Madam, who understands you well would swear, That you the Life, and this your Copy were.
Not that I would instruct or tutor you What is a wife's behest, or husband's due, Give I this Widow-Wife. Your early date Of knowledge makes such precepts slow and late. This book is but your glass, where you shall see What yourself are, what other wives should be.
[Line: 3 Widow-] Overbury himself being dead.]
This pile thou seest built out of flesh, not stone, Contains no shroud within, nor mould'ring bone.
This bloodless trunk is destitute of tomb Which may the soul-fled mansion enwomb.
This seeming sepulchre (to tell the troth) Is neither tomb nor body, and yet both.
_Upon a Braid of Hair in a Heart sent by Mrs. E. H._
In this small character is sent My Love's eternal monument. Whilst we shall live, know this chain'd heart Is our affection's counterpart. And if we never meet, think I Bequeath'd it as my legacy.
[_Upon a Braid of Hair, &c._] There is something rather out of the common way about this little piece. King married early and his wife died after a few years. How he loved her _The Exequy_ and _The Anniverse_ will tell in a few pages. But her initials were A. B. (Anne Berkeley) not E. H. On the other hand, his sister _E_lizabeth married Edward _H_olt, groom of the bedchamber to Charles I, who died in attendance on his master (see Elegy on him, _inf._). The verses might be fraternal, and are certainly sincere.]
Tell me no more how fair she is, I have no mind to hear The story of that distant bliss I never shall come near: By sad experience I have found That her perfection is my wound.
And tell me not how fond I am To tempt a daring Fate, From whence no triumph ever came, But to repent too late: 10 There is some hope ere long I may In silence dote myself away.
I ask no pity, Love, from thee, Nor will thy justice blame, So that thou wilt not envy me The glory of my flame: Which crowns my heart whene'er it dies, In that it falls her sacrifice.
[_Tell me no more, &c._] The heading of this famous thing as 'Sonnet' has, of course, nothing surprising in it: in fact, the successive attachment of the title to five poems in a batch here and to four more a little lower down--no one of which is a quatorzain, and hardly two of which agree in form--is a capital example of the looseness with which that title was used. MS. copies appear to have 'Sonnet' with _no_ particular addition in some cases.