Watch, or did make the bed;
'Tis omen full of dread:

But all fair signs appear

Within the chamber here:

Juno here far off doth stand,

Cooling sleep with charming wand.

Virgins, weep not; 'twill come when,
As she, so you'll be ripe for men :

Then grieve her not with saying,
She must no more a Maying,
Or by rose-buds divine
Who'll be her valentine;

Nor name those wanton rakes,
You've had at barleybrakes:

But now kiss her; and thus say,
Take time, lady, while ye may.

Now bar the doors, the bridegroom puts*
The eager boys to gather nuts :+

And now both love and time
To their full height do climb:

Let kisses, in their close,
Breath as the damask rose:
Teach nature now to know,

Lips can make cherries grow

Sooner, than she ever yet

In her wisdom could beget.||

* Claudiste ostia virgines.

Idem.

†The ceremony of throwing nuts at a wedding, which boys scrambled for, was of Athenian origin. Besides Catullus, Virgil and many other classic writers mention the custom; hence nucibus relictis became proverbial, for the renouncing of childhood. See Persius. Sat, 1. ver. 10.

The last six lines of this stanza are arranged differently from what they are in the original, for very proper reasons.

On your minutes, hours, days, months, years,
Drop the fat blessing of the spheres!

That good, which heav'n can give,
To make you bravely live,
Fall, like a spangling dew,
By day and night on you!
May fortune's lily hand
Open at your command;
With all the lucky birds, to side
With the bridegroom and the bride!

Let bounteous fate your spindles full
Fill, and wind up with whitest wool;
Let them not cut the thread
Of life, until ye bid!

May death yet come at last,
And not with desp❜rate haste;
But when ye both can say,
Come, let us now away!

Be ye to the barn then borne
Two, like two ripe shocks of corn!

XLIX.

LOVE PERFUMES ALL PARTS.

IF I kiss Anthea's breast,
There I smell the phoenix' nest;
If her lip, the most sincere
Altar of incense I smell there;

* Fingers, hands, and arms are all
Richly aromatical:

Goddess Isis can't transfer

Musks and ambers more from her ;

Nor can Juno sweeter be,

When she lies with Jove, than she.

* In this line it was thought better to deviate a little from the original.

L.

THE CRUEL MAID.

AND, cruel maid, because I see
You scornful of my love and me,
I'll trouble you no more; but go
My way, where you shall never know
What is become of me; there I
Will find me out a path to die,
Or learn some way how to forget
You, and your name, for ever: yet
Ere I go hence, know this from me,
What will in time your fortune be;
This to your coyness I will tell,
And having spoke it once, farewell!
The lily will not long endure,
Nor the snow continue pure;

The rose, the violet one day
See; both these lady-flow'rs decay;
And you must fade as well as they:
And, it may chance that love may turn,
And, like to mine, make your heart burn,
And weep to see't; yet this thing do,
That my last vow commends to you;

When you shall see that I am dead,
For pity let a tear be shed;
And, with your mantle o'er me cast,
Give my cold lips a kiss at last :
If twice you kiss, you need not fear
That I shall stir, or live more here:
Next hollow out a tomb to cover
Me, me, the most despised lover

And write thereon: "this, reader, know, *Love kill'd this man." No more but so.

LI.

TO DIANEME.

SWEET, be not proud of those two eyes, Which star-like sparkle in their skies; Nor be you proud, that you can see All hearts your captives, your's yet free; Be you not proud of that rich hair, Which wantons with the love-sick air; When as that ruby which you wear, Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, Will last to be a precious stone, When all your world of beauty's gone,

LII.

HIS MISERY IN A MISTRESS.

WATER, water I espy!

Come, and cool ye, all who fry
In your love; but none as I.

Though a thousand showers be
Still a falling, yet I see
Not one drop to light on me.

Happy you, who can have seas
For to quench ye, or some ease
From your kinder mistresses!

* Huic misero fatum dura puella fuit. PROPERT: Eleg. 1. Lib. 2. ver. ult.

I have one, and she alone,

Of a thousand thousand known,
Dead to all compassion.

Such an one, as will repeat

Both the cause, and make the heat
More by provocation great.

Gentle friends, though I despair
Of my cure, do you beware
Of those girls which cruel are.

LIII.

TO A GENTLEWOMAN OBJECTING TO HIM HIS GREY HAIRS.

Am I despis'd, because you say,
And I dare swear, that I am grey?

Know, lady, you have but your day;
And time will come, when you shall wear
Such frost and snow upon your hair.

And when, though long, it comes to pass,
You question with your looking-glass,

And in that sincere crystal seek,

But find no rose-bud in your cheek,
Nor any bed to give the shew

Where such a rare carnation grew;

Ah! then too late, close in your chamber keeping, It will be told

That you are old,

By those true tears y'are weeping.