But thou art resolute; thy will be done;
Yet with such anguish as her only son
The mother in the hungry grave doth lay,
Unto the fire these martyrs I betray..
Good souls! (for you give life to every thing)
Good angels! (for good messages you bring)
Destin'd you might have been to such an one
As would have loy'd and worshipp'd you alone;
One that would suffer hunger, nakedness,
Yea, death, ere he would make your nun ber less.
But I am guilty of your sad decay:

May your few fellows longer with me stay.

But, oh! thou wretched finder, whom I hate
So, that I almost pity thy estate,
Gold being the heaviest metal amongst all,
May my most heavy curse upon thee fall:

Here fetter'd, manacled, and hang'd in chains,

First may'st thou be; then chain'd to hellish pains;

Or be with foreign gold brib'd to betray

Thy country, and fail both of it and thy pay.
May the next thing thou stoop'st to reach contain
Poison, whose nimble fume rot thy moist brain; 109
Or libels, or some interdicted thing,

Which, negligently kept, thy ruin bring

Lust-bred diseases rot thee; and dwell with thee.
Itching desire, and no ability,

May all the evils that gold ever wrought,
All mischiefs that all devils ever thought,

Want after plenty, poor and gouty age,
The plague of travailers, love and marriage,
Afflict thee; and at thy life's last moment
May thy swoln sins themselves to thee present.
But I forgive: repent, thou honest man!!
Gold is restorative, restore it then;
But if that from it thou be'st loth to part,
Because 'tis cordial, would 'twere at thy heart.

ELEGY XIII.

COME, Fates! I fear you not: all whom I owe
Are paid but you: then 'rest me ere I gò.

But Chance from you all sovereignty hath got ;

A

Love wounded none but those whom Death dares not: True if you were and just in equity;

I should have varquish'd her as you did me,

Else lovers should not brave death's pains and live:
But 'tis a rule, Death comes not to relieve:
Or pale and wan death's terrors, are they laid
So deep in lovers they make Death afraid?
Or (the least comfort) have I company?
Or can the Fates love death as well as me?
Yes, Fates do silk unto her distaff pay
For ransome, which tax they on us do lay.
Love gives her youth, which is the reason why

Youths, for her sake, some wither and some die.

Poor Death can nothing give; yet for her sake
Still in her turn he doth a lover take:

And if Death should prove false she fears him not;
Our Muses to redeem her she hath got.

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That fatal night we last kiss'd I thus pray'd,
(Or rather thus despair'd,' I should have said)
Kisses, and yet despair. The forbid tree
Did promise (and deceive) no more than she:
Like lambs that see their teats and must eat hay,
"A food whose taste hath made me pine away.
Dives, when thou saw'st bliss, and crav'dst to touch
A drop of water, thy great pains were such.
Here grief wants a fresh wit, for mine being spent,
And my sighs weary, groans are all my rent.
Unable longer to endure the pain,

They break like thunder, and do bring down rain.
Thus till dry tears solder mine eyes I weep,
And then I dream how you securely sleep,.
And in your dreams do laugh at me. I hate,
And pray Love all may: he pities my state,
But says I therein no revenge shall find;

The sun would shine tho' all the world were blind.
Yet, to try my hate, Love shew'd me your tear,
And I had dy'd had not your smile been there.
Your frown undoes me; your smile is my wealth,
And as you please to look I have my health.
Methought Love pitying me, when he saw this,
Gave me your hands, the backs and palms to kiss:

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That cur'd me not, but to bear pain gave strength, đờ And what is lost in force is took in length. pit of 10 I call'd on Love again, who fear'd you so,

That his compassion still prov'd greater woe; vaT
For then I'dream'd I was in bed with you,

But durst not feel, for fear 't should not be true. 150.
This merits not our anger, had it been;
The queen of Chastity was naked seen:
And in bed not to feel the pain I took
Was more than for Actæon not to look;

And that breast, which lay ope, I did not know,
But for the clearness, from a lump of snow.

ELEGY XIV.

HIS PARTING FROM HER.

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SINCE she must go and I must mourn, come, Night!

Environ me with darkness whilst I write;

Shadow that hell unto me which alone

I am to suffer when my love is gone.
Alas! the darkest magic cannot do it,

And that great hell to boot are shadows to it.
Should Cynthia quit thee, Venus !, and each star,"
It would n
not form one thought dark as mine are;
I could lend them obscureness now, and say
Out of myself: there should be no more day :
Such is already myself-want of sight,

Did not the fire within me force a light.

Oh, Love that fire and darkness should be mixt,
Or to thy triumphs such strange torments fixt!
Is 't because thou thyself art blind, that we,
Thy martyrs, must no more each other see?
Or tak'st thou pride to break us on thy wheel,
And view old Chaos in the pains we feel?
Or have we left undone some mutual right,
That thus with parting thou seek'st us to spight? 20
No, no: the fault is mine; impute it to me,
Or rather to conspiring Destiny,

Which (since I lov'd) for me before decreed
That I should suffer when I lov'd indeed;
And therefore sooner now than I can say
I saw the golden fruit 'tis wrapt away:

Or as I had watch'd one drop in the vast stream,
And I left wealthy only in a dream.

Yet, Love! thou 'rt blinder than thyself in this,
To vexy dove-like friend for my amiss,

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And where one sad truth may expiate", Tum ipful,
Thy wrath, to make her fortune run my fate."
So blinded Justice doth, when favourites fall,
Strike them, their house, their friends, their favourites,
Was 't not enough that thou didst dart thy fires [all.
Into our bloods, inflaming our desires,

And mad'st us sigh, and blow, and pant, and burn,
And then thyself into our flames didst turn?
Was t not enough that thou didst hazard us
To paths in love so dark and dangerous,"

T