Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/143

] In love's dominions native commodity

Is current payment: change is all the trade,

And heart for heart the richest merchandise.

Sem. 'Twould here be mean, my lord, since mine would prove

In your hands but a counterfeit, and yours in mine

Worth nothing. Sympathy, not greatness, makes

Those jewels rise in value.

Iol. Sympathy? O, teach but yours to love, then;

And two so rich no mortal ever knew.

Sem. That heart would love but ill that must be taught:

Such fires as these still kindle of themselves.

Iol. In such a cold and frozen place as is

Thy breast, how should they kindle of themselves,

Semanthe?

Sem. Ask how the flint can carry fire within!

'Tis the least miracle that love can do.

Iol. Thou art thyself the greatest miracle;

For thou art fair to all perfection,

And yet dost want the greatest part of beauty—

Kindness. Thy cruelty (next to thyself)

Above all things on earth takes up my wonder.

Sem. Call not that cruelty, which is our fate.

Believe me, Iolas, the honest swain,

That from the brow of some steep cliff far off

Beholds a ship labouring in vain against

The boisterous and unruly elements, ne'er had

Less power or more desire to help than I.

At every sigh I die; and every look

Does move; and any passion you will have

But love, I have in store. I will be angry,

Quarrel with destiny and with myself,

That it is no better: be melancholy;

And (though mine own disasters well might plead

To be in chief) yours only shall have place.

I'll pity, and (if that's too low) I'll grieve,

As for my sins, I cannot give you ease.

All this I do; and this I hope will prove,

'Tis greater torment not to love than love.

Iol. So perishing sailors pray to storms, and so

They hear again. So men, with death about them,

Look on physicians, that have given them o'er;

And so they turn away. Two fixed stars,

That keep a constant distance, and, by laws