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| KIND pity chokes 1 my spleen; brave scorn forbids | |
| Those 2 tears to issue, which swell my eyelids. | |
| I must not laugh, nor weep sins, and be wise. 3 | |
| Can railing, then, cure these worn maladies? | |
| Is not our mistress, fair Religion, | 5 |
| As worthy of all our souls’ devotion, | |
| As virtue was in the first 4 blinded 5 age? | |
| Are not heaven’s joys as valiant to assuage | |
| Lusts, as earth’s honour was to them? Alas, | |
| As we do them in means, shall they surpass | 10 |
| Us in the end? and shall thy father’s spirit | |
| Meet blind philosophers in heaven, whose merit | |
| Of strict life may be imputed faith, and hear | |
| Thee, whom he taught so easy ways, and near | |
| To follow, damn’d? Oh, if thou darest, fear this; | 15 |
| This fear great courage and high valour is. | |
| Darest thou aid mutinous Dutch; and 6 darest thou lay | |
| Thee in ships, wooden sepulchres, a prey | |
| To leaders’ rage, to storms, to shot, to dearth? | |
| Darest thou dive seas, and dungeons of the earth? 7 | 20 |
| Hast thou courageous fire to thaw the ice | |
| Of frozen North discoveries; and thrice | |
| Colder than salamanders, like divine | |
| Children in th’ oven, fires of Spain and the line, | |
| Whose countries limbecs to our bodies be, | 25 |
| Canst thou for gain bear? and must every he | |
| Which cries not, ‘Goddess!’ to thy mistress, draw, | |
| Or eat thy poisonous words? courage of straw! | |
| O desperate coward, wilt thou seem bold, and | |
| To thy foes, and his, who made thee to stand | 30 |
| Sentinel 8 in his world’s garrison, thus yield, | |
| And for forbid 9 wars leave th’ appointed field? | |
| Know thy foes; the foul devil, he 10 whom thou | |
| Strivest to please, for hate, not love, would allow | |
| Thee fain his whole realm to be quit; and as | 35 |
| The world’s all parts wither away and pass, | |
| So the world’s self, thy other loved foe, is | |
| In her decrepit wane, and thou loving this, | |
| Dost love a wither’d and worn strumpet; last, | |
| Flesh, itself’s death, 11 and joys which flesh can taste, | 40 |
| Thou lovest; and thy fair goodly soul, which doth | |
| Give this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loathe. | |
| Seek true religion, O where? Mirreus, | |
| Thinking her unhoused here and fled from us, | |
| Seeks her at Rome, there, because he doth know | 45 |
| That she was there a thousand years ago; | |
| And loves 12 the rags so, as we here obey | |
| The state-cloth where the prince sate yesterday. | |
| Crants 13 to such brave loves will not be enthrall’d, | |
| But loves her only who at Geneva ’s call’d | 50 |
| Religion, plain, simple, sullen, young, | |
| Contemptuous yet unhandsome; as among | |
| Lecherous humours, there is one that judges 14 | |
| No wenches wholesome, but coarse country drudges. | |
| Graius stays still at home here, and because | 55 |
| Some preachers, vile ambitious bawds, and laws, | |
| Still new, like fashions, bid him think that she | |
| Which dwells with us, is only perfect, he | |
| Embraceth her, whom his godfathers will | |
| Tender to him, being tender; as wards still | 60 |
| Take such wives as their guardians offer, or | |
| Pay values. Careless Phrygius 15 doth abhor | |
| All, because all cannot be good; as one, | |
| Knowing some women whores, dares marry 16 none. | |
| Gracchus loves all as one, and thinks that so | 65 |
| As women do in divers countries 17 go | |
| In divers habits, yet are still one kind, | |
| So doth, so is religion; and this blind— | |
| Ness too much light breeds. But unmoved thou | |
| Of force must one, and forced but one allow; | 70 |
| And the right. Ask thy father which is she; | |
| Let him ask his. Though Truth and Falsehood be | |
