52
COMUS
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loyns
She hutch’t th’all-worshipt ore and precious gems,
To store her children with. If all the world
Should in a pet of temperance feed on Pulse,
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but Freize,
Th’all-giver would be unthank’t, would be unprais’d,
Not half his riches known, and yet despis’d;
And we should serve him as a grudging master,
As a penurious niggard of his wealth;
And live like Natures bastards, not her sons,
Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,
And strangl’d with her waste fertility,
Th’earth cumber’d, and the wing’d air dark’t with plumes;
The herds would over-multitude their Lords,
The Sea o’refraught would swell, and th’unsought diamonds
Would so emblaze the forhead of the Deep,
And so bestudd with Stars, that they below
Would grow inur’d to light, and com at last
To gaze upon the Sun with shameless brows.
List, Lady: be not coy, and be not cosen’d
With that same vaunted name, Virginity;
Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,
But must be currant; and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,
Unsavoury in th’injoyment of it self.
She hutch’t th’all-worshipt ore and precious gems,
To store her children with. If all the world
Should in a pet of temperance feed on Pulse,
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but Freize,
Th’all-giver would be unthank’t, would be unprais’d,
Not half his riches known, and yet despis’d;
And we should serve him as a grudging master,
As a penurious niggard of his wealth;
And live like Natures bastards, not her sons,
Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,
And strangl’d with her waste fertility,
Th’earth cumber’d, and the wing’d air dark’t with plumes;
The herds would over-multitude their Lords,
The Sea o’refraught would swell, and th’unsought diamonds
Would so emblaze the forhead of the Deep,
And so bestudd with Stars, that they below
Would grow inur’d to light, and com at last
To gaze upon the Sun with shameless brows.
List, Lady: be not coy, and be not cosen’d
With that same vaunted name, Virginity;
Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,
But must be currant; and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,
Unsavoury in th’injoyment of it self.
