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A gown of grief my body shall attire,

And broken hope shall be my strength and stay;
And late repentance, linked with long desire,
Shall be the couch whereon my limbs I'll lay.
And at my gates despair shall linger still,
To let in death when love and fortune will.

My food shall be of care and sorrow made;
My drink nought else but tears fallen from mine

eyes;

And for my light, in such obscured shade,

The flames may serve which from my heart arise. And at my gates despair shall linger still, To let in death when love and fortune will.

VIII.

FAREWELL TO THE COURT.'
(Before 1593.)

IKE truthless dreams, so are my joys
expired,

And past return are all my dandled

days,

My love misled, and fancy quite retired;
Of all which past, the sorrow only stays.

Signed W. R., with the above title, in "Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, p. 132, and on that authority, acknowledged by Oldys, p. clxxiii. note, and inserted in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's "Works," viii. 730: correctly, for it is quoted as his own by Raleigh himself in the Hatfield MS.; see No. XX. line 144. There is an anonymous copy in the "Phoenix Nest," 1593, p. 70.

My lost delights, now clean from sight of land,
Have left me all alone in unknown ways,
My mind to woe, my life in fortune's hand;
Of all which past, the sorrow only stays.
As in a country strange without companion,

I only wail the wrong of death's delays, Whose sweet spring spent, whose summer well nigh done;

Of all which past, the sorrow only stays;

Whom care forewarns, ere age and winter cold, To haste me hence to find my fortune's fold.

IX.

THE ADVICE.1

ANY desire, but few or none deserve
To win the fort of thy most constant

will;

Therefore take heed; let fancy never

swerve

But unto him that will defend thee still: For this be sure, the fort of fame once won, Farewell the rest, thy happy days are done! Many desire, but few or none deserve

To pluck the flowers, and let the leaves to fall;

1 Signed W. R., like the last piece, in "Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, p. 133; and therefore accepted by Oldys and the Oxford editors, viii. 731. There is an anonymous copy in MS. Rawl. Poet. 85, fol. 116, as "written to Mris A. V."

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

Therefore take heed; let fancy never swerve But unto him that will take leaves and all: For this be sure, the flower once plucked away, Farewell the rest, thy happy days decay!

Many desire, but few or none deserve

15

To cut the corn, not subject to the sickle; Therefore take heed; let fancy never swerve, But constant stand, for mowers' minds are fickle; For this be sure, the crop being once obtained, Farewell the rest, the soil will be disdained.

X.

IN THE GRACE OF WIT, OF TONGUE,

H

AND FACE.1

(Before 1593.)

ER face, her tongue, her wit, so fair, so sweet, so sharp,

First bent, then drew, now hit, mine eye, mine ear, my heart:

Mine eye, mine ear, my heart, to like, to learn, to love,

A shorter copy than the above occurs anonymously in the "Phoenix Nest," 1593, p. 71, and is repeated in "Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, p 131, as "The Lover's Maze," with the signature W. R., as in the last two cases. Hence it was accepted by Oldys and the Oxford editors, viii. 730. The above copy is taken from Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," where it is anonymous; the title from editions 1611 and 1621. In editions 1602 and 1608, it is called "A reporting Sonnet."

Her face, her tongue, her wit, doth lead, doth teach, doth move:

Her face, her tongue, her wit, with beams, with sound, with art,

Doth blind, doth charm, doth rule, mine eye, mine ear, my heart.

Mine eye, mine ear, my heart, with life, with hope, with skill,

Her face, her tongue, her wit, doth feed, doth feast, doth fill:

O face, O tongue, O wit, with frowns, with checks, with smart,

Wring not, vex not, wound not, mine eye, mine ear, my heart:

This eye, this ear, this heart, shall joy, shall bind, shall swear

Your face, your tongue, your wit, to serve, to love, to fear.

XI.

FAIN WOULD I, BUT I DARE NOT.1

AIN would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not;

I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.

'MS. Rawl. 85, fol. 41, verso, with the signature "W. R.” in apparently a later hand: thence inserted in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's "Works," vol. viii. p. 732, with the title "A Lover's Verses." There is an anonymous copy of the first three stanzas in Harl. MS. 6910, fol. 154.

You laugh because you like not; I jest whenas I

joy not;

You pierce, although you strike not; I strike and yet annoy not.

I spy, whenas I speak not; for oft I speak and speed not;

But of my wounds you reck not, because you see they bleed not:

Yet bleed they where you see not, but you the pain endure not:

Of noble mind they be not that ever kill and cure

not.

I see, whenas I view not; I wish, although I crave not;

I serve, and yet I sue not; I hope for that I

have not;

I catch, although I hold not; I burn, although I flame not;

I seem,

whenas I would not; and when I seem, I

am not.

Yours am I, though I seem not, and will be, though I show not;

Mine outward deeds then deem not, when mine intent you know not;

But if my serving prove not most sure, although I sue not,

Withdraw your mind and love not, nor of my ruin

rue not.

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