| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Mercury Complaining | | By Aurelian Townsend (fl. 1601–1643) |
| | Mercury WHAT 1 makes me so unnimbly rise, | |
| That did descend so fleet? | |
| There is no uphill in the skies, | |
| Clouds stay not feathered feet. | |
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Chorus Thy wings are singed, and thou canst fly | 5 |
| But slowly now, swift Mercury. | |
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Mercury Some lady here is sure to blame, | |
| That from Love’s starry skies | |
| Hath shot some beam or sent some flame | |
| Like lightning from her eyes. | 10 |
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Chorus Tax not the stars with what the sun, | |
| Too near approached, incensed, hath done. | |
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Mercury I’ll roll me in Aurora’s dew | |
| Or lie in Tethys’ bed, | |
| Or from cool Iris beg a few | 15 |
| Pure opal showers new shed. | |
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Chorus Nor dew, nor showers, nor sea can slake | |
| Thy quenchless heat, but Lethe’s lake. | |
| | | Note 1. From Albion’s Triumph, a Masque, 1631–2. [back] | | |
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