For I pass'd o'er the selfsame walk,
And did not find one single stalk15
Of any thing that was to bring
This unknown after-after-spring.
Thom.
A thing so near a Deity
Move up and down, and feel no change?20
J. S.
I had my thoughts, but not your way;
All are not born, sir, to the bay:
Alas! Tom, I am flesh and blood,
And was consulting how I could25
In spite of masks and hoods descry
The parts denied unto the eye:
I was undoing all she wore;
And, had she walkt but one turn more,
Eve in her first state had not been30
More naked, or more plainly seen.
Thom.
There is great danger in that face;
But, hadst thou view'd her leg and thigh,
And, upon that discovery,35
Search'd after parts that are more dear
(As Fancy seldom stops so near),
No time or age had ever seen
So lost a thing as thou hadst been.
TO MR. DAVENANT FOR ABSENCE
Wonder not, if I stay not here:
Hurt lovers, like to wounded deer,
Must shift the place; for standing still
Leaves too much time to know our ill:
Where there is a traitor eye,5
That lets in from th' enemy
All that may supplant an heart,
'Tis time the chief should use some art.
