| THE LITTLE Love-god lying once asleep | |
| Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, | |
| Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep | |
| Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand | |
| The fairest votary took up that fire | 5 |
| Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d; | |
| And so the general of hot desire | |
| Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d. | |
| This brand she quenched in a cool well by, | |
| Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual, | 10 |
| Growing a bath and healthful remedy | |
| For men diseas’d; but I, my mistress’ thrall, | |
| Came there for cure, and this by that I prove, | |
| Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love. |