Poems, &c. By James Shirley.

Et longum Formosa vale.— FRIENDSHIP, Or Verses sent to a Lover, in Answer of a Copie which he had writ in praise of his Mistris.

O How I blush, to have ador'd the face Of any Mistris, when I gave the grace, For which I rob'd the flowers. How I did swear Her eyes were stars, and loves soft nets her hair? Disgrac'd the chiming of the Spheres, to tell Her voice: and in her breath, profest to smell The Eastern spices on the Phoenix pile: And for her Chin, and Forehead, did beguil Heaven of his milky way: these trimmings must Be paid again, they're taken all on trust.

But let the Mistris thou dost serve, be fair With her owne beauty, as some such there are

Compound with the whole sex, to make a mind Include the Graces of fair woman-kind; I shall not think her worth my praise, or smile, And yet I have a Mistris all this while, But am a convert from that Sex, and can Reduc'd to my discretion, love a man, With Honour, and Religion; Such a one As dares be singly vertuous gainst the Town; A man that's learned too, and for his parts Is held a Prodigie of all the Arts; A man of a cleer soul, bold, temperate, free, Fortune and Passion wear his liverie, And do obey; and when he will resigne To mirth, is in at all things, but the Wine: Of an extraction Noble, and to do Him and the wonder right, he is young too: As handsome as thy Mistris, more divine, And hath no fault but that I call him mine: My jealousie doth cloud his name, 'tis fit, Nor art thou ripe for thy conversion yet.