against a chaste and clean intent; bo
Ah! let not greatness work you to consent.
The spot is foul, though by a monarch made,
Kings cannot privilege what God forbade.
"Lock up therefore the treasure of your love,
Under the surest keys of fear and shame:
And let no powers have power chaste thoughts to
To make a lawless entry on your fame. [move
Open to those the comfort of your flame,
Whose equal love shall march with equal pace,
In those pure ways that lead to no disgrace.
"For see how many discontented beds,
Our own aspiring or our parents' pride
Have caus'd, whilst that ambition vainly weds
Wealth and not love, honour and nought beside: →
Whilst marry'd but to titles, we abide
As wedded widows, wanting what we have,
When shadows cannot give us what we crave.
"Or whilst we spend the freshest of our time,
The sweets of youth inplotting in the air;
Alas! how oft we fall, hoping to climb;710
Or whither as unprofitably fair,
Whilst those decays which are without repair,
Make us neglected, scorned, and reprov'd.
(And O, what are we, if we be not lov'd?)
"Fasten therefore upon occasions fit,
Lest this, or that, or like disgrace as mine,
Do overtake your youth, or ruin it,
And cloud with infamy your beauty's shine:
Seeing how many seek to undermine
The treasury that 's unpossess'd of any; →
And hard 't is kept that is desir'd of many.
"And fly (O fly !) these bed-brokers unclean,
(The monsters of our sex) that make a prey
Of their own kind, by an unkindly mean;
And e'en (like vipers) eating out a way
Through th' womb of their own shame, accursed they
Live by the death of fame, the gain of sin,
The filth of lust, uncleanness wallows in.
""As if 't were not enough that we (poor we) 730 Have weakness, beauty, gold, and men, our foes,
But we must have some of ourselves to be
Traitors unto ourselves, to join with those;
Such as our feeble forces do disclose,
And still betray our cause, our shame, our youth,
To lust, to folly, and to mens' untruth.
Hateful confounders both of blood and laws,
Vile orators of shame, that plead delight;
Ungracious agents in a wicked cause,
-Factors for darkness, messengers of night,
Serpents of guile, devils that do unite
The wanton taste of that forbidden tree,
Whose fruit once pluck'd, will show how foul we be.
"You in the habit of a grave aspect,
(In credit by the trust of years) can show
The cunning ways of lust, and can direct
The fair and wily wantons how to go,
Having (your loathsome selves) your youth spent so:
And in uncleanness ever have been fed,
By the revenue of a wanton bed:
"By you have been the innocent betray'd, The blushing fearful bolden'd unto sin, The wife made subtile, subtile made the maid, The husband scorn'd, dishonoured the kin; * Parents disgrac'd, children infamous been: Confus'd our race, and falsify'd our blood, Whilst fathers' sons possess wrong fathers' good.'
"This, and much more, I would have utter'd then, A testament to be recorded still, Sign'd with my blood, subscrib'd with conscience'
Judge those whom chance deprives of sweetest treasure,
What 't is to lose a thing we hold so dear! C'The best delight wherein our soul takes pleasure, The sweet of life, that pénétrates so near. What passions feels that heart, inforc'd to bear The deep impression of so strange a sight, That overwhelms us, or confounds us quite ?
"Amaz'd he stands, nor voice nor body stirs;
Words had no passage, tears no issue found,
For sorrow shut up words, wrath kept in tears;
Confus'd effects each other do confound;
Oppress'd with grief, his passions had no bound.
Striving to tell his woes, words would not come;
For light cares speak, when mighty griefs are dumb.
"At length extremity breaks out a way,
'Through which, th' imprison'd voice with tears at-
tended,
Wails out a sound that sorrows do bewray;
With arms across, and eyes to Heaven bended, -
Vapouring out sighs that to the skies ascended ;-
Sighs (the poor ease calamity affords)
Which serve for speech, when sorrow wanteth words.
"What saw my life wherein my soul might joy? What had my days, whom troubles still afflicted, But only this, to counterpoise annoy?
This joy, this hope, which death hath interdicted;
This sweet, whose loss hath all distress inflicted; 15
This, that did season all my sour of life,
Vex'd still at home with broils, abroad in strife.
"Vex'd still at home with broils, abroad in strife,
Dissention in my blood, jars in my bed;
Distrust at board, suspecting still my life,
Spending the night in horrour, days in dread;
(Such life hath tyrants, and this life I led.)
These miseries go mask'd in glittering shows,
Which wise men see, the vulgar little knows.'
"Thus, as these passions do him overwhelm,
He draws him near my body to behold it;
And as the vine married unto the elm,
With strict embraces, so doth he infold it:
And as he in his careful arms doth hold it,
Viewing the face that even death commends,
On senseless lips, millions of kisses spends.
