t Alexis sees and heares,
As walking above all the spheres:
Knows and adores this, and is wilde,<33.21>
Untill with her he live thus milde.<33.22>
So that, which to his thoughts he meant
For losse of her a punishment,
His armes hung up and his sword broke,
His ensignes folded, he betook
Himself unto the humble crook.
And for a full reward of all,
She now doth him her shepheard call,
And in a see of flow'rs install:
Then gives her faith immediately,
Which he returns religiously;
Both vowing in her peacefull cave
To make their bridall-bed and grave.
But the true joy this pair conceiv'd,
Each from the other first bereav'd,
And then found, after such alarmes,
Fast-pinion'd in each other's armes,
Ye panting virgins, that do meet
Your loves within their winding sheet,
Breathing and constant still ev'n there;
Or souls their bodies in yon' sphere,
Or angels, men return'd from hell
And separated mindes--can tell.

<33.1> The punctuation of this piece is in the original edition
singularly corrupt. I have found it necessary to amend it
throughout.

<33.2> The marigold.

<33.3> A flower so called.

<33.4> More commonly known as THE GILLIFLOWER.

<33.5> i.e. the lady gathers the flowers, and binds them in her
hair with a silken fillet, making of them a kind of chaplet
or crown.

<33.6> i.e. silvery or white milk.

<33.7> An uncommon word, signifying WRINKLED. Bishop Hall seems
to be, with the exception of Lovelace, almost the only writer who
used it. Compare, however, the following passage:--

"Like to a WRITHEL'D Carion I have seen
(Instead of fifty, write her down fifteen)
Wearing her bought complexion in a box,
And ev'ry morn her closet-face unlocks."
PLANTAGENET'S TRAGICALL STORY, by T. W. 1649, p. 105.

<33.8> Original has PRIZE THEIR.

<33.9> The fish with their silvery scales.

<33.10> Fins.

<33.11> Original reads BUT LOOK.

<33.12> Original has THERE.

<33.13> i.e. condemned.

<33.14> This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning.
See Halliwell's DICTIONARY OF ARCHAIC WORDS, art. POSSE, and
Worcester's Dict. IBID, &c. The context here requires TO TURN
SHARPLY OR QUICKLY.

<33.15> Original has SIGHT.

<33.16> Original reads I. The meaning seems to be, "I crave
that my woes may be smothered in me, and I may be smothered
in my grave."

<33.17> Reverence.

<33.18> i.e. in heaven.

<33.19> i.e. than among human kind.

<33.20> It may be pre