BY JOHN DONNE, D.D.
DEAN OF ST. PAULS.*
COME live with mee, and bee my love;
And we will fome new pleasures prove
Of golden fands, and christall brookes,
With filken lines, and filver hookes.
5
There will the river whispring runne,
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the funne;
And there th' inamor'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.
When thou wilt fwimme in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channell hath,
Will amourously to thee swimme,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.
"
If thou to be so seene beeft loath
By funne or moone, thou darknest both;
And if my felfe have leave to fee,
I need not their light, having thee.
*Born 1573; dyed 1631.—This fong is in imitation of a ftill more beautiful one by Chriftopher Marlowe, beginning with the fame line.
Let others freez with angling reeds,
And cut their legges with thels and weeds,
Or treacherously poore fish befet,
With ftrangling fnare, or windowie net: 20
Let coarse bold hands from flimy neft
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest,
Or curious traitors, fleave filke flies,
Bewitch poore fishes wandring eyes:
For thee, thou needst no fuch deceit,
For thou thy felfe art thine owne baite;
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas! is wifer farre than I.
ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, SISTER TO SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
UNDERNEATH this marble herse
Lies the fubject of all verse,
Sidney's fifter, Pembroke's mother;
Death, ere thou haft flain another,
Learn'd, and fair, and good as fhe,
Time fhall throw his dart at thee.
ON MICHAEL DRAYTON, ESQ.
DOE, pious marble, let thy readers knowe,
What they, and what their children, owe
To Draiton's name, whose facred duft
Wee recommend unto thy truft:
Protect his mem'ry, and preserve his storye,
Remaine a lafting monument of his glorye:
Born 1574; dyed 1638.
And when thy ruines shall disclame
To be the treas'rer of his name,
His name, that cannot fade, shall be
An everlafting monument to thee.
TO HIS SON, VINCENT CORBET.
BY RICHARD CORBET, BISHOP OF NORWICH.*
WHAT I fhall leave thee none can tell,
But all shall say I wish thee well:
I wish thee (Vin) before all wealth,
Both bodily and ghostly health:
6
Nor too much wealth, nor wit, come to thee,
So much of either may undo thee.
I wish thee learning, not for fhow,
Enough for to inftruct; and know;
Not fuch as gentlemen require,
To prate at table or at fire.
I wish thee all thy mothers graces,
Thy fathers fortunes, and his places.
I wish thee friends, and one at court,
Not to build on, but fupport;
To keep thee, not in doing many
Oppreffions, but from fuffering any.
I wish thee peace in all thy ways,
Nor lazy, nor contentious days;
And, when thy foul and body part,
As innocent as now thou art,
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