And all that was no more but mine expressed mind, That fain would have some good relief, of Cupid well assign'd.
I turned home forthwith, and might perceive it well, That he aggrieved was right sore with me for my rebel.
My harms have ever since increased more and [more. And I remain, without his help, undone for ever A mirror let me be unto ye lovers all;
Strive not with love; for if ye do, it will ye thus befall.
COMPLAINT OF A LOVER REBUKED.
LOVE, that liveth and reigneth in my thought,
That built his seat within my captive breast;
Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,
Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.
She, that me taught to love, and suffer pain;
My doubtful hope, and eke my hot desire
With shamefaced cloak to shadow and restrain,
Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire.
And coward Love then to the heart apace
Taketh his flight; whereas he lurks, and plains
His purpose lost, and dare not shew his face.
For my Lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pains.
Yet from my Lord shall not my foot remove:
Sweet is his death, that takes his end by love.
COMPLAINT OF THE LOVER DISDAINED.
IN Cyprus springs, whereas Dame Venus dwelt,
A well so hot, that whoso tastes the same,
Were he of stone, as thawed ice should melt,
And kindled find his breast with fixed flame;
Whose moist poison dissolved hath my hate.
This creeping fire my cold limbs so opprest,
That in the heart that harbour'd freedom, late:
Endless despair long thraldom hath imprest.
Another so cold in frozen ice is found,
Whose chilling venom of repugnant kind,
The fervent heat doth quench of Cupid's wound,
And with the spot of change infects the mind;
Whereof my dear hath tasted to my pain:
My service thus is grown into disdain.2
DESCRIPTION AND PRAISE OF HIS LOVE
FROM Tuscane came my Lady's worthy race;
Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.
The western isle whose pleasant shore doth face
Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat.
Foster'd she was with milk of Irish breast:
Her sire an Earl; her dame of Prince's blood.
2 Whereby my service grows into disdain. - Nott's Ed. 3 i. e. Their.
From tender years, in Britain doth she rest,
With Kinges child; where she tasteth costly food.
Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyen:
Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight.
Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine;
And Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight.
Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above;
Happy is he that can obtain her love!
THE FRAILTY AND HURTFULNESS OF
BEAUTY.1
BRITTLE beauty, that Nature made so frail, Whereof the gift is small, and short is the season; Flowering to-day, to-morrow apt to fail;
Tickle treasure, abhorred of reason:
Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail;
Costly in keeping, past not worth two peason;
Slipper in sliding, as is an eel's tail;
Hard to obtain, once gotten, not geason:
Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail;
False and untrue, enticed oft to treason;
Enemy to youth, that most may I bewail;
Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison,
Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken; To-day ready ripe, to-morrow all to shaken.
1 In the Harrington MS. this poem is attributed to Lord Vaux. 1 Two pease. 3 Rare, or uncommon.
A COMPLAINT BY NIGHT OF THE LOVER
ALAS! So all things now do hold their peace!
Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing;
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The nightès car the stars about doth bring.
Calm is the sea; the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring;
But by and by, the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is again,
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.
HOW EACH THING, SAVE THE LOVER IN
SPRING, REVIVETH TO PLEASURE.
WHEN Windsor walls sustain'd my wearied arm;
My hand my chin, to ease my restless head;
The pleasant plot revested green with warm;
The blossom'd boughs, with lusty Ver1y-spread;
The flower'd meads, the wedded birds so late
Mine eyes discover; and to my
The jolly woes, the hateless, short debate,
The rakehell1 life, that 'longs to love's disport. Wherewith, alas! the heavy charge of care Heap'd in my breast breaks forth, against my will In smoky sighs, that overcast the air.
My vapour'd eyes such dreary tears distil,
The tender spring which quicken where they fall; And I half bend to throw me down withal.
A VOW TO LOVE FAITHFULLY, HOWSOEVER
HE BE REWARDED.
SET me whereas the sun doth parch the green,
Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice;
In temperate heat, where he is felt and seen;
In presence prest 2 of people, mad, or wise;
Set me in high, or yet in low degree;
In longest night, or in the shortest day;
In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be;
In lusty youth, or when my hairs are gray:
Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell,
In hill, or dale, or in the foaming flood;
Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell,
Sick, or in health, in evil fame or good,
Her's will I be; and only with this thought
Content myself, although my chance be nought.
2 Query, press, i. e. in the presence of a crowd of people.
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