From BEN JONSON'S The Poetaster, 1601. HIS SUPPOSED MISTRESS. F I freely may discover IF What would please me in my lover, Neither too easy nor too hard : She should be allowed her passions, Then only constant when I crave her ; 'Tis a virtue should not save her. Thus, nor her delicates would cloy me, Nor her peevishness annoy me. LOVE IS BLIND, AND A WANTON. LOVE is blind, and a wanton; In the whole world, there is scant one No, not his mother. He hath plucked her doves and sparrows, While sick Venus waileth. But if Cypris once recover ADDE MERUM ! WAKE, our mirth begins to die, Quicken it with tunes and wine. Raise your notes; you're out : fy, fy! We banish him the quire of gods, That droops again : Then all are men, For here's not one, but nods. I. THE BANQUET OF SENSE. THE Our broken tunes we thus repair; 2. And we answer them again, Running division on the panting air; Ambo. To celebrate this feast of sense, As free from scandal as offence. I. Here is beauty for the eye; 2. 1. Ambrosiac odours for the smell; Delicious nectar for the taste; 2. Ambo. For the touch a lady's waist, Which doth all the rest excel. From BEN JONSON'S Volpone, or O FORTUNATI! OOLS, they are the only nation Free from care or sorrow-taking, All they speak or do is sterling. Your fool he is your great man's dearling, And he speaks truth free from slaughter ; He's the grace of every feast, And sometimes the chiefest guest; Hath his trencher and his stool, When wit waits upon the fool. O, who would not be 1 Old form of "bauble." VIVAMUS, MEA LESBIA. OME, my Celia, let us prove, While we can, the sports of love, Time will not be ours for ever, He, at length, our good will sever; Spend not then his gifts in vain : Suns that set may rise again ; But if once we lose this light, 'Tis with us perpetual night. Why should we defer our joys? Fame and rumour are but toys. Cannot we delude the eyes Of a few poor household spies? Or his easier ears beguile, Thus removed by our wile? 'Tis no sin love's fruits to steal, But the sweet thefts to reveal ; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been. UP! From BEN JONSON'S The Description of the Masque, with the Nuptial Songs, celebrating the happy marriage of John, Lord Ramsay, with the Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe, 1508. EPITHALAMION. youths and virgins! up, and praise The God whose nights outshine his days! Could never boast of brighter lights; Whose bands pass liberty. Two of your troop, that with the morn were free, And what they are, If you'll perfection see, Yourselves must be. Shine, Hesperus ! shine forth, thou wished star! What joy or honours can compare Of years, of states, of hands, of hearts; When in the happy choice The spouse and spoused have the foremost voice! Live what they are And long perfection see: And such ours be. Shine, Hesperus! shine forth, thou wished star! |