William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
Friendship and Single Life, against Love and MarriageSir John Denham (16151669)
L
Dipt, when it makes a bleeding heart?
None know, but they who feel the smart.
And our corporeal eyes (we find)
Dazzle the optics of our mind.
Through those deceitful sally-ports,
Our sentinels betray our forts.
To change his pleasure into pains,
And all his freedom into chains?
Like wedlock, honour’s title have?
That word makes free-born man a slave.
Him neither hope nor fear deceives,
To fortune who no hostage gives.
If here uneasy, finds at Rome,
At Paris, or Madrid, his home.
His life, his zeal, his wealth attends
His prince, his country, and his friends.
But a fond wife, or wanton boy,
May all those generous thoughts destroy.
Thinks of providing for an heir;
Learns how to get, and how to spare.
The Trojan hero did affright,
Who bravely twice renew’d the fight.
Thicker their darts and arrows flew,
Yet left alone, no fear he knew.
From every thing he sees and hears,
For whom he leads, and whom he bears.
Like a fierce torrent, overflows
Whatever doth his course oppose.
Thy mother from the sea was sprung,
But they were mad to make thee young.
From our desires our actions grow;
And from the cause the effect must flow.
’Twas he the fatal tree did climb,
Grandsire of father Adam’s crime.
Religion, wisdom, honour, law,
The tyrant in his triumph draw.
Phœbus resigns his darts, and Jove
His thunder, to the God of Love.
Nor Mars (her champion’s) flaming shield
Guards him, when Cupid takes the field.
Much higher than fruition is;
But less than nothing if it miss.
The cause transcending the effects,
That wild-fire’s quench’d in cold neglects.
Where Love’s of blindness despossest,
By perspectives of interest.
To get a wise successor strives,
But one (and he a fool) survives.
They with their friends their beds did share,
Secure t’adopt a hopeful heir.
Makes; and breaks friendship, whose delights
Feeds, but not glut our appetites.
Of virtues, all our joys make double,
And into halves divides our trouble.
Care, avarice, fear, and jealousy,
Make friendship languish till it die.
When they their prey in pieces tear,
To quarrel with themselves forbear.
When love into their veins doth creep,
That law of nature cease to keep.
Who, the fair Helen to enjoy,
To quench his own, set fire on Troy?
Amongst all creatures, mortal hate
Love (though immortal) doth create.
Their actions not by reason sway,
But their brute appetites obey.
From reason to self-love declin’d.
Delights to prey upon his kind.