No More Learning

* Ah, no! and 'twould more honour prove

* He your devoto were than Love.
' 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.