I.
If in me anger, or disdaine
In you, or both, made me refraine
From th' noble intercourse of verse,
That only vertuous thoughts rehearse;
Then, chaste Ellinda, might you feare
The sacred vowes that I did sweare.
II.
But if alone some pious thought
Me to an inward sadnesse brought,
Thinking to breath your soule too welle,
My tongue was charmed with that spell;
And left it (since there was no roome
To voyce your worth enough) strooke dumbe.
III.
So then this silence doth reveal
No thought of negligence, but zeal:
For, as in adoration,
This is love's true devotion;
Children and fools the words repeat,
But anch'rites pray in tears and sweat.
ELLINDA'S GLOVE.
SONNET.
I.
Thou snowy farme with thy five tenements!<34.1>
Tell thy white mistris here was one,
That call'd to pay his dayly rents;
But she a-gathering flowr's and hearts is gone,
And thou left voyd to rude possession.
II.
But grieve not, pretty Ermin cabinet,
Thy alabaster lady will come home;
If not, what tenant can there fit
The slender turnings of thy narrow roome,
But must ejected be by his owne dombe?<34.2>
III.
Then give me leave to leave my rent with thee:
Five kisses, one unto a place:
For though the lute's too high for me,
Yet servants, knowing minikin<34.3> nor base,
Are still allow'd to fiddle with the case.
<34.1> i.e. the white glove of the lady with its five fingers.
<34.2> Doom.
<34.3> A description of musical pin attached to a lute. It was
only brought into play by accomplished musicians. In the address
of "The Country Suiter to his Love," printed in Cotgrave's WITS
INTERPRETER, 1662, p. 119, the man says:--
"Fair Wench! I cannot court thy sprightly eyes
With a base-viol plac'd betwixt my thighs,
I cannot lisp, nor to a fiddle sing,
Nor run upon a high-strecht minikin."
In Middleton's FAMILIE OF LOVE, 1608 (Works by Dyce, ii. 127)
there is the following passage:--
"GUDGEON. Ay, and to all that forswear marriage, and can be
content with other men's wives.
GERARDINE. Of which consort you two are grounds; one touches
the bass, and the other tickles the minikin."
BEING TREATED.
TO ELLINDA.
For cherries plenty, and for corans
Enough for fifty, were there more on's;
For elles of beere,<35.1> flutes<35.2> of canary,
That well did wash downe pasties-Mary;<35.3>
For peason, chickens, sawces high,
Pig, and the widdow-venson-pye;<35.4>
With certaine promise (to your brother)
Of the virginity of another,
Where it is thought I too may peepe in
With knuckles far as any deepe in;<35.5>
For glasses, heads, hands, bellies full
Of wine, and loyne right-worshipfull;<35.6>
Whether all of, or more behind--a
Thankes freest, freshest, faire Ellinda.
Thankes for my visit not disdaining,
Or at the least thankes for your feigning;
For if your mercy doore were lockt-well,
I should be justly soundly knockt-well;
Cause that in dogrell I did mutter
Not one rhime to you from dam-Rotter.<35.7>
Next beg I to present my duty
To pregnant sister in prime beauty,
Whom well I deeme (e're few months elder)
Will take out Hans from pretty Kelder,
And to the sweetly fayre Mabella,
A match that vies with Arabella;
In each respect but the misfortune,
Fortune, Fate, I thee importune.
Nor must I passe the lovely Alice,
Whose health I'd quaffe in golden chalice;
But since that Fate hath made me neuter,
I only can in beaker pewter:
But who'd forget, or yet left un-sung
The doughty acts of George the yong-son?
Who yesterday to save his sister
Had slaine the snake, had he not mist her:
But I shall leave him, 'till a nag on
He gets to prosecute the dragon;
And then with helpe of sun and taper,
Fill with his deeds twelve reames of paper,
That Amadis,<35.8> Sir Guy, and Topaz
With his fleet neigher shall keep no-pace.
But now to close all I must switch-hard,
[Your] servant ever;
LOVELACE RICHARD.
