OF SUCH AS HAD FORSAKEN HIM.
LOOK, my fair falcon, and thy fellows all;
How well pleasant it were your liberty!
Ye not forsake me, that fair might you fall.
But they that sometime liked my company,
Like lice away from dead bodies they crawl:
Lo, what a proof in light adversity!
But ye, my birds, I swear by all your bells,
Ye be my friends, and very few else.
THE LOVER HOPETH OF BETTER CHANCE.
HE is not dead, that sometime had a fall,
The sun returns, that hid was under cloud,
And when fortune hath spit out all her gall,
I trust, good luck to me shall be allowed:
For I have seen a ship in haven fall,
After that storm hath broke both mast and shroud:
The willow eke, that stoopeth with the wind,
Doth rise again, and greater wood doth bind.
THAT PLEASURE IS MIXED WITH EVERY PAIN.
VENEMOUS thorns that are so sharp and keen,
Bear flowers, we see, full fresh and fair of hue:
Poison is also put in medicine,
And unto man his health doth oft renew:
The fire that all things eke consumeth clean
May hurt and heal: then if that this be true,
I trust sometime my harm may be my health,
Since every woe is joined with some wealth.
THE COURTIER'S LIFE.
IN Court to serve decked with fresh array,
Of sugar'd meats feeling the sweet repast,
The life in banquets and sundry kinds of play
Amid the press of worldly looks to waste,
Hath with it join'd ofttimes such bitter taste,
That whoso joys such kind of life to hold,
In prison joys fetter'd with chains of gold.
OF THE MEAN AND SURE ESTATE.
STAND, whoso list, upon the slipper wheel
Of high estate; and let me here rejoice,
And use my life in quietness each dele,
Unknown in court that hath the wanton toys:
In hidden place my time shall slowly pass,
And when my years be past withouten noise,
Let me die old after the common trace;
For gripes of death doth he too hardly pass,
That knowen is to all, but to himself, alas,
He dieth unknown, dased with dreadful face.
THE LOVER SUSPECTED OF CHANGE PRAYETH
THAT IT BE NOT BELIEVED AGAINST HIM.
ACCUSED though I be without desert;
Sith none can prove, believe it not for true:
For never yet, since that you had my heart,
Intended I to false, or be untrue.
Sooner I would of death sustain the smart,
Than break one word of that I promised you;
Accept therefore my service in good part:
None is alive, that can ill tongues eschew,
Hold them as false; and let us not depart
Our friendship old in hope of any new:
Put not thy trust in such as use to feign,
Except thou mind to put thy friend to pain.
THROUGHOUT the world if it were sought,
Fair words enough a man shall find;
They be good cheap, they cost right nought,
Their substance is but only wind;
But well to say and so to mean,
That sweet accord is seldom seen.
DRIVEN by desire I did this deed,
To danger myself without cause why,
To trust the untrue not like to speed,
To speak and promise faithfully:
But now the proof doth verify,
That whoso trusteth ere he know,
Doth hurt himself and please his foe.
THE LADY TO ANSWER DIRECTLY WITH YEA OR NAY.
MADAM, withouten many words,
Once I am sure you will, or no:
And if you will, then leave your bourds,
And use your wit, and shew it so:
For with a beck you shall me call;
And if of one, that burns alway,
Ye have pity or ruth at all,
Answer him fair with yea or nay.
If it be yea, I shall be fain;
If it be nay, friends as before;
You shall another man obtain,
And I mine own, and yours no more.
Or few words, Sir, you seem to be,
And where I doubted what I would do
Your quick request hath caused me
Quickly to tell you what you shall trust to.
For he that will be called with a beck,
Makes hasty suit on light desire:
Is ever ready to the check,
And burneth in no wasting fire.
Therefore whether you be lief or loth,
And whether it grieve you light or sore,
I am at a point: I have made an oath,
Content you with Nay;' for you get no more.
THE LOVER PROFESSETH HIMSELF
CONSTANT.
WITHIN my breast I never thought it gain
Of gentle minds the freedom for to lose;
Nor in my heart sank never such disdain,
To be a forger, faults for to disclose :
Nor I cannot endure the truth to glose,
To set a gloss upon an earnest pain:
Nor I am not in number one of those
That list to blow retreat to every train.
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