So was thy play; whose clear, yet lofty strain,
Wise men, that govern fate, shall entertain.

THE COMPARISON.

DEAREST, thy tresses are not threads of gold,
Thy eyes of diamonds, nor do I hold
Thy lips for rubies, thy fair cheeks to be
Fresh roses, or thy teeth of ivory :

Thy skin, that doth thy dainty body sheath,

Not alabaster is, nor dost thou breath

Arabian odours; those the earth brings forth,
Compar'd with which, would but impair thy worth.
Such may be others' mistresses, but mine
Holds nothing earthly, but is all divine.

Thy tresses are those rays that do arise,
Not from one sun, but two; such are thy eyes;
Thy lips congealed nectar are, and such
As, but a deity, there's none dare touch;
The perfect crimson that thy cheek doth cloath
(But only that it far exceeds them both)
Aurora's blush resembles, or that red
That Iris struts in when her mantle's spread;
Thy teeth in white do Leda's swan exceed;
Thy skin's a heavenly and immortal weed;

And when thou breath'st, the winds are ready straight
To filch it from thee; and do therefore wait
Close at thy lips, and snatching it from thence,
Bear it to Heaven, where 'tis Jove's frankincense.
Fair goddess, since thy feature makes thee one,
Yet be not such for these respects alone;
But as you are divine in outward view,
So be within as fair, as good, as true.

THE ENQUIRY.

AMONGST the myrtles as I walk'd,
Love and my sighs thus intertalk'd:
"Tell me, (said I, in deep distress,)
Where may I find my shepherdess ?"

"Thou fool," (said Love,) "know'st thou not this, In every thing that's good she is?

In yonder tulip go and seek,

There thou mayst find her lip, her check.

"In yon enamel'd pansy by,

There thou shalt have her curious eye.
In bloom of peach, in rosy bud,

There wave the streamers of her blood.

"In brightest lilies that there stand,
The emblems of her whiter hand.
In yonder rising hill there smell
Such sweets as in her bosom dwell."

""Tis true" (said I): and thereupon I went to pluck them one by one, To make of parts a union;

But on a sudden all was gone.

With that I stopt: said Love, "These be,

Fond man, resemblances of thee:

And, as these flow'rs, thy joys shall die,
Ev'n in the twinkling of an eye:

And all thy hopes of her shall wither,

Like these short sweets thus knit together."

LOVE'S FORCE.

Is the first ruder age, when Love was wild,
Not yet by laws reclaim'd, not reconcil'd
To order, nor by reason mann'd, but flew,
Full-plum'd by nature, on the instant view,
Upon the wings of appetite, at all

The eye could fair, or sense delightful call,
Election was not yet; but as their cheap
Food from the oak, or the next acorn-heap,
As water from the nearest spring or brook,
So men their undistinguish'd females took

By chance, not choice. But soon the heavenly spark,
That in man's bosom lurk'd, broke through this dark
Confusion; then the noblest breast first felt
Itself for its own proper object melt,

END OF VOL. IV.