From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.
To his Mistress desirous to go to Bed.
SLEEPY, my dear? yes, yes, I see
Morpheus is fallen in love with thee;
Morpheus, my worst of rivals, tries
To draw the curtains of thine eyes,
And fans them with his wing asleep;
Makes drowsy love to play bopeep.
How prettily his feathers blow
Those fleshy shuttings to and fro!
O how he makes me Tantalise
With those fair apples of thine eyes!
Equivocates and cheats me still,
Opening and shutting at his will,
Now both, now one! the doting god
Plays with thine eyes at even or odd.
My stammering tongue doubts which it might
Bid thee, good-morrow or good-night.
So thy eyes twinkle brighter far
Than the bright trembling evening star;
So a wax taper, burnt within
The socket, plays at out and in.
Thus doth Morpheus court thine eye,
Meaning there all night to lie:
Cupid and he play Whoop, All-Hid!
The eye, their bed and coverlid.
Fairest, let me thy night-clothes air;
Come, I'll unlace thy stomacher.
Make me thy maiden chamber-man,
Or let me be thy warming-pan.
O that I might but lay my head
At thy bed's feet ith' trundle-bed.
From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.
SOL shines not th[o]rough all the year so bright,
As my dear Julia did the other night.
Cynthia came mask'd in an eclipse to see
What gave the world a greater light than she;
But angry soon she disappear'd and fled
Into her inner rooms, and so to bed.
I envied not Endymion's joys that night:
Far greater had I with her lustre-light.
From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.
AFTER long service and a thousand vows,
To her glad lover she more kindness shows.
Oft had Amyntas with her tresses play'd
When the sun's vigour, drove 'em to a shade;
And many a time had given her a green gown,
And oft he kissed her when he had her down;
With sighs and motions he to her made known
What fain he would have done: then with a frown
She would forbid him, till the minute came
That she no longer could conceal her flame.
The am'rous shepherd, forward to espy
Love's yielding motions triumph in her eye,
With eager transport straight himself addrest
To taste the pleasures of so rich a feast:
When with resistance, and a seeming flight,
As 'twere t' increase her lover's appetite,
Unto a place where flowers thicker grew
Out of his arms as swift as air she flew:
Daphne ne'er run so light and fast as she
When from the god[14] she fled and turn'd t' a tree.
The youth pursued; nor needs he run amain,
Since she intended to be overta'en.
He dropp'd no apple nor no golden ball
To stay her flight, for she herself did fall,
Where 'mongst the flowers like Flora's self she lay
To gain more breath that she might lose't in play.
She pluck'd a flower, and at Amyntas threw
When he addressed to crop a flower too.
Then a faint strife she seemed to renew;
She smiled, she frown'd, she would and would not do.
At length o'ercome she suffers with a sigh
Her ravish'd lover use his victory,
And gave him leave to punish her delay
With double vigour in the am'rous play;
But then, alas! soon ended the delight;
For too much love had hastened[15] its flight,
And every ravish'd sense too soon awake,
Rapt up in bliss it did but now partake:
Which left the lovers in a state to prove
Long were the pains but short the joys of love.