Amorous Songes and Sonets.
TO IDEA.
IN Golden world, when
Saturne did vpgiue
To
Pluto, Joue, and
Neptune, his Empire
They cast their lots both how, & where to liue▪
Because it was old
Saturns owne desire:
Joue ruld the Furnace farre aboue the Fire,
The stately Vault, beyond the starrie round:
And
Neptune gat the glassie Salt to hyre,
Then
Pluto chooss'd the Hellish blacke profound:
When
Cupid spied they gaue him but the Ground▪
Impatient wagg, went out to walke abrod,
And conquering these that were but lately cround,
He made him selfe ouer all those Gods a God.
Then
Loue to thee, as to my Lord I yeeld,
I feare to fight, where Gods haue fled the feeld.
Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amorj.
To IDEA.
DOwne frō the Skies for to behold my Dame
Came Goddesses, and all the Gods aboue:
Joue, Saturne, Mars, bright
Phoebus, and with thame,
Rich
Juno, Minerue, and the Queene of Loue:
Her beauties fame, their mindes did so commone,
They run, and tooke no rest till they came thare,
Thus armies proud, approch't for to approue,
And giue their doome, that she was matchles faire:
Loue like the rest, would faine look'd on, & sweare
Vnknit (faire Dame) this Craip, quoth he, & thou
Both Bagg and Bow a bonie while shalt beare,
Shoote where thou wilt, and I shall well allow:
They change, & she shot Loue, that he was faine
To skarfe his eyes, and begge the Bow againe.
Caecus amor superos superat, lithocardia amorem.
To LITHOCARDIA.
OF late the blind, and naked Archer Boy,
A libertine, out through the plains would play
With ayre-deuiding wings without conuoy:
Hee vaging went, and wist not where away.
Sad
Ʋenus wep't, and thus to mee can say.
Didst thou behold my blind Babe any whare?
For hee is gone; O pittie strange estray:
And he is fightles, syndo
[...]les, and bare:
In
Craigs and Rocks such Elu's doe make repare,
And so perhaps hee harbers in thy hart.
It was too true, yet durst I not declare
His beeing there, for feare of further smart.
To want her Babe, braue
Venus stil doth murne,
she drown's the world with teares, & yet I burne.
Hei mihi quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbi
[...].
To LITHOCARDIA.
LOue set his Bow, his Bag, and Bolts aside,
And went out through the watrie vaults of ayre
Disposd to play; he goes without a guyde,
And with the Winds he wauers heere and thare:
Till at the last a fleeting Castle faire
On smooth and glassie Seas hee doth espie:
Hee bords their Barke, the fishing craft to leare:
The poore men yeeldes, not daring to denie,
Hee hales their Hookes, and baites them by & by.
Then
Thetis rose, and ask'd if Loue would burne
The liquid seat wherein her Lord did ly,
Disswading him from such a cruell turne.
Feare not sayd Loue, I came to fish, thou sees,
And left my flames in
Lithocardias eyes.
O non human
[...] nata puella toro.
To CYNTHIA.
THe Hobbie Haulke can catch at all no pray,
Vnles aboue her ayme and marke she flie.
The Palme doth beare the brauer boughs some say
From neighbour trees, the higher that it bee.
So far'd of those my fansies fond and mee,
In hope of hap, I cannot cease to sore.
If loued, I liue: and if disdain'd, I die.
I pray, I prayse, I pleade, and I implore:
Proud
Cytherea loued
Adonis poore,
And
Cynthia seru'd
Endimion Sheepheard swane;
So though I be inglorious and obscure,
Yet may she loue her Poet and her Man.
Mount then braue thoughts through water, fire & aire
And desp'rately pursue the sweete, proud, faire.
Blanditiis amor est, et succo molli
[...]r omni.
To PANDORA.
SInce
Joue him selfe was subiect vnto Loue,
And left the lift to catch a mortall pray.
If
Neptune did from glassie Seas remoue,
And would for Loue, aside the Scepter lay.
If
Pluto loath'd his darke and pitchie Caue,
To spoyle
Proserpine Cer
[...]s Daughter faire.
If proude
Apollo Daphui deare to haue,
Left
Phaeton to rule his fyrie Chaire.
If shaghhaird
Satyrs mountaine-climing race,
Pursu'd
Aenona through the
Phrygian Woods.
If piping
Pan from Musicke sweete did cease,
To hunt the
Naiad Nymp's by ban
[...]es of Floods?
What can I doe (sweet haar
[...]) but loue thee still?
On whom nor Gods no
[...] men can gaze their fill.
Iussit amor, quis enim mag
[...] non ceda
[...] amorj,
In cignum, in pluniam qui iubet ire Jonem.
