| |
| COME, Fates; I fear you not! All whom I owe | |
| Are paid, but you; then ’rest me ere I go. | |
| But Chance from you all sovereignty hath got; | |
| Love woundeth none but those whom Death dares not; | |
| True if you were, 1 and just in equity, | 5 |
| I should have vanquish’d her, as you did me; | |
| Else lovers should not brave Death’s pains, and live; | |
| But ’tis a rule, “Death comes not to relieve.” | |
| Or, pale and wan Death’s terrors, are they laid | |
| So deep in lovers, they make Death afraid? | 10 |
| Or—the least comfort—have I company? | |
| O’ercame she Fates, Love, Death, 2 as well as me? | |
| Yes, Fates do silk unto her distaff pay, | |
| For ransom, which tax they on us do lay. | |
| Love gives her youth—which is the reason why | 15 |
| Youths, for her sake, some wither and some die. | |
| Poor Death can nothing give; yet, for her sake, | |
| Still in her turn, he doth a lover take. | |
| And if Death should prove false, she fears him not; | |
| Our Muses, to redeem her, she hath got. | 20 |
| That fatal night we last kiss’d, I thus pray’d, | |
| —Or rather, thus despair’d, I should have said— | |
| Kisses, and yet despair! The forbid tree | |
| Did promise (and deceive) no more than she. | |
| Like lambs, that see their teats, and must eat hay, | 25 |
| A food, whose taste hath made me pine away. | |
| Dives, when thou saw’st bliss, and craved’st to touch | |
| A drop of water, thy great pains were such. | |
| Here grief wants a fresh wit, for mine being spent, | |
| And my sighs weary, groans are all my rent. | 30 |
| Unable longer to endure the pain, | |
| They break like thunder, and do bring down rain. | |
| Thus till dry tears solder my eyes, I weep; | |
| And then, I dream, how you securely sleep, | |
| And in your dreams do laugh at me. I hate, | 35 |
| And pray Love all may; he pities my state, | |
| But says, I therein no revenge shall find; | |
| The sun would shine, though all the world were blind. | |
| Yet, to try my hate, Love show’d me your tear; | |
| And I had died, had not your smile been there. | 40 |
| Your frown undoes me; your smile is my wealth; | |
| And as you please to look, I have my health. | |
| Methought, Love pitying me, when he saw this, | |
| Gave me your hands, the backs and palms to kiss. | |
| That cured me not, but to bear pain gave strength; | 45 |
| And what is lost in force, is took in length. | |
| I call’d on Love again, who fear’d you so, | |
| That his compassion still proved greater woe; | |
| For, then I dream’d I was in bed with you, | |
| But durst not feel, for fear it should not be true. | 50 |
| This merits not your 3 anger, had it been; | |
| The queen of chastity was naked seen; | |
| And in bed not to feel, the pain I took, | |
| Was more than for Actæon not to look; | |
| And that breast which lay ope, I did not know, | 55 |
| But for the clearness, from a lump of snow; | |
| Nor that sweet teat which on the top it bore | |
| From the rose-bud which for my sake you wore. | |
| These griefs to issue forth, by verse I prove; | |
| Or turn their course by travel and new love. | 60 |
| All would not do; the best at last I tried; | |
| Unable longer to hold out, I died. | |
| And then I found I lost life, death by flying; | |
| Who hundreds live, are but so long in dying. | |
| Charon did let me pass; I’ll him requite. | 65 |
| To mark the groves or shades wrongs my delight; | |
| I’ll speak but of those ghosts I found alone, | |
| Those 4 thousand ghosts, whereof myself made one, | |
| All images of thee; I asked them why? | |
| The judge told me, all they for thee did die, | 70 |
| And therefore had for their Elysian bliss, | |
| In one another their own loves to kiss. | |
| O here I miss’d, not bliss, but being dead; | |
| For lo! I dreamt, I dreamt, and waking said, | |
| “Heaven, if who are in thee there must dwell, | 75 |
| How is’t I now was there, and now I fell?” | |
