Although thy hand and faith, and good works too,
Have seal'd thy love which nothing should undo,
Yea though thou fall back, that
Confirm thy love; yet much, much I fear thee.
Women are like the Arts, forc'd unto none,
Open to'all searchers, unpriz'd, if unknown.
If I have caught a bird, and let him fly,
Another fouler using these means, as I,
May catch the same bird; and, as these things be,
Women are made for men, not him, nor me.
Foxes and goats; all beasts change when they please,
Shall women, more hot, wily, wild then these,
Be bound to one man, and did Nature
Idly make them apter to endure than men?
They are our clogges, not their own; if a man
Chain'd to a galley, yet the galley is free;
Who hath a plow-land, casts all his seed corn there,
And yet allows his ground more corn should bear;
Though Danuby into the sea must flow,
The sea receives the Rhene,
Volga, and Po.
By nature, which gave it, this
Thou lov'st, but Oh! canst thou love it and me?
Likeness glues love:
Then if so thou do,
To make us like and love, must I change too?
More than thy hate,
I hate it, rather let
Allow her change, then change as oft as she,
And so not teach, but force my
To love not any one, nor every one.
To live in one land is captivity,
To run all countries, a wild roguery;
Waters stink soon, if in one place they bide,
And in the vast sea are worse putrified:
But when they kiss one bank, and leaving
Never look back, but the next bank do kiss,
Then are they purest;
Change is the
Of music, joy, life, and eternity.
