James Howard (c. 1640–1669)

LADIES, farewell, I must retire:

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.

Could I know one and she not know it,

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.

Therefore, this danger to prevent,

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.