ODE.

THAT ONLY HER BEAUTY AND VOICE PLEASE HIM.

I.

PASSION may my judgment blear,
Therefore sure I will not swear

That others are not pleasing:

But, I speak it to my pain,

And

my life shall it maintain,

None else yields my heart easing.

II.

Ladies I do think there be

Other-some as fair as she,

Though none have fairer features;

But my turtle-like affection,

Since of her I made election,

Scorns other fairest creatures.

III.

Surely I will not deny

But some others reach as high

With their sweet warbling voices :

But since her notes charmed mine ear,

Even the sweetest tunes I hear,

To me seem rude harsh noises.

MADRIGALS.

TO CUPID.

LOVE, if a God thou art,

Then evermore thou must

Be merciful and just.

If thou be just, oh wherefore doth thy dart Wound mine alone, and not my Lady's heart?

If merciful, then why

Am I to pain reserv'd,

Who have thee truly serv'd;

While she that by thy power sets not a fly,
Laughs thee to scorn, and lives at liberty?

Then, if a God thou wilt accounted be,
Heal me like her, or else wound her like me.

. In liberty.edit. 1602.

P Wouldst. edit. 1602.

UPON HIS MISTRESS' SICKNESS, AND HIS OWN

HEALTH.

IN health and ease am I;

Yet, as I senseless were, it nought contents me.
You sick in pain do lie;

And, ah, your pain exceedingly torments me.
Whereof I can this only reason give,
That dead unto myself, in you I live.1

HE BEGS A KISS.

SORROW slowly killeth any,
Sudden joy soon murders many ;'

Then, sweet, if you would end me,

"Tis a fond course with ling'ring grief to spend me. For, quickly to dispatch me,

Your only way is, in your arms to catch me,
And give me dove-like kisses;

For such excessive and unlook'd-for blisses,
Will so much over-joy me,

As they will straight destroy me,

4 In the first edition the concluding lines are, "Whereof this only is the reason true,.

That dead unto myself I live in you."

"Sorrow seldom killeth any,

Sudden joy hath murder'd many."-edit. 1602.

S And give me a sweet kiss.-ibid.

UPON A KISS RECEIVED.

SINCE I your cherry lips did kiss,
Where nectar and ambrosia is,
My hungry maw no meat requires;
My thirsty throat no drink desires.
For by your breath which then I gained,
Camelion-like, my life's maintained.

O grant me then those cherries still,"
And let me feed on them my fill.
If by a surfeit death I get,
Upon my tomb let this be set:

By cherries twain his life he cherish'd,
By cherries twain at length he perish'd.*

t This Madrigal begins thus in the first Edition:
"Since your sweet cherry lip I kiss,

No want of food I once have mist;
My stomach now no meat requires,
My throat no drink at all requires."

u Then grant me, dear, those cherries still,

O let me feed &c.

The last lines are materially different in the first edition.

"Here lieth he whom cherries two

Made both to live, and love forego."

ODE.'

UPON HER PROTESTATION OF KIND AFFECTION,

HAVING TRIED HIS SINCERE FIDELITY.

I.

LADY, you are with beauties so enriched

Of body and of mind,

As I can hardly find,

Which of them all hath most my heart bewitched.

II.

Whether your skin so white, so smooth, so tender,
Or face well form'd and fair,

Or heart-ensnaring hair,'

Or dainty hand, or leg and foot so slender.

III.

Or whether your sharp wit and lively spirit,
Where pride can find no place:

Or your enchanting grace,a

Or speech, which doth true eloquence inherit.

y The title in the first edition is, "Upon her protesting that now having tried his sincere affection, she loved him.”

z Or face so lovely fair,

Long heart binding hair.-edit. 1602. a Or your most pleasing grace.-ibid.