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ANSWER.

NATURE foreseeing how men would devise
More wiles than Proteus, women to entice,
Granted them two, and those bright-shining eyes,
To pierce into man's faults if they were wise;
For they with shew of virtue mask their vice:
Therefore to women's eyes belong* these gifts,
The one must love, the other see men's shifts.

Both these await upon one simple heart,
And what they choose, it hides up without change.
The emerald will not with his portrait part,
Nor will a woman's thoughts delight to range;
They hold it bad to have so base exchange: [him,
One heart, one friend, though that two eyes do choose
No more but one, and heart will never lose him.

AN ODE.

WHAT is love once disgrac'd,
But a wanton thought ill plac'd?
Which doth blemish whom it paineth,
And dishonours whom it deigneth;
Seen in higher powers most,
Though some fools do fondly boast,
That whoso is high of kin

Sanctifies his lover's sin.

Jove could not hide Io's scape,
Nor conceal Calisto's rape:

Both did fault, and both were fram'd
Light of loves, whom lust had sham'd.
Let not women trust to men ;

They can flatter now and then,

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And tell them many wanton tales,
Which do breed their after bales.
Sin in kings is sin, we see,

And greater sin, 'cause great of 'gree :
Majus peccatum, this I read,

If he be high that doth the deed.
Mars, for all his deity,

Could not Venus dignify,

But Vulcan trapp'd her, and her blame
Was punish'd with an open shame :
All the gods laugh'd them to scorn
For dubbing Vulcan with the horn.
Whereon may a woman boast,
If her chastity be lost?
Shame await'th upon her face,
Blushing cheeks and foul disgrace:
Report will blab, this is she
That with her lust wins infamy.
If lusting love be so disgrac'd,
Die before you live unchaste;
For better die with honest fame,

Than lead a wanton life with shame.

FROM THE SECOND PART OF MAMILLIA.

(ED. 1593.)

VERSES AGAINST THE GENTLEWOMEN
OF SICILIA.

SINCE lady mild, too base in array, hath liv'd as an exile,
None of account but stout: if plain, stale slut, not a

courtress.

Dames now a days, fie none, if not new guised in all points.

Fancies fine, sauced with conceits, quick wits very wily, Words of a saint, but deeds guess how, feign'd faith to deceive men,

Courtsies coy, no vail,* but a vaunt, trickt up like a Tuscan,

Pac'd in print, brave lofty looks, not us'd with the vestals,

In hearts too glorious, not a glance but fit for an

empress,

As minds most valorous, so strange in array, marry,

stately.

Up fro the waist like a man, new guise to be cas'd in a doublet,

Down to the foot perhaps like a maid, but hos'd to the kneestead,

Some close breech'd to the crotch for cold, tush, peace 'tis a shame, sir.

Hairs by birth as black as jet; what? art can amend them;

A perriwig frounc'd fast to the front, or curl'd with a bodkin,

Hats fro France, thick pearled for pride and plum'd like a peacock,

Ruffs of a size, stiff-starch'd to the neck, of lawn, marry,

lawless,

Gowns of silk; why those be too bad, side wide with a witness,

Small and gent i' the waist, but backs as broad as a

burgess,

Needless noughts, as crisps and scarfs, worn a la

morisco,

Fum'd with sweets, as sweet as chaste, no want but abundance.

vail] i. e. (I suppose) mark of recognition: to "vail (i. e. lower) the bonnet," was a common expression. See also note § p. 228. The 4to. "vale."

308

FROM THE ORPHARION,

(1599.)

ORPHEUS' SONG.

HE that did sing the motions of the stars,
Pale-colour'd Phoebe's borrowing of her light,
Aspects of planets oft oppos'd in jars,

Of Hesper, henchman to the day and night; Sings now of love, as taught by proof to sing, Women are false, and love a bitter thing.

I lov'd Eurydice, the brightest lass,

More fond to like so fair a nymph as she; In Thessaly so bright none ever was,

But fair and constant hardly may agree: False-hearted wife to him that lov'd thee well, To leave thy love, and choose the prince of hell!

Theseus did help, and I in haste did hie

To Pluto, for the lass I loved so:

The god made grant, and who so glad as I?
I tun'd my harp, and she and I 'gan go;
Glad that my love was left to me alone,
I looked back, Eurydice was gone:

She slipp'd aside, back to her latest love,

Unkind, she wrong'd her first and truest feere!
Thus women's loves delight, § as trial proves
By false Eurydice I lov'd so dear,

To change and fleet, and every way to shrink,
To take in love, and lose it with a wink.

* Phoebe's] The 4to. " Phœbus."

+ fond] i. e. foolish, simple.

feere] Or pheere,-see note* vol. i. p. 111.

$ delight] The 4to. " delights."

THE SONG OF ARION.

SEATED upon the crooked dolphin's back,
Scudding amidst the purple-colour'd waves,
Gazing aloof for land; Neptune in black,
Attended with the Tritons as his slaves,
Threw forth such storms as made the air thick,
For grief his lady Thetis was so sick.

Such plaints he throbb'd, as made the dolphin stay:
Women, quoth he, are harbours of man's health,
Pleasures for night, and comforts for the day;

What are fair women but rich nature's wealth?
Thetis is such, and more if more may be;
Thetis is sick, then what may comfort me?

Women are sweets that salve men's sourest ills;
Women are saints, their virtues are so rare;
Obedient souls that seek to please men's wills;
Such love with faith, such jewels women are:
Thetis is such, and more if more may be;
Thetis is sick, then what may comfort me?

With that he div'd into the coral waves,
To see his love, with all his watery slaves:
The dolphin swam; yet this I learned then,
Fair women are rich jewels unto men.

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