To ERANTINA.
NOr there where as the yoaked restles Horse
With
Phaeton begins their wonted race,
and leads their Lord throughout the lift perfor
[...]
To circumgire the Earth into each place.
Nor there where as the hot and fyrie face,
The burning beames of
Phaebus bright appeare,
When hee diuyds the day in equall space
With glorious rayes in his meridian Spheare.
Nor there, whereas
Apollo proude, for feare
Our comming night, his lingering should control
[...]
With speedie pace from our Horizon heare,
Is headlong hurl'd to view th'antarticke Pole.
Nor no where els can any match at all
be found to her; whose vertues makes me thrall.
Tu mihi sola places.
To ERANTINA.
O Wounder to the world, whō woundering eyne
Doe wounder still as on the rarest fight
Of Natures frame; yet come to common light,
Or Hemisphere, where our Horizon beene.
Sweete louely
Laura, modest, chast, and cleene.
It seemes that Poet
Petrarche tooke delight,
Thy spotles prayse in daintie lines to dight,
By Prophecies, before thy selfe was seene.
And now faire Dame, since thou art borne to bee
That Comet strange, and that prodigious Starre,
Whence life and death, and peace & bloody warre▪
And calme and storme proceed, as pleaseth thee:
Shine still, and still with sweete aspect infuse,
Eternall theame, and matter to my Muse.
At mea c
[...]m multis placuisset musa puellis,
Huic vnj, dixj, noster inheret am
[...]r.
To IDEA.
THe chastest Child will oft for mercie cry,
And bid the striker stay and hold his hand:
Yea though he weepe, his teares he will vpdry
And kisse (suppose against his will) the wand.
With chiuering chin, but sturring will he stand,
And patiently suppres his present paine:
Poore Babe he dare not but obey command,
And hold his peace, least he be lasht againe.
Such is my state, I saikles soule am slaine,
Nor can I get the smallest graunt of grace,
Nor dare I now, though I haue cause, complaine:
And though I durst, my plaints wold haue no place
Thus am I faine for feare of further wrong,
Euen with the Babe to burst, and hold my tong.
Non tame
[...] audebam tacit
[...]s operire dol
[...]res,
Ingenium metuens casta puella tuam.
To CINTHIA▪
IT sometime chanst, as Stories tell by chanse,
That
Hercules and
Hylas were alone,
And seuerally they went apart to pause:
But hee and hee, accompanied with none,
Till
Hercules to
Hylas made his mone,
That hee for drouth was like to giue the Ghost.
Thus
Hylas to
Ascauius Flood is gone,
To draw a drinke, and lowting life hath lost.
So when mine eyes had spurd a speedie post,
To set the floods of fauour to their friend,
My burning heart, which drouth of comfort crost,
They dround them selues, & nothing els obteind:
So Destanies my dolefull death concludes,
By double force of Furious flames and floudes.
Ʋror, et heu nostro manat ab igne liquor.
To IDEA.
THe Lipper man, whose voyce can not be hard,
With dolefull hoarse vnpleasant tune wil cry,
And craue for loue of Iesus Christ reward,
And alm's of such as chaunce for to passe by:
But when (allace poore soule) he doth espy
That no man heares, not yet regards his voyce,
No longer then takes he delight to ly,
But claps his dish, and keepes his language close.
Right so as curst, and carefull is my Crosse,
Suppose the Fates haue not deform'd my shape,
No words I vse for to lament my lose,
But make my Lines to be the Lippars Clap.
Goe Sonet then and beg, I thee beseech,
Some grace to him, whom feare deterres from speech.
Dicere qua puduit scribere iussit amor.
To IDEA.
IN stately
Troy which was by force of fire
Subdu'd in end, and turnd in embers cold,
Apollo's Church while
Priam did empire,
Was beautifull and braue for to behold:
In midst whereof hung in a not of gold
A Coca
[...]rice, that Spider, Bird, nor Flie,
To enter there, nor build durst not be bold:
That famous worke from filth was kept so frie.
The like (faire Dame) may well be thought of thee
For why, before thy beauties Altar hings,
Canceld with prid, both blood and birth I see,
With cold disdaine, which serue as certaine
[...]ings,
To warne a farre my fancie to refraine,
And rather wrake then once reueale my paine▪
Cor dolet g
[...]lidu
[...] torpet sub pert
[...]re sanguit,
Me tamen oppressum dicere vetat amor.
To PANDORA.
I Pause not on the gold of
Tagus sand,
Nor
Erithrean braue and shyning shells:
Ilong not for the limits large of Land,
Wherein the barbar newfound Nations dwels:
I bid not of these bounds whose boosome swells
With birth of braue and costly Iewels rare,
Which with their Muske and Siuet sweetest smels
In fairest Chattons, set perfume the ayre.
