"The one a palate hath that needs will taste, Though reason weep, and cry it is thy last.

66

"For further I could say, this man's untrue, "And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;13 "Heard where his plants in others' orchards

grew,

"Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling; "Knew vows were ever brokers 14 to defiling;

66

Thought, characters, and words, merely but art "And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.

"And long upon these terms I held my city, "Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid, "Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity, "And be not of my holy vows afraid ·

"That's to you sworn, to none was ever said; "For feasts of love I have been call'd unto, "Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow.

"All my offences that abroad you see, "Are errors of the blood, none of the mind; "Love made them not; with acture 15 they may be,

"Where neither party is nor true nor kind:

66

They sought their shame that so their shame did find;

13 patterns of his foul beguiling] i. e. the examples of his seduction." MALONE.

14 brokers] i. e. pandars. 15 acture] i. e. action.

"And so much less of shame in me remains,

66

66

By how much of me their reproach contains.

Among the many that mine eyes have seen, "Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd, "Or my affection put to the smallest teen,16 "Or any of my leisures ever charm'd:

66

"Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harm'd; Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, "And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.

"Look here what tributes wounded fancies17 sent

me,

"Of paled pearls, and rubies red as blood;

Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me "Of grief and blushes, aptly understood

"In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood; Effects of terror and dear modesty,

66

66

Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

"And lo! behold these talents of their hair, 18 "With twisted metal amorously impleach'd, 19 "I have receiv'd from many a several fair, "(Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,) "With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,

16 teen] i. e. grief.

17 fancies] See note 10, p. 235.

18 talents of their hair, &c.] i. e." lockets, consisting of hair platted and set in gold." MALONE.

19 impleach'd] i. e. interwoven.

R

"And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
"Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

"The diamond; why 'twas beautiful and hard, "Whereto his invis'd20 properties did tend; "The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard "Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; "The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend "With objects manifold; each several stone, "With wit well blazon'd, smil'd or made some

moan.

"Lo! all these trophies of affections hot, Of pensiv'd and subdued desires the tender, "Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not, "But yield them 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, you enpatron me.

"O then advance of yours that phraseless hand, "Whose white weighs down the airy scale of

praise;

"Take all these similes to your own command,
"Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise:
"What me your minister, for you obeys,
"Works under you; and to your audit comes
"Their distract parcels in combined sums.

"Lo! this device was sent me from a nun, "Or sister sanctified of holiest note; "Which late her noble suit 21 in court did shun, "Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote ;22 "For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,23 "But kept cold distance, and did thence remove, "To spend her living in eternal love.

"But O, my sweet, what labour is't to leave "The thing we have not, mastering what not strives?

24

"Paling the place which did no form receive,

66

Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves : "She that her fame so to herself contrives, "The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight, "And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

“O pardon me, in that my boast is true ;
"The accident which brought me to her eye,

"Whose

22 Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote] accomplishments were so extraordinary, that the flower of the young nobility were passionately enamoured of her." MALONE. It may be doubted, however, if "havings" is not used here in its usual sense of fortune, estate, and not in that of accomplishments.

23 coat] i. e. coat of arms.

24 Paling, &c.] "i. e. securing within the pale of a cloister, that heart which had never received the impression of love.” MALONE-Who altered the corrupt reading of the old copy, "Playing" to " Paling."

"And now she would the caged cloister fly :
"Religious love put out religion's eye:
"Not to be tempted, would she be immur'd,
"And now, to tempt all, liberty procur'd.

"How mighty then you are, O hear me tell! "The broken bosoms that to me belong, "Have emptied all their fountains in my well, "And mine I pour your 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 physick your cold breast.

66

My parts had power to charm a sacred sun, "Who disciplin'd and dieted 25 in grace, "Believ'd her eyes when they to assail begun, "All vows and consecrations giving place.

O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space, "In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, "For thou art all, and all things else are

thine.

When thou impressest, what are precepts worth "Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame, "How coldly those impediments stand forth

66

Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame?

25 and dieted] The emendation of an anonymous correspondent adopted by Malone, for the reading of the old copy, "I died "