CXX That you were once unkind, befriends me now, As I by your's, you have pass'd a hell of time; And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime. O that our night of woe might have remember'd My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd The humble salve which wounded bosom fits! But that your trespass now becomes a fee; Mine ransom your's, and your's must ransom me. CXXI. 'Tis better to be vile, than vile esteem'd, When not to be receives reproach of being, Which in their wills count bad what I think good? No, I am that I am and they that level At my abuses, reckon up their own: I may he straight, though they themselves be bevel; By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be Unless this general evil they maintain, [shown; All men are bad, and in their badness reign. CXXII. Thy gift, thy tables are within my brain Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd. CXXIII. No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Not wondering at the present nor the past; Made more or less by thy continual haste; This I do vow, and this shall ever be, I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee. CXXV. Were it aught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring, Or lay'd great bases for eternity, Which prove more short than waste or ruining? Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent, For compound sweet foregoing simple savour, Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent? No-let me be obsequious in thy heart, And take thou my oblation, poor but free, Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art, But mutual render, only me for thee. Hence, thou suborn'd informer! a true soul, When most impeach'd, stands least in thy control. CXXVI. O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour; Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow'st! If nature, sovereign mistress over wrack, As thou go'st onwards, still will pluck thee back, She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill May time disgrace, and wretched minutes kill. Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure; She may detain, but not still keep her treasure: Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be, And her quietus is to render thee. CXXVII. In the old age black was not counted fair, But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace. CXXVIII. How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st, To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, CXXIX. The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun : I love to hear her speak,-yet well I know [ground; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she bely'd with false compare. CXXXI. Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel; For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold, Thy face hath not the power to make love groan : To say they err, I dare not be so bold, Although I swear it to myself alone. And, to be sure that is not false I swear, A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face, One on another's neck, do witness bear Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place. In nothing art thou black, save in thy deeds, And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds. CXXXII. Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me, Better becomes the gray cheeks of the east, As those two mourning eyes become thy face: To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace, Then will I swear beauty herself is black, CXXXIII. Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan For that deep wound it gives my friend and me! Is't not enough to torture me alone, But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be? Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken, And my next self thou harder hast engross'd, Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken; A torment thrice three-fold thus to be cross'd. Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward, But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail; Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard; Thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol: And yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee, Perforce am thine, and all that is in me CXXXIV. So now I have confess'd that he is thine, Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still: Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use, And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake; So him I lose through my unkind abuse. Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me; He pays the whole, and yet I am not free. CXXXV. Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will, To thy sweet will making addition thus. Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious, Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine Shall will in others seem right gracious, And in my will no fair acceptance shine! The sea, all water, yet receives rain still, And in abundance addeth to his store; So thou, being rich in will, add to thy will One will of mine, to make thy large will more. Let no unkind, no fair beseeches kill; Think all but one, and me in that one Will. CXXXVI. If thy soul check thee that I come so near, Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy will And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there; Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet, fulfil. Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love, Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. In things of great receipt with ease we prove ; Among a number one is reckon'd none. Then in the number let me pass untold, Though in thy stores' account I one must be; For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold That nothing me, a something sweet to thee: Make but my name thy love, and love that still, And then thou lov'st me,-for my name is Will CXXXVII. Thou blind fool Love, what dost thou to mine eye Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride, CXXXVIII. [place? When my love swears that she is made of truth, On both sides thus is simple truth supprest. CXXXIX. O call not me to justify the wrong, CXL. Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press My tongue-tied patience with to much disdain ; Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express The manner of my pity-wanting pain. If I might teach thee wit, better it were, Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so ; (As testy sick men, when their deaths be near, No news but health from their physicians know :) For, if I should despair, I should grow mad, And in my madness might speak ill of thee: Now this ill-wresting world has grown so bad, Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. That I may not be so, nor thou bely'd, Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go CXLI. [wide. In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes, Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be: CXLII. Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving: O but with mine compare thou thine own state, And thou shalt find it merits not reproving; Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine, That have profaned their scarlet ornaments, If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, CXLIII. Lo, as a careful house-wife runs to catch One of her feather'd creatures broke away, Sets down her babe, and makes all swift dispatch, In pursuit of the thing she would have stay; Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase, Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent To follow that which flies before her face, Not prizing her poor infant's discontent; So run'st thou after that which flies from thee, Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind; But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me, And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind: So will I pray that thou may'st have thy Will, If thou turn back, and my loud crying still. CXLIV. Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still; The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman, colour'd ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend, Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another's hell. Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out. CXLV. Those lips that Love's own hand did make, Breathed forth the sound that said, I hate, To me that languish'd for her sake: But when she saw my woeful state, And taught it thus a-new to greet: CXLVI. Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array, Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more: So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men, And Death once dead, there's no more dying then. CXLVII. My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease; Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, And frantic-mad with ever-more unrest; My thoughts and my discourse, as mad men's are, At random from the truth vainly express'd; For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. CXLVIII. O me! what eyes hath love put in my head, Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no. The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears. O, cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind, Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find. CXLIX. Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not, When I, against myself, with thee partake? Do I not think on thee, when I forgot Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake? Who hateth thee that I do call my friend? On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon? Nay, if thou low'r'st on me, do I not spend Revenge upon myself with present moan? What merit do I in myself respect, That is so proud thy service to despise, When all my best doth worship thy defect, Commanded by the motion of thine eyes? But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind; Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind. CL. O from what power hast thou this powerful might, And swear that brightness doth not grace the day? That in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds? Who taught thee how to make me love thee more, The more I hear and see just cause of hate! O, though I love what others do abhor, With others thou should'st not abhor my state; If thy unworthiness raised love in me, More worthy I to be beloved of thee. CLI. Love is too young to know what conscience is; Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove. For thou betraying me, I do betray My nobler part to my gross body's treason; My soul doth tell my body that he may Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason; But rising at thy name, doth point out thee As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride, He is contented thy poor drudge to be, To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. No want of conscience hold it that I call Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall. CLII. In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing; In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn, In vowing new hate after new love bearing. But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee, When I break twenty? I am perjured most; For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee, And all my honest faith in thee is lost; For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness, Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy; And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness, Or made them swear against the thing they see, For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured I, To swear, against the truth, so foul a lie. CLIII. Cupid lay'd by his brand, and fell asleep : I sick withal, the help of bath desired, And thither hied, a sad distempered guest, But found no cure; the bath for my help lies Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes. CLIV. The little love-god lying once asleep, Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep, Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand The fairest votary took up that fire Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd; And so the general of hot desire Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd. This brand she quenched in a cool well by, Which from love's fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and helpful remedy For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall, Came here for cure, and this by that I prove, Love's fire heats water, water cools not love. DID not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. My vow was breath, and breath a vapour is; Then, thou fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: If broken, then it is no fault of mine. If by me broke, what fool is not so wise To break an oath, to win a paradise? II. Sweet Cytherea, sitting by a brook, With young Adonis, lovely, fresh, and green, She show'd him favours to allure his eye; IV. Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn, A longing tarriance for Adonis made, A brook, where Adon used to cool his spleen. Hot was the day; she hotter that did look For his approach, that often there had been. And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim; V. "Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle, Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty; Her lips to mine how often hath she joined, Dreading my love, the loss whereof still fearing! She burnt out love, as soon as straw out burneth; VI. "If music and sweet poetry agree, As they must needs, the sister and the brother, Whenas himself to singing he betakes. VII. Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love, Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove, For Adon's sake, a youngster proud and wild; Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds; Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar, VIII. "Sweet rose,fair flower,untimely pluck'd, soon faded, IX. Fair Venus with Adonis sitting by her, [me;" Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him: And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure. |