Page:Poetical Works of Robert Herrick.djvu/22

 Or to a Girle (that keeps the Neat)

With breath more sweet then Violet.

There, there, (perhaps) such Lines as These

May take the simple Villages.

But for the Court, the Country wit

Is despicable unto it.

Stay then at home, and doe not goe

Or flie abroad to seeke for woe.

Contempts in Courts and Cities dwell;

No Critick haunts the Poore mans Cell:

Where thou mayst hear thine own Lines read

By no one tongue, there, censured.

That man's unwise will search for Ill,

And may prevent it, sitting still.

While thou didst keep thy Candor undefil'd,

Deerely I lov'd thee; as my first-borne child:

But when I saw thee wantonly to roame

From house to house, and never stay at home;

I brake my bonds of Love, and bad thee goe,

Regardlesse whether well thou sped'st, or no.

On with thy fortunes then, what e're they be;

If good I'le smile, if bad I'le sigh for Thee.

To read my Booke the Virgin shie

May blush, (while Brutus standeth by:)

But when He's gone, read through what's writ,

And never staine a cheeke for it.

If thou dislik'st the Piece thou light'st on first;

Thinke that of All, that I have writ, the worst:

But if thou read'st my Booke unto the end,

And still do'st this, and that verse, reprehend: