Chapter 1
From off a hill whose concave womb reworded A plaintful story froma sist'ring vale, My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded, And down Ilaid to list the sad-tuned tale, Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,Tearing of papers, breaking rings atwain, Storming her world withsorrow's wind and rain.
　　Upon her head a platted hive of straw, Which fortified her visagefrom the sun, Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw Thecarcase of a beauty spent and done. Time had not scythed all that youthbegun, Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage Some beautypeeped through lattice of seared age.
　　Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, Which on it had conceitedcharacters, Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine That seasoned woehad pelleted in tears, And often reading what contents it bears; As oftenshrieking undistinguished woe, In clamours of all size, both high and low.
　　Sometimes her levelled eyes their carriage ride, As they did batt'ry tothe spheres intend; Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied To th' orbedearth; sometimes they do extend Their view right on; anon their gazes lendTo every place at once, and nowhere fixed, The mind and sightdistractedly commixed.
　　Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat, Proclaimed in her acareless hand of pride; For some, untucked, descended her sheaved hat,Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside; Some in her threaden fillet stilldid bide, And, true to bondage, would not break from thence, Thoughslackly braided in loose negligence.
　　A thousand favours from a maund she drew Of amber, crystal, and ofbeaded jet, Which one by one she in a river threw, Upon whose weepingmargent she was set; Like usury applying wet to wet, Or monarchs' handsthat lets not bounty fall Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.
　　Of folded schedules had she many a one, Which she perused, sighed,tore, and gave the flood; Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone,Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud; Found yet moe letters sadlypenned in blood, With sleided silk feat and affectedly Enswathed andsealed to curious secrecy.
Chapter 2
These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes, And often kissed, andoften 'gan to tear; Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies, Whatunapproved witness dost thou bear! Ink would have seemed more blackand damned here! This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, Bigdiscontents so breaking their contents.
　　A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh, Sometime a blusterer thatthe ruffle knew Of court, of city, and had let go by The swiftest hoursobserved as they flew, Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew; And,privileged by age, desires to know In brief the grounds and motives of herwoe.
　　So slides he down upon his grained bat, And comely distant sits he byher side; When he again desires her, being sat, Her grievance with hishearing to divide. If that from him there may be aught applied Which mayher suffering ecstasy assuage, 'Tis promised in the charity of age.
　　'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold The injury of many ablasting hour, Let it not tell your judgement I am old: Not age, but sorrow,over me hath power. I might as yet have been a spreading flower, Fresh tomyself, if I had self-applied Love to myself, and to no love beside.
　　'But woe is me! too early I attended A youthful suit-it was to gain mygrace- O, one by nature's outwards so commended That maidens' eyesstuck over all his face. Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place;And when in his fair parts she did abide, She was new lodged and newlydeified.
　　'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls; And every lightoccasion of the wind Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls. What's sweetto do, to do will aptly find: Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind;For on his visage was in little drawn What largeness thinks in Paradisewas sawn.
　　'Small show of man was yet upon his chin; His phoenix down beganbut to appear, Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin, Whose bare out-bragged the web it seemed to wear: Yet showed his visage by that costmore dear; And nice affections wavering stood in doubt If best were as itwas, or best without.
　　'His qualities were beauteous as his form, For maiden-tongued he was,and thereof free; Yet if men moved him, was he such a storm As oft 'twixtMay and April is to see, When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
　　His rudeness so with his authorized youth Did livery falseness in a prideof truth.
　　'Well could he ride, and often men would say, "That horse his mettlefrom his rider takes: Proud of subjection, noble by the sway, What rounds,what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!" And controversy hence aquestion takes Whether the horse by him became his deed, Or he hismanage by th' well-doing steed.
　　'But quickly on this side the verdict went: His real habitude gave lifeand grace To appertainings and to ornament, Accomplished in himself, notin his case, All aids, themselves made fairer by their place, Came foradditions; yet their purposed trim Pierced not his grace, but were allgraced by him.
　　'So on the tip of his subduing tongue All kind of arguments andquestion deep, All replication prompt, and reason strong, For hisadvantage still did wake and sleep. To make the weeper laugh, the laugherweep, He had the dialect and different skill, Catching all passions in hiscraft of will,'That he did in the general bosom reign Of young, of old, and sexesboth enchanted, To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain In personalduty, following where he haunted. Consents bewitched, ere he desire, havegranted, And dialogued for him what he would say, Asked their own wills,and made their wills obey.
　　'Many there were that did his picture get, To serve their eyes, and in itput their mind; Like fools that in th' imagination set The goodly objectswhich abroad they find Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assigned;And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them Than the true goutylandlord which doth owe them.
　　'So many have, that never touched his hand, Sweetly supposed themmistress of his heart. My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, And wasmy own fee-simple, not in part, What with his art in youth, and youth inart, Threw my affections in his charmed power Reserved the stalk andgave him all my flower.
Chapter 3
'Yet did I not, as some my equals did, Demand of him, nor beingdesired yielded; Finding myself in honour so forbid, With safest distance Imine honour shielded. Experience for me many bulwarks builded Ofproofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil Of this false jewel, and hisamorous spoil.
　　'But ah, who ever shunned by precedent The destined ill she mustherself assay? Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content, To put the by-past perils in her way? Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay; Forwhen we rage, advice is often seen By blunting us to make our wills morekeen.
　　'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood That we must curb it uponothers' proof, To be forbod the sweets that seems so good For fear ofharms that preach in our behoof. O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!
　　The one a palate hath that needs will taste, Though Reason weep, and cryit is thy last.
