Part 2 (2/2)

THE DEDICATION.[5:1]

To Love.

Thou whose sole name all pa.s.sions doth comprise: Youngest and eldest of the Deities, Born without parents, whose unbounded reign Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main, Inverts the course of heaven, and from the deep 5 Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep, By thy mysterious chains seeking t'unite, Once more, the long-since-torn hermaphrodite!

He who thy willing prisoner long was vow'd, And uncompell'd beneath thy sceptre bow'd, 10 Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound, With victory, though not with freedom, crown'd: And, (of his dangers past a grateful sign,) Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.

THE GLOW-WORM.

Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark This animated gem,[6:1] whose fainter spark Of fading light, its birth had from the dark:

A star thought by the erring[6:2] pa.s.senger Which falling from its native orb, dropped here, 5 And makes the earth, its centre, now its sphere.

Should many of these sparks together be, He that the unknown light far off should see Would think it a terrestrial galaxy.

Take 't up, fair Saint; see how it mocks thy fright; 10 The paler flame doth not yield heat, though light, Which thus deceives[6:3] thy reason, through thy sight.

But see how quickly it, ta'en up, doth fade, (To s.h.i.+ne in darkness only being made), By th' brightness of thy light turn'd to a shade, 15

And burnt to ashes by thy flaming eyes!

On the chaste altar of thy hand it dies, As to thy greater light a sacrifice.

TO CHARIESSA,[7:1]

_Desiring her to Burn his Verses._

These papers, Chariessa, let thy breath Condemn, thy hand unto the flames bequeath; 'Tis fit who gave them life, should give them death.

And whilst[7:2] in curled flames to heaven they rise, Each trembling sheet shall, as it upwards flies, 5 Present itself to thee a sacrifice.

Then when above[7:3] its native orb it came, And reach'd the lesser lights o' th' sky, this flame, Contracted to a star, should wear thy name,

Or falling down on earth from its bright sphere, 10 Shall in a diamond's shape its l.u.s.tre bear, And trouble (as it did before) thine ear.

But thou wilt cruel even in mercy be, Unequal in thy justice, who dost free Things without sense from flames, and yet not me! 15

ON MR. FLETCHER'S WORKS [1647].[8:1]

Fletcher, whose fame no age can ever waste, (Envy of ours, and glory of the last,) Is now alive again; and with his name His sacred ashes wak'd into a flame Such as before could[8:2] by a secret charm 5 The wildest heart subdue, the coldest warm, And lend the ladies' eyes a power more bright, Dispensing thus, to either, heat and light.

He to a sympathy those souls betray'd Whom love or beauty never could persuade; 10 And in each mov'd spectator did[8:3] beget A real pa.s.sion by a counterfeit.

When first Bellario bled, what lady there Did not for every drop let fall a tear?

And when Aspasia wept, not any eye 15 But seem'd to wear the same sad livery; By him inspir'd, the feign'd Lucina drew More streams of melting sorrow than the true; But then The Scornful Lady did[8:4] beguile Their easy griefs, and teach them all to smile. 20 Thus he affections could or raise or lay; Love, grief, and mirth thus did his charms obey: He Nature taught her pa.s.sions to out-do, How to refine the old, and create new; Which such a happy likeness seem'd to bear, 25 As if that Nature Art, Art Nature were.

Yet all had nothing been, obscurely kept In the same urn wherein his dust hath slept; Nor had he risen[8:5] the Delphic wreath to claim, Had with[8:6] the dying scene expir'd his name. 30 O the indulgent justice of this age, To grant the press what it denies the stage!

Despair our joy hath doubled: he is come Twice welcome by this _post liminium_.

His loss preserv'd him; they that silenc'd wit 35 Are now the authors to eternize it.

Thus poets are in spite of Fate reviv'd, And plays, by intermission, longer liv'd.

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