My pridles Hart subdued with Loue and feare,
Seekes that those Songes the Heralds of my hart
Might mooue the sweet and flintie harted faire
Some fauour once, and pittie to impart:
Els that vpon the Alter of her wreath,
She would accept th'oblation of my death.
At siue te regum Muneranulla vol
[...].
To PENELOPE.
I Serue a Mistris infinitely faire,
And (which I more esteeme) exceeding wise,
In that, beyond the boundes of all compare:
And this in her the wondering world enuies,
Thence doth of loue my restles rage arrise,
Thence flowes the font of all the harmes I haue:
Her wit my heart, her beautie charm'd mine eyes,
To
Ʋenus thus and
Pallas I am slaue:
If curious heades to know her name do craue,
Shee is a Lady
Rich, it needes no more,
And wealthy
Iuno wonted pride may leaue,
And gladly serue the Dame whom I adore:
Rich, wise, and faire, to thee alone as thrall,
I consecrate loue, life, lines, thoughts, and all.
At mihi seruitium, et tristis iam vita paratur,
Illa
(que) libertas pristina surripitur.
To PENELOPE.
SHort is the day, but long (allace) to mee,
Who liue in loue, and am not loued againe:
My louely, faire, and loueles Saint I see,
Doth guild with gold her hid & coy disdaine.
thinkst thou faire dame, to buy my loue with gaine
Cause thou art rich, I pray thee thinke not so:
I am thy slaue, and for thy sake am slaine.
Nor can my Rim's reueale my inward woe.
Put now a poynt
Panelopa I pray,
vnto this web so oft retex'd by thee,
Pay loue with loue, and make no more delay▪
O raine no more thy shewers of gold on mee,
One kisse of thee would breed me more conten
[...]
Then make me king of
Cresus Lydia
[...] rent.
To LITHOCARDIA.
WHen Churches all of
Asia les and more,
By
Xerxes great were burnt, & cast to ground
Of pittie hee
Dianais Church forbore.
A peece of worke whose like could not be found:
And yet by fames report to be renound,
Herostratus did set the same on fire,
Which
Xerxes great suppose a Monarch cround,
Did spare vnspoyld for all his proud Empire.
Right so, when as so many did conspire
To conquer mee a poore and Cuntrey Swaine,
My hardned hart withheld their hot desire,
And I till now, vnconquerd did remaine.
That by my losse, I must enlarge thy fame,
And slay my selfe to serue
a glorious Dame.
Non ego seruitium Dominae tam mite recuse,
Ah pereat si quis vincula et ipse times.
To LITHOCARDIA. Anagram.
AS
Marigould did in her Garden walke,
One day, O ten times happie was that day
I thitherward to see my Saint, did stalke:
Where
Floraes Imp's ioy'd with her feet to play,
And loe vnseene behind a Hedge I lay,
Where I beheld the Roses blush for shame,
The Lillies were empald vpon the spray,
The Violets were staynd about my Dame:
My Mistris smild for to behold the game,
And sometimes pleasd vpon the grasse to sport▪
Which canging hew's new cullors did acclaime,
For blythnes of so sweete a Saincts resort,
And from that walke while as away she w
[...]nt.
They weepe with deaw, & I in teares lament.
Spr
[...]it nostras galatea querel
[...].
To KALA.
FAire
Kala, fairer then the Wooll most faire,
Of these my faire and siluer fleeced Sheepe
Which are committed to my careles care,
And vp and downe those daintie Dales I keepe:
Faire Sheppeardesse, for thee alone I weepe.
None heares my plaints but bleating beasts and I,
And for thy sake I sigh when I should sleepe,
And on thy name amid my dreames I crie.
Thē since thou know's the thraldome of my mind
And how my necke to beare thy yoke is worne:
Haue pittie once, and proue not ay vnkind,
And laugh no more thy shepheard swaine to scorne
But if thou mind'st for to remead my mone,
Let fansies then, flocks, folds, and all, be one.
Tum mistum ciuerem communi onerare sepulchre,
Amborum
(que) vnus contegat ossa lapis.
To LAIS.
What euer thou be that claimes or courts my deare
And in my absence would supply my place,
If courts thou, I pray thee to forbeare,
Rob not my right, and latelie granted grace:
For if at were, I friendly craue thy case,
And thou had credit as I sometime bade,
Were it not wrong, if I should proudlie prease
To raue thy right? yes I may surely saide:
Be who thou wilt, I challenge thee therefore,
That with thy Daffings deauis my
Lais eare;
Cease from thy sute, and in to time forbeare,
Els we can be companions true no more.
