Part 42

If shaddowes be the pictures excellence; And make it seeme more lively to the sence; If starres in the bright day are hid from sight And shine most glorious in the masque of night; Why should you thinke (rare creature) that you lack 5 Perfection cause your haire and eyes are blacke, Or that your heavenly beauty which exceedes The new sprung lillies in their mayden weeds, The damaske coullour of your cheekes and lipps Should suffer by their darknesse an eclipps? 10 Rich diamonds shine brightest, being sett And compassed within a foyle of Jett. Nor was it fitt that Nature should have mayde So bright a sunne to shine without a shade. It seemes that Nature when she first did fancie 15 Your rare composure studied Necromancie, That when to you this guift she did impart She used altogether the black art. By which infused power from Magique tooke You doe command all spiritts with a looke: 20 Shee drew those Magique circles in your eyes, And mayde your hayre the chaines wherewith shee ties Rebelling hearts: those blew veines which appeare, Winding Meander about either spheare, Misterious figures are, and when you list 25 Your voice commandeth like the Exorcist, And every word which from your Pallett falleth In a deep charme your hearer's heart inthralleth. Oh! If in Magique you have skill so farre, Vouchsafe me to be your familiar. 30 Nor hath kind Nature her black art reveal'd To outward partes alone, some lie conceal'd, And as by heads of springs men often knowe The nature of the streames that run belowe, So your black haire and eyes do give direction 35 To make me thinke the rest of like complexion: That rest where all rest lies that blesseth Man, That Indian mine, that straight of Magellan, That worlde dividing gulfe where he that venters, With swelling sayles and ravisht senses enters 40 To a new world of blisse. Pardon, I pray, If my rude muse presumeth to display Secretts unknowne, or hath her bounds orepast In praysing sweetnesse which I ne're did tast; Sterved men doe know there's meate, and blind men may 45 Though hid from light presume there is a day. The rover in the marke his arrowe sticks Sometimes as well as he that shootes att prickes, And if I might direct my shaft aright, The black mark would I hitt and not the white. 50

[On Black Hayre and Eyes _Add. MS. 11811, on which text is based: in several MSS. including A25, TCD (II), L77: printed in Parnassus Biceps (1656), Pembroke and Ruddier's Poems (1660), Simeon (1856-7), Grosart, and Chambers_]

[2 it _A2I_, _H60_, _TCD_: them _A11_: things _L77_]

[4 shine _H39_, _TCD_: seem _A11_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]

[8 mayden weeds,] maidenheads, _H39_, _TCD_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]

[9 The damasque coullor of] That cherry colour of _H39_, _TCD_: Or that the cherries of _Some MSS._]

[12 compassed ] compos'd _A11_

foyle] field _Chambers_]

[19 tooke] book _Grosart and Chambers_]

[20 all spiritts] like spirits _Grosart and Chambers_]

[25 figures] fables _A11_]

[26 commandeth] commands _A11_]

[29 you have skill _L77_, _TCD_, _&c._: your power _A11_: you have power _Grosart and Chambers_]

[33 For (And) as by the springhead a man may (men often) know _L77_, _TCD_, _and other MSS._]

[34 streame ... runs _L77_, _&c._]

[44 did] shall _TCD and other MSS._]

[47 sticks] strikes _Grosart and Chambers_]

[49 direct _L77_, _TCD_, _&c._: ayme _A11_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]

