Counsel.
When deceitful lovers lay
At thy feet their suppliant hearts,
And their snares spread to betray
Thy best treasure[22:1] with their arts,
Credit not their flatt’ring vows:5
Love such perjury allows.
When they with the[22:2] choicest wealth
Nature boasts of, have possess’d thee;
When with flowers (their verses’ stealth),
Stars, or jewels they invest thee,[22:3]10
Trust not to their borrow’d store:
’Tis but lent to make thee poor.
When with poems[22:4] they invade thee,
Sing thy praises or disdain;
When they weep, and would persuade thee15
That their flames beget that rain;
Let thy breast no baits let in:
Mercy’s only here a sin!
Let no tears or offerings move thee,
All those cunning charms avoid;20
For that wealth for which they love thee,
They would slight if once enjoy’d.
|
Guard thy unrelenting mind! None are cruel but the kind. | } | [22:5] |
Expostulation with Love, in Despair.
|
Love! what tyrannic laws must they obey Who bow beneath thy uncontrolled sway! Or how unjust will that harsh empire prove Forbids to hope and yet commands to love! | } | [23:1] |
Must all are to thy hell condemn’d sustain5
A double torture of despair and pain?
Is’t not enough vainly to hope and woo,
That thou shouldst thus deny that vain hope too?
It were some joy,[23:2] Ixion-like, to fold
The empty air, or feed on thoughts as cold;[23:3]10
But if thou to my passion this deny,
Thou may’st be starv’d to death as well as I;
For how can thy pale sickly flame burn clear
When death and cold despair inhabit here?[23:4]
Then let thy dim heat warm, or else expire;[23:5]15
Dissolve this frost, or let that quench the[23:6] fire.
Thus let me not desire, or else possess!
Neither, or both, are equal happiness.[23:7]