No More Learning

' Here live beloved and obeyed^

' Each one your sister, each your maid,

* And, if our rule seem strictly penned,

* The rule itself to you shall bend.

* Our Abbess, too, now far in age,

* Doth your succession near presage.

* How soft the yoke on us would lie,

* Might such fair hands as yours it tie !

* Your voice, the sweetest of the choir,

* Shall draw heaven nearer, raise us higher,

* And your example, if our head,

* Will soon us to perfection lead.

* Those virtues to us all so dear,



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OF MARVBLL. 13

* Will straight grow sanctity when here ;
^ And that, once sprung, increase so fast,

* Till miracles it work at last.

* Nor is our order yet so nice,

* Delight to banish as a vice : iw
< Here Pleasure Piety doth meet,

* One perfecting the other sweet ;

* So through the mortal fruit we boil
*The sugar's uncoiTupting oil,

'^ And that which perished while we pull, m

* Is thus preserved clear and full.

^ For such indeed are all our arts,
^ Still handling Nature's finest parts :

* Flowers dress the altars ; for the clothes

* The sea-bom amber we compose ; im
^ Balms for the griev'd w« draw ; and pastes

^ We mould as baits for curioils tastes.

* What need is here of man, unless

* These as sweet sins we should confess ?

*' Each night among us to your side i»

* Appoint a fresh and virgin bride,

* Whom, if our Lord at midnight find,

* Yet neither should be left behind !

* Where you may lie as chaste in bed,

* As pearls together billeted, •»

* All night embracing, arm in arm,

* Like crystal pure, with cotton warm.

* But what is this to all the store

* Of joys you see, and may make more ?

* Try but awhile, if you be wise : i»

* The trial neither costs nor ties. "



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14 THE POEMS

Now, Fairfax, seek her promised faith ;
Keligion that dispensed hath
Which she henceforward does begin ;
The Nun's smooth tongue has sucked her in.
Oft, though he knew it was in vain,
Yet would he valiantly complain :

* Is this that sanctity so great,

* An art by which you finelier cheat ?
* Hypocrite witches, hence avaunt,

* Who, though in prison, yet enchant !

* Death only can such thieves make fast,

* As rob, though in the dungeon cast.

* Were there but, when this house was made,

* One stone that a just hand had laid,

* It must have fallen upon her head

* Who first thee from thy faith misled.

* And yet, how well soever meant,

' With them 'twould soon grow fraudulent ;
' For like themselves they alter all,

* And vice infects the very wall ;

* But sure those buildings last not long,

* Founded by folly, kept by wrong.

^ I know what fruit their gardens yield,

* When they it think by night concealed.

* Fly from their vices : 'tis thy state,

* Not thee, that they would consecrate.

* Fly fix)m their ruin : how I fear,

* Though guiltless, lest thou perish there I'

What should he do ? He would respect
Keligion, but not right neglect ;



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OF MARVELL. 15

For first, religion taught him right,

And dazzled not, but cleared his sight.

Sometimes, resolved, his sword he draws,

But reverenceth then the laws ; «»

For justice still that courage led.

First from a judge, then soldier bred.

Small honour would be in the storm ;

The Court him gmnts the lawful form.

Which licensed either peace or force, «»

To hinder the unjust divorce.

Yet still the Nuns his right debarr'd.

Standing upon their holy guard.

Ill-counselled women, do you know

Whom you resist, or what to do ?