<35.1> This expression has reference to the old practice
of drinking beer and wine out of very high glasses, with
divisions marked on them. A yard of ale is even now a well
understood term: nor is the custom itself out of date, since
in some parts of the country one is asked to take, not a glass,
but A YARD. The ell was of course, strictly speaking, a larger
measure than a yard; but it was often employed as a mere synonyme
or equivalent. Thus, in MAROCCUS EXTATICUS, 1595, Bankes says:--
"Measure, Marocco, nay, nay, they that take up commodities make no
difference for measure between a Flemish elle and an English yard."
<35.2> In the new edition of Nares (1859), this very passage is
quoted to illustrate the meaning of the word, which is defined
rather vaguely to be A CASK. Obviously the word signifies
something of the kind, but the explanation does not at all satisfy
me. I suspect that a flute OF CANARY was so called from the cask
having several vent-holes, in the same way that the French call a
lamprey FLEUTE D'ALEMAN from the fish having little holes in the
upper part of its body.
<35.3> Forsyth, in his ANTIQUARY'S PORTFOLIO, 1825, mentions
certain "glutton-feasts," which used formerly to be celebrated
periodically in honour of the Virgin; perhaps the pasties used on
these occasions were thence christened PASTIES-MARY.
<35.4> Venison pies or pasties were the most favourite dish in
this country in former times; innumerable illustrations might be
furnished of the high esteem in which this description of viand
was held by our ancestors, who regarded it as a thoroughly English
luxury. The anonymous author of HORAE SUBSECIVAE, 1620, p. 38
(this volume is supposed to have been written by Giles Brydges,
Lord Chandos), describes an affected Englishman who has been
travelling on the Continent, as "sweating at the sight of a pasty
of venison," and as "swearing that the only delicacies be
mushrooms, or CAVIARE, or snayles."
"The full-cram'd dishes made the table crack,
Gammons of bacon, brawn, and what was chief,
King in all feasts, a tall Sir Loyne of BEEF,
Fat venison pasties smoaking, 'tis no fable,
Swans in their broath came swimming to the table."--
Poems of Ben Johnson Junior, by W. S. 1672, p. 3.
<35.5> An allusion to the scantiness of forks. "And when your
justice of peace is knuckle-deep in goose, you may without
disparagement to your blood, though you have a lady to your mother,
fall very manfully to your woodcocks."-- Decker's GULS HORN BOOK,
1609, ed. Nott, p. 121.
"Hodge. Forks! what be they?
Mar. The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To the sparing of napkins--"
Jonson's THE DEVIL IS AN ASS, act. v. scene 4.
"Lovell. Your hand, good sir.
Greedy. This is a lord, and some think this a favour;
But I had rather have my hand in my dumpling."
Massinger's NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS, 1633.
<35.6> The sirloin of beef.
<35.7> Rotterdam.
<35.8> AMADIS DE GAULE. The translation of this romance by Anthony
Munday and two or three others, whose assistance he obtained, made
it popular in England, although, perhaps with the exception of the
portion executed by Munday himself, the performance is beneath
criticism.
TO ELLINDA.
VPON HIS LATE RECOVERY.
A PARADOX.
I.
How I grieve that I am well!
All my health was in my sicknes,
Go then, Destiny, and tell,
Very death is in this quicknes.
II.
Such a fate rules over me,
That I glory when I languish,
And do blesse the remedy,
That doth feed, not quench my anguish.
III.
'Twas a gentle warmth that ceas'd
In the vizard of a feavor;
But I feare now I am eas'd
All the flames, since I must leave her.
IV.
Joyes, though witherd, circled me,
When unto her voice inured
Like those who, by harmony,
Only can be throughly cured.
V.
Sweet, sure, was that malady,
Whilst the pleasant angel hover'd,
Which ceasing they are all, as I,
Angry that they are recover'd.
VI.
And as men in hospitals,
That are maim'd, are lodg'd and dined;
But when once their danger fals,
Ah th' are healed to be pined!
VII.
Fainting so, I might before
Sometime have the leave to hand her,
But lusty, am beat out of dore,
And for Love compell'd to wander.