The Repulse.
Not that by this disdain
I am releas’d,
And, freed from thy romantic[37:1] chain,
Do I myself think blest;
Not that thy flame shall burn5
No more; for know
That I shall into ashes turn
Before this fire doth so.
Nor yet that unconfin’d
I now may rove,10
And with new beauties please my mind;
But that thou ne’er didst love!
For since thou hast no part
Felt of this flame,
I only from thy tyrant heart15
Repuls’d, not banish’d, am.
To lose what once was mine
Would grieve me more
Than those inconstant sweets of thine
Had pleas’d my soul before.20
Now I’ve not lost that[37:2] bliss
I ne’er possessed;
And, spite of Fate, am blest in this:
That I was never blest.
Song.
Celinda, by what potent art
Or unresisted charm,
Dost thou thine ear and frozen heart
Against my passion arm?
Or by what hidden influence5
Of powers in one combin’d,
Dost thou rob Love of either sense,
Made deaf as well as blind?
Sure thou as friends[38:1] united hast
Two distant deities,10
And scorn within thy heart hast plac’d,
And love within thine eyes;
Or those soft fetters of thy hair,
(A bondage that disdains
All liberty,) do guard thine ear15
Free from all other chains.
Then my complaint how canst thou hear,
Or I this passion fly,
Since thou imprison’d hast thine ear,
And not confin’d thine eye?20
The Tomb.
When, cruel fair one, I am slain
By thy disdain,
And as a trophy of thy scorn
To some old tomb am borne,
Thy fetters must their power bequeath5
To those of Death;
Nor can thy flame immortal burn
Like monumental fires within an urn.
Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove
There is more liberty in Death than Love.10
And when forsaken lovers come
To see my tomb,
Take heed thou mix not with the crowd,
And, as a victor, proud
To view the spoils thy beauty made,15
Press near my shade!
Lest thy too cruel breath, or name,
Should fan my ashes back into a flame.
And thou, devour’d by this revengeful fire,
His sacrifice, who died as thine, expire.20
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[39:1]
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Or should my dust thy pity move
That could not, love,
Thy sighs might wake me, and thy tears
Renew my life and years;
Or should thy proud insulting scorn25
Laugh at my urn,
Kindly deceiv’d by thy disdain,
I might be smil’d into new life again.
Then come not near: since both thy love and hate
Have equal power to kill[39:2] or animate.30
But if cold earth or marble must
Conceal my dust,
Whilst, hid in some dark ruins, I
Dumb and forgotten lie,
The pride of all thy victory35
Will sleep with me;
And they who should attest thy glory
Will or forget, or not believe this story.
Then, to increase thy triumph, let me rest,
(Since by thine eye slain,) buried in thy breast!40
To Celia.
PLEADING WANT OF MERIT.[40:1]
Dear, urge no more the killing cause
Of our divorce:
Love is not fetter’d by such laws,
Nor bows to any force.
Though thou deniest I should be thine,5
Yet say not thou deserv’st not to be mine!
Oh, rather frown away my breath
With thy disdain,
Or flatter me with smiles to death;
By joy or sorrow slain,10
’Tis less crime to be kill’d by thee,
Than I thus cause of mine[40:2] own death should be.
Thyself of beauty to divest,
And me of love,
Or from the worth of thine own breast15
Thus to detract, would prove
In us a blindness, and in thee
At best a sacrilegious modesty.
But, Celia,[40:3] if thou wilt despise
What all admire,20
Nor rate thyself at the just price
Of beauty or desire,
Yet meet my flames! and thou shalt see
That equal love knows no disparity.
The Kiss.[41:1]
When on thy lip my soul I breathe,
Which there meets thine,
Freed from their fetters by this death,
Our subtle forms[41:2] combine:
Thus without bonds of sense they move,5
And like two cherubim converse by[41:3] love.
Spirits to chains of earth confin’d
Discourse by sense;
But ours, that are by flames refin’d,
With those weak ties dispense.10
Let such in words their minds display:
We in a kiss our mutual thoughts convey.[41:4]
But since my soul from me doth fly,
To thee retir’d,
Thou canst not both retain; for I15
Must be with one inspir’d;
Then, Dearest,[41:5] either justly mine
Restore, or in exchange let me have thine.
Yet if thou dost return mine own,
O tak’t again!20
For ’tis this pleasing death alone
Gives ease unto my pain.
Kill me once more, or I shall find
Thy pity than thy cruelty less kind.
The Snowball.