_Fragment of an Elegy._

And though thy glasse a burning one become And turne us both to ashes on her urne, Yet to our glory till the later day Our dust shall daunce like attomes in her ray. And when the world shall in confusion burne, 5 And Kinges and peasantes scramble at an urne, Like tapers new blowne out wee happy then Will at her beames catch fire and live againe. But this is sence, and some one may-be glad That I so good a cause of sorrow had, 10 Will with all those whome I affect may dye So I might please him with an elegie. O let there never line of witt be read To please the living that doth speake thee dead; Some tender-harted mother good and mild, 15 Who on the deare grave of her tender child So many sad teares hath beene knowne to rayne As out of dust would mould him up againe, And with hir plaintes enforce the wormes to place Themselves like veynes so neatly on his face, 20 And every lymne, as if that they wer striving To flatter hir with hope of his reviving: Shee should read this, and hir true teares alone Should coppy forth these sad lines on the stone Which hides thee dead, and every gentle hart 25 That passeth by should of his teares impart So great a portion, that if after times Ruine more churches for the Clergyes crimes, When any shall remove thy marble hence, Which is lesse stone then hee that takes it thence, 30 Thou shalt appeare within thy tearefull cell Much like a faire nymph bathing in a well. But when they find thee dead so lovely fair, Pitty and sorrow then shall straight repaire And weepe beside thy grave with cipresse cround, 35 To see the secound world of beauty dround, And add sufficient teares as they condole 'Twould make thy body swimme up to thy soule. Such eyes should read the lines are writ of thee; But such a losse should have no elegie 40 To palliate the wound wee tooke in hir, Who rightly greeves admittes no comforter. He that had tane to heart thy parting hence Should have beene chain'd to Bedlam two houres thence, And not a frind of his ere shed a teare 45 To see him for thy sake distracted there, But hugge himselfe for loving such as hee That could runne mad with greefe for loosing thee. I, haplesse soule, that never knew a frend But to bewayle his too untimely end, 50 Whose hopes (cropt in the bud) have never come But to sitt weeping on a sencelesse tombe, That hides not dust enough to count the teares Which I have fruitlesse spent in so few yeares, I that have trusted those that would have given 55 For our deare Saviour and the Sonne of heaven Ten times the valew Judas had of yore, Onely to sell him for three peeces more; I that have lov'd and trusted thus in vaine Yet weepe for thee, and till the clowdes shall daigne 60 To throw on Egipt more then Nile ere sweld, These teares of mine shalbee unparellell'd. He that hath lov'd, enjoy'd, and then beene crost, Hath teares at will to mourne for what he lost; He that hath trusted and his hope appeares 65 Wrong'd but by death may soone dissolve in teares; But hee unhappy man whose love and trust Nere met fruition nor a promise just, For him (unlesse like thee hee deadly slepe) 'Tis easier to runn mad then 'tis to weepe; 70 And yet I can. Fall then yee mournefull showers, And as old time leades on the winged howers, Bee you their minutes, and let men forgett To count their ages from the plague of sweat, From eighty eight, the Poulder-plot, or when 75 Men were affrayd to talke of it againe; And in their numerations be it sayd Thus old was I when such a teare was shed, And when that other fell a comett rose And all the world tooke notice of my woes. 80 Yet finding them past cure, as doctores fly Their patientes past all hope of remedy, No charitable soule will once impart One word of comfort to so sicke a heart; But as a hurt deare beaten from the heard, 85 Men of my shadow allmost now affeard Fly from my woes, that whilome wont to greet mee, And well nigh thinke it ominous to meete mee. Sad lines go yee abroad; go saddest muse, And as some nations formerly did use 90 To lay their sicke men in the street, that those, Who of the same disease had scapt the throwes, Might minister releefe as they went by To such as felt the selfsame malady, So haplesse lynes fly through the fairest land, 95 And if ye light into some blessed hand, That hath a heart as merry as the shine Of golden dayes, yet wrong'd as much as mine, Pitty may lead that happy man to mee, And his experience worke a remedy 100 To those sad fittes which (spight of nature's lawes) Torture a poore hart that out-lives the cause. But this must never bee, nor is it fitt An ague or some sickenes lesse then itt Should glory in the death of such as hee, 105 That had a heart of flesh and valued thee. Brave Roman, I admire thee that would'st dy At no lesse rate then for an empery. Some massy diamond from the center drawne, For which all Europ wer an equall pawne, 110 Should (beaten into dust) bee drunke by him That wanted courage good enough to swimme Through seas of woes for thee, and much despise To meet with death at any lower prize, Whilst greefe alone workes that effect in mee, 115 And yet no greefe but for the losse of thee. Fortune now doe thy worst, for I have gott By this her death so strong an antidote, That all thy future crosses shall not have More then an angry smile, nor shall the grave 120 Glory in my last day: these lines shall give To us a second life, and we will live To pull the distaffe from the hand of fate; And spinn our own thrides for so long a date, That death shall never seize uppon our fame 125 Till this shall perish in the whole world's frame.

[Fragment of an Elegy. _From_ _P_, _where it appears as portion of an 'heroical epistle' from Lady Penelope Rich to Sir Philip Sidney_: _punctuation Ed._]

<_Farewel, ye guilded follies._>

Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles, Farewel ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles; Fame's but a hollow echo, gold pure clay, Honour the darling but of one short day. Beauty (th'eyes idol) but a damasked skin, 5 State but a golden prison, to keepe in And torture free-born minds; imbroidered trains Meerly but Pageants, proudly swelling vains, And blood ally'd to greatness, is a loane Inherited, not purchased, not our own. 10 Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood and birth, Are but the fading blossomes of the earth.

