Oh! if in magic you have power so far,

Vouchsafe me to be

*

*

OF JEALOUSY.

(Questioner, PEMBROKE. Answerer, RUDYERD.)

Ques. From whence was first this Fury hurl'd, This Jealousy into the world?

Came she from hell? No: there doth reign
Eternal Hatred with Disdain :

But she the daughter is of Love,

Sister of Beauty. Resp. Then above

She must derive from the third sphere

Her heavenly offspring. Ans. Neither there,
From those immortal flames could she

Draw her cold, frozen pedigree.

Ques. If not in heaven, nor hell, where then Had she her birth? Ans. I' th' hearts of men.

Beauty and Fear did her create,

Younger than Love, elder than Hate;

Sister to both, by Beauty's side

To Love, by Fear to Hate allied.

Despair her issue is, whose race
Of frightful issues drowns the space
Of the wide earth, in a swoln flood
Of wrath, revenge, spite, rage, and blood.

Ques. Oh! how can such a spurious line
Proceed from parents so divine?

Ans. As streams which from the crystal spring

Do sweet, and clear, their waters bring;

Yet mingling with the brackish main,
Nor taste, nor colour they retain.

Ques. Yet rivers 'twixt their own banks flow

Still fresh; can Jealousy do so?

Ans. Yes while 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 mix'd, doth prove
The season and the salt of Love.
But when Fear takes a larger scope,
Stifling the child of Reason, Hope;
Then sitting in the usurp'd throne,
She, like a tyrant, rules alone,
As the wild ocean unconfined,
And raging as the northern wind.

LOVER.

(PEMBROKE.)

SHEPHERD, gentle shepherd, hark!
As one that canst call rightest
Birds by their name,

Both wild and tame,

And in their notes delightest!

What voice is this, I pray thee mark,
With so much music in it?

Too sweet, methinks, to be a lark,
Too loud to be a linnet.

Nightingales are more confused,

And descant more at random,
Whose warbling throats,

To hold our notes,

Their airy tunes abandon. Angels stoop not now-a-days,

Such quiristers forsake us;

Yet syrens may

Our loves betray,

And wretched prisoners make us ; Yet they must use some other ways Than singing to deprive us

Of our poor lives, since such sweet lays As these would soon revive us.

Shepherd. Rudyerd.

'Tis not syren we descry,
Nor bird in grove residing;
Nor angel's voice,

Although as choice,

Fond boy, thou hear'st dividing;
But one, if either thou or I

Should face to face resemble her,
To any of these would blushing cry,
Away, away, Dissembler!

ON FRIENDSHIP.

FRIENDSHIP on earth we may as easily find,
As he the north-east passage that is blind;
'Tis not unlike th' imaginary stone
That tatter'd chymists long have doted on:
Sophisticate affection is the best

This age affords, no friend abides the test;
They make a glorious show, a little space,
But tarnish in the rain like copper-lace.
Or nealled in affliction but one day,

They smoke, and stink, and vapour quite away.
We miss the true materials, choosing friends;
On virtue we project not, but our ends.
So, by degrees, when we embrace so many,
We courted are like w-

-s, not loved by any:

Good turns ill placed, that we on all men heap,
Are seeds of that ingratitude we reap:
And he that is so sweet he none denies,
Was made of honey for the nimble flies.
Choose one of two companions of thy life;
Then be as true as thou would'st have a wife.
Though he live joyless that enjoys no friend,
He that hath many, pays for 't in the end.

OF DEFORMITY IN MAN.

WHAT if rude Nature hath less care exprest
About thy shape, or wantonly in jest
Composed thee? or maliciously in despight?
Or lame with her left hand, or without light?
Be but as bold; thou may'st as well find grace,
As one that hath the most corrected face,
Or levell'd trunk, whose neatness to beget
A tailor, and a barber's virtue met

Upon a sempster; for a woman's eye

Seldom betrays her heart to cemetry.

But some ill-favour'd thought, that bears more sway
To foulest hope, ofttimes prepares a way
Either that beauty fairest doth appear,

When some deformèd object's planted near!
Or sovereignty (at which they chiefly aim)

Is then most absolute when men claim

Least favour: he who hopes or strives t'approve
His person, doth submit and yield to love
Upon conditions; but that man whose state,
Himself consider'd, seems quite desperate,