| Near twins, yet Truth a little elder is. | |
| Be busy to seek her; believe me this, | |
| He’s not of none, nor worst, that seeks the best. | 75 |
| To adore, or scom an image, or protest, | |
| May all be bad. Doubt wisely; in strange way, | |
| To stand inquiring right, is not to stray; 18 | |
| To sleep, or run wrong, is. On a huge 19 hill, | |
| Cragged 20 and steep, Truth stands, and he that will | 80 |
| Reach her, about must and about 21 must go, | |
| And what th’ hill’s suddenness resists, 22 win so. | |
| Yet strive so, that before age, death’s twilight, | |
| Thy soul 23 rest, for none can work in that night. 24 | |
| To will implies delay, therefore now do | 85 |
| Hard deeds, the body’s pains; hard knowledge to | |
| The mind’s endeavours reach; and mysteries | |
| Are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes. | |
| Keep the truth which thou hast found; men do not stand | |
| In so ill 25 case, that God hath with His hand | 90 |
| Signed kings blank-charters, 26 to kill whom they hate; | |
| Nor are they vicars, but hangmen to fate. | |
| Fool and wretch, wilt thou let thy soul be tied | |
| To man’s laws, by which she shall not be tried | |
| At the last day? or 27 will it then boot thee 28 | 95 |
| To say a Philip or a Gregory, | |
| A Harry or a Martin, taught thee 29 this? | |
| Is not this excuse for mere contraries | |
| Equally strong? cannot both sides say so? | |
| That thou mayst rightly obey power, her bounds know; | 100 |
| Those past, her nature and name is changed; 30 to be | |
| Then humble to her is idolatry. | |
| As streams are, power is; those blest flowers, that dwell 31 | |
| At the rough stream’s calm head, thrive and do well, 32 | |
| But having left their roots, and themselves given | 105 |
| To the stream’s tyrannous rage, alas, are driven | |
| Through mills, rocks, 33 and woods, and at last, almost | |
| Consumed in going, in the sea are lost. | |
| So perish souls, which more choose men’s unjust | |
| Power from God claim’d, than God Himself to trust. | 110 |
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| Note 1. l. 1. 1635, checks; 1669, cheeks [back] |
| Note 2. l. 2. Harl., These [back] |
| Note 3. l. 3. 1669, but be wise [back] |
| Note 4. l. 7. 1635, to the first [back] |
| Note 5. l. 7. Harl., blind [back] |
| Note 6. l. 17. Harl., omits and [back] |
| Note 7. l. 20. Harl., dangers of the earth [back] |
| Note 8. l. 31. Harl., Soldier [back] |
| Note 9. l. 32. So 1635; 1633, forbidden [back] |
| Note 10. l. 33. So 1635; 1633, he’s; Harl., omits he [back] |
| Note 11. l. 40. So 1635; 1633, itself death [back] |
| Note 12. l. 47. So 1635; 1669, He loves [back] |
| Note 13. l. 49. 1669, Grants [back] |
| Note 14. l. 53. Harl., which judges [back] |
| Note 15. l. 62. Harl., Prigas [back] |
| Note 16. l. 64. Harl., will marry [back] |
| Note 17. l. 66. Harl., has divers fashions, and line 67 is written as an interlineation. [back] |
| Note 18. l. 78. Harl., stay [back] |
| Note 19. l. 79. Harl., high [back] |
| Note 20. l. 80. Harl., Rugged [back] |
| Note 21. l. 81. 1669, and about it; Harl., and about [back] |
| Note 22. l. 82. Harl., resist [back] |
| Note 23. l. 84. Harl., mind [back] |
| Note 24. l. 84. So 1633, 1669; 1635, the night [back] |
| Note 25. l. 90. Harl., evil [back] |
| Note 26. l. 91. Harl., blank charts [back] |
| Note 27. l. 95. So 1635; 1633 omits Or; Harl., Oh [back] |
| Note 28. l. 95. Harl., serve thee [back] |
| Note 29. l. 97. 1669, taught me [back] |
| Note 30. l. 101. 1669, are changed [back] |
| Note 31. l. 103. Harl., which dwell [back] |
| Note 32. l. 104. Harl., prove well [back] |
| Note 33. l. 107. So 1635; 1633, and rocks; in Harl. and has been erased. [back] |
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