[_The Relapse._] One of the author's best. Double rhymes often brought him luck. It was reprinted in Lawes's _Airs and Dialogues, the Second Book_, 1655, p. 7, with the heading 'He would not be tempted'. In _1647_ called 'Song' only. This edition also reads in l. 5 'blind and impious', and in l. 7 'thy name' for 'my fall'. This last, which doubtless is a slip, seems to occur in some copies of _1651_, but Brydges prints it correctly.] _To the Countess of S. with the Holy Court._ MADAM, Since every place you bless, the name This book assumes may justlier claim, (What more a court than where you shine? And where your soul, what more divine?) You may, perhaps, doubt at first sight, That it usurps upon your right; And praising virtues, that belong To you, in others, doth yours wrong; No; 'tis yourself you read, in all Perfections earlier ages call 10 Their own; all glories they e'er knew Were but faint prophecies of you. You then have here sole interest whom 'tis meant As well to entertain, as represent. [_To the Countess of S._] This lady has been supposed, probably enough, to be Dorothy Sidney or Spencer, Countess of Sunderland, and Waller's 'Sacharissa'. _The Holy Court_ was a manual of devotion by the Jesuit Caussin, translated into English as early as 1626.] _Song._ DE VOITURE. I languish in a silent flame; For she, to whom my vows incline, Doth own perfections so divine, That but to speak were to disclose her name If I should say that she the store Of Nature's graces doth comprise, The love and wonder of all eyes, Who will not guess the beauty I adore? Or though I warily conceal The charms her looks and soul possess; 10 Should I her cruelty express, And say she smiles at all the pains we feel; Among such suppliants as implore Pity, distributing her hate, Inexorable as their fate, Who will not guess the beauty I adore? [_Song._] Stanley was less _impar congressus_ with Voiture than with Ronsard, and this is well done. The stanza is well framed and is different from the French ('Je me tais et me sens brûler', Chanson LIV, _[Oe]uvres_ de Voiture, ed. Ubicini, Paris, 1855, ii. 336).] _Drawn for Valentine by the L. D. S._