First then, it never fhall a Hope advance, Of waiting on you, but by seeming chance; I at a diffance will adore your Eyes,
As awful Perfians do the Eastern Skies;
I never will prefume to think of Sex,
Nor with grofs Thoughts my deathless Love
perplex;
I tread a pleasant Path without Defign;
And to thy Care my Happiness refign;
From Heaven it felf thy Beauty cannot be
A freer Gift, than is my Love to thee.
CELIA
You tell me, Celia, you approve,
Yet never muft return my Love:
An Anfwer that my Hope deftroys,
And in the Cradle wounds our Joys;
To kill at once what needs muft die,
None would to Birds and Beaft deny.
How can you then fo Cruel prove,
As to preferve, and torture Love?
That Beauty Nature kindly meant
For her own Pride, and our Content;
Why fhou'd the Tyrant Honour make
Qur cruel undeferved Wrack?
In Love and War th' Impoftor do's
The Beft to greateft Harms expofe :
Come then, my Celia, let's no more
This Devil for a God adore;
Like foolish Indians we have been,
Whose whole Religion is a Sin:
Let's lofe no Time then but repent,
Love welcomes best a Penitent.
"Herfis, I wish, as well as you,
To Honour there were nothing due; Then would I pay my Debt of Love In the fame Coin that you approve; Which now you muft in Friendship take, "Tis all the Payment I can make; Friendship fo high, that I must say, 'Tis rather Love, with fome Allay; And reft contented, fince that I As well my self as you deny. Learn then of me, bravely to bear, The want of what you hold most dear; And that which Honour does in me, Let my Example work in thee.
AMARANTA
Whom he fell in love with at à
Play-house.
Air Amaranta on the Stage, whilst you
Pitty'd a feigned Love, yougave a true;
The Hopes and Fears, in every Scene exprest,
Grew foon th' uneafie Motions of my Breaft.
I thought to fteal the innocent Delight,
And not have paid my Heart for a first Sight.
And if I ventur'd on fome flight Difcourfe,
It fhould be fuch as could no Paffion nurse :
Led by the treacherous Luftre of your Eyes,
At laft I play'd too near the Precipice;
Love came difguis'd in Wonder and Delight,
His Bow unbent, his Arrows out of fight;
Your Words fell on my Paffion, like thofe
Showers,
Which paint and multiply the rifing Flowers;
Like Cupid's felf, a God, and yet a Child,
Your Looks at once were awful, and yet mild:
Methoughts
Methoughts you blush'd, as conscious of my Flame,
Whilst your strict Vertue did your Beauty blame :
But reft fecure, y'are from the Guilt as free As Saints ador'd from our Idolatry.
H! Pardon, Madam; if I ever thought
Your smallest Favours could too dear
be bought;
And the juft Greatness of your Servants Flame,
I did the Poornefs of the Spirits name;
Calling their long Attendance Slavery,
Your Power of Life and Death flat Tyranny;
Since now I yield, and do confefs there is
No way too hard that leads to fuch a Blifs.
So when Hippomanes beheld the Race,
Where Lofs was Death, and Conqueft but a
Face,
He stood amazed at the fatal ftrife,
Wondring that Love fhou'd dearer be thanLife; But when he saw the Prize no longer staid, But through those very Dangers fought the Maid,
And won her too: O may his Conquest prove,
A happy Omen to my purer Love;
Which if the Honour of all Victory,
In the Refistance of the vanquifht lie,
Though it may be the leaft regarded Prize,
Is not the smallest Trophy of our Eyes.
Devout Yonng Gentlewoman.
Hillis, this early Zeal affwage,
You over-act your part;
The Martyrs, at your tender Age,
Gave Heaven but half their Heart.
Old Men (till paft the Pleasure) ne'er
Declaim against the Sin;
'Tis early to begin to fear
The Devil at Fifteen.
The World to Youth is too fevere,
And, like a Treacherous Light,
Beauty, the Actions of the Fair,
Exposes to their fight.
And yet this World, as old as 'tis,
Is oft deceiv'd by't too ;
Kind Combinations feldom mifs,
Let's try what we can do."
C 2
|