Love given over, p

17. The Change, p. 76. Sur sa beauté, cf. The Spring, p. 70, Clad all in white, p. 77; sur son inconstance, cf. Leaving me, and then loving many, p. 78, Called inconstant, p. 103; sur son insensibilité : The Vain Love, p. 81, The Long Life, p. 93, The Given Heart, p. 100, The Prophet, p. 101, Eccho, P. 107, Weeping, p. 136, Her Unbelief, p. 141, Bathing, p. 150.

Lui souffre de cette beauté qui l’enchaîne, de cette froideur et de cette inconstance qui le désespèrent. Près d'elle, il est son esclave, loin d’elle ses tourments redoublent 18. Lorsqu'il la voit, il est frappé de la foudre :

I Came, I Saw, and was undone;

Lightning did through my bones and marrow run; À pointed pain pierc’d deep my heart;

A swift, cold trembling seiz’d on every part; My head turn’ä round, nor could it bear

The Poison that was enter’d there 19.

La passion le dévore, et l’obsède nuit et jour :

Thou robst my Days of bus’ness and delights, Of sleep thou robst my Nights; Ah ! lovely Thief what wilt thou do ?

What ? rob me of Heaven too ?

Thou even my prayers dost steal from me.

And I, with wild /dolatry,

Begin, to God, and end them all, to Thee 20.

Il lui arrive cependant de s’impatienter de ses rigueurs. Il cherche à se libérer de ses chaînes, il devient cynique et railleur :

For Heavens sake, what d’you mean to do ?

Keep me or let me go, one of the two; Youth and warm hours let me not idely lose, The little Time that Love does choose... 21.

Il se rit de la femme et blasphème la beauté :

Or l’m a very Dunce, or Womankind Is a most unintelligible thing :

Ï can no Sense, nor no Contexture find, Nor their loose parts to Method bring, I know not what the Learn’d may see, But they’re strange Hebrew things to Me... 22.

18. The Thraldome, p 67, The Passions, p. 85, The Thief, p. 89, Sleep, p. 115, The Heart fled again, p. 105, The Usurpation, p. 127, The Cure, p. 139, The Incurable, p. 143, sur son esclavage. Sur l’absence : The Parting, p. 117, My Picture, p. 118, The Distance, p. 121, Looking on, and discoursing with his Mistress, p. 123, The Separation, p. 140, etc...