The Hesperides Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 | Page 8

MASKERS.
Come down and dance ye in the toil?Of pleasures to a heat;?But if to moisture, let the oil?Of roses be your sweat.
Not only to yourselves assume?These sweets, but let them fly?From this to that, and so perfume?E'en all the standers by;
As goddess Isis, when she went?Or glided through the street,?Made all that touched her, with her scent,?And whom she touched, turn sweet.
16. TO PERENNA.
When I thy parts run o'er, I can't espy?In any one the least indecency;?But every line and limb diffused thence?A fair and unfamiliar excellence:?So that the more I look the more I prove?There's still more cause why I the more should love.
_Indecency_, uncomeliness.
17. TREASON.
The seeds of treason choke up as they spring:?_He acts the crime that gives it cherishing_.
18. TWO THINGS ODIOUS.
Two of a thousand things are disallow'd:?A lying rich man, and a poor man proud.
19. TO HIS MISTRESSES.
Help me! help me! now I call?To my pretty witchcrafts all;?Old I am, and cannot do?That I was accustomed to.?Bring your magics, spells, and charms,?To enflesh my thighs and arms.?Is there no way to beget?In my limbs their former heat???son had, as poets feign,?Baths that made him young again:?Find that medicine, if you can,?For your dry decrepit man?Who would fain his strength renew,?Were it but to pleasure you.
_?son_, rejuvenated by Medea; see Ovid, Met. vii.
20. THE WOUNDED HEART.
Come bring your sampler, and with art
Draw in't a wounded heart?And dropping here and there:?Not that I think that any dart
Can make yours bleed a tear,?Or pierce it anywhere;?Yet do it to this end: that I
May by
This secret see,
Though you can make
That heart to bleed, yours ne'er will ache
For me.
21. NO LOATHSOMENESS IN LOVE.
What I fancy I approve,?_No dislike there is in love_.?Be my mistress short or tall,?And distorted therewithal:?Be she likewise one of those?That an acre hath of nose:?Be her forehead and her eyes?Full of incongruities:?Be her cheeks so shallow too?As to show her tongue wag through;?Be her lips ill hung or set,?And her grinders black as jet:?Has she thin hair, hath she none,?She's to me a paragon.
22. TO ANTHEA.
If, dear Anthea, my hard fate it be?To live some few sad hours after thee,?Thy sacred corse with odours I will burn,?And with my laurel crown thy golden urn.?Then holding up there such religious things?As were, time past, thy holy filletings,?Near to thy reverend pitcher I will fall?Down dead for grief, and end my woes withal:?So three in one small plat of ground shall lie--?Anthea, Herrick, and his poetry.
23. THE WEEPING CHERRY.
I saw a cherry weep, and why??Why wept it? but for shame?Because my Julia's lip was by,?And did out-red the same.?But, pretty fondling, let not fall?A tear at all for that:?Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all?For tincture wonder at.
24. SOFT MUSIC.
The mellow touch of music most doth wound?The soul when it doth rather sigh than sound.
25. THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT KINGS AND SUBJECTS.
'Twixt kings and subjects there's this mighty odds:?Subjects are taught by men; kings by the gods.
26. HIS ANSWER TO A QUESTION.
Some would know?Why I so?Long still do tarry,?And ask why?Here that I?Live and not marry.?Thus I those?Do oppose:?What man would be here?Slave to thrall,?If at all?He could live free here?
27. UPON JULIA'S FALL.
Julia was careless, and withal?She rather took than got a fall,?The wanton ambler chanc'd to see?Part of her legs' sincerity:?And ravish'd thus, it came to pass,?The nag (like to the prophet's ass)?Began to speak, and would have been?A-telling what rare sights he'd seen:?And had told all; but did refrain?Because his tongue was tied again.
28. EXPENSES EXHAUST.
Live with a thrifty, not a needy fate;?_Small shots paid often waste a vast estate_.
_Shots_, debts.
29. LOVE, WHAT IT IS.
Love is a circle that doth restless move?In the same sweet eternity of love.
30. PRESENCE AND ABSENCE.
When what is lov'd is present, love doth spring;?But being absent, love lies languishing.
31. NO SPOUSE BUT A SISTER.
A bachelor I will?Live as I have liv'd still,?And never take a wife?To crucify my life;?But this I'll tell ye too,?What now I mean to do:?A sister (in the stead?Of wife) about I'll lead;?Which I will keep embrac'd,?And kiss, but yet be chaste.
32. THE POMANDER BRACELET.
To me my Julia lately sent?A bracelet richly redolent:?The beads I kissed, but most lov'd her?That did perfume the pomander.
_Pomander_, a ball of scent.
33. THE SHOE-TYING.
Anthea bade me tie her shoe;?I did; and kissed the instep too:?And would have kissed unto her knee,?Had not her blush rebuked me.
34. THE CARCANET.
Instead of orient