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And those so ambush'd round with household spies,
And over all thy husband's tow'ring eyes
Inflam'd with th' ugly sweat of jealousy,

Yet went we not still on in constancy?
Have we for this kept guards, like spy o'er spy?
Had correspondence whilst the foe stood by?
Stoln (more to sweeten them) our many blisses
Of meetings, conference, embracements, kisses?
Shadow'd with negligence our best respects?
Varied our language thro' all dialects

Of becks, winks, looks, and often under boards
Spoke dialogues with our feet far from our words?
Have we prov'd all the secrets of

our art,
Yea, thy pale inwards and thy panting heart?
And after all this passed Purgatory,

Must sad divorce make us the vulgar story?
First let our eyes be riveted quite thro'
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to:
Let our arms clasp like ivy, and our fear
Freeze us together, that we may stick here;
Till Fortune, that would ruin us with the deed,
Strain his eyes open, and yet make them bleed.
For Love it cannot be, whom hitherto

I have accus'd, should such a mischief do..

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Oh, Fortune! thou 'rt not worth my least exclaim, And plague enough thou hast in thy own name : Do thy great worst, my friends and I have arms, Tho' not against thy strokes, against thy harms:

Rend us in sunder, thou canst not divide
Our bodies so, but that our souls are tied,

And we can love by letters still and gifts,

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And thoughts, and dreams: Love never wanteth shifts.

I will not look upon the quick'ning sun,

But straight her beauty to my sense shall run;

The air shall note her soft, the fire most pure,
Waters suggest her clear, and the earth sure;
Time shall not lose our passages; the spring,
How fresh our love was in the beginning;
The summer, how it inripened the year;
And autumn, what our golden harvests were:
The winter I'll not think on to spite thee,
But count it a lost season, so shall she..

80

And, dearest Friend! since we must part, drown night
With hope of day; burthens well borne are light.
The cold and darkness longer hang somewhere,
Yet Phoebus equally lights all the sphere;
And what we cannot in like portion pay,

"The world enjoys in mass, and so we may.
Be ever then yourself, and let no woe

Win on your health, your youth, your beauty; so ga
Declare yourself base Fortune's enemy;

No less be your contempt than her inconstancy,
That I may grow enamour'd on your mind,
When my own thoughts I here neglected find.
And this, to th' comfort of my dear I vow,
My deeds shall still be what my deeds are now;

The poles shall move to teach me ere I start, 'RACT
And when I change my love, I'll change my heart;")
Nay, if I wax but cold in my desire,

Think heav'n hath motion lost, and the world fire 100
Much more I could; but many words have made I
That oft' suspected which men most persuade : tern?
Take therefore all in this; I love so true,
As I will never look for less in you.

104

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HARK, news! O Envy! thou shalt hear descry'd
My Julia, who as yet was ne'er envy'd. :
To vomit gall in slander, swell her veins
With calumny, that hell itself disdains,
Is her continual practice, does her best,
To tear opinion ev'n out of the breast

Of dearest friends, and (which is worse than vile), 1.
Sticks jealousy in wedlock. Her own child.
'Scapes not the show'rs of envy. To repeat:
The monstrous fashions, how, were alive to eat
Dear reputation. Would to God she were
But half so loth to act vice as to hear.

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My mild reproof! Liv'd Mantuan now again, consca That female mastix to limn with his pen,oak, 10 This she Chimera, that hath eyes of fire,

Burning with anger, (anger feeds desire)

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Tongu'd like the night-crow, whose ill-boding cries
Give out for nothing but new injuries.
Her breath like to the juice in Tenarus,

That blasts the springs, tho' ne'er so prosperous:
Her hands, I know not how, us'd more to spill
The food of others than herself to fill.
But, oh! her mind, that Orcus, which includes
Legions of mischief, countless multitudes ite
Of former curses, projects unmade-up,
Abuses yet unfashion'd, thoughts corrupt,
Mishapen cavils, palpable untruths,
Inevitable errors, self-accusing loaths:
These like those atoms swarming in the sun,
Throng in her bosom for creation.

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I blush to give her half her due; yet say
No poison 's half so bad as Julia.

ELEGY XVI.

"

A TALE OF A CITIZEN AND HIS WIFE.

20

*་

30

32

I SING no harm, good sooth, to any wight,
To lord, to fool, cuckold, beggar, or knight, ****
To peace-teaching lawyer, proctor, or brave, wild
Reform'd or reduc'd captain, knave,

Officer, juggler, or justice of peace,

Juror or judge; I touch no fat sow's grease;

I ain no libeller, nor will be any,

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But (like a true man) say there are too many :

I fear not Ore tenus, for my tale

Nor count nor counsellor will red or pale.

A Citizen and his Wife the other day,

Both riding on one horse, upon.

the way

I overtook; the wench a pretty peat,

And (by her eye) well fitting for the feat:

I saw the lech'rous Citizen turn back

His head, and on his Wife's lip steal a smack;
Whence apprehending that the man was kind,
Riding before to kiss his Wife behind,
To get acquaintance with him I began,
And sort discourse fit for so fine a man.
I ask'd the number of the Plaugy Bill,
Ask'd if the custom-farmers held out still?
Of the Virginian plot, and whether Ward
The traffic of the midland seas) had marr'd?
Whether the Britain Burse did fill apace,

And likely were to give th' Exchange disgrace?
Of new-built Aldgate and the Moore-field crosses,
Of store of bankrupts and poor merchants' losses,
I urg'd him to speak: but he (as mute

As an old courtier worn to bis last suit) Replies with only Yeas and Nays. At last (To fit his element) my theme I cast

On tradesmen's gains: that set his tongue a-going Alas! good Sir, (quoth he) there is no doing 1In court nor city now. She smil'd, and I,

And (in my conscience) both gave him the lie

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