Doris, I that could repel
All those darts about thee dwell,
And had wisely learn’d to fear
’Cause I saw a foe so near;
I that my deaf ear did arm5
’Gainst thy voice’s powerful charm;
And the lightning of thine eye
Durst, by closing mine, defy;
Cannot this cold snow withstand
From the winter[42:1] of thy hand.10
Thy deceit hath thus done more
Than thy open force before:
For who could suspect or fear
Treason in a face so clear,
Or the hidden fires descry15
Wrapt in this cold outside lie?
Flames might thus, involv’d in ice,
The deceiv’d world sacrifice;
Nature, ignorant of this
Strange antiperistasis,20
Would her falling frame admire,
That by snow were set on fire!
Speaking and Kissing.
The air which thy smooth voice doth break
Into my soul like lightning flies;
My life retires whilst thou dost speak,
And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Lost in this pleasing ecstasy,5
I join my trembling lips to thine,
And back receive that life from thee,
Which I so gladly did resign.
Forbear, platonic fools! t’inquire
What numbers do the soul compose:10
No harmony can life inspire,
But that which from these accents flows.
The Deposition.[43:1]
Though when I lov’d thee thou wert[43:2] fair,
Thou art no longer so:
Those glories do[43:3] the pride they wear
Unto opinion owe.
Beauties, like stars, in borrow’d lustre shine;5
And ’twas my love that gave thee thine.
The flames that dwelt within thine eye
Do now with mine expire;
Thy brightest graces[43:4] fade and die
At once, with my desire.10
Love’s fires thus mutual influence return:
Thine cease to shine when mine to burn.
Then, proud Celinda, hope no more
To be implor’d or woo’d,
Since by thy scorn thou dost restore15
The wealth my[43:5] love bestow’d;
And thy despis’d disdain too late shall find
That none are fair but who are kind.
Love’s Heretic.
He whose active thoughts disdain
To be captive to one foe,
And would break his single chain,
Or else more would undergo,
Let him learn the art of me,5
By new bondage to be free!
What tyrannic mistress dare
To one beauty Love confine?
Who, unbounded as the air,
All may court, but none decline.10
Why should we the heart deny
As many objects as the eye?
Wheresoe’er I turn or move,
A new passion doth detain me:
Those kind beauties that do love,15
Or those proud ones that disdain me.
This frown melts, and that smile burns me;
This to tears, that, ashes, turns me.
Soft fresh virgins not full-blown
With their youthful sweetness take me;20
Sober matrons that have known,
Long since, what these prove, awake me;
Here, staid coldness I admire,
There, the lively active fire.
She that doth by skill dispense25
Every favour she bestows,
Or the harmless innocence
Which nor court nor city knows;—
Both alike my soul inflame,
That wild beauty, and this tame.30
She that wisely can adorn
Nature with the wealth of Art,
Or whose rural sweets do scorn
Borrow’d helps to[44:1] take a heart;—
The vain care of that’s my pleasure;35
Poverty of this, my treasure.
Both the wanton and the coy
Me with equal pleasure[44:2] move;
She whom I by force enjoy,
Or who forceth me to love:40
This, because she’ll not confess,
That, not hide, her happiness.
She whose loosely flowing hair,
(Scatter’d like the beams o’ th’ morn.)
Playing with the sportive air,45
Hides the sweets it doth adorn,
Captive in that net restrains me,
In those golden fetters chains me;
Nor doth she with power less bright
My divided heart invade,50
Whose soft tresses spread, like night,
O’er her shoulders a black shade;
For the starlight of her eyes
Brighter shines through those dark skies.
Black, or fair, or tall, or low,55
I alike with all can sport,
The bold sprightly Thaïs woo,
Or the frozen vestal court:
Every beauty takes my mind,
Tied to all, to none confin’d.60
La Belle Confidante.
You earthly souls that court a wanton flame,
Whose pale weak influence
Can rise no higher than the humble name
And narrow laws of sense!
Learn by our friendship to create5
An immaterial fire,
Whose brightness angels may admire
But cannot emulate.
Sickness may fright the roses from her cheek,
Or make the lilies fade,10
But all the subtle ways that Death doth seek
Cannot my love invade.
Flames that are kindled by the eye
Through time and age expire,
But ours, that boast a reach far higher,15
Cannot decay or die.[45:1]
For[45:2] when we must resign our vital breath,
Our loves by Fate benighted,[45:3]
We by this friendship shall survive in death,
Even in divorce united:20
Weak love, through fortune or distrust,
In time forgets to burn,
But this pursues us to the urn,
And marries either’s dust.
