Now must I go, alace!
For sight of her sweet face
The ground of all my grace
And sovereign;

What chance that may fall me
Sall I never merry be,

Unto the time I see

My sweet again.

go I wot not where

I wander here and there, weep and sick right sair

I

With panës smart :

How must I pass away away

In wilderness and wildsome way—

Alace! this woful day

We should depart!

My spirit does quake for dreid.
My thirled heart does bleed
My panës does exceed

What should I say

I woful night alone

Makand ane piteous moan

Alace! my heart is gone
For ever and aye.

Through languor of my sweet
So thirlèd is my spreit

My days are most complete
Through her abscence

Christ den she knew my smart

Ingraven in my heart

Because I must depart

From her presence.

Adieu my own sweet thing
My joy and comforting
My mirth and solaceing

Of earthly gloir !

Farewell, my lady bright

And my remembrance right

Farewell, and have good night-
I say no moir.

ALEXANDER SCOTT

I

I SAW MY LADY WEEP

SAW my Lady weep

And Sorrow proud to be advanced so
In those fair eyes where all perfections keep.
Her face was full of woe

But such a woe (believe me) as wins more hearts
Than Mirth can do with her enticing arts.

Sorrow was there made fair

And Passion wise; tears a delightful thing;
Silence, beyond all speech, and wisdom rare :
She made her sighs to sing,

And all things with so sweet a sadness move
As made my heart at once both grieve and love.

O fairer than aught else

The world can show, leave off in time to grieve!
Enough enough: your joyful look excels :

Tears kill the heart, believe.

O strive not to be excellent in woe

Which only breeds your beauty's overthrow.

ANON.

THE LADYE PRAYETH THE RETURNE OF HER LOUER ABIDYNG ON THE SEAS

SHALL

HALL I thus euer long, and be no whit the nere ? And shall I still complaine to thee, the which me will not here ?

Alas, saie nay, saie nay, and be no more so dome, But open though thy manly mouth, and saie that thou wilt come.

That thou wilt come, thy word so sware, if thou a liues man bee,

The roaring hugy waues, they threaten my pore ghost, And toss thee vp and downe the seas, in danger to be lost. Shall they not make me feare that they haue swallowed

thee?

But as thou art most sure aliue, so wilt thou come to me,
Whereby I shall go se thy shippe ride on the strand,
And think and say, lo where he comes, and sure here
wyll he land.

And then I shall lift vp to thee my little hand,

And thou wilt thinke thine heart in ease, in helth to see me stand,

And if thou come indede (as Christ thee sende to doe) Those arms which misse thee yet, shall then embrace thee

to.

Eche vain to euery joint, the liuely blood shal spread, Which now for want of thy glad sight, doth show full pale and dead.

But if thou slip thy trouth, and do not come at all
As minutes in the clock do strike, so call for death I

shall;

To please both thy false hart, and rid my selfe from wo, That rather had to dye in trouth then liue forsaken so.

ANON.

FROM "THE SONG OF SONGS"

AS a lily among the thorns,1

So is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
So is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,
And his banner over me was love.

Stay me with raisins,2 comfort me with apples:
For I am sick of love.

His left hand is under my head,

And his right hand doth embrace me.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Till he please.

BY

SONG OF SONGS

Y night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: 3

I sought him, but I found him not.

I will rise now, and go about the city
In the streets, and in the broad ways
I will seek him whom my soul loveth ;
I sought him, but I found him not.

1 Chap. ii., verses 2-7.

2 Authorised version reads " flagons".
3 Chap. iii., verses 1-5.

The watchmen that go about the city found me :
To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ?
It was but a little that I passed from them,
When I found him whom my soul loveth :

I held him, and would not let him go,

Until I had brought him into my mother's house,
And into the chamber of her that conceived me.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Till he please.

SONG OF SONGS

SET

ET me as a seal upon thine heart,2
As a seal upon thine arm :

For love is strong as death ;
Jealousy is cruel as the grave:
The coals thereof are coals of fire,
Which hath a most vehement flame.

Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can the floods drown it :

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
It would utterly be contemned.

SONG OF SONGS

1 Authorised version reads "but ".

2 Chap. viii., verses 6 and 7.