The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 2

11. THE PARLIAMENT OF ROSES TO JULIA.

I dreamt the roses one time went To meet and sit in parliament; The place for these, and for the rest Of flowers, was thy spotless breast, Over the which a state was drawn Of tiffanie or cobweb lawn.

Then in that parly all those powers Voted the rose the queen of flowers; But so as that herself should be The maid of honour unto thee.

_State_, a canopy.

_Tiffanie_, gauze.

_Parly_, a parliament.

12. NO BASHFULNESS IN BEGGING.

To get thine ends, lay bashfulness aside; _Who fears to ask doth teach to be deny'd._

13. THE FROZEN HEART.

I freeze, I freeze, and nothing dwells In me but snow and icicles.

For pity's sake, give your advice, To melt this snow and thaw this ice.

I'll drink down flames; but if so be Nothing but love can supple me, I'll rather keep this frost and snow Than to be thaw'd or heated so.

14. TO PERILLA.

Ah, my Perilla! dost thou grieve to see Me, day by day, to steal away from thee?

Age calls me hence, and my grey hairs bid come, And haste away to mine eternal home; 'Twill not be long, Perilla, after this, That I must give thee the supremest kiss.

Dead when I am, first cast in salt, and bring Part of the cream from that religious spring; With which, Perilla, wash my hands and feet; That done, then wind me in that very sheet Which wrapt thy smooth limbs when thou didst implore The G.o.ds' protection but the night before.

Follow me weeping to my turf, and there Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear: Then, lastly, let some weekly-strewings be Devoted to the memory of me: Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep Still in the cool and silent shades of sleep.

_Weekly strewings_, _i.e._, of flowers on his grave.

_First cast in salt_, cp. 769.

15. A SONG TO THE 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 a.s.sume These sweets, but let them fly From this to that, and so perfume E'en all the standers by;

As G.o.ddess 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 cheris.h.i.+ng_.

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?

aeson 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.

_aeson_, 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.