So she, deep-drenched in a sea of care,
Holds disputation with each thing she views,
And to herself all sorrow doth compare;
No object but her passion's strength renews;
And as one shifts, another straight ensues :

Sometime her grief is dumb, and hath no words ;
Sometime 'tis mad, and too much talk affords.

The little birds that tune their morning's joy,
Make her moans mad with their sweet melody.
For mirth doth search the bottom of annoy;
Sad souls are slain in merry company;
Grief best is pleas'd with grief's society:
True sorrow then is feelingly suffic'd,

When with like semblance it is sympathiz'd.

'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore:
He ten times pines, that pines beholding food;
To see the salve doth make the wound ache more;
Great grief grieves most at that would do it good;
Deep woes roll forward like a gentle flood,

Who being stopp'd, the bounding banks o'erflows:

Grief dallied with, nor law nor limit knows.

"You mocking birds," quoth she, “your tunes entomb

"Within your hollow-swelling feather'd breasts, "And in my hearing be you mute and dumb!

66

(My restless discord loves no stops nor rests;

"A woful hostess brooks not merry guests :) "Relish your nimble notes to pleasing ears; "Distress like dumps when time is kept with

tears.

"Come, Philomel, that sing'st of ravishment, "Make thy sad grove in my dishevell'd hair. "As the dank earth weeps at thy languishment, "So I at each sad strain will strain a tear, "And with deep groans the diapason bear:

For burthen-wise I'll hum on Tarquin still, "While thou on Tereus descant'st better skill."

"And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part,

"To keep thy sharp woes waking, wretched I, "To imitate thee well, against my heart "Will fix a sharp knife, to affright mine eye; "Who, if it wink, shall thereon fall and die.

"These means, as frets upon an instrument, "Shall tune our heartstrings to true languish

ment.

"And for, poor bird, thou sing'st not in the day, "As shaming any eye should thee behold, "Some dark deep desert, seated from the way, "That knows nor parching heat nor freezing cold,

• We will find out; and there we will unfold

34 dumps] i. e. melancholy strains.

35 better skill] i. e. with a better skill.

"To creatures stern sad tunes, to change their

kinds :

"Since men prove beasts, let beasts bear gentle minds."

As the poor frighted deer, that stands at gaze,
Wildly determining which way to fly,
Or one encompass'd with a winding maze,
That cannot tread the way out readily;
So with herself is she in mutiny,

To live or die which of the twain were better,
When life is sham'd, and Death Reproach's

debtor.

"To kill myself," quoth she," alack! what were it,

6.

But with my body my poor soul's pollution? "They that lose half, with greater patience bear it, "Than they whose whole is swallow'd in confusion. "That mother tries a merciless conclusion,

"Who, having two sweet babes, when death

takes one,

"Will slay the other, and be nurse to none.

"My body or my soul, which was the dearer ? "When the one pure, the other made divine. "Whose love of either to myself was nearer? "When both were kept for heaven and Collatine.

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"Ah me! the bark peel'd from the lofty pine,

"His leaves will wither, and his sap decay; "So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away.

"Her house is sack'd, her quiet interrupted, "Her mansion batter'd by the enemy;

"Her sacred temple spotted, spoil'd, corrupted, "Grossly engirt with daring infamy:

"Then let it not be call'd impiety,

"If in this blemish'd fort I make some hole "Through which I may convey this troubled soul.

"Yet die I will not, till my Collatine

"Have heard the cause of my untimely death; "That he may vow, in that sad hour of mine,

،

Revenge on him that made me stop my breath. My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,

"Which by him tainted, shall for him be spent, "And as his due, writ in my testament.

"My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife "That wounds my body so dishonour'd, ""Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life; "The one will live, the other being dead: "So of shame's ashes shall my fame be bred; "For in my death I murder shameful scorn: "My shame so dead, mine honour is new-born.

"Dear lord of that dear jewel I have lost,
"What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?
"My resolution, Love, shall be thy boast,
"By whose example thou reveng'd may'st be.
"How Tarquin must be us'd, read it in me:

"Myself, thy friend, will kill myself, thy foe, "And, for my sake, serve thou false Tarquin so

"This brief abridgment of my will I make:

"My soul and body to the skies and ground;

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My resolution, husband, do thou take;

"Mine honour be the knife's, that makes my wound;

"My shame be his that did my fame confound; "And all my fame that lives, disbursed be

To those that live, and think no shame of me.

"Thou, Collatine, shalt oversee this will;
"How was I overseen that thou shalt see it!

"My blood shall wash the slander of mine ill;

66

My life's foul deed, my life's fair end shall free it. "Faint not, faint heart, but stoutly say, so be it. "Yield to my hand; my hand shall conquer thee; "Thou dead, both die, and both shall victors be."

This plot of death when sadly she had laid,
And wip'd the brinish pearl from her bright eyes,
With untun'd tongue she hoarsely calls her maid,
Whose swift obedience to her mistress hies;
For fleet-wing'd duty with thought's feathers flies.
Poor Lucrece' cheeks unto her maid seem so
As winter meads when sun doth melt their snow.

86 oversee]" Overseers were frequently added in Wills from the superabundant caution of our ancestors." MALONE.