Love and Honour: Or,
The Lovers Farewel to Calista.
Being sent from Sea in the late Enngagemet against the Dutch, to his Mistris, under the
Name of Calista. With the Ladies deploring and ingenious Answer.
To a New sad Air much in request; Or, Tune of, Now the Tyrant hath stolen.
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FArewel my Calista my joy and my grief,
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In vain have I lovd thee, and found no relief;
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Undone by your Virtues so strict and severe,
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Your eyes gave me love, but you gave me despair.
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Now cald by my honour, I seek with content,
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That fate which in pitty you would not prevent:
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To languish in love were to find by delay,
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A death thats more welcome the speediest way.
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In Seas, and in Battails, mongst bullets and fire
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The danger is less then in hopeless desire.
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The dea[t]hs wound you gave me, though far off, I bear
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My fa[l]l from y[o]ur sights not to cost you a tear.
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But if [t]he kind flood on a wave should convey,
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And under your window my body should lay,
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The wound on my breast, when you happen to see
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you would say with a sigh, It was given by me,
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When Suitors are wounded with stabs of disdain
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Tis happiness to be put out of their pain:
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The grave is a place to bid torment farewel,
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But Lovers are torturd twixt Heaven and Hell
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When frowns of a Mistriss do turn a man ore,
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Tis safer on Ship-board then tis on the shore:
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I find by experience, though with loss of breath
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Tis worse to encounter with Cupid then Death
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What strength hath a Lady with cast of her eye,
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To make a man live, or compel him to dye:
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Such power had Calista with smile and with frown
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Shed raise me to heaven, then tumble me down.
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But dearest take care how you put faith in men,
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For I fear you will never be lovd so agen.
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You needs must acknowledge, whilst I could draw breath
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I was your unchangeable servant till death,
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ONce more my last farewel I breath in a blast
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The cloud on my vitals is much over-cast:
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I faint, fail, I perish, and suddenly dye,
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Yet sure should recover if thou wert but by:
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That I nere enjoyd thee I do not repine,
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Thou liv[]st with thy honour, and I dye with mine:
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For to alter ages this story will prove,
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I dyed in the war for my King and my Love.
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The Ladies Answer.
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BLame not your Calista, nor call her your grief
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Twas Honour, not she, that denyd you relief:
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Abuse not her vertues, nor term them severe,
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Who loves without honour, must look for despair.
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Now prompted by pitty I truly lament,
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The force of your fate which I could not prevent:
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And languish to think that your blood should defray
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The expence of your love, though so noble a way.
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On Seas and in Battails that you did expire,
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Was causd by your Valour, not hopeless desire;
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Of your Fame, there acquired, I greedily hear,
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And grieve when I think that it cost you so dear:
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But when your sad friends shall your body convey
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By my window your funeral duties to pay,
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Ile sigh that your fate then I could not rev[erse,]
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And all my kind wishes Ile shew on your He[rse.]
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When Suitors petition and run upon shelves,
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Or shot, if denyd, they do murder themselves:
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The grave is a couch where the vertuous rema[in,]
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Without expectation of sorrow or pain.
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If the frowns of a Mistriss can rule a mans fat[e,]
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He values his life at a pitiful rate:
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Though now she look cloudy, when she draws [the] sce[ne,]
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Who knows but the day-light may clear up age[n.]
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The looks of a Lady you falsely do scan,
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Tis not strength in the woman, but weakness [in] M[an,]
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When men set up Idols of flesh, blood, and bo[ne,]
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And bow down to worship, the fault is their ow[n:]
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I hope I shall ner be deceived by Men:
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For your sake I never shall trust them agen:
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Tis fatal when Lovers do suffer such strife,
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That one must lose honour, or thother lose life
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My mind never can your last farewel forget,
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My tears shall confess Ile not dye in your debt:
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I heartily wish I had been by your side,
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That you might recover, or I might have dye[d:]
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Then both to Elezium we had been conveyd,
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Where Ladies by Lovers are never betrayd
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But in future ages in sonets theyl sing,
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Twas long of your love that you dyd for yo[ur] Kin[g,]
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