A Catholic Hymn.

[Printed among other "Miscellanies" in "The Poems of Ben. Johnson, junior," 1672. It is also to be found in "Withers Redivivus, in a small new-year's-gift," 4to. 1689, and there called "A copy from verses long since made." The text of the latter has been preferred in the following extract.]

OPINION rules the human state,

And domineers in every

land:

Shall sea or mountain separate

Whom God hath join'd in nature's band?
Dwell they far off, or dwell they near,

They're all my father's children dear.

Lend me the bright wings of the morn,
That I from hence may take my flight
From Cancer unto Capricorn,

Far swifter than the lamp of night:
Where'er my winged soul doth fly
All's fair and lovely in mine eye.

Features and colours of the hair,
These all do meet in harmony;
The black, the brown, the red, the fair,
All tinctures of variety:

In single simple love alone

These various colours are but one.

I' th' phlegmatic I sweetness find,
The melancholy, grave, and wise;
The sanguine, merry to my mind,
From choler flames of love arise:
In single simple love alone
All these complexions are but one.

The nightingale doth never say
(Though he be king of melody)
Unto the cuckoo or the jay,

Why sing you not so sweet as I?
Each tunes his harp in love alone,
These various notes are all but one.

With open arms let me embrace

The Heathen, Christian, Turk, or Jew,

The lovely and deformed face,
The sober and the jovial crew.

In single simple love alone

All forms and features are but one.

*

Reason.

[In "Miscellany Poems and Translations by Oxford hands.” Printed for Anthony Stephens, 1685, Svo.]

[From 8 stanzas.]

REASON, thou vain impertinence,

Deluding hypocrite, begone!

And go and plague your men of sense,
But let my love and me alone!

In vain some dreaming thinking fool
Would make thee o'er our senses reign,

And all our noble passions rule,

And constitute this creature man.

In vain some dotard may pretend
Thou art our torch to happiness
To happiness-which poor mankind
As little know as Paradise.

At best, thou'rt but a glimmering light,
Which serves not to direct our way;
But, like the moon, confounds our sight,
And only shows it is not day.

Coyness.

[In the same Collection.]

[From 6 stanzas.]

NAY, I confess I should despise
A too, too easy-gotten prize!
Be coy, be cruel yet a while,

Nor grant one gracious look or smile!

Then

little every

grace

from thee

Will seem a heaven on earth to me.

If thou would'st have me still love on
With all the flames I first begun,
Then you must still as scornful be:
For, if you once but burn like me,
My flames will languish and be gone,
Like fire shin'd on by the sun.

Nor lay these arts too soon aside,
In hopes your lover fast is tied;
For I have oft an angler seen,
With over-haste, lose all again ;
When, if the fool had longer staid,
The harmless fish had been betray'd.

1

Ancient Song.

[From Dryden's Collection. Vol. VI. 341. ed. 1716.]

A SILLY shepherd woo'd, but wist not
How he might his mistress' favour gain.
On a time they met, but kiss'd not :—
Ever after that he sued in vain.
Blame her not, alas, though she said nay
To him that might, but fled away.

Time perpetually is changing;
Every moment alteration brings;
Love and beauty still estranging;
Women are, alas, but wanton things!
He that will his mistress' favour gain,
Must take her in a merry vein.

A woman's fancy's like a fever,

Or an ague, that doth come by fits;
Hot, and cold, but constant never,
Even as the pleasant humour hits.
Sick, and well again, and well, and sick,
In love it is a woman's trick.