La Belle Ennemie.
I yield, dear enemy, nor know
How to resist so fair a foe.
Who would not thy soft yoke sustain,
And bow beneath thy easy chain,
That with a bondage blest might be5
Which far transcends all liberty?
But since I freely have resign’d,
At first assault, my willing mind,
Insult not o’er my captiv’d heart
With too much tyranny and art,10
Lest by thy scorn thou lose the prize
Gain’d by the power of thy bright eyes;
And thou this conquest thus shalt prove,
Though got by beauty, kept by love.
Love Deposed.
You that unto your mistress’ eyes
Your hearts do sacrifice,
And offer sighs or tears at Love’s rich shrine,
Renounce with me
Th’ idolatry,5
Nor this infernal power esteem divine!
The brand, the quiver, and the bow,
Which we did first bestow,
And he as tribute wears from every lover,
I back again10
From him have ta’en,
And the impostor now unveil’d discover.
I can the feeble Child disarm,
Untie his mystic charm,
Divest him of his wings, and break his arrow;15
We will obey
No more his sway,
Nor live confin’d to laws or bounds so narrow
And you, bright Beauties, that inspire
The Boy’s pale torch with fire,20
We safely now your subtle power despise,
And unscorch’d may,
Like atoms, play
And wanton in the sunshine of your eyes.
Nor think hereafter by new arts25
You can bewitch our hearts,
Or raise this devil by your pleasing charm:
We will no more
His power implore,
Unless, like Indians, that he do no harm.30
The Divorce.
Dear, back my wounded heart restore,
And turn away thy powerful eyes;
Flatter my willing soul no more:
Love must not[46:1] hope what Fate denies.
Take, take away thy smiles and kisses!5
Thy love wounds deeper than disdain;
For he that sees the heaven he misses,
Sustains two hells of loss and pain.
Shouldst thou some other’s suit prefer,
I might return thy scorn to thee,10
And learn apostasy of her
Who taught me, first, idolatry.[46:2]
Or in thy unrelenting breast
Should I[46:3] disdain or coyness move,
He by thy hate might be releas’d,15
Who now is prisoner to thy love.
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[46:4]
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Since, then, unkind Fate will divorce
Those whom affection long united,
Be thou as cruel as this force,
And I in death shall be delighted.20
Thus whilst so many suppliants woo,
And beg they may thy pity prove,
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[46:5]
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I only for thy scorn do sue:
’Tis charity here not to love.
The Bracelet.
Rebellious fools that scorn to bow
Beneath Love’s easy sway,
Whose stubborn wills no laws allow,
Disdaining to obey,
Mark but this wreath of hair, and you shall see5
None that might wear such fetters would be free.
I once could boast a soul like you,
As unconfin’d as air;
But mine, which force could not subdue,
Was caught within this snare;10
And by myself betray’d, I for this gold
Have to mine enemy my freedom sold.[47:1]
No longer now, wise Art, inquire,
(With this vain search delighted,)
How souls that human[47:2] breasts inspire15
Are to their frames united:
Material chains such spirits well may bind,
When this soft braid can tie both arm and mind.
Now, Beauties, I defy your charm,
Rul’d by more powerful art:20
This mystic wreath which crowns my arm
Defends my vanquish’d heart;[47:3]
And I, subdu’d by one more fair, shall be
Secur’d from conquest by captivity.
The Farewell.
Since Fate commands me hence, and I
Must leave my soul with thee, and die,
Dear, spare one sigh, or else let fall
A tear to crown my funeral,
That I may tell my grieved heart5
Thou art unwilling we should part;
And martyrs that embrace the fire
Shall with less joy than I expire.
With this last kiss I will bequeath
My soul, transfus’d into thy breath,10
Whose active heat shall gently slide
Into thy breast, and there reside,
And may, (in spite of Fate thus blest,)
Be, in this death, of heaven possess’d.[48:1]
Then prove but kind; and thou shalt see15
Love hath more power than Destiny.
The Exchange: Dialogue.[49:1]
Phil[ocharis].
That kiss which last thou gav’st me, stole
My fainting life away;
Yet, though to thy breast fled, my soul
Still in mine own doth stay.
Weak Nature no such power doth know:5
Love only can these wonders show.
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[49:2]
|
Char[iessa].
And with the same warm breath did mine
Into thy bosom slide,
There dwell, contracted unto thine,
Yet still with me reside.10
Weak Nature no such power doth know:
Love only can these wonders show.
