William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
Ladies, Farewell, I Must RetireJames Howard (c. 16401669)
L
Though I your faces all admire
And think you heavens in your kinds,
Some for beauties, some for minds;
If I stay and fall in love,
One of these heavens hell would prove.
Perhaps I then might undergo it;
But if the least she guess my mind,
Straight in a circle I’m confined:
By this I see who once doth dote
Must wear a woman’s livery coat.
And still to keep my heart’s content,
Into the country I’ll with speed,
With hounds and hawks my fancy feed:
Both safer pleasures to pursue
Than staying to converse with you.