Still When we expect Our bliss time creeps, but when the happier things call to enjoy each saucy hour hath wings
By Duke,
in The Traitor (1.2),
James Shirley
in Harvard MS Fr. 487, f. 67r
Sir I must owe the title of a traitor to your high favours; envy first conspired and malice
now accuses, but what story mentioned his name that had his princes bosom with out the peoples
hate, tis sin enough in some men to be great, the throng of stars the rout and com=
mon people of the sky move still another way than the sun does
By Lorenzo,
in The Traitor (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
had raised commotions in our Florence When the hinge of state did faint under the burthen | and the people
sweat with their own fears, to think The soldier should inhabit their calm dwellings, Who then rose up your safety, and crushed all Their plots to air?
By Lorenzo,
in The Traitor (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
Looke heedfully about me, and thou may'st | discover through some cranny of my flesh | a fire
with in, my soul is but one flame | extended to all parts of this frail building, | I shall turn ashes I
begin to shrink | is not already my complexion alterd, | does not my face look parched
and my skin gather | into a heap? my breath is hot enough | to thaw the Alps.
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
Me-thinks I could turn poet | and make her a more excellent piece then heaven. | let not fond
men hereafter commend what | they most admire by fetching from the stars | or flowers their
glory of similitude; | but from thyself the rule to know all beauty, | and he that shall arrive
at so much boldnesse, | to say his mistress' eyes, or voice, or breath, | are half so bright, so clear
so sweet as thine, | hath told the world enough of miracle.
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
The duke himself shall thee his, and single you from the fair troop, thy person forth, to exhange embraces with, lay seige to these soft lips, and not remove
till he hath sucked thy heart, | which soon dissolv'd with thy sweet breath, shall be | made part of
his, at the same instant, he conveying a new soul into thy breast, | with a creating kiss.
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
Come, I find you're cunning; The news does please the rolling of your Eye | betrays you, and I see a guilty blush | through
this white veil upon your cheek; you would have it confirmed you shall, the duke himself Shall swear he loves you
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
He's not in the common list of friends, | and he does love thee past imagination; | next his religion
he has placed the thought | of Oriana, he sleeps nothing else | and I shall wake him into heaven, to
say | thou hast consented to be his.
By Cosmo,
in The Traitor (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73r
thou hast a quarrel / and a just one with thy stars, that did not make thee / a princess
Amidea, yet thou'rt greater / and born to justify unto these times / Venus, the queen of Love, was but thy figure, | and all her graces prophecies of thine, / to make our last age
best; I could dwell ever / here and imagine I weream in a temple, to offer on this
altar of thy lip, / myriads of flaming kisses with a cloud / of sighs breathed from my
heart / which by the oblation would increase his stock, to make my pay eternal.
By Duke,
in The Traitor (3.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73v
a kisse
A man half dead with famine would wish here / to feed on smiles, of which the least hath
power /
to call an anchorite from his prayers, tempt saints / to wish their bodies on. /
By Duke,
in The Traitor (3.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73v
the Phoenix with her wings, when she is dying / can fan her ashes into another life; But When thy breath more sweet then all the spice / that helps the others funeral returns to
heaven, the world must be eternal loser ./
By Duke,
in The Traitor (3.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73v
wise men secure their fates, and execute / invisibly, like that most subtle flame / that burns
the heart, yet leaves no part or t o uch / Upon the skin to follow or suspect it:
By Lorenzo,
in The Traitor (4.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73v
xx
my lord I may do you service with a leading voice in the country, the kennel will
cry a my side if it come to election, you or your freind shall carry it against the commonwealth.
By Depazzi,
in The Traitor (4.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 73v
Though I have / no weapon, I will look thee dead, or breath / a dampe shall stifle thee, that
I could vomit / consuming flames, or stones like, Etna, make / the earth with motion of my feet
shrink lower, / and take thee in alive, oh that my voice / could call a serpent from corrupted Nile / to make thee part of her accursed bowels.
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (4.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 74r
A melancholy chamberin the earth, hung round about with skulls and dead- men's bones.
Ere Amidea have told all her tears / upon thy marble, or the epitaph / Bely thy soul, by saying
it is fled / to heaven: this sister shall be ravished, Maugre thy dust and heraldry.
