The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 24

Like to the income must be our expense; _Man's fortune must be had in reverence_.

288. DEVOTION MAKES THE DEITY.

_Who forms a G.o.dhead out of gold or stone Makes not a G.o.d, but he that prays to one._

289. TO ALL YOUNG MEN THAT LOVE.

I could wish you all who love, That ye could your thoughts remove From your mistresses, and be Wisely wanton, like to me, I could wish you dispossessed Of that _fiend that mars your rest_, And with tapers comes to fright Your weak senses in the night.

I could wish ye all who fry Cold as ice, or cool as I; But if flames best like ye, then, Much good do 't ye, gentlemen.

I a merry heart will keep, While you wring your hands and weep.

290. THE EYES.

'Tis a known principle in war, The eyes be first that conquered are.

291. NO FAULT IN WOMEN.

No fault in women to refuse The offer which they most would choose.

No fault in women to confess How tedious they are in their dress.

No fault in women to lay on The tincture of vermilion: And there to give the cheek a dye Of white, where nature doth deny.

No fault in women to make show Of largeness when they're nothing so: (When true it is the outside swells With inward buckram, little else).

No fault in women, though they be But seldom from suspicion free.

No fault in womankind at all If they but slip and never fall.

293. OBERON'S FEAST.

_Shapcot! to thee the fairy state I, with discretion, dedicate.

Because thou prizest things that are Curious and unfamiliar.

Take first the feast; these dishes gone, We'll see the Fairy Court anon._

A little mushroom table spread, After short prayers, they set on bread; A moon-parch'd grain of purest wheat, With some small glittering grit to eat His choice bits with; then in a trice They make a feast less great than nice.

But all this while his eye is serv'd, We must not think his ear was sterv'd; But that there was in place to stir His spleen, the chirring gra.s.shopper, The merry cricket, puling fly, The piping gnat for minstrelsy.

And now we must imagine first, The elves present, to quench his thirst, A pure seed-pearl of infant dew Brought and besweetened in a blue And pregnant violet, which done, His kitling eyes begin to run Quite through the table, where he spies The horns of papery b.u.t.terflies: Of which he eats, and tastes a little Of that we call the cuckoo's spittle.

A little fuzz-ball pudding stands By, yet not blessed by his hands; That was too coa.r.s.e: but then forthwith He ventures boldly on the pith Of sugar'd rush, and eats the sagg And well-bestrutted bee's sweet bag: Gladding his palate with some store Of emmets' eggs; what would he more?

But beards of mice, a newt's stewed thigh, A bloated earwig and a fly; With the red-capp'd worm that's shut Within the concave of a nut, Brown as his tooth. A little moth Late fatten'd in a piece of cloth: With withered cherries, mandrakes' ears, Moles' eyes; to these the slain stag's tears The unctuous dewlaps of a snail, The broke-heart of a nightingale O'ercome in music; with a wine Ne'er ravish'd from the flattering vine, But gently press'd from the soft side Of the most sweet and dainty bride, Brought in a dainty daisy, which He fully quaffs up to bewitch His blood to height; this done, commended Grace by his priest; _the feast is ended_.

_Sagg_, laden.

_Bestrutted_, swollen.

294. EVENT OF THINGS NOT IN OUR POWER.

By time and counsel do the best we can, Th' event is never in the power of man.

295. UPON HER BLUSH.

When Julia blushes she does show Cheeks like to roses when they blow.

296. MERITS MAKE THE MAN.

Our honours and our commendations be Due to the merits, not authority.

297. TO VIRGINS.

Hear, ye virgins, and I'll teach What the times of old did preach.

Rosamond was in a bower Kept, as Danae in a tower: But yet Love, who subtle is, Crept to that, and came to this.

Be ye lock'd up like to these, Or the rich Hesperides, Or those babies in your eyes, In their crystal nunneries; Notwithstanding Love will win, Or else force a pa.s.sage in: And as coy be as you can, Gifts will get ye, or the man.

_Babies in your eyes_, see Note to p. 17.

298. VIRTUE.

Each must in virtue strive for to excel; _That man lives twice that lives the first life well_.

299. THE BELLMAN.

From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From murders _Benedicite_.

From all mischances that may fright Your pleasing slumbers in the night, Mercy secure ye all, and keep The goblin from ye while ye sleep.

Past one o'clock, and almost two!

My masters all, good-day to you.

_Scare-fires_, alarms of fire.

300. BASHFULNESS.

Of all our parts, the eyes express The sweetest kind of bashfulness.

301. TO THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN, MASTER EDWARD NORGATE, CLERK OF THE SIGNET TO HIS MAJESTY. EPIG.

For one so rarely tun'd to fit all parts, For one to whom espous'd are all the arts, Long have I sought for, but could never see Them all concentr'd in one man, but thee.

Thus, thou that man art whom the fates conspir'd To make but one, and that's thyself, admir'd.

302. UPON PRUDENCE BALDWIN: HER SICKNESS.

Prue, my dearest maid, is sick, Almost to be lunatic: aesculapius! come and bring Means for her recovering; And a gallant c.o.c.k shall be Offer'd up by her to thee.