No More Learning

(I dare not call ye sweepers)
So long as I am able
To keep a country table,
Great be my fare, or small cheer,
I'll eat and drink up all here.

_Troul_, pass round.


675. DENIAL IN WOMEN NO DISHEARTENING TO MEN.

Women, although they ne'er so goodly make it,
Their fashion is, but to say no, to take it.


676. ADVERSITY.

_Love is maintain'd by wealth_; when all is spent,
_Adversity then breeds the discontent_.


677. TO FORTUNE.

Tumble me down, and I will sit
Upon my ruins, smiling yet;
Tear me to tatters, yet I'll be
Patient in my necessity.
Laugh at my scraps of clothes, and shun
Me, as a fear'd infection;
Yet, scare-crow-like, I'll walk as one
Neglecting thy derision.


678. TO ANTHEA.

Come, Anthea, know thou this,
_Love at no time idle is_;
Let's be doing, though we play
But at push-pin half the day;
Chains of sweet bents let us make
Captive one, or both, to take:
In which bondage we will lie,
Souls transfusing thus, and die.
_Push-pin_, a childish game in which one player placed a pin and the
other pushed it.
_Bents_, grasses.


679. CRUELTIES.

Nero commanded; but withdrew his eyes
From the beholding death and cruelties.


680. PERSEVERANCE.

Hast thou begun an act? ne'er then give o'er:
_No man despairs to do what's done before_.


681. UPON HIS VERSES.

What offspring other men have got,
The how, where, when, I question not.
These are the children I have left,
Adopted some, none got by theft;
But all are touch'd, like lawful plate,
And no verse illegitimate.

_Touch'd_, tested.


682. DISTANCE BETTERS DIGNITIES.