Love nee're his standard, when his hoste he sets,
Creates alone fresh-bleeding bannerets.
III.
Alex. But part we, when thy figure I retaine
Still in my heart, still
strongly in mine eye?
Lu. Shadowes no longer than the sun remaine,
But his beams, that made 'em, fly, they fly.
Cho. Vaine dreames of love! that only so much blisse
Allow us, as to know our wretchednesse;
And deale a larger
measure in our paine
By showing joy, then hiding it againe.
IV.
Alex. No,
whilst light raigns, LUCASTA still rules here,
And all the night shines wholy in this sphere.
Lu. I know no morne but my ALEXIS ray,
To my dark thoughts the breaking of the day.
Chorus.
Alex. So in each other if the pitying sun
Thus keep us fixt, nere may his course be run!
Lu. And oh! if night us undivided make;
Let us sleepe still, and
sleeping never wake!
The close.
Cruel ADIEUS may well adjourne
awhileThe sessions of a looke, a kisse, or smile,
And leave behinde an angry grieving blush;
But time nor fate can part us joyned thus.
<22.1> i.e. the poet himself.
<22.2> "John Gamble,
apprentice to Ambrose Beyland, a noted
musician, was afterwards
musician at one of the playhouses;
from
thence removed to be a cornet in the King's Chapel.
After that he became one in Charles the Second's band of violins,
and
composed for the theatres. He published AYRES AND DIALOGUES
TO THE THEORBO AND BASS VIOL, fol. Lond., 1659."--Hawkins.
SONNET.
SET BY MR. WILLIAM LAWES.
I.
When I by thy faire shape did sweare,
And mingled with each vowe a teare,
I lov'd, I lov'd thee best,
I swore as I profest.
For all the while you lasted warme and pure,
My oathes too did endure.
But once turn'd faithlesse to thy selfe and old,
They then with thee incessantly<23.1> grew cold.
II.
I swore my selfe thy sacrifice
By th' ebon bowes<23.2> that guard thine eyes,
Which now are alter'd white,
And by the
glorious light
Of both those stars, which of<23.3> their spheres bereft,
Only the gellie's left.
Then changed thus, no more I'm bound to you,
Then swearing to a saint that proves untrue.
<23.1> i.e. at once, immediately.
<23.2> Her eyebrows.
<23.3> Original reads OF WHICH.
LUCASTA WEEPING.
SONG.
SET BY MR. JOHN LANEERE.
I.
Lucasta wept, and still the bright
Inamour'd god of day,
With his soft handkercher of light,
Kist the wet pearles away.
II.
But when her teares his heate or'ecame,
In cloudes he quensht his beames,
And griev'd, wept out his eye of flame,
So drowned her sad streames.
III.<24.1>
At this she smiled, when straight the sun
Cleer'd by her kinde desires;
And by her eyes reflexion
Fast kindl'd there his fires.
<24.1> This
stanza is not found in the printed copy of LUCASTA,
1649, but it occurs in a MS. of this poem written, with many
compositions by Lovelace and other poets, in a copy of Crashaw's
POEMS, 1648, 12mo, a
portion of which having been formed of the
printer's proof-sheets, some of the pages are printed only on one
side, the
reverse being covered with MSS. poems, among the rest
with epigrams by MR. THOMAS FULLER (about fifty in number). There
can be little doubt, from the
character of the majority of these
little poems, that by "Mr. Thomas Fuller" we may understand the
church-historian.
TO LUCASTA. FROM PRISON
AN EPODE.<25.1>
I.
Long in thy shackels, liberty
I ask not from these walls, but thee;
Left for
awhile anothers bride,
To fancy all the world beside.
II.
Yet e're I doe begin to love,
See, how I all my objects prove;
Then my free soule to that confine,
'Twere possible I might call mine.
III.
First I would be in love with PEACE,
And her rich swelling breasts increase;
But how, alas! how may that be,
Despising earth, she will love me?
IV.
Faine would I be in love with WAR,
As my deare just avenging star;
But War is lov'd so ev'rywhere,
Ev'n he disdaines a
lodging here.
V.
Thee and thy wounds I would bemoane,
Faire thorough-shot RELIGION;
But he lives only that kills thee,
And who so bindes thy hands, is free.
VI.
I would love a PARLIAMENT
As a maine prop from Heav'n sent;
But ah! who's he, that would be wedded
To th' fairest body that's beheaded?
VII.
Next would I court my LIBERTY,
And then my birth-right, PROPERTY;
But can that be, when it is knowne,
There's nothing you can call your owne?
VIII.
A REFORMATION I would have,
As for our griefes a SOV'RAIGNE salve;
That is, a cleansing of each wheele
Of state, that yet some rust doth feele.
IX.
But not a reformation so,
As to reforme were to ore'throw,
Like watches by unskilfull men
Disjoynted, and set ill againe.
X.
The PUBLICK FAITH<25.2> I would adore,
But she is banke-rupt of her store:
Nor how to trust her can I see,
For she that couzens all, must me.
XI.
Since then none of these can be
Fit objects for my love and me;
What then remaines, but th' only spring
Of all our loves and joyes, the King?
XII.
He who, being the whole ball
Of day on earth, lends it to all;
When seeking to ecclipse his right,
Blinded we stand in our owne light.
XIII.
And now an universall mist
Of error is spread or'e each breast,
With such a fury edg'd as is
Not found in th' inwards of th' abysse.
XIV.
Oh, from thy
gloriousstarry waine
Dispense on me one
sacred beame,
To light me where I soone may see
How to serve you, and you trust me!
<25.1> This was written, perhaps, during the poet's confinement
in Peterhouse, to which he was committed a prisoner on his return
from
abroad in 1648. At the date of its
composition, there can be
little doubt, from expressions in
stanzas vi. and xii. that the
fortunes of Charles I. were at their lowest ebb, and it may be
assigned without much risk of error to the end of 1648.
<25.2> "The publick faith? why 'tis a word of kin,
A
nephew that dares COZEN any sin;
A term of art, great BEHOMOTH'S younger brother,
Old MACHAVIEL and half a thousand other;
Which, when subscrib'd, writes LEGION, names on truss,
ABADDON, BELZEBUB, and INCUBUS."
Cleaveland's POEMS, ed. 1669, p. 91.
LUCASTA'S FANNE, WITH A LOOKING-GLASSE IN IT.<26.1>
I.
Eastrich!<26.2> thou featherd foole, and easie prey,
That larger sailes to thy broad vessell needst;
Snakes through thy guttur-neck hisse all the day,
Then on thy iron messe at supper feedst.<26.3>
II.
O what a
glorious transmigration
From this to so
divine an edifice
Hast thou straight made! heere<26.4> from a
winged stone
Transform'd into a bird of paradice!
III.
Now doe thy plumes for hiew and
luster vie
With th' arch of heav'n that triumphs or'e past wet,
And in a rich enamel'd
pinion lye
With saphyres, amethists and opalls set.
IV.
Sometime they wing her side,<26.5>
strive to drown
The day's eyes
piercing beames, whose am'rous heat
Sollicites still, 'till with this
shield of downe
From her brave face his glowing fires are beat.
V.
But
whilst a plumy curtaine she doth draw,
A chrystall mirror sparkles in thy breast,
In which her fresh
aspect when as she saw,
And then her foe<26.6>
retired to the west.
VI.
Deare engine, that oth' sun got'st me the day,
'Spite of his hot assaults mad'st him retreat!
No wind (said she) dare with thee
henceforth play
But mine own
breath to coole the tyrants heat.
VII.