Lutea Allison
by Sir John Suckling
English cavalier poet and playwright best known for his lyrics. He wrote four plays including Aglaura which had two fifth acts, one tragic and one with a happy outcome and a comedy, The Goblins (1638), much influenced by Shakespeare's Tempest and generally thought to be his best. His chief works are included in Fragmenta Aurea (1646, enlarged 1658) including his best known lyrics 'A Ballad Upon a Wedding' and 'Why so Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?'. He also wrote a satire A Session of the Poets (1637), a send-up of contemporary poets.
Other cavalier poets include Carew and Lovelace.
Lutea Allison
by Sir John Suckling
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Though you, Diana-like, have lived still chaste,
Yet must you not, fair, die a maid at last.
The roses on your cheek were never made
To bless the eye alone, and so to fade;
Nor had the cherries on your lips their being
To please no other sense than that of seeing.
You were not made to look on, though that be
A bliss too great for poor mortality:
In that alone those rarer parts you have
To better uses sure wise nature gave
Than that you put them to: -to love, to wed,
For Hymen's rights, and for the marriage-bed
You were ordained, and not to lie alone.
One is no number, till that two be one.
To keep a maidenhead but till fifteen
Is worse than murder, and a greater sin
Than to have lost it in the lawful sheets
With one that should want skill to reap those sweets;
But not to lose 't at all -by Venus, this,
And by her son, inexplicable is:
And should each female guilty be o' th' crime,
The world should have its end before its time.
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