For put the case thou speed, thou gaines these two,
A facill Dame, and of a friend a foe.
Casta ma
[...]e nec te lusus, nec munera vinca
[...].
To LAIS.
EVen as a ventering Merchant skant of skill,
Whom Fortunes frowne or fate hath forc'd to fall
To recempence his former losse hee will
Within one Ship and Vessell venter all.
So haue I vsed my Stocke, though it be small:
My Hart I send halfe dround into dispaire
Vnto my Saint, whom eue
[...]erue I shall:
Shee is the Shipp, and it the ventered ware.
Oft hath my minde bin cloy'd with clouds of care
When contrar winds, with cold and stormie raine
would threat my losse; but now frō bounds of feare
My ventring thus, hath made me rich againe.
Then shal my Muse triumph & mourne no more,
Since second windes haue brought my Shipp to shore.
At nunc tota tua est, te solum candida secum,
Cogita et frustra credula turba sedet.
To PANDORA.
O Watchfull Bird proclaymer of the day,
Withh
[...]ld I pray, thy piercing notes from me:
Yet crow, and put the Pilgrime to his way,
And let the Worke-man rise to earne his fee:
Yea let the Lion fierce, be feard of thee,
To leaue his prey, and lodge him in his Caue:
And let the deepe Diuine from dreaming flie.
To looke his leaues within his close Conclaue:
Each man saue I, may some remembrance haue,
That gone is night, and
Phosphor draweth nie:
Beat not thy breast for mee poore sleepeles slaue,
To whom the Fat's alternall rest denie:
But if thou wouldst bring truce vnto my teares,
Crow still for Mercie in my Mistris
[...]ares.
To PANDORA.
GO you o winds that blow from north to south,
Conuey my secret sighes vnto my sweet:
Deliuer them from mine, vnto her mouth,
And make my commendations till we meet.
But if perhaps her proud aspiring sprit,
Will not accept nor yet receiue the same,
The brest and bulwarke of her bosome be it:
Knock at her hart, and tell from whence you came,
Importune her, nor cease, nor shrinke, for shame:
Sport with her curl's of Amber cullour'd haire,
And when she sighs, immix your selues with thame
Giue her her owne, and thus beguile the
faire.
Blow winds, flie sighs, where as my hart doth han
[...]
And secretly commend me to my sanct.
To PANDORA.
IN
Arcadie sometime (as
Sydne say's,)
Demagoras a proud Lord did remaine,
In whom no thing I marke that merits prayse,
Saue that he seru'd
Parthenia sweet with paine:
But when he found she lou'd him not agane,
With leprocie he did infect her face,
Which caus'd the constant knight for to complane
But not to change his loue in any case:
Pandora faire his woose infect'd allace
With leprocie of loathsome cold disdane,
Bred by my foe, to further my disgrace:
Yet neither fayth nor fancie shall refrane:
Yea, were her face deform'd as it is faire,
I should ay serue, though I should ay dispaire.
Fortuna potes inuita fecisse beatum,
Quem velis.
To LITHOCARDIA.
A Very World may well be seene in mee,
My hot desires as flames of Fire do shine,
My sighes are ayre, my teares the Ocean sea
My steadfast fayth, the solid Earth, & syne,
My hope my heauen, my thoughts are stars diuine
My ielosie the very pangues of Hell,
My sweete the Sainct, to whom I do propine
For sacrifice my seruice and my sell.
That hatefull Hagge, who neere my Dame doth dwell
My riuall foe, my Loue the Sommer sweet,
My Spring-time, my deserts which so excell:
And my Dispaires, the Winter cold and weet.
But (O allace) no Haruest can I see,
Which spoyls my yeares, & maks me thus to die
To ERANTINA.
WEll may I read as on a snowie sheet
Of paper faire, my fortune in thy face,
Since at my sight thine eyes are both repleit,
With loueles looks presaging but disgrace:
And thou into my visage wann allace,
May see in sad characters of my care,
Since neither ruth nor pittie can haue place,
A boundles Booke, a volume of dispare.
Thus like a Glasse my face may well declare
My loue to thee, and with my loue my paine:
Thine show's againe (though it be matchles faire)
Thy hatefull heart and vndeseru'd disdaine.
O antipathie strange to be susteind,
I loue my foe, thou hats thy faithfull friend.
Vidi ego quae veneris falleudo iura res
[...]suit,
Perfidiae penas saepe luisse graues.
To IDEA.
The Brethren three whose hot persut hath broght
Death to them selues, & bondage to their land,
When as their foe before them fled, they thoght
The victorie was plac'd into their hand:
And yet his flight inferd no feare they fand,
For as they came, hee slew them one and one.
