Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
William Habington (16051654)The Description of Castara
L
Prospers in some happy shade;
My Castara lives unknown,
To no looser eye betrayed,
For she ’s to her self untrue,
Who delights i’ th’ public view.
Have enriched with borrowed grace;
Her high birth no pride imparts,
For she blushes in her place.
Folly boasts a glorious blood,
She is noblest, being good.
What a wanton courtship meant;
Nor speaks loud to boast her wit,
In her silence eloquent:
Of her self survey she takes
But ’tween men no difference makes.
Her grave parents’ wise commands;
And so innocent that ill
She nor acts nor understands;
Women’s feet run still astray
If once to ill they know the way.
Where oft honour splits her mast:
And retiredness thinks the port,
Where her fame may anchor cast:
Virtue safely cannot sit,
Where vice is enthroned for wit.
Where sin waits not on delight;
Without mask, or ball, or feast,
Sweetly spends a winter’s night:
O’er that darkness, whence is thrust
Prayer and sleep, oft governs lust.
While wild passions captive lie;
And each article of time
Her pure thoughts to Heaven fly:
All her vows religious be,
And her love she vows to me.