Poems: by Francis Beaumont, Gent.: Viz. The hermaphrodite. The remedy of love. Elegies. Sonnets, with other poems.

The Hermaphrodite made after M. Beaumonts Death by Tho∣mas Randolph M. A. Some∣time Fellow of Trinity Col∣ledge in Cambridge.

SIr, or Madam, choose you whether, Nature twists you both together; And makes thy soule to each confesse, Both Petticoat and Breeches dresse. Thus we chastise the god of Wine With water that is Feminine, Till the cooler Nymph abate This wrath, and so incorporate. Adam till his Rib was lost Had the Sexes thus ingrost; When providence, our Sire, did cleave, And out of Adam carved Eve, Then did man 'bout Wedlock treat, To make his Body up compleat; Thus Matrimony speaks but thee In a grave solemnitie; For man and wife make but one right Cannonicall Hermaphrodite. Revell thy body, and I find In every limbe a double kind;

Who would not think that head a paire That breeds such Factions in the haire? One halfe's so churlish in the touch, That rather than endure so much I would my tender Limbs apparrell With Regulus his nailed Barrell: And the other halfe so small, And so Amorous withall, That Cupid thinks each haire to grow A string for his invisible bow. When I look babies in thine eyes, Here Venus, there Adonis lies. And though thy Beauty be high noon, Thy Orbs containe both Sun and Moon. How many melting kisses skip Betwixt thy Male and Female lip, Betwixt thy upper brush of haire, And thy nether boards despaire? When thou speak'st (I would not wrong Thy sweetnesse with a double tongue) But in every simple sound A perfect Dialogue is found. Thy Breasts distinguish one another, This is the Sister, that the Brother, When thou joyn'st hands, my eares struck fancies, The Nuptiall sound, I John take Francis. Feele but the difference soft and rough, This is a Gauntlet, that a Muffe. Had sly Ulysses at the sack Of Troy brought thee his Pedlers pack, And weapon too to know Achilles From King Nicomedes Phillis, His plot had fail'd; this hand would feele The Needle, that the warlike steele,

When Musick doth thy pace advance Thy right leg takes thy left to dance; Nor is't a Galliard danc'd by one, But a mix'd dance although alone. Thus every Heteroclite part Changes gender but the heart. And those which modesty can meane (And dare not speake, are Epicene; That Gamester needs must overcome That can play both Tib and Tom. Thus did Natures Mintage vary, Coyning thee both Phillip and Mary.