Works

A bachelor I will
Live as I have liv'd still,
And never take a wife
To crucify my life;
But this I'll tell ye too,
What now I mean to do:
A sister (in the stead
Of wife) about I'll lead;...

'Tis not ev'ry day that I
Fitted am to prophesy:
No, but when the spirit fills
The fantastic pannicles,
Full of fire, then I write
As the Godhead doth indite.
Thus enraged, my lines are hurl'd,...

Nothing comes free-cost here; Jove will not let
His gifts go from him, if not bought with sweat.

Nothing is new; we walk where others went;
There's no vice now but has his precedent.

By hours we all live here; in Heaven is known
No spring of time, or time's succession.

Why should we covet much, whenas we know
W'ave more to bear our charge than way to go?

He that will not love must be
My scholar, and learn this of me:
There be in love as many fears
As the summer's corn has ears:
Sighs, and sobs, and sorrows more
Than the sand that makes the shore:...

To bread and water none is poor;
And having these, what need of more?
Though much from out the cess be spent,
Nature with little is content.

The power of princes rests in the consent
Of only those who are obedient:
Which if away, proud sceptres then will lie
Low, and of thrones the ancient majesty.

The gods to kings the judgment give to sway:
The subjects only glory to obey.

A way enhanced with glass and beads
There is, that to the Chapel leads;
Whose structure, for his holy rest,
Is here the Halcyon's curious nest;
Into the which who looks, shall see...

Hapcot! To thee the Fairy State
I with discretion, dedicate.
Because thou prizest things that are
Curious, and un-familiar.
Take first the feast; these dishes gone,
We'll see the Fairy Court anon....

After the feast, my Shapcot, see
The fairy court I give to thee;
Where we'll present our Oberon, led
Half-tipsy to the fairy bed,
Where Mab he finds, who there doth lie,
Not without mickle majesty....

Who to the north, or south, doth set
His bed, male children shall beget.

Horne sells to others teeth; but has not one
To grace his own gums, or of box, or bone.

I do not love, nor can it be
Love will in vain spend shafts on me;
I did this godhead once defy,
Since which I freeze, but cannot fry.
Yet out, alas! the death's the same,
Kill'd by a frost or by a flame.

How Love came in, I do not know,
Whether by th'eye, or ear, or no;
Or whether with the soul it came,
At first, infused with the same;
Whether in part 'tis here or there,...

You say you're sweet: how should we know
Whether that you be sweet or no?
From powders and perfumes keep free;
Then we shall smell how sweet you be!

Goes the world now, it will with thee go hard:
The fattest hogs we grease the more with lard.
To him that has, there shall be added more;
Who is penurious, he shall still be poor.

Thousands each day pass by, which we,
Once past and gone, no more shall see.