Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Masque of Pleasure and Virtue

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

COME on, come on, and where you go

So interweave the curious knot

As even the Observer scarce may know

Which lines are pleasure, and which not:

First figure out the doubtful way

At which awhile the youth should stay

Where she and Virtue did contend

Which should have Hercules to friend.

Then as all actions of mankind

Are but a labyrinth or maze,

So let your dances be entwined,

Yet not perplex men unto gaze:

But measured, and so numerous too,

As men may read each act they do;

And, when they see your graces meet,

Admire the wisdom of your feet:

For dancing is an exercise

Not only shows the mover’s wit,

But maketh the beholder wise,

As he hath power to rise to it.

O more and more, this was so well

As praise wants half his voice to tell.

Again yourselves compose,

And now put all the aptness on

Of figure, that proportion

Or color can disclose:

That, if those silent arts were lost,

Design and Picture, they might boast

From you a newer ground

Instructed by the heightening sense

Of dignity and reverence

In their true motions found.

Begin, begin; for look, the pair

Do longing listen to what air

You form your second touch

That they may vent their murmuring hymns

Just to the tune you move your limbs,

And wish their own were such.

Make haste, make haste, for this

The labyrinth of Beauty is.

It follows now you are to prove

The subtlest maze of all,—that’s Love,

And, if you stay too long,

The fair will think you do them wrong.

Go choose among them, with a mind

As gentle as the stroking wind

Runs o’er the gentler flowers,

And so let all your actions smile,

As if they meant not to beguile

The ladies, but the hours.

Grace, laughter, and discourse may meet,

And yet the beauty not go less:

For what is noble should be sweet,

But not dissolved in wantonness.

Will you that I give the law

To all your sport, and sum it

It should be such should envy draw,

But overcome it.