Fearful, to perk him by the Eagle's side:
With moody vein

The speedy post of Ganymede replied –
Vassal! avaunt! or with my wings you die;
Is 't fit an Eagle seat him with a Fly?

The Fly craved pity; still the Eagle frown'd:
The silly Fly,

Ready to die,

Disgraced, displaced, fell groveling to the ground : The Eagle saw,

And with a royal mind said to the Fly-
Be not in awe!

I scorn by me the meanest creature die :
Then seat thee here! The joyful Fly up flings,
And sate safe, shadow'd with the Eagle's wings.

SWEET CONTENT

WEET are the thoughts that savour of content;

SWE

The quiet mind is richer than a crown ;

Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent ;
The poor estate scorns Fortune's angry frown :
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.

The homely house that harbours quiet rest,
The cottage that affords no pride nor care,
The mean agrees with country music best,
The sweet consort of mirth and modest fare,—
Obscured life sets down as type of bliss:
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.

Doth rule and govern all the Gods :
I say - Love,

Smooth-faced Love,

Is sweetest sweet that man can have :
I say - Love,

Sour Love,

Makes Virtue yield as Beauty's slave:
A bitter sweet; a folly worst of all,
That forceth Wisdom to be Folly's thrall.

Love is sweet:

Wherein sweet?

In fading pleasures that do pain ?
Beauty sweet:

Is that sweet

That yieldeth sorrow for a gain?

If Love's sweet,

Herein sweet

That minutes' joys are monthly woes:

'Tis not sweet

That is sweet

Nowhere but where repentance grows.
Then love who list! if beauty be so sour,

Labour for me! love rest in prince's bower!

MICHAEL DRAYTON

WHAT LOVE IS

WHAT

HAT IS LOVE but the desire Of that thing the fancy pleaseth? A holy and resistless fire

Weak and strong alike that seizeth : Which not Heaven hath power to let, Nor wise Nature can not smother; Whereby Phoebus doth beget

On the Universal Mother:
That the everlasting chain

Which together all things tied,
And unmoved doth them retain,
And by which they shall abide :
That consent we clearly find
Which doth things together draw
And so, strong in every kind,
Subjects them to Nature's law :
Whose high virtue Number teaches,

In which every thing doth move,
From the lowest depth that reaches
To the height of heaven above:
Harmony that, wisely found

When the cunning hand doth strike, Whereas every amorous sound

Sweetly marries with the like.

The tender cattle scarcely take

From their dams, the fields to prove,
But each seeketh out a make :
Nothing lives that doth not love.
Not so much as but the plant -
As Nature every thing doth pair -
By it if the male do want,

Doth dislike and will not bear.
Nothing, then, is like to Love,
In the which all creatures be:
From it ne'er let me remove!
Nor let it remove from me!

ROWLAND'S ROUNDELAY

To whom Her Swain, unworthy though he were,
Thus unto Her his Roundelay applies:

To whom the rest the under-part did bear,

Casting upon Her their still longing eyes. ROWLAND — Of her pure eyes, that now is seen, CHORUS-Come, let us sing, ye faithful swains! - O She alone the Shepherds' Queen,

ROWLAND

CHORUS - Her flock that leads :

ROWLAND
CHORUS
ROWLAND

The Goddess of these meads,
These mountains, and these plains.

- Those eyes of hers that are more clear
-Than can poor shepherd's song express,
-Than be his beams that rules the year:

CHORUS- Fie on that praise

In striving things to raise

That doth but make them less!

ROWLAND

CHORUS

ROWLAND

That do the flowery Spring prolong,
So all things in her sight do joy,

And keep the plenteous Summer young,

CHORUS - And do assuage

The wrathful Winter's rage

That would our flocks annoy.

ROWLAND - Jove saw her breast that naked lay,
CHORUSA sight most fit for Jove to see,
ROWLAND And swore it was the Milky Way:
CHORUS Of all most pure

The path, we us assure,

To his bright court to be.

ROWLAND He saw her tresses hanging down,
CHORUS― That moved with the gentle air,
ROWLAND—And said that Ariadne's Crown
CHORUS - With those compared

The Gods should not regard,

Nor Berenice's Hair.

ROWLAND When She hath watch'd my flocks by night,
CHORUS-O happy flocks that She did keep!

ROWLAND - They never needed Cynthia's light,
CHORUS That soon gave place,

ROWLAND

CHORUS

ROWLAND

Amazed with her grace

That did attend thy sheep.

Above, where heaven's high glories are,
When She is placed in the skies,

She shall be call'd the Shepherds' Star :

CHORUS And evermore

We shepherds will adore

Her setting and her rise.