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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.Stanley, Thomas

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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

Name: Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.
Author: Stanley, Thomas

Stanley, Thomas

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Stanley, Thomas, 1625-1678

ANSWER [TO "THE UNION," POEM ADDRESSED TO
            STANLEY BY HIS FRIEND AND TUTOR, WILLIAM
            FAIRFAX].[15:1]

    If we are one, dear Friend! why shouldst thou be
    At once unequal to thyself and me?
    By thy release thou swell'st my debt the more,
    And dost but rob thyself to make me poor.
    What part can I have in thy luminous cone,                         5
    What flame, since my love's thine, can call my own,
    (The palest star is less the son of night,)
    Who but thy borrow'd know no native light?[15:2]
    Was't not enough thou freely didst bestow
    The Muse, but thou must[15:3] give the laurel too,                10
    And twice my aims by thy assistance raise,
    Conferring first the merit, then the praise?
    But I should do thee greater injury,
    Did I believe this praise were meant to me,
    Or thought, though thou hast worth enough to spare                15
    T'enrich another soul, that mine should share.
    Thy Muse, seeming to lend, calls home her fame,
    And her due wreath doth, in renouncing, claim.




V. LYRICS PRINTED ONLY IN EDITIONS OF 1647 AND 1657 [GAMBLE].


          THE BLUSH.

    So fair Aurora doth herself discover
    (Asham'd o' th' aged bed of her cold lover,)
    In modest blushes, whilst the treacherous light
    Betrays her early shame to the world's sight.
    Such a bright colour doth the morning rose                         5
    Diffuse, when she her soft self doth disclose
    Half drown'd in dew, whilst on each leaf a tear
    Of night doth like a dissolv'd pearl appear;
    Yet 'twere in vain a colour out to seek
    To parallel my Chariessa's cheek;                                 10
    Less are compar'd[16:1] with greater, and these seem
    To blush like her, not she to blush like them.
    But whence, fair soul, this passion? what pretence
    Had guilt to stain thy spotless innocence?
    Those only this feel who have guilty been,                        15
    Not any blushes know, but who know[16:2] sin.
    Then blush no more; but let thy chaster flame,
    That knows no cause, know no effects of shame.


          THE COLD KISS.

    Such icy kisses, anchorites that live
    Secluded from the world, to dead skulls give;
    And those[17:1] cold maids on whom Love never spent
    His flame, nor know what by desire is meant,
    To their expiring fathers such bequeath,                           5
    Snatching their fleeting spirits in that breath:
    The timorous priest doth with such fear and nice
    Devotion touch the Holy Sacrifice.

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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

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