　　'For further I could say this man's untrue, And knew the patterns ofhis foul beguiling; Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew; Sawhow deceits were gilded in his smiling; Knew vows were ever brokers todefiling; Thought characters and words merely but art, And bastards of hisfoul adulterate heart.
　　'And long upon these terms I held my city, Till thus he 'gan besiegeme: "Gentle maid, Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity, And benot of my holy vows afraid. That's to ye sworn to none was ever said; Forfeasts of love I have been called unto, Till now did ne'er invite nor neverwoo.
　　'"All my offences that abroad you see Are errors of the blood, none ofthe mind; Love made them not; with acture they may be, Where neitherparty is nor true nor kind. They sought their shame that so their shame didfind; And so much less of shame in me remains By how much of me theirreproach contains.
　　'"Among the many that mine eyes have seen, Not one whose flamemy heart so much as warmed, Or my affection put to th' smallest teen, Orany of my leisures ever charmed. Harm have I done to them, but ne'er washarmed; Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, And reigned commanding in his monarchy.
　　'"Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me, Of paled pearlsand rubies red as blood; Figuring that they their passions likewise lent meOf grief and blushes, aptly understood In bloodless white and theencrimsoned mood- Effects of terror and dear modesty, Encamped inhearts, but fighting outwardly.
　　'"And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, With twisted metalamorously empleached, I have receiv'd from many a several fair, Theirkind acceptance weepingly beseeched, With the annexions of fair gemsenriched, And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify Each stone's dearnature, worth, and quality.
　　'"The diamond? why, 'twas beautiful and hard, Whereto his invisedproperties did tend; The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard Weaksights their sickly radiance do amend; The heaven-hued sapphire and theopal blend With objects manifold; each several stone, With wit wellblazoned, smiled, or made some moan.
　　'"Lo, all these trophies of affections hot, Of pensived and subdueddesires the tender, Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not, But yieldthem up where I myself must render- That is, to you, my origin and ender;For these, of force, must your oblations be, Since I their altar, youenpatron me.
　　'"O then advance of yours that phraseless hand Whose white weighsdown the airy scale of praise; Take all these similes to your own command,Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise; What me your ministerfor you obeys Works under you; and to your audit comes Their distractparcels in combined sums.
　　'"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun, Or sister sanctified, ofholiest note, Which late her noble suit in court did shun, Whose raresthavings made the blossoms dote; For she was sought by spirits of richestcoat, But kept cold distance, and did thence remove To spend her living ineternal love.
　　'"But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave The thing we have not,mast'ring what not strives, Playing the place which did no form receive,Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves! She that her fame so to herself contrives, The scars of battle scapeth by the flight, And makes herabsence valiant, not her might.
　　'"O pardon me in that my boast is true! The accident which broughtme to her eye Upon the moment did her force subdue, And now she wouldthe caged cloister fly. Religious love put out religion's eye. Not to betempted, would she be immured, And now to tempt all liberty procured.
　　'"How mighty then you are, O hear me tell! The broken bosoms thatto me belong Have emptied all their fountains in my well, And mine I pouryour ocean all among. I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,Must for your victory us all congest, As compound love to physic yourcold breast.
　　'"My parts had pow'r to charm a sacred nun, Who, disciplined, ay,dieted in grace, Believed her eyes when they t'assail begun, All vows andconsecrations giving place, O most potential love, vow, bond, nor space,In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, For thou art all, and all thingselse are thine.
　　'"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth Of stale example?
Chapter 4
　　When thou wilt inflame, How coldly those impediments stand forth, Ofwealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame! Love's arms are peace, 'gainstrule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame. And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs itbears, The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.
　　'"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, Feeling it break, withbleeding groans they pine, And supplicant their sighs to your extend, Toleave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine, Lending soft audience to mysweet design, And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath, That shallprefer and undertake my troth."'This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount, Whose sights till thenwere levelled on my face; Each cheek a river running from a fount Withbrinish current downward flowed apace. O, how the channel to the streamgave grace! Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses That flamethrough water which their hue encloses.
　　'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies In the small orb of oneparticular tear! But with the inundation of the eyes What rocky heart towater will not wear? What breast so cold that is not warmed here? O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath, Both fire from hence and chill extincturehath.
　　'For lo, his passion, but an art of craft, Even there resolved my reasoninto tears; There my white stole of chastity I daffed, Shook off my soberguards and civil fears; Appear to him as he to me appears, All melting;though our drops this diff'rence bore: His poisoned me, and mine did himrestore.
　　'In him a plenitude of subtle matter, Applied to cautels, all strangeforms receives, Of burning blushes or of weeping water, Or swooningpaleness; and he takes and leaves, In either's aptness, as it best deceives,To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes, Or to turn white and swoon attragic shows;'That not a heart which in his level came Could scape the hail of hisall-hurting aim, Showing fair nature is both kind and tame; And, veiled inthem, did win whom he would maim. Against the thing he sought hewould exclaim; When he most burned in heart-wished luxury, He preachedpure maid and praised cold chastity.
　　'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace The naked and concealedfiend he covered, That th' unexperient gave the tempter place, Which, likea cherubin, above them hovered. Who, young and simple, would not be solovered? Ay me, I fell, and yet do question make What I should do againfor such a sake.
　　'O, that infected moisture of his eye, O, that false fire which in hischeek so glowed, O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly, O, that sadbreath his spongy lungs bestowed, O, all that borrowed motion, seemingowed, Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed, And new pervert areconciled maid.'
　　THE END