By Lorenzo,
in The Traitor (4.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 74r
This white hand; Amidea that hath so often / with admiration trembled on the lute, / till we have
prayed thee leave the strings awhile, / and laid our ears close to thy ivory fingers, / suspecting all the
harmony proceeded / from their owne motion / with out the need / of any dull or passive instruments
By Schiarra,
in The Traitor (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 74r
I see Pisanos blood / is texted in thy forehead, and thy hands / retain too many,
crimson spots already / make not thyself, by murthering of thy sister / all a red letter.
By Amidea,
in The Traitor (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 74r
I care not a beanestalke for [the] best what lack you on you all, no not [the] next day after Simon and Jude; when you go a feasting to Westminster [with] your galleyfoist and your pot guns, to [the] very terror of [the] paper-whales, when you land in shoals, and make [the] understanders in Cheapside, wonder to see ships swim upon mens shoulders, when [the]
By Clod,
in Contention for Honour and Riches (1.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 75v
Fencers flourish, and make the kings liege people fall down and worship the devil and saint Dunstan, when your whifflers are hanged in chains, and Hercules' club spits fire
about the pageants, though the poor children catch cold, that shew like painted cloth,
and are / only kept alive with sugar- plums:
By Clod,
in Contention for Honour and Riches (1.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76r
thou, that wert begot upon an hay-mow, bred in thy father's stable,
and out-dunged his cattle; thou that at one ofand twenty, wert only able to write a sheep's -
mark in tar, and read thy own capital letter, like a gallows upon a cow's
buttock; you that allow no Scripture canonical, but an Almanac.
By Gettings,
in Contention for Honour and Riches (1.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76r
Thus look'd [the] moone, when [with] her virgin fires / Shee went in progress to [the] mountain Latmos, / To visit her Endymion, yet I injure your beauty, to compare it to her orb / Of silver light [the] Sun from [which] she borrows / [that] makes her by [the] nightly lamp of heaven, / Has in his stock of beams not half your lustre, / Enrich [the] earth still [with] your sacred presence / Upon each object throw a glorious star, / Created by your sight, [that] when [the] learned / Astronomer comes forth to examine heaven, / He may find two, and be himself divided, / [which] he should first contemplate.
By Courtier,
in Contention for Honour and Riches (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76r
if thou hast made thy will, let them prove it when thou art dead, and bury thee accordingly: thy wife will have cause to thank me; it will be a good hearing to the poor of the parish, happy man be his dole; besides, the Blue-coats can but comfort thy kindred with singing and rejoicing at thy funeral.
By Clod,
in Contention for Honour and Riches (1.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76r
A kiss and then tis sealed, this she would know/
Better than the impression, which I made, with the rude signet, tis the same she left / upon my
lip, when I departed from her, / and I have kept it warm still with my breath / that in my
prayers have mentioned her.
By Foscari,
in The Grateful Servant (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76v
Let no wom ea n work upon thy frailty with her smooth language; to undo thyself trust not the
innocence of thy soul too far, for though their bosoms carry whitness, think
it is not snow. they dwell in a hot climate, the court, where men are but deceitful
shadows, the women, walking flames.
By Foscari,
in The Grateful Servant (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76v
Methinks I talk like a peremptory statesman already, I shall quickly learn to
forget myself when I am great in office; I will oppress the
subject, flatter the prince; take bribes a both sides, do right to neither,
serve heaven as far as heavenmy profit will give me leave, and tremble only
at the summons of a parliament.
By Jacomo,
in The Grateful Servant (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 76v
the sun's loved flower, that shuts his yellow curtain, / when he declineth, opens
it again / At his fair rising; with my parting lord, / I closed all my delights, till
his approach, / it shall not spread itself.
By Cleona,
in The Grateful Servant (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 77r
good tutor Some moral exhortations they are fruitless; I shall never eat garlic
with Diogenes in a tub, and speculate the stars with out a shirt; prithee enjoy thy
religion, and live at last most philosophically lousy.