A
Parthian forme, whose fight in f
[...]ght doth stand,
For while they flie, their foes are kild anone.
Euen so may I, vnhappiest I complaine:
But pittie thus to serue a
Parthian Dame,
Who shuns my sutes, and makes my fancie fane,
With hosts of harm's for to pursue the same.
O sweet discord, O sweet concord agane,
She flies to kill, I chase her to be tane.
To IDEA.
FAire louelie
Haebae Queene of pleasant Youth,
Who bore braue
Nectar to the Gods aboue:
Whose glansing beames like
Phaebus in the south,
Do both bewitch and burne my brest with loue.
O thou that wars the woundring world for woorth
Whom Nature made to laugh her selfe to scorne,
More excellent then I can set thee foorth:
Whose like nor is, nor shall againe be borne.
My flowing Songs I consecrate to thee,
Good reason were, that they should all be thine.
Thy presence creats all those thoughts in mee,
Which mee immortall, and maks thee diuine:
And such delight I haue with thee to stay,
As twentie Moones do seeme but halfe a day.
Et tua quod superest temporis esse precor.
To LITHOCARDIA.
THou who began by
Menalus to mone,
And lay alone for to lament thy losse
Amid those greene and grouie shads to grone
Where
Musidorus knew thee by thy voyce:
Thou hast of me a comfort in thy crosse,
With Princes proud if poore men may compare,
For why my cares suppose I keepe them close,
Ouermatcheth thine, tho thy mishaps were mare:
Thy thuartring thoughts were droūd in deepe dispare
Mine haue no hope for to be brought to pas:
Thy heart has hurt, and mine of blis is bare:
Thou chang'd thy shape, I am not what I was:
In end thou sped, I ware my worke in vaine,
I loue allace, and am not loued againe.
Spe
(que) timor dubia, spes
(que) timore cadis.
To LAIS.
SEe
Deianira, see how I am shent
By that same Shirt which
Nessus to thee gaue,
And thou againe to me by
Lychas sent,
I am inflam'd flesh, bons, and all I haue,
That
Ichthiophagic Aethiopian slaue,
Who boyls his angled Fish by
Phaebus beams
Vpon a Rock, no other stire may craue:
Nor Sun, nor Rocke, but these my gliding gleams▪
Yet sweete thy sworne
Alcides will not die,
There is no deadlie
Dipsas in thy Sarke,
I languish but till
I may meet with thee,
With quent Dialogs in the quiet darke:
And so till time such happie time afford,
My further will this bearer brings by word.
Saepe greges inter requie
[...]us arbore terci,
Mista
(que) cum folus perbuit herba torum.
To PENELOPE.
THe
Persian King in danger to be dround,
Ask'd if no helpe in humane hands did stand.
The Skipper then cast in the Salt profound,
Some
Persians braue, & brought the King to land.
Then
Xerxes crowns the Skipper with his hand,
Who saues the King deseru's (quoth he) a crowne:
But he at once to kill him gaue command,
Die die, said he, who did my
Persians drowne.
My Ladie faire, a
Xerxes proud doth proue,
My worthles Verse she doth reward with gold:
But (O allace) she lets me die for loue,
And now I rew that I haue bin so bold.
As
Xerxes crownd, and kild his man; right so
Shee seemes a frind, and proues a mortall foe.
Credula res amor est. &c.
At IDEAS direction, these two Sonets were made. 1.
MOre then I am, accursed mought I bee,
If er'e I did approch my dearest Dame:
But such a great respect was still in mee,
As ay feare was equall to my flame:
Suppose some sots spoyld of the sense of shame,
Or feeling of my honest Loue, will say,
And publiklie to my dispraise proclame
That I delight in loathsome Lust as thay.
You sacred pow'rs, I still inuoke and pray,
That all my speach turne poyson in a clap,
If either I by word or writ bewray
One lusting thought her beautie to entrap,
Let pale Enuie (faire Dame) admire and lie,
With chast desiers I serue and honor thee.
To IDEA. 2
WIth chast desires I serue and honor thee
Great Archi-mistris of my rauisht mind,
Most virtuous, wise, and faire, of all thy kind:
Whose least command I vow to doe or die.
Chast was my Loue, yet is, and ay shall bee,
The praysing Papers which I haue propin'd,
May well beare witnes how I am inclind,
And can (ye know) controull mee when I lie:
Phronesis erring could espie no place,
Meete on this mould, but in thy breast to dwell,
A virtuous mind adorns a beauteous face;
And thou hast both, and in them both excell:
This maks my loue be chast, my passions strange
And I had rather choose to die then change,
Aspice diuinas humano in corpore dotes
Nil mort
[...]lae tibi faemina digna polo es.
