Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/56

36 And be for once content to live, Since here it cannot have to thrive; It will not be amiss t' enquire What fuel should maintain this fire: For fires do either flame too high, Or, where they cannot flame they die. First then (my half but better heart) Know this must wholly be her part; (For thou and I, like clocks, are wound Up to the height, and must move round): She then, by still denying what We fondly crave, shall such a rate Set on each trifle, that a kiss Shall come to be the utmost bliss. Where sparks and fire do meet with tinder, Those sparks mere fire will still engender: To make this good, no debt shall be From service or fidelity; For she shall ever pay that score, By only bidding us do more: So (though she still a niggard be) In gracing, where none's due, she's free. The favours she shall cast on us, (Lest we should grow presumptuous) Shall not with too much love be shown, Nor yet the common way still done; But ev'ry smile and little glance Shall look half lent, and half by chance: The ribbon, fan, or muff that she Would should be kept by thee or me, Should not be giv'n before too many, But neither thrown to 's, when there's any; So that herself should doubtful be Whether 'twere fortune flung 't, or she. She shall not like the thing we do Sometimes, and yet shall like it too; Nor any notice take at all Of what, we gone, she would extol. Love she shall feed, but fear to nourish; For, where fear is, love cannot flourish; Yet live it must, nay must and shall, While Desdemona is at all: But, when she's gone, then love shall die, And in her grave buried lie.