Lucasta's Fanne, With A Looking-Glass In It

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Title:     Lucasta's Fanne, With A Looking-Glass In It
Author: Richard Lovelace [More Titles by Lovelace]

<1>

I.
Eastrich!<2> thou featherd foole, and easie prey,
That larger sailes to thy broad vessell needst;
Snakes through thy guttur-neck hisse all the day,
Then on thy iron messe at supper feedst.<3>

II.
O what a glorious transmigration
From this to so divine an edifice
Hast thou straight made! heere<4> from a winged stone
Transform'd into a bird of paradice!

III.
Now doe thy plumes for hiew and luster vie
With th' arch of heav'n that triumphs or'e past wet,
And in a rich enamel'd pinion lye
With saphyres, amethists and opalls set.

IV.
Sometime they wing her side,<5> strive to drown
The day's eyes piercing beames, whose am'rous heat
Sollicites still, 'till with this shield of downe
From her brave face his glowing fires are beat.

V.
But whilst a plumy curtaine she doth draw,
A chrystall mirror sparkles in thy breast,
In which her fresh aspect when as she saw,
And then her foe<6> retired to the west.

VI.
Deare engine, that oth' sun got'st me the day,
'Spite of his hot assaults mad'st him retreat!
No wind (said she) dare with thee henceforth play
But mine own breath to coole the tyrants heat.

VII.
My lively shade thou ever shalt retaine
In thy inclosed feather-framed glasse,
And but unto our selves to all remaine
Invisible, thou feature of this face!

VIII.
So said, her sad swaine over-heard and cried:
Yee Gods! for faith unstaind this a reward!
Feathers and glasse t'outweigh my vertue tryed!
Ah! show their empty strength! the gods accord.

IX.
Now fall'n the brittle favourite lyes and burst!
Amas'd LUCASTA weepes, repents and flies
To her ALEXIS, vowes her selfe acurst,
If hence she dresse her selfe but in his eyes.

NOTES: <1> This adaptation of the fan to the purposes of a mirror, now so common, was, as we here are told, familiar to the ladies of Lovelace's time. Mr. Fairholt, in his COSTUME IN ENGLAND, 1846, p. 496, describes many various forms which were given at different periods to this article of use and ornament; but the present passage in LUCASTA appears to have escaped his notice.

<2> Ostrich. Lyly, in his EUPHUES, 1579, sig. c 4, has ESTRIDGE. The fan here described was composed of ostrich-feathers set with precious stones.

<3> In allusion to the digestive powers of this bird.

<4> Original reads NEERE.

<5> The poet means that Lucasta, when she did not require her fan for immediate use, wore it suspended at her side or from her girdle.

<6> The sun.

[The end]
Richard Lovelace's poem: Lucasta's Fanne, With A Looking-Glass In It

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