La Belle Confidante.
You earthly souls that court a wanton flame,
Whose pale weak influence
Can rise no higher than the humble name
And narrow laws of sense!
Learn by our friendship to create5
An immaterial fire,
Whose brightness angels may admire
But cannot emulate.
Sickness may fright the roses from her cheek,
Or make the lilies fade,10
But all the subtle ways that Death doth seek
Cannot my love invade.
Flames that are kindled by the eye
Through time and age expire,
But ours, that boast a reach far higher,15
Cannot decay or die.[45:1]
For[45:2] when we must resign our vital breath,
Our loves by Fate benighted,[45:3]
We by this friendship shall survive in death,
Even in divorce united:20
Weak love, through fortune or distrust,
In time forgets to burn,
But this pursues us to the urn,
And marries either’s dust.
La Belle Ennemie.
I yield, dear enemy, nor know
How to resist so fair a foe.
Who would not thy soft yoke sustain,
And bow beneath thy easy chain,
That with a bondage blest might be5
Which far transcends all liberty?
But since I freely have resign’d,
At first assault, my willing mind,
Insult not o’er my captiv’d heart
With too much tyranny and art,10
Lest by thy scorn thou lose the prize
Gain’d by the power of thy bright eyes;
And thou this conquest thus shalt prove,
Though got by beauty, kept by love.