By Lodwick,
in The Grateful Servant (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 77r
The Mandrake hath no voice /like this, the raven, and the night birds sing / more soft;
nothing in nature to which fear / hath made us superstitious, but speakes gently /
compared with thee, discharge thy fatal burthen, I am prepared; or stay but answer me, And I will save thee breath, and quickly know the total of my sorrow.
By Cleona,
in The Grateful Servant (3.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 77r
I confess, and, were you in public, I would urge many other empty names to fright you; put on my holiday countenance, talk nothing but divinity, and golden sentences;
look like a supercilious elder, with a scarched face, and a tunable nose, whilst
he is edifying his neighbour's woman.
By Grimundo,
in The Grateful Servant (3.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f.77v
Then how many raptures does he talk a day? is he transported
with poetic rage? / When was he styled Imperial Wit? Who are / the prince Electors in his
monarchy? / Can he like Celtic Hercules, with chains / of his divine tongue draw the
gallant tribe / through every street, whilst the grave senator / points at him as he walks
in triumph, and /doth wish with half his wealth he might be young, / to spend it all
in sack, to hear him talk / eternal sonnets to his mistress? ha? who loves not verse is damn’d.
By Caperwit,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79r
There's so much sweetness in her, such a troop / of graces waiting on her words and actions,/ I am divided; / and like the trembling needle of a dial, / my hearts afraid to fix, in such a plenty / I have no star to sail by.
By Gerard,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79r
All other women / are but like pictures in a gallery / set off to the eye, and have no excellency/
but in their distance; but these two, far off /shall tempt thee to just wonder, and drawn
near / can satisfy thy narrowest curiosity: / the stock of a woman hath not two more left to
rival them in graces
By Gerard,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79r
Hast thou not seen the woodbine / that honey-dropping tree, and the loved briar, / Embrace
with their chaste boughs, twisting themselves, / and weaving a green net to catch the birds /
till it do seem one body, while the flowers / wantonly run to meet and kiss each
other? / so twas betwixt us two.
By Gerard,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79r
no, but heaven and Angels / are witnesses you did exchange a
faith / with one that mourns a virgin and a widow, who now despairing of your love
to show how willing she is to die, doth every hour distill / part of her soul in tears.
By Yongrave,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (3.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79v
many gentlemen are not, as in the days of understanding, / now satisfied with out a jig, which e>
since / they cannot, with their honour call for, after / the play, they look to be serv'd up in the
middle: your dance is the best language of some comedies; / a scene / expressed with life
of art, and squared to nature, / is dull and phlegmatic poetry.
By Caperwit,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (4.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79v
We are fools indeed we are / to dote so much upon them, and betray / the glory
of our creation, to serve / a female pride: we were born free, and had /
from the great maker royal privilege / most brave immunities: but since have
made / forfeit of charter.
By Gerard,
in The Changes, or Love in a Maze (5.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 79v
There is a method, when your passion's young / to keep it in obedience, you love Rufaldo / art
thou not young? how will the rose agree / with a dead hyacinth? or the honey wood-bind, circling
a withered briar? you can apply, can you submit your body / to bed with ice and snow, your
blood to mingle? / would you be deaf'd with coughing, teach your eye / How to be rheumatic? Breathes he not out / his body is diseases, and like dust / falling all into pieces, as of
nature / would make him his own grave.
By Cornelio,
in Love Tricks, or The School of Compliments (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 80r
x this was a devillish speech.
concerning
that as was spoken just now)
I will outlabour Jove-born Hercules, / and in a greater fury ransack hell: / teare from the
sisters their contorted curls, / and rack the destinies on Ixions wheel: / brain Proserpine with
Sisiphs rolling stone / and in a brazen cauldron choked with lead / boil Minos, Eacus, and
Radamant / make the infernal three-chapt band-dog roar. cram Tantalus with apples, lash
the fiends / with whips of snakes and poison'd scorpions: / snatch chain'd Prometheus from the Vultures
may, / and feed him with her liver, make old Charon / waft back again the souls,, or buffet
him / with his own Oars to death
By Gentleman,
in Love Tricks, or The School of Compliments (3.5),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 80v
Thou art some goddess, that to amaze the earth / with thy celestial presence hast put on / the habit of a
mortal, gods sometimes / would visit country "country" has the weird c thing here. -SH houses, and gild o'er / a sublunary habitation / with
glory of their presence, and make heaven / descend into an hermitage:
By Ingeniolo,
in Love Tricks, or The School of Compliments (3.5),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 80v
for he that feeds well must by consequence live well: he holds none can be damn'd but lean men; for fat men, he says, must needs be saved by the faith of their body
By Isaac,
in The Wedding (1.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
by this hand, if it would bear an oath we have had nothing
this two days but half a lark which, by a mischance, the cat had kill'd tpp, the cage being open: I will provide my belly another master.
