The Parting Verse Or Charge To His Supposed Wife When He Travelled.

Go hence, and with this parting kiss,     Which joins two souls, remember this:     Though thou be'st young, kind, soft, and fair     And may'st draw thousands with a hair;     Yet let these glib temptations be     Furies to others, friends to me.     Look upon all, and though on fire     Thou set their hearts, let chaste desire     Steer thee to me, and think, me gone,     In having all, that thou hast none.     Nor so immured would I have     Thee live, as dead and in thy grave;     But walk abroad, yet wisely well     Stand for my coming, sentinel.     And think, as thou do'st walk the street,     Me or my shadow thou do'st meet.     I know a thousand greedy eyes     Will on thy feature tyrannise     In my short absence, yet behold     Them like some picture, or some mould     Fashion'd like thee, which, though 't have ears     And eyes, it neither sees or hears.     Gifts will be sent, and letters, which     Are the expressions of that itch,     And salt, which frets thy suitors; fly     Both, lest thou lose thy liberty;     For, that once lost, thou't fall to one,     Then prostrate to a million.     But if they woo thee, do thou say,     As that chaste Queen of Ithaca     Did to her suitors, this web done,     (Undone as oft as done), I'm won;     I will not urge thee, for I know,     Though thou art young, thou canst say no,     And no again, and so deny     Those thy lust-burning incubi.     Let them enstyle thee fairest fair,     The pearl of princes, yet despair     That so thou art, because thou must     Believe love speaks it not, but lust;     And this their flattery does commend     Thee chiefly for their pleasure's end.     I am not jealous of thy faith,     Or will be, for the axiom saith:     He that doth suspect does haste     A gentle mind to be unchaste.     No, live thee to thy self, and keep     Thy thoughts as cold as is thy sleep,     And let thy dreams be only fed     With this, that I am in thy bed;     And thou, then turning in that sphere,     Waking shalt find me sleeping there.     But yet if boundless lust must scale     Thy fortress, and will needs prevail,     And wildly force a passage in,     Banish consent, and 'tis no sin     Of thine; so Lucrece fell and the     Chaste Syracusian Cyane.     So Medullina fell; yet none     Of these had imputation     For the least trespass, 'cause the mind     Here was not with the act combin'd.     The body sins not, 'tis the will     That makes the action, good or ill.     And if thy fall should this way come,     Triumph in such a martyrdom.     I will not over-long enlarge     To thee this my religious charge.     Take this compression, so by this     Means I shall know what other kiss     Is mixed with mine, and truly know,     Returning, if't be mine or no:     Keep it till then; and now, my spouse,     For my wished safety pay thy vows     And prayers to Venus; if it please     The great blue ruler of the seas,     Not many full-faced moons shall wane,     Lean-horn'd, before I come again     As one triumphant, when I find     In thee all faith of womankind.     Nor would I have thee think that thou     Had'st power thyself to keep this vow,     But, having 'scaped temptation's shelf,     Know virtue taught thee, not thyself.