I cannot think that he, who then lov’d most,
Sunk so low, as to love one which did scorn.
But since this God produc’d a destiny,
And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be;
I must love her that loves not me.’
The stanza in the Epithalamion on a Count Palatine of the Rhine, has been often quoted against him, and is an almost irresistible illustration of the extravagances to which this kind of writing, which turns upon a pivot of words and possible allusions, is liable. Speaking of the bride and bridegroom he says, by way of serious compliment—
‘Here lies a she-Sun, and a he-Moon there,
She gives the best light to his sphere;
Or each is both and all, and so
They unto one another nothing owe.’