Question. Yet Rivers 'twixt their own banks flow Still fresh; can Jealousy do so?'

Answer. 'Yes, whilst she keeps the steadfast ground Of Hope and Fear, her equal bound.

'Hope sprung from favour, worth, or chance, Towards the fair object doth advance; Whilst Fear, as watchful Sentinel,

Doth the invading foe repel :

And Jealousy, thus mixed, doth prove
The season[ing] and the salt of Love.
But when Fear takes a larger scope,
(Stifling the child of Reason, Hope,)
Then, sitting on th' usurped throne,
She like a Tyrant rules alone :

As the wild Ocean unconfined
And raging as the Northern wind.'

SONG II.-OF FEMININE HONOUR.

N what esteem did the gods hold

IN

Fair Innocence and the chaste bed,
When scandal'd Virtue might be bold
Bare-foot upon sharp coulters, spread
O'er burning coals, to march; yet feel
Nor scorching fire nor piercing steel!
Why, when the hard-edged Iron did turn
Soft as a bed of roses blown,

When cruel flames forgot to burn

Their chaste pure limbs, should man alone 'Gainst female Innocence conspire

Harder than steel, fiercer than fire?

know

Oh, hapless sex! Unequal sway
Of partial honour! Who may
Rebels, from subjects that obey;
When malice can on Vestals throw
Disgrace, and Fame fix high repute
On the close shameless Prostitute?

Cf. p. 45.]

Vain Honour thou art but disguise,
A cheating voice, a juggling art;
No judge of Virtue, whose pure eyes
Court her own image in the heart,
More pleased with her true figure there
Than her false echo in the ear.

SONG III.-SEPARATION OF LOVERS.

TOP the chafed Boar, or play
With the Lion's paw, yet fear

From the Lover's side to tear

Th' idol of his soul away.

Though Love enter by the sight
To the heart, it doth not fly
From the mind, when from the eye
The fair objects take their flight.

But since want provokes desire,
When we lose what we before
Have enjoy'd, as we want more,
So is Love more set on fire.

Love doth with an hungry eye
Gloat on Beauty; and you may
Safer snatch the Tiger's prey,
Than his vital food deny.

Yet though absence for a space
Sharpen the keen appetite,
Long continuance doth quite
All Love's characters efface:

For the sense, not fed, denies
Nourishment unto the mind :
Which, with expectation pined,
Love of famine quickly dies.

SONG IV.-INCOMMUNICABILITY OF LOVE.

Question.

Y what power was Love confined

'BY

To one object? Who can bind,

Or fix a limit to a free-born mind?'

Answer.-Nature: for as bodies may
Move at once but in one way,

So nor can minds to more than one love stray.'

Questioner. Yet I feel a double smart,
Love's twinn'd flame, his forked dart.'

`Answer. Then hath wild lust, not love, possess'd thy heart.'

Question.-'Whence springs Love?' Ans.-' From
Beauty.' Question.-'Why

Should th' effect not multiply

As fast i' th' heart, as doth the cause i' th' eye?'

Answer.

When two Beauties equal are

Sense preferring neither fair,

Desire stands still, distracted 'twixt the pair.

'So in equal distance lay

Two fair lambs in the wolf's way,

The hungry beast will starve ere choose his prey.

'But where one is chief, the rest
Cease and that's alone possess'd,

Without a rival, monarch of the breast.'

Other Songs in the Play.

I.-A LOVER, IN THE DISGUISE OF AN AMAZON, IS DEARLY BELOVED OF HIS MISTRESS.

EASE, thou afflicted Soul, to mourn,

СЕ

Whose love and faith are paid with scorn;

For I am starved, that feel the blisses
Of dear embraces, smiles, and kisses
From my soul's Idol, yet complain
Of equal love more than disdain.

Cease, Beauty's exile, to lament
The frozen shades of banishment;
For I in that fair bosom dwell
That is my Paradise and Hell:

Banish'd at home, at once, from ease,
In the safe port, and toss'd on seas.

Cease in cold jealous fears to pine,
Sad wretch, whom Rivals undermine;
For though I hold lock'd in mine arms
My life's sole joy, a traitor's charms

Prevail: whilst I may only blame
My self, that mine own Rival am.

Another Song [THE PRINCESS's].

II.—A LADY, RESCUED FROM DEATH BY A KNIGHT, WHO IN THE INSTANT LEAVES HER, COMPLAINS THUS :

H, whither is my fair Sun fled

Он

Bearing his light, not heat, away?
If thou repose' in the moist bed

Of the Sea Queen, bring back the day
To our dark clime, and thou shalt lie
Bathed in the sea, flows from mine eye.

Upon what whirlwind dost thou ride
Hence, yet remain'st fix'd in my heart?
From me, and to me; fled and tied ?

Dark riddles of the amorous art!
Love lent thee wings to fly, so he
Unfeather'd now must rest with me.

Help, help, brave youth! I burn, I bleed!
The cruel God with bow and brand
Pursues that life thy valour freed.

Disarm him with thy conquering hand;
And that thou may'st the wild Boy tame,
Give me his dart, keep thou his flame.

To Ben Jonson.

UPON OCCASION OF HIS ODE OF DEFIANCE ANNEXED
TO HIS PLAY OF 'THE NEW INN,' 1631.

'TIS

~IS true, dear BEN, thy just chastising hand
Hath fix'd upon the 'sotted Age a brand,
To their swol'n pride and empty scribbling due;
It can nor judge, nor write: and yet 'tis true
Thy Comic Muse, from the exalted line
Touch'd by thy 'Alchemist,' doth since decline
From that her zenith, and foretells a red
And blushing evening, when she goes to bed;
Yet such as shall outshine the glimmering light
With which all stars shall gild the following night.
Nor think it much, since all thy Eaglets may
Endure the Sunny trial, if we say

'This hath the stronger wing,' or, 'that doth shine
Trick'd up in fairer plumes;' since all are thine.

[1610.