Chor[us].
Both souls thus in desire are one,
And each is two in skill,
Doubled in intellect alone,15
United in the will.
Weak Nature no such power doth know:
Love only can these wonders show.
The Exequies.
Draw near,
You lovers, that complain
Of Fortune or Disdain,
And to my ashes lend a tear.
Melt the hard marble with your groans,5
And soften the relentless stones,
Whose cold embraces the sad subject hide
Of all Love’s cruelties, and Beauty’s pride.
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[50:1]
|
No verse,
No epicedium, bring;10
Nor peaceful requiem sing,
To charm the terrors of my hearse;
No profane numbers must flow near
The sacred silence that dwells here.
Vast griefs are dumb: softly, oh softly mourn!15
Lest you disturb the peace attends my urn.
Yet strew
Upon my dismal grave
Such offerings as you have:
Forsaken cypress, and sad yew;20
For kinder flowers can take no birth
Or growth from such unhappy earth.
Weep only o’er my dust, and say: “Here lies
To Love and Fate an equal sacrifice.”
The Silkworm.
The[51:1] silkworm, to long sleep retir’d,
The early year hath re-inspir’d,
Who now to pay to thee prepares
The tribute of her pleasing cares;
And hastens with industrious toil5
To make her ornament thy spoil.[51:2]
See with what pains[51:3] she spins for thee
The thread of her own destiny,
Then, (growing proud in death, to know
That all her curious labours thou[51:4]10
Wilt, as in triumph, deign to wear!)
Retires to her soft sepulchre.
Such, Dearest, is that hapless state
To which I am design’d by Fate,
Who, by thee willingly o’ercome,15
Work mine own fetters and my tomb.
Ambition.
I must no longer now admire
The coldness which possess’d
Thy snowy breast,
That can by other flames be set on fire;
Poor Love, to harsh Disdain betray’d,5
Is by Ambition thus outweigh’d.
Hadst thou but known the vast extent
Of constant faith, how far
’Bove all that are
Born slaves to wealth, or honours’ vain ascent;[52:1]10
No richer treasure couldst thou find
Than hearts with mutual chains combin’d.
But Love is too despis’d a name,
And must not hope to rise
Above these ties.15
Honours[52:2] and wealth outshine his paler flame!
These unite souls, whilst true desire
Unpitied dies in its own fire.
Yet, cruel fair one, I did aim
With no less justice too,20
Than those that sue
For other hopes, and thy proud fortunes claim.
Wealth honours, honours wealth, approve;
But Beauty’s only meant for Love.
Song.
When, dearest Beauty, thou shalt pay
Thy faith and my vain hope away
To some dull soul that cannot know
The worth of that thou dost bestow;
Lest[53:1] with my sighs and tears I might5
Disturb thy unconfin’d delight,
To some dark shade I will retire,
And there, forgot by all, expire.
Thus, whilst the difference thou shalt prove
Betwixt a feign’d and real love,10
Whilst he, more happy, but less true,
Shall reap those joys I did pursue,
And with those pleasures crowned be
By Fate, which Love design’d for me,
Then thou perhaps thyself wilt find15
Cruel too long, or too soon kind.
Song.
I will not trust thy tempting graces,
Or thy deceitful charms,
Nor prisoner be to thy embraces,
Or fetter’d in thy arms;
No, Celia, no: not all thy art5
Can wound or captivate my heart.
I will not gaze upon thy eyes,
Or wanton with thy hair,
Lest those should burn me by surprise,
Or these my soul ensnare;10
Nor with those smiling dangers play,
Or fool my liberty away.
Since, then, my wary heart is free
And unconfin’d as thine,
If thou wouldst mine should captiv’d[54:1] be,15
Thou must thine own resign;
And gratitude may thus move more
Than love or beauty could before.
Song.
No, I will sooner trust the wind,
When, falsely kind,
It courts the pregnant sails into a storm,
And when the smiling waves persuade,
Be willingly betray’d,5
Than thy deceitful vows or form.
Go, and beguile some easy heart
With thy vain art;
Thy smiles and kisses on those fools bestow
Who only see the calms that sleep10
On this smooth flattering deep,
But not the hidden dangers know.
They that, like me, thy falsehood prove,
Will scorn thy love,
Some may, deceiv’d at first, adore thy shrine;15
But he that as thy sacrifice
Doth willingly fall twice,
Dies his own martyr, and not thine.