No More Learning

"By the Bride's eyes, and by the teeming life
Of her green hopes, we charge you that no strife,
_Further_ than _virtue lends_, gets place
Among _you catching at_ her Lace.
Oh, do not fall
Foul in these noble pastimes, lest you call
Discord in, and so divide
The _gentle_ Bridegroom and the _fragrous_ Bride,
Which Love forefend: but spoken
Be't to your praise: 'No peace was broken'.


17[10].

"Strip her of spring-time, tender whimpering maids,
Now Autumn's come, when all _those_ flowery aids
Of her delays must end, dispose
That Lady-smock, that pansy and that Rose
Neatly apart;
But for prick-madam, and for gentle-heart,
And soft maiden-blush, the Bride
Makes holy these, all others lay aside:
Then strip her, or unto her
Let him come who dares undo her.


18 [11].

"And to enchant _you_ more, _view_ everywhere [ye
About the roof a Syren in a sphere,
As we think, singing to the din
Of many a warbling cherubin:
_List, oh list! _ how
_Even heaven gives up his soul between you_ now, [ye
_Mark how_ thousand Cupids fly
To light their Tapers at the Bride's bright eye;
To bed, or her they'll tire,
Were she an element of fire.


19 [12].

"And to your more bewitching, see the proud
Plump bed bear up, and _rising_ like a cloud,
Tempting _thee, too, too_ modest; can
You see it brussle like a swan
And you be cold
To meet it, when it woos and seems to fold
The arms to hug _you_? throw, throw
Yourselves into _that main, in the full_ flow
Of _the_ white pride, and drown
The _stars_ with you in floods of down.


20 [13].

"_You see 'tis_ ready, and the maze of love
Looks for the treaders; everywhere is wove
Wit and new mystery, read and
Put in practice, to understand
And know each wile,
Each Hieroglyphic of a kiss or smile;
And do it _in_ the full, reach
High in your own conceipts, and _rather_ teach
Nature and Art one more
_Sport_ than they ever knew before.


21.

To the Maidens:]

"_And now y' have wept enough, depart; yon stars [the
Begin to pink, as weary that the wars
Know so long Treaties; beat the Drum
Aloft, and like two armies, come
And guild the field,
Fight bravely for the flame of mankind, yield
Not to this, or that assault,
For that would prove more Heresy than fault
In combatants to fly
'Fore this or that hath got the victory. _


22 [15].
"But since it must be done, despatch and sew
Up in a sheet your Bride, and what if so
It be with _rib of Rock and_ Brass,
_Yea_ tower her up, as Danae was, [ye
Think you that this,
Or Hell itself, a powerful Bulwark is?
I tell _you_ no; but like a [ye
Bold bolt of thunder he will make his way,
And rend the cloud, and throw
The sheet about, like flakes of snow.


23 [16].

"All now is hushed in silence: Midwife-moon
With all her Owl-ey'd issue begs a boon
Which you must grant; that's entrance with
Which extract, all we ? call pith
And quintessence
Of Planetary bodies; so commence,
All fair constellations
Looking upon _you_ that _the_ Nations
Springing from to such Fires
May blaze the virtue of their Sires. "

--R. HERRICK.

The variants in this version are not very important; one of the most
noteworthy, _round_ for _ground_, in stanza 5 [4], was overlooked by Dr.
Grosart in his collation. Of the seven stanzas subsequently omitted
several are of great beauty. There are few happier images in Herrick
than that of _Time throned in a saffron evening_ in stanza 11. It is
only when the earlier version is read as a whole that Herrick's taste
in omitting is vindicated. Each stanza is good in itself, but in the
MSS. the poem drags from excessive length, and the reduction of its
twenty-three stanzas to sixteen greatly improves it.

286. _Ever full of pensive fear.