To CYNTHIA.
HAdst thou been blacke, or yet had I been blind,
my muse had slept, & none had known my mind
Or yet couldst thou as thou art faire, be kind,
I had not thus with sighs increast the wind:
But loe these frowning fauours which I find,
To which allace thou art too much inclind,
By which thy poore afflicted man is pind,
Haue broke the heart, which beautie first did bind:
Smile then faire dame, & some time cease to frown
For smiles please mee, and do become thee best:
And since thou sees how I am sworne thine owne,
Smile still on him who loues thee by the rest,
So neither shall I wish thee to be blacke,
Nor curse my eyes, the causers of my wrecke.
Nam si quem placidis facilis dignaris ocellis,
Nectaris huic fontes, ambrosia
(que) fluunt.
To ERANTINA.
THe Tyrant
Nero houering to behold
The wrack of
Rome on top of
Tarpe hill,
He saw the rich, the poore, the young, the old,
Amid the flams in in present poynt to spill:
Yet woondering on that woonder, stood he still,
And (cruell man) would neither mend nor meene,
But tooke his pleasure to espie their ill,
And smild to see them smart before his eyne:
But had that man, that monstruous man yet beene
Reseru'd on life by fatall Nimphs till now,
To view these flames which may in me be seene,
He would bewaile my poore estate I trow,
whose boyling breast euen like mont
Aetna burns
When in his tomb the roaring monster turns.
To KALA.
THe
Persian Kings all waters did abiure,
Saue those which flow'd frō faire
Ch
[...]aspes flood:
From age to age this they obseru'd as sure,
As though no Waters els could do them good.
This was a forme, no rather bondage strange,
Which by no means these
Monarch's braue would change.
I am as constant as a
Persian King,
And thou more deare then meat or drinke to mee:
For all th'entisments beautie bright can bring,
With lisping toong, and soull entising eye:
In spight of all these all as I began,
I am thy true and neuer-changing man.
Thus will I surfet on thy beautie braue,
And
Lyzard-like liue on thy looks diuiue:
In presence absence I am sworne thy slaue,
And still I would (were I a King) be thine:
And for thy sake, till life and breath endure,
All other loue and seruice I abiure.
Tu quo
(que) iunge fid
[...]s fido cum coniuge amor
[...]s,
Ipse etenim et coniunx ipse et amator ero.
To LAIS.
ALlace that absence hath such force to foyll,
And to procure my euer pearceing paine,
Bereft of rest I tosse, I turne, I toyle,
Halfe in dispaire that we may meet againe:
Think on my vowes (& think they were not vaine)
My countenance, and each thing els I pray,
Which then I vs'd, when our goodnight was tane,
My inward wrack and woe for to bewray:
And when allone in clasped armes we lay,
With interchange of manie soulesooke kisses:
Thinke how we shed before the dawn of day,
With miriads of vnaccomplisht wishes:
Which with my selfe for lacke of presens pind,
I recommend vnto thy vertuous mind.
Sic mecum fixis herebas nixa lacertis,
Mutua cum placido trahebamus gaudia lusu.
To absent ERANTINA.
EVen as a man by darke that goes astray,
Would faine behold and looke vnto the light:
Or as a Pilgrem erring from the way,
In wildsome wayes, would faine be set a right
[...]
As Mariners in blacke and stormie night,
O'reset with Seas, strange winds, and stormie raine
Longs to behold the beames of
Phaebus bright,
That after storme, the calme may come againe:
As he whom still the Iayler doth detaine
In bondage close, of freedome would be glade:
Right so shall I of presence be as faine,
To see the Sainct for whom my sighs are shade,
Light, wisshed way, calme, freedome, should not bee
So sweete to them, as
Presence vnto mee.
To KALA.
Sore is my head and sorie is my hart,
And yet for all th'emplasters I applie,
No helpe hath Nature, nor no ayde brings Art,
Without, within, I burne, I fret, I frie:
A childish thing when Care doth come to crie:
Yet this doth most my Feuer fell infect,
I hid my harms, and so in silence die,
And thus my head must riue, my hart must breake,
But worst of all, while visage wan bewray,
What secret site my sicke soule doth assale,
How I or'edriue in deadly dooll the day,
And how this longsome Equinoct I vale:
Shee cruell shee that should my Surgeon bee,
Allow's my losse, and laughs, and lets me die.
Nec tamen vlla mea tangit te cura salutis.
To absent IDEA.
Faire dame, for whō my mornfull muse hath worne
To want thy fight the black & sable weede,
Whose houering haires dissheueld rent and torne,
May show what baill thy absence long can breed:
Looke if thou list my Rimes, and thou shalt reed
But coaleblack woes in coaleblack words brought forth
thy absence long, hath made my cōfort deed,
And makes my Verses be so litle worth.