"Pitiful mouth!' saith he, that living gav'st
The sweetest comfort that my soul could wish:
O be it lawful now, that dead thou hav'st,
This sorrowing farewell of a dying kiss.
And you fair eyes, containers of my bliss,
Motives of love, born to be matched never,
Entomb'd in your sweet circles, sleep for ever. –
"Ah! how methinks I see Death dallying seeks
To entertain itself in Love's sweet place;
Decayed roses of discolour'd cheeks,
Do yet retain dear notes of former grace:
And ugly Death sits fair within her face;
Sweet remnants resting of vermilion red,
That Death itself doubts whether she be dead. +0
CX
"Wonder of beauty, oh! receive these plaints,
These obsequies, the last that I shall make thee: ←
For lo, my soul that now already faints,
(That lov'd thee living, dead will not forsake thee) <
Hastens her speedy course to overtake thee.
I'll meet my death, and free myself thereby,
For, ah! what can he do that cannot die ?
Yet, ere I die, thus much my soul doth vow, Revenge shall sweeten death with ease of mind: 85And I will cause posterity shall know,
How fair thou wert above all woman kind,
And after-ages monuments shall find,
Showing thy beauty's title, not thy name,
Rose of the world, that sweeten'd so the same.
"This said, though more desirous yet to say, (For sorrow is unwilling to give over) He doth repress what grief should else bewray, Lest he too much his passions should discover, And yet respect scarce bridles such a lover, 860 So far transported, that he knows not whither, For love and majesty dwell ill together.
"Then were my funerals not long deferred,
But done with all the rites pomp could devise,
At Godstow, where my body was interred,
And richly tomb'd in honourable wise,
Where yet as now scarce any note descries
Unto these times, the memory of me,
Marble and brass so little lasting be.
"For those walls, which the credulous devout 87DAnd apt-believing ignorant did found;
With willing zeal, that never call'd in doubt,
That time their works should ever so confound,
Lie like confused heaps as under ground.
And what their ignorance esteem'd so holy,
The wiser ages do account as folly.
"And were it not thy favourable lines Re-edify'd the wreck of my decays, And that thy accents willingly assigns Some further date, and give me longer days, 10 Few in this age had known my beauty's praise. But thus renew'd, my fame redeems some time, Till other ages shall neglect thy rhyme.
The sphere of greatness) cannot rightly taste
What touch it hath, nor right her passions know:
Yet have I here adventur'd to bestow
Words upon grief, as my griefs comprehend,
And made this great afflicted lady show,
Out of my feelings, what she might have penn'd:
And here the same, I bring forth to attend
Upon thy reverend name, to live with thee
Most virtuous lady, that vouchsaf'st to lend
Ear to my notes, and comfort unto me,
That one day may thine own fair virtues spread,
Being secretary now but to the dead.
UPON the second agreement (the first being broken through jealousy of a disproportion of eminency) between the triumviri Octavius Cæsar, Marcus Antonius, and Lepidus; Octavia, the sister of Octavius Cæsar, was married to Antonius, as a link to combine that which never yet, the greatest strength of Nature, or any power of nearest respect, could long hold together; who, made but the instrument of
"Then when confusion in her course shall bring
Sad desolation on the times to come :
When mirthless Thames shall have no swan to sing,
All music silent, and the Muses dumb;
And yet even then it must be known to some,
That once they flourish'd, though not cherish'd so, others' ends, and delivered up as an ostage, to
And Thames had swans as well as ever Po.
"But here an end, I may no longer stay, I must return t' attend at Stygian flood: Yet, ere I go, this one word more I pray, Tell Delia, now her sigh may do me good, And will her note the frailty of our blood. And if I pass unto those happy banks,
serve the opportunity of advantages, met not with that integrity she brought; but as highly preferred to affliction, encountered with all the grievances that beat upon the misery of greatness, exposed to stand betwixt the diverse tending bumours of unquiet parties: for Antony having yet upon him the fetters of Egypt, laid on by the power of a most incomparable beauty, could admit no new laws
Then she must have her praise, thy pen her thanks." into the state of his affection, or dispose of himself,
So vanish'd she, and left me to return
To prosecute the terrour of my woes:
Eternal matter for my Muse to mourn,
t But yet the world hath heard too much of those,
My youth such errours must no more disclose.
I'll hide the rest, and grieve for what hath been,
Who made me known, must make we live unseen.
being not himself; but as having his heart turned eastward, whither the point of his desires are directed, touched with the strongest allurements that ambition and a licentious sovereignty could draw a man unto, could not truly descend to the private love of a civil nurtred matron, whose entertainment, bounded with modesty and the nature of her education, knew not to clothe her affections in any other colours than the plain habit of truth, wherein she ever suited all her actions, and used all her best ornaments of honesty, to win the good liking of him that held her, but as a curtain, drawn between him and Octavius, to shadow his other purposes withal, which the sharp sight of an equally jealous ambition would soon
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