764. UPON HIS KINSWOMAN, MRS. M. S.
Here lies a virgin, and as sweet
As e'er was wrapt in winding sheet.
Her name if next you would have known,
The marble speaks it, Mary Stone:
Who dying in her blooming years,
This stone for name's sake melts to tears.
If, fragrant virgins, you'll but keep
A fast, while jets and marbles weep,
And praying, strew some roses on her,
You'll do my niece abundant honour.
765. FELICITY KNOWS NO FENCE.
Of both our fortunes good and bad we find
Prosperity more searching of the mind:
Felicity flies o'er the wall and fence,
While misery keeps in with patience.
766. DEATH ENDS ALL WOE.
Time is the bound of things; where'er we go
Fate gives a meeting, Death's the end of woe.
767. A CONJURATION TO ELECTRA.
By those soft tods of wool
With which the air is full;
By all those tinctures there,
That paint the hemisphere;
By dews and drizzling rain
That swell the golden grain;
By all those sweets that be
I' th' flowery nunnery;
By silent nights, and the
Three forms of Hecate;
By all aspects that bless
The sober sorceress,
While juice she strains, and pith
To make her philters with;
By time that hastens on
Things to perfection;
And by yourself, the best
Conjurement of the rest:
O my Electra! be
In love with none, but me.
Tods of wool, literally, tod of wool=twenty-eight pounds, here used of the fleecy clouds.
Tinctures, colours.
Three forms of Hecate, the Diva triformis of Hor. Od. iii. 22. Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, Persephone in the world below.
Aspects, i.e., of the planets.