Shine then vpon my parched Sunburnd braine,
Chiefe stay of all my tempest-beaten state:
Leaue not thy man disconsolate againe,
Faire Goddes of my Fortune both and Fate:
All earthly hopes for thee since I refuse,
Be thou my hope, my Mistris, and my Muse.
Ʋt
(que) supercilio spendo
[...] nutu
(que) loquaci,
Nonnihil ipsa meis m
[...]ta venis precibus,
To ERANTINA.
OVtthrough the faire and famous
Scythian land,
A Riuer runns vnto the Ocean mane:
Hight
Hypanis with cleare and cristall strand,
Borderd about with Pine, Firre, Oake, and plane:
Whose siluer streames as they delight the eye,
So none more sweet to either tast or smell.
Yet
Exampeus erre his Lord he spies,
Maks him to stinke like
Stigian stanks at Hell.
Eu'n so faire Dame (whose shap doth so excell)
Thy glorious rayes, thy shining virtues rare,
No Poets pen, nor Rhetors tong can tell
So farre beyond the bounds of all compare:
Yet are they spoyld with poysning cold disdaine
And such as drink thy beauties floods are slaine.
Nil nostrae mouere preces verba irrita ventis,
Fudimus et vanas scopulis impegimus vndas.
PANDORA refuseth his Letter.
THe saikles soule
Philoxenus was slaine
By courtes kind
Amphialus the Knight,
(Who for the faire
Cornithian Queens disdaine
Borne to his foresaid friend had tane the flight:)
But when his Dog perceiu'd that sorie fight,
He fawn'd vpon his maisters fatall foe:
Who then with hart and handfull of despight,
Beats backe the Dog with manie bitter blo.
My dearest Dame and seemlie Sainct euen so,
For whose sweet sake I daylie die and dwins,
Hath slaine her slaue with all the wounds of woe,
And loaths allace, to looke vpon my Lins:
That with the Dog my Ditties must returne,
And helpe their martird Maister for to murne.
Quis Deus opposuit nostris sua numina notis.
To KALA.
TWixt Fortune, Loue, and most vnhappie mee,
Behold a chase, a fatall threesome Reele,
Shee leads vs both, suppose shee can not see,
And spurs the Post on her vnconstant wheele:
I follow her, but while I prease to speele
My bounds aboue, I faile, and so I fall:
Loue lifts me vp, and saies all shall be well,
In hope of hap my comfort I recall:
Wee iornie on, Loue is the last of all;
Hee on his winges, I on my thoughts do sote:
I flie from him, suppose my speed be small;
Shee flies from mee, and woe is mee therefore.
Thus am I still twixt Loue and Fortune slaine,
I neither take nor tarrie to be taine.
To LITHOCARDIA.
GOod cause hadst thou
Euarchus to repent,
The reakles rashnes of thy bad decreit:
Thy crueltie did spring from good intent,
The grounds whereof were tedious to repeet:
Yet when thy Sonne fell downe before thy feet,
And made thine eyes confesse that he was thine,
Thou wept for woe, yet could thou not retreat
The sentence said, but sigh'd and sorow'd sine:
So may it be that once those eyes diuine,
Which now disdaine and loath to looke so low,
As to behold these miseries of mine,
shal weepe whē they my constant trueth shal know
And thou shalt sigh (though out of time) to see,
By thy decret thine owne
Pirocl
[...]s die.
To LITHOCARDIA.
I Feare not
Loue with blind and frowning face,
His Bow, his flame, nor sharpest hooked head:
A brauer Archer Death shall haue his place,
And put a poynt to all my paine with speed:
And since it is my fate to be at feed
With her whom once I duelie did adore:
Yet fatall
Atrops now shall cut the threed,
And breake the heart which she enioy'd of yore:
For fauours floods which I did oft implore,
Of
Letheis Lake I time by time shall teast,
Her Marbel heart shal make me moorne no more
The buriall stone my dolor shall digeast:
Then farewell
she, auth, loue, hard-heart, each one,
Come
Atrops, Lethe, Death, and
Buriall ston
[...].
Nunc te tam formae tangit decor iste superbae,
Vt tua commorint taedia iniqua deos.
To inconstant LAIS.
HOw oft hast thou with Siuet smelling breath,
told how thou loud'st me, loud'st me best of al?
And to repay my loue, my zeale, my fayth,
Said, to thy captiue thou wast but a thrall:
And when I would for comfort on thee call,
Be true to mee deare to my soule, said I,
Then sweetly quhespering would thou say,
I shall:
And
echo-like
deare to my soule, replie:
But breach of fayth now seemes no fault to thee,
Old promises new periuries do proue.
