The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2.Davies, John, Sir
General
The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2.
Davies, John, Sir
Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
'Yet your faire soule, which came from heau'n aboue
'To rule thys house,--another heau'n below,--
'With diuers powers in harmony doth moue,
'And all the vertues that from her doe flow,
'In a round measure hand in hand doe goe:
'Could I now see, as I conceiue thys Daunce,
'Wonder and Loue would cast me in a traunce.
109.
'The richest iewell in all the heau'nly treasure
'That euer yet vnto the Earth was showne,
'Is perfect Concord, th' onely perfect pleasure[253]
'That wretched earth-borne men haue euer knowne,
'For many harts it doth compound in one;
'That when so one doth will, or speake, or doe,
'With one consent they all agree thereto.
[Footnote 253: Margin-Note here, 'Concord.' G.]
110.
'Concord's true picture shineth in this art,
'Where diuers men and women rankèd be,
'And euery one doth daunce a seuerall part,
'Yet all as one, in measure doe agree,
'Obseruing perfect vniformitie;
'All turne together, all together trace,
'And all together honour and embrace.
111.
'If they whom sacred Loue hath link't in one,
'Doe as they daunce, in all their course of life,
'Neuer shall burning griefe nor bitter mone,
'Nor factious difference, nor vnkind strife,
'Arise betwixt the husband and the wife;
'For whether forth or bake[254] or round he goe
As the man doth, so must the woman doe.
[Footnote 254: 'Back,' same as 'blake,' page 176, _ante_, for 'black.'
G.]
112.
'What if by often enterchange of place
'Sometime the woman gets the vpper hand?
'That is but done for more delightfull grace,
'For one[255] that part shee doth not euer stand;
'But, as the measure's law doth her command,
'Shee wheeles about, and ere the daunce doth end,
'Into her former place shee doth transcend.
[Footnote 255: = on. G.]
113.
'But not alone this correspondence meet
'And vniform consent doth dauncing praise;
'For _Comlines_ the child of order sweet,[2]
'Enamels it with her eye-pleasing raies;
'Fair Comlines, ten hundred thousand waies,
'Through dauncing shedds it selfe, and makes shine
'With glorious beauty, and with grace diuine.
114.
'For _Comliness_ is a disposing faire
'Of things and actions in fit time and place;
'Which doth in dauncing shew it selfe most cleere,
'When troopes confus'd, which here and there doe trace
'Without distinguishment or bounded space:
'By dauncing's rule, into such ranks are brought,
'As glads the eye, as rauisheth the thought.
115.
'Then why should Reason iudge that reasonles
'Which is wit's ofspring, and the worke of art,
'Image of concord and of comlines?
'Who sees a clock mouing in euery part,
'A sayling pinnesse,[256] or a wheeling cart;
'But thinks that Reason, ere it came to passe
'The first impulsiue cause and mouer was?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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