Sleep, sleep; and quiet rest crown thy s...

Sleep, sleep; and quiet rest crown thy sweet thoughts!

 Keep from her fair blood distempers, startings,

 Horrors, and fearful shapes! let all her dreams

 Be joys, and chaste delights, embraces, wishes,

 And such new pleasures as the ravished soul

 Gives to the senses!---So; my charms have took.---

 Keep her, you powers divine, whilst I contemplate

 Upon the wealth and beauty of her mind!

 She is only fair and constant, only kind,

 And only to thee, Jasper. Oh, my joys!

 Whither will you transport me? let not fulness

 Of my poor buried hopes come up together

 And overcharge my spirits! I am weak.

 Some say (however ill) the sea and women

 Are governed by the moon; both ebb and flow,

 Both full of changes; yet to them that know,

 And truly judge, these but opinions are,

 And heresies, to bring on pleasing war

 Between our tempers, that without these were

 Both void of after-love and present fear,

 Which are the best of Cupid. Oh, thou child

 Bred from despair, I dare not entertain thee,

 Having a love without the faults of women,

 And greater in her perfect goods than men!

 Which to make good, and please myself the stronger,

 Though certainly I am certain of her love,

 I'll try her, that the world and memory

 May sing to after-times her constancy.

[Beaumont, Francis, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act 3, Sc. 1.]