Apes turse the whelps they loue from tree to tree
And crush them to the death with too much loue.
My too much loue I see hath chang'd thee so,
That from a friend thou art become a foe.
Carminibus celebrata meis formosa N
[...]aera,
Aterius mauult esse puella viri.
To LAIS.
SWeet
Lais, trust me, I can loue no more,
And which is worse, my Loue is turnd to hate:
Thou art vnkind, and woe is mee therefore,
Inconstant fals and to my griefe ingrate,
It is too true
I lou'd thee well of late,
And euen as true thou lou'dst mee well againe:
I haue allace, no pleasure to repeat
Our wishes and our vowes since all are vaine:
What resolutions and what plots prophane
Wee two haue had in loue to liue and die,
The time, the place, the tokens giuen and tane;
Yf they could speake, can thy accusars bee:
But since thou still art false (I must confesse)
Thy loue was lightlie won, and lost for lesse.
Ah crudele genus nec fidum faemina nomen.
To ERANTINA.
Blind naked loue, who breeds those stormy broyls
Which from my deare me to my dole debars:
To mee the pangs, to thee pertaine the spoyls:
Thou taks aduantage of our ciuill warres,
I liue exild, but thou remains too neare,
Yet like a tirant shee triumphs o're thee.
Her presence maks thee more then blind I heare:
And absence is farre worse then death to mee,
Could I as thou, from ielous eyes be free,
Then should I be as blith as thou art blind:
I should not then dispaire, nor wish to die,
Nor should my sighs increas the wauering wind.
O rigor strange since Loue must still remaine,
In presence blind, and I in absence slain.
Ʋna di
[...]s tantum est, qua te non femina vidi,
Et sine iam videor seusibus es
[...]s
[...]is.
To PENELOPE.
WHen stately
Troy by subtill
Sinons guile,
And
Grecian force was brought to last decay,
Ʋlisses braue with faire and facund stile,
Achilles Arm's obtaind, and went away:
In
Afrike yet he was constraind to stay:
For when his friends did taste of
Lotus trie,
As
Homers works do more at length bewray,
They green'd no more the
Greekish soyle to see.
So fares with mee, O most vnhapie mee,
Since I beheld thy faire and heauenlie hew,
The glorious rayes of thy all conquering eye,
My rendering heart and soule did so subdew,
That for thy sake, whom euer serue I shall,
I haue forgot my selfe, my soyle, and all.
To IDEA.
MY Muse shal make thy boundles fame to flie
In bounds where yet thy selfe was neuer seene:
And were not for my Songs thy name had beene▪
Obscurelie cast into the graue with thee:
But loe when cold and limping age shall bee,
A signe of death, and when the graue shall greene
And gape within her bosome to conteene
Her child, in spight of Death thou shalt not die:
For why, my Muse, my restles Muse shall eeke
Ten thousand wings for to enlarge thy fame,
And eu'ry quill of eu'ry wing faire Dame,
to preach thy praise ten thousand wayes shal seeke
Yet thou repayes my labors with disdaine,
Thou liues by mee, and I by thee am slaine.
O ego non felix qui tam crudeliter a
[...],
Nulla
(que) me redamat.
To frowning CINTHIA.
IF
Castor shine, the Seaman hoyseth saile,
With widkast womb the welcome winds t'embrace
which gladly grasps the sare & prosperous gaile
And maks the Ship to run a fleeing race:
But if
Orion shine, the storme is me,
He lowes the Saile, which stood of late so hie
Such is my state, if
Castor-like thou smile,
I onelie liue to serue and honour thee:
But if thou frowne, allace allace the while,
As at the sight of
Gorgons head I die,
As in thy lift so in thy looks diuine,
Orion black, and
Castor braue do shine.
Then since thou art th'
Orizon of my loue,
Thine eyes the fatall starres which I adore:
With gracious blinks behold me from aboue,
Let me not sinke, safe bring me to thy shore.
Or if thou loaths that I should liue, then frowne
For die I, liue I, I am still thine owne.
Diccte me Juuenem perijsse in amore maeae
(que)
Vnita quod fuerit Cynthia causa necis.
To PANDORA.
EAch thing allace, presents and lets mee see▪
The rare
Idea of my rarest Dame,
Deepe sunke into my soule the verie same,
Whose view doth still bewitch vnhappie mee,
The shining Sunne, her hart transpersing eye.
The morning red her braue and blushing shame,
Night absence, and day presence doth proclame,
foule wether frowns, & calme sweet smil's may bee
My scalding sighs tