of her legs' sincerity:
And ravish'd thus, it came to pass,
The nag (like to the prophet's ass)
Began to speak, and would have been
A-telling what rare sights he'd seen:
And had told all; but did refrain
Because his tongue was tied again.
28. EXPENSES EXHAUST.
Live with a thrifty, not a needy fate;
_Small shots paid often waste a vast estate_.
_Shots_, debts.
29. LOVE, WHAT IT IS.
Love is a circle that doth restless move
In the same sweet eternity of love.
30. PRESENCE AND ABSENCE.
When what is lov'd is present, love doth spring;
But being absent, love lies languishing.
31. NO SPOUSE BUT A SISTER.
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;
Which I will keep embrac'd,
And kiss, but yet be chaste.
32. THE POMANDER BRACELET.
To me my Julia lately sent
A bracelet richly redolent:
The beads I kissed, but most lov'd her
That did perfume the pomander.
_Pomander_, a ball of scent.
33. THE SHOE-TYING.
Anthea bade me tie her shoe;
I did; and kissed the instep too:
And would have kissed unto her knee,
Had not her blush rebuked me.
34. THE CARCANET.
Instead of orient pearls of jet
I sent my love a carcanet;
About her spotless neck she knit
The lace, to honour me or it:
Then think how rapt was I to see
My jet t'enthral such ivory.
_Carcanet_, necklace.
_Lace_, any kind of girdle; used here for the necklace.
35. HIS SAILING FROM JULIA.
When that day comes, whose evening says I'm gone
Unto that watery desolation,
Devoutly to thy closet-gods then pray
That my wing'd ship may meet no remora.
Those deities which circum-walk the seas,
And look upon our dreadful passages,
Will from all dangers re-deliver me
For one drink-offering poured out by thee.
Mercy and truth live with thee! and forbear
(In my short absence) to unsluice a tear;
But yet for love's sake let thy lips do this,
Give my dead picture one engendering kiss:
Work that to life, and let me ever dwell
In thy remembrance, Julia. So farewell.
_Closet-gods_, the Roman Lares.
_Remora_, the sea Lamprey or suckstone, believed to check the course of
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