By Camelion,
in The Wedding (1.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
(spoaken of a friend to a friend) as wee are made one body, soe lets bee one
soule, and will and will both the same thing
the blood you carry / doth warm my veins, yet could nature be / forgetful, and remove it
self, the love / I owe your merit, doth oblige me to relation of a truth
By Marwood,
in The Wedding (1.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
Gratiana false? / the snow shall turn a sala=
mander first, / and dwell in fire; the air retreat, and leave / an emptiness in nature:
angels be / corrupt, and brib'd by mortals sell their charity.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (1.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
Was ever woman good, and Gratiana vicious? lost to honour? at the instant / when I expected
all my harvest ripe. / the golden summer tempting me to reap / the well-grown ears, comes
an impetuous storm / destroys an ages hope in a short minute. / and lets me live the copy of man's frailty
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (1.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
Enjoyed Gratiana sinfully; tis a sound / able to kill with horror: it infects / the very air, I
see it like a mist / dwell round about; that I could uncreate / myself, or be forgotten
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (1.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
Act. 2.
A hollow grot, a cave which e> never star / durst look into, made in contempt of light by nature
which e> the moon did never yet / befriend with any melancholy beam.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
Wert thou defensed with circular fire, more / subtle than the lightning, that I knew would ravish /
my heart and marrow from me: yet I should neglect the danger, and but singly arm'd fly to revenge thy calumny.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (2.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
let me study, I'll count them all before you, never did / penitent in confession strip the soul / more naked; I'll unclasp my book of conscience; / you shall read o'er
my heart, and if you find / in that great volume but one single thought / that conscerned
you, and did not end with some / good prayer for you; oh be just and kill me.
By Gratiana,
in The Wedding (2.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
In this posture does she not present / a water-nymph placed in the midst of some /
fair garden, like a fountain to dispense / her crystal streams upon the flowers?
which e> cannot / but so refreshed, look up, and seem to smile / upon the eyes that feed'em.
By Landby,
in The Wedding (3.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
(of a maide to her once lover.) They are not mine, since I have lost the opinion of what I was; indeed I have nothing else: I would not keep the kisses once you gave
me / if you would let me pay them back again.
By Gratiana,
in The Wedding (3.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
'Tis prov'd, put them to anyaction, and see if they do not smoke it; they are men of mettle, and the greatest melters in the world; one hot service
makes them roast, and they have enough in them to baste a hundred. you may take
a lean man, marry your self to famine, and beg for a great belly.
By Lodam,
in The Wedding (3.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
I have seen a dog look like him, that has drawn a wicker-bottle, rattling about
the streets, and leering on both sides where to get a quiet corner to bite his tail off.
By Landby,
in The Wedding (4.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
There is a period in nature, is it not / better to die; and not be sick, worn in / our
bodies, which e> in imitation of ghosts, grow lean, as if they would at last / be
immaterial too; [our] blood turn jelly, / and freeze in their cold channel.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (4.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 81r
She's gone for ever; / and can the earth still dwell a quiet neighbour / to the rough sea,
and not itself be thawed into a river? let it melt to waves / from henceforth, that beside the
inhabitants, / the very genius of the world may drown, / and not accuse me for her.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (4.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82r
I would kiss her cold face into life again; /
renew her breath with mine, on her pale lip; / I do not think but if some artery /
of mine were opened, and the crimson flood / conveyed into her veins, it would agree; / and with
a gentle gliding, steal itself / into her heart, enliven her dead faculties, and with a flattery
tice her soul again / to dwell in her fair tenement.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (4.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82r
When I am dead, / I will so talk of thee among the blest, that they shall be in love with thee
and descend / in holy shapes, to woe thee to come thither / and be of their society; do not
veil they beauty / with such a shower, keep this soft rain / to water some more lost and
barren garden. / lest you destroy the spring which e> nature made / to be a wonder in thy cheek.
By Beauford,
in The Wedding (5.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82r
Act. 2 he went on the ticket with some midwife, or old woman / for his whole
stock of physic: here a fellow only has skill to make a handsome periwig, or to sow teeth in the gums of some state madam
which e> she coughs out again, when so much phlegm / as would not strangle a poor flea,
provokes her, / proclaims himself a rectifier of nature, / and is believ'd, so getteth more by keeping /
mouths in their quarterly reparations, / then knowing know men by all their art and pains
in the cure of the whole body
By Bonamico,
in Bird in a Cage (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
I'll tell you a better project, wherein no courtier has prefool'd you. stick your skin with feathers, and draw the rabble of the
city for pence apiece to see a monstrous bird brought from Peru
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
Does it not sparkle most divinely, signior; a row of these stuck in a
lady's forehead, / would make a Persian stagger in his faith / and give more adoration
to this light / then to the sun-beam
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
When you see me next, avoid me, as you would do your poor kindred when they
come to court. get you home, say your prayers, and wonder that you come off [without]
beating; for 'tis one of my miracles.
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
Would you see justice employ her scales to weigh light gold, that comes in for fees or corruption;
and flourish with her sword like a fencer, to make more room for causes in the court
By Bonamico,
in Bird in a Cage (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
hee, who got his mony ill and left it his
heire.
Happy is that son whose father goes to the devil: Fairly certain the following is a label, if you want to check for it. Couldn't find it in play -SH
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (3.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
though thou beest buried upon alms, carried to church with four torches, and have an inscription on thy marble worse than the ballad of the devil and the baker, and
might be sung to as vile a tune too.
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (3.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 82v
Act: 4. as if he had been born with a song in his head, he talks everlasting ballad; no man laughs at him, but he lashes him in rhyme worse than a satyr; the duke has priviledged his
mirth, made him fool-free.
By Perenotto,
in Bird in a Cage (4.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
Stay and let me circles in mine arms / all happiness at once, I have not soul / enough
to apprehend my joy, it spreads / too mighty for me: know excellent Eugenia I am the prince
of Florence, that owe heaven / more for thy virtues than his own creation. / I was born with
guilt enough to cancel, / my first purity, but so chaste a love / as thine, will so refine
my second being / when holy marriage frames us in one piece, Angels will envy me.
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (4.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
Act. 5.
Be wise hereafter, and make the fool your friend, 'tis many an honest man's part at court. It is safer to displease the duke than his jester; every sentence the one speaks, Flatterers make an oracle.
By Morello,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
xx
your fool is fine, he's merry, / and of all men doth fear least / at every word
he jests with my lord, and tickles my lady in earnest. / Here, the latter lines of this extract are actually earlier in the song in the book. Do we still record it like this? -SH all places he is free of, and fools it with out
blushing / at masks, and plays, is not the bays, thurst out, to let the plush in
By Morello,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
I come not to petition for a mercy, but to cry up my merit, for a deed shall drown all story, and posterity shall admire it more than a Sybil's leaf, and lose
itself in wonder of the actions; poets shall / with this make proud their / Muses, and apparrel
it in ravishing numbers, which e> the soft-hair'd virgins , forgetting all their legends, and love tales, of Venus, Cupid, and the 'scapes of Jove,make their only song, and in full quire chaunt it at Hymen's feast. ***Can we go over this extract? The last line gets a bit weird in the book's spelling, as well as the word arrangement between the orig and the canonical. -SH
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
It cannot be; for if you mean your daughter, 'tis that is my preserver, Blest Eugenia, / to whose memory my heart does dedicate / itself an altar, in whose very mention
my lips are hallowed, and the place, a temple, / whence the divine sound came, it is a voice /
which e> should [our] holy church men then use, it might / with out addition of more exorcism / disenchant
houses, tie up nightly spirits which fright the solitary groves. Eugenia / when I have named I needs must love my breath the better after.
