Works

Chorus.

What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a Carol, for to sing
The Birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the Voice! Awake the String!
Heart, Ear, and Eye, and every thing...

That prince who may do nothing but what's just,
Rules but by leave, and takes his crown on trust.

What is a kiss? Why this, as some approve:
The sure, sweet cement, glue, and lime of love.

MONTANO, SILVIO, AND MIRTILLO, SHEPHERDS

MON. Bad are the times. SIL. And worse than they are we.
MON. Troth, bad are both; worse fruit, and ill the tree:...

Mon. Bad are the times. Sil. And worse than they are we.
Mon. Troth, bad are both; worse fruit and ill the tree:
The feast of shepherds fail. Sil. None crowns the cup
Of wassail now or sets the quintell up;...

AMIN. Good day, Mirtillo. MIRT. And to you no less;
And all fair signs lead on our shepherdess.
AMAR. With all white luck to you. MIRT. But say,
What news...

Care keeps the conquest; 'tis no less renown
To keep a city than to win a town.

Kings must not only cherish up the good,
But must be niggards of the meanest blood.

As oft as night is banish'd by the morn,
So oft we'll think we see a king new born.

Of both our fortunes good and bad we find
Prosperity more searching of the mind:
Felicity flies o'er the wall and fence,
While misery keeps in with patience.

How am I bound to Two! God, who doth give
The mind; the king, the means whereby I live.

God has four keys, which He reserves alone:
The first of rain; the key of hell next known;
With the third key He opes and shuts the womb;
And with the fourth key he unlocks the tomb.

The publisher's freak, by which Herrick's three chief Fairy poems ("The Fairy Temple; or, Oberon's Chapel," "Oberon's Feast," and "Oberon's Palace") are separated from each other, is greatly to be regretted. The last two, both ...

When I did go from thee I felt that smart
Which bodies do when souls from them depart.
Thou did'st not mind it; though thou then might'st see
Me turn'd to tears; yet did'st not weep for me....

Men are not born kings, but are men renown'd;
Chose first, confirm'd next, and at last are crown'd.

'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known:
Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own.

Give me the food that satisfies a guest:
Kisses are but dry banquets to a feast.

I abhor the slimy kiss,
Which to me most loathsome is.
Those lips please me which are placed
Close, but not too strictly laced:
Yielding I would have them; yet
Not a wimbling tongue admit:...

Kissing and bussing differ both in this;
We buss our wantons, but our wives we kiss.

Biancha, let
Me pay the debt
I owe thee for a kiss
Thou lend'st to me;
And I to thee
Will render ten for this.

If thou wilt say,
Ten will not pay
For that so rich a one;...