I would be great, but that the Sun doth still Level his rayes against the rising hill: I would be high, but see the proudest Oak 15 Most subject to the rending Thunder-stroke; I would be rich, but see men too unkind Dig in the bowels of the richest mine; I would be wise, but that I often see The Fox suspected whilst the Ass goes free; 20 I would be fair, but see the fair and proud Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud; I would be poor, but know the humble grass Still trampled on by each unworthy Asse: Rich, hated; wise, suspected; scorn'd, if poor; 25 Great, fear'd; fair, tempted; high, stil envied more: I have wish'd all, but now I wish for neither, Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair, poor I'l be rather.

Would the world now adopt me for her heir, Would beauties Queen entitle me the Fair, 30 Fame speak me fortune's Minion, could I vie Angels with India, with a speaking eye Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike Justice dumb As wel as blind and lame, or give a tongue To stones, by Epitaphs, be called great Master 35 In the loose rhimes of every Poetaster; Could I be more then any man that lives, Great, fair, rich, wise in all Superlatives; Yet I more freely would these gifts resign Then ever fortune would have made them mine, 40 And hold one minute of this holy leasure, Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure.

Welcom pure thoughts, welcom ye silent groves, These guests, these Courts, my soul most dearly loves, Now the wing'd people of the Skie shall sing 45 My cheerful Anthems to the gladsome Spring; A Pray'r book now shall be my looking-glasse, Wherein I will adore sweet vertues face. Here dwell no hateful looks, no Pallace cares, No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears, 50 Then here I'l sit and sigh my hot loves folly, And learn t'affect an holy melancholy. And if contentment be a stranger, then I'l nere look for it, but in heaven again.

[<Farewell, Ye Guilded Follies.> _Ed_: _variously titled, Add. MS. 18220, C.C.C. Oxon. MS. 324, Egerton MS. 2603, Harleian MS. 6057: printed in Walton's Compleat Angler (1653), Wits Interpreter (1655) Hannah's Courtly Poets: Grosart prints from MS. Dd. 643 in Cambridge University Library, and Chambers follows--a very inferior version: text from Walton_]

[2 ye glorious] ye christal _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: the christall _WI_]

[6 keepe _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: live _Walton_]

[8 proudly] proud _Walton_]

[9 a loane _Ed_: a lone _Walton_: but loane _MSS._]

[18 mine _E26_, _CCC_: mind _Walton_, _A182_, _H60_, _WI_: minds _Grosart and Chambers_]

[19-20

I would be wise but that the fox I see Suspected guilty when the Ass goes free

_A182_, _E26_, _H60_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]

[21-2

I would be fair, but see that Champion proud The bright sun often setting in a cloud

_WI and MSS._, _but with The worlds bright eye or fair eye_]

[31-2

could I vie Angels with India,

_Walton_, _A182_, _E26_, _H60_

could I joy The blisse of angells, _CCC_

could I vie (vey _Grosart_) The blisse of angells, _Grosart and Chambers_ ]

[43 ye silent groves, _Walton_: the silent Groves, _WI_: ye careless groves, _H60_: the careless grove, _CCC_: ye careless groans, _Grosart and Chambers_]

[44 These are the courts my soul entire loves, _A182_: These are my guests, this is the court I love, _CCC_: These are my guests, this is that courtage tones, _Grosart and Chambers_: the court age loves, _Ash 38_]

[46 My Anthem; be my Selah gentle Spring. _A182_: Mine anthems; be my cellar, gentle spring. _Grosart and Chambers_]

[48 wherein] In which _Walton_]

[49-50

Here dwells no hartlesse Love, no palsey fears, No short joys purchased with eternal tears.

_A182_, _H60_]

[51 hot loves _Walton_: hot youths _H60_: past years _A182_]

[53 be] prove _A182_]

* * * * *

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.

_The poems marked * are contained in Appendixes B and C of doubtful or unauthentic poems. Those marked ± are poems to or on Donne._

PAGE

A Sheafe of Snakes used heretofore to be 399 *Absence heare my protestation 428 After those reverend papers, whose soule is 214 All haile sweet Poët, more full of more strong fire, 203 ±All is not well when such a one as I 374 All Kings, and all their favorites 24 Although thy hand and faith, and good workes too, 82 *And though thy glasse a burning one become 462 As due by many titles I resigne 322 As the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still 90 As virtuous men passe mildly away 49 At once, from hence, my lines and I depart, 206 At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow 325 Away thou fondling motley humorist, 145

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you 328 Before I sigh my last gaspe, let me breath, 56 *Beleeve yo^{r} Glasse, and if it tell you (Deare) 455 Beyond th'old Pillers many have travailed 76 Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with teares 28 Blest are your North parts, for all this long time 213 Both rob'd of aire, we both lye in one ground, 75 Busie old foole, unruly Sunne, 11 By childrens births, and death, I am become 75 *By Euphrates flowry side 424 By miracles exceeding power of man, 320 By our first strange and fatall interview, 111

±Can we not force from widdowed Poetry, 378 *Chast Love, let mee embrace thee in mine armes 445 *Come, Fates; I feare you not. All whom I owe 407 Come live with mee, and bee my love, 46 Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defie, 119 *Comend her? no. I dare not terme her fayre, 439 Compassion in the world againe is bred: 78 ±_Conquerar? ignavoque sequar tua funera planctu?_ 390 *Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse 446

*Deare Love, continue nice and chaste, 412 Deare love, for nothing lesse then thee 37 Death be not proud, though some have called thee 326 *Death be not proud, thy hand gave not this blow, 422 Death I recant, and say, unsaid by mee 282 Deigne at my hands this crowne of prayer and praise, 318 ±_Donne_ dead? 'Tis here reported true, though I 386 ±Donne, _the delight of Phoebus, and each Muse_, 5

Eternall God, (for whom who ever dare 348 Even as lame things thirst their perfection, so 208

Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love 447 Faire, great, and good, since seeing you, wee see 224 Faire soule, which wast, not onely, as all soules bee, 271 *Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles, 465 Father of Heaven, and him, by whom 338 Father, part of his double interest 329 Fond woman, which would'st have thy husband die, 79 For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now 13 For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love 14 For the first twenty yeares, since yesterday, 69 *Fye, Fye you sonnes of Pallas what madd rage 435

God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine, 400 Goe, and catche a falling starre, 8 *Goe and Count her better howres 451 Good wee must love, and must hate ill, 32 *Greate and goode if she deryde mee 452 *Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art 448

Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is, 127 Harke newes, o envy, thou shalt heare descry'd 104 Hast thee harsh verse, as fast as thy lame measure 205 He is starke mad, who ever sayes, 48 He that cannot chuse but love, 73 ±Hee that would write an Epitaph for thee, 374 *He was the Word that spake it, 427 Her of your name, whose fair inheritance 317 ±_Heere lies Deane Donne_; Enough; Those words alone 388 Here's no more newes, then vertue,'I may as well 187 Here take my Picture; though I bid farewell, 86 Here where by All All Saints invoked are, 221 Honour is so sublime perfection, 218 How sits this citie, late most populous, 354

I am a little world made cunningly 324 I am two fooles, I know, 16 I am unable, yonder begger cries, 76 I can love both faire and browne, 12 ±I cannot blame those men, that knew thee well, 373 I fixe mine eye on thine, and there 45 I have done one braver thing 10 I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe 29 I long to talke with some old lovers ghost, 54 I never stoop'd so low, as they 66 I scarce beleeve my love to be so pure 33 ±I see in his last preach'd, and printed Booke, 3 I sing no harme good sooth to any wight, 105 I sing the progresse of a deathlesse soule, 295 *I that y^{e} higher half of loues 440 I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I 7 If, as mine is, thy life a slumber be, 209 If faithfull soules be alike glorifi'd 325 *If great men wrong me, I will spare my selfe; 415 *If her disdaine least change in you can move, 430 If in his Studie he hath so much care 77 If poysonous mineralls, and if that tree, 326 *If shaddowes be the pictures excellence; 460 If yet I have not all thy love, 17 If you from spoyle of th'old worlds farthest end 76 Image of her whom I love, more then she, 95 Immensitie cloysterd in thy deare wombe, 319 *In that, ô Queene of Queenes, thy birth was free 427 ±_In thy Impression of_ Donnes _Poems rare_, 3 In what torn ship soever I embarke, 352 ±Is _Donne_, great _Donne_ deceas'd? then England say 376 Is not thy sacred hunger of science 212

Kinde pitty chokes my spleene; brave scorn forbids 154 Kindly I envy thy songs perfection 210 _Klockius_ so deeply hath sworne, ne'r more to come 77

Language thou art too narrow, and too weake 284 Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this, 336 Let me powre forth 38 Like Esops fellow-slaves, O _Mercury_, 78 Like one who'in her third widdowhood doth professe 185 Little think'st thou, poore flower, 59 ±Long since this taske of teares from you was due, 394 Looke to mee faith, and looke to my faith, God; 267 _Love_, any devill else but you, 34 *Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes 450 *Love if a god thou art, 448 ±_Lucy_, you brightnesse of our Spheare, who are, 6