By Rolliardo,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
where before / thy life should have been gently invited forth / now with a horrid circumstance
death shall / make thy soul tremble, and forsaking all / the noble parts it shall retire into /
some angle of thy body, and be afraid / to inform thy eyes, lest they let in a horror / they
would not look on.
By Duke,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
this dat shall be consecrate to triumph, and may time / when 'tis decreed, the world shall have an end / by revolution of the year make this / the
day that shall conclude all memories.
By Duke,
in Bird in a Cage (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 83r
Come, come, you cannot scold With confidence, nor with grace; you should look big and swear you are no gamester; practise dice and cards a little better, you will get many confusions and fine curses by it.
By Mistress Carol,
in Hyde Park (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 86v
Temptations will shake thy innocence, | No more than waves [that] climb a rock, [wich] soon | betray
their weakness, and discover thee, | more clear and more impregnable.
By Trier,
in Hyde Park (2.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 86v
I have a natural sympathy [with] fair ones;| As they do , I do; there's no handsome woman| complains [that] she has lost her
maidenhead, | but I wish mine had been lost [with] it.
By Lord Bonvile,
in Hyde Park (2.3),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 86v
A thing before I thought to advise you of; Your words of hard concoction, your rude poetry, Have much impaired my health, try sense another while And calculate some prose according to The elevation of our pole at London, As says the learned almanack
By Mistress Carol,
in Hyde Park (2.4),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 87r
Ile speake our owne English, | hang these affected straines, ^wch wee sometimes | practise to please
ye curiosity| of talking ladies; | by this lip thou art welcome; | Ile sweare an hundred oaths vpon yr booke, and please you. x Vagaries, he, whinzies.
By Lord Bonvile,
in Hyde Park (3.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 87r
Were every petty maor you possess | a kingdom, and [the] blood of many princes | united in your veins
[with] these had you| a person [that] had more attraction | than poesy can furnish love withall:
By Julietta,
in Hyde Park (5.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 87r
The court. Confine such beauty to to a country house /
live among hinds and thick- skinned fellows that make faces and
will hope a furlong back / to find the t'other leg they threw away /
to show their reverence with things that squat / when they
should make a curtsy.
By Octavio,
in The Royal Master (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 113v
We can tell the world / how envious diamonds cause they could not /
reach to the luster of your eyes dissolved / to angry tears the roses
droop and gathering / their leaves together seem to chide their
blushes / that they must yield your cheek the victory / the lillies
when they are censured for comparing / with your more clear
and native purity / want white to do their penance in.
By Octavio,
in The Royal Master (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 113v
A. B. A.
in this you most / appear a stranger she is the glory / of
Nables for her person and her virtues / that dwells in this
obscure place like the shrine / of some great Saint to which e> devotion / from several parts brings daily men like pilgrims
By Montalto,
in The Royal Master (1.2),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 113v
Why that blush / the words are not immodest there did want / no
blood upon your cheek to make it lovely / or does it flow in silence
to express / that which e> your virgin language would not be / so soon
held guilty of, consent.
By King,
in The Royal Master (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 114r
There's nothing good or great you have not / freely possessed
me with; your favours would, / so mighty have they fallen upon me,
rather / express a storm; and I had sunk beneath / the welcome violence; had not your love / from when they flowed enabled me to strength / and manly bearing.
By Montalto,
in The Royal Master (2.1),
James Shirley
in British Library Additional MS 22608, f. 114r
Some Dolphin has preserved him in the storm
Or may be tenant to some whale within
Whose belly he may practise lent
By Lacy,
in Hyde Park (1.1),
James Shirley
in Folger MS V.a.87, f. 5v
such a malicious piece I mean to love 'tis pity any place but a cold
nunnery should be troubled with her if all
maides were but her disciples we should have no
generation and the world for want of children in few years undone
by it =
By Lacy,
in Hyde Park (1.1),
James Shirley
in Folger MS V.a.87, f. 5v
– such love is like a smokie fire
In a cold morning; though the fire be cheerefull
Yet is the smoke so sowre and cumbersome
T’were better lose the fire then find the smoke
Such an attendant then as Smoke to fire
Is jelosie to love: Better want both
Then have both.
By Gratiana,
in The Wedding (1.2.59-64),
James Shirley
in Bodleian Library MS English miscellaneous d. 28, col. 700