LADY

Nay gentle Shepherd ill is lost that praise That is addressed to unattending Ears, Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift How to regain my severed company Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo To give me answer from her mossy Couch. Dim darkness, and this leavy Labyrinth. They left me weary on a grassy terfe. To seek i'th val'y some cool friendly Spring. They were but twain, & purposed quick return. How easy my misfortune is to hit! No less then if I should my brother's loose. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazord lips. Gentle villager What readiest way would bring me to that place? To find out that good shepherd I suppose In such a scant allowance of star light Would overtask the best land-pilots art Without the sure guess of well-practiced feet. Shepherd I take thy word, And trust thy honest offered courtesy, Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds With smoky rafters, then in tapestry halls, And courts of Princes, where it first was named, And yet is most p a ended: in a place Less warranted then this, or less secure I cannot be, that I should fear to change it, Eye me blessed Providence, and square my trial To my proportioned strength. Shepherd led on.— Foo'e do not boast, Thou not touch the freedom of my mind Withal thy charms, although this corporal rind Thou hast , while eav'n sees good. Will not false traitor, Will not restore the truth and honesty That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies, Was this the cottage, and the safe abided Thou toldest me of? what grim aspects are these, These ugly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! Hence with thy brewed enchantments foul deceiver, Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence With visored falsehood, and base forgery, And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here With lickerish baits fit to ensnare a bruit? Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none But such as are good men can give good things, And that which is not good, is nor delicious To a well-governed and wise appetite. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips In this unhallowed air, but that this Juggler Would think to charm my judgement, as mine eyes Obtruding false rules pranked in reasons garb. I hate when vice can bolt her arguments And virtue has no tongue to check her pride: Impostor do not charge most innocent nature As if she would her children should be riotous With her abundance, she good cateress Means her provision only to the good That live according to her sober laws And holy dictate of spare Temperance, If every just man that now pines with want Had but a moderate, and beseeming share Of that which lewdy-pamper'd Luxury Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed In unsuperfluous even proportion, And she no whit encumbered with her store, And then the giver would be better thanked,' His pr see endue paid, for swinish gluttony Never looks to heaven amid his gorgeous feast, But with besorted base ingratitude Cramms, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on? Or have I said enough? to him that dares Arm his profane tongue with re words Against the Sun-clad power of Chastity Fain would I something say, yet to what end? Thou hast nor Ear, nor School to apprehend The sublime notion, and high mystery That must be uttered to unfold the sage And serious doctrine of Virginity, And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know More hapinesse then this thy present lot. Enjoy your deer Wit, and gay Rhetoric That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence, Thou art not fit to hear thy self convinced; Yet should I try, the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause would kindle my rap't spirits To such a flame of sacred vehemence, That dumb things would be moved to sympathise, And the bruit Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, Till all thy magic structures reared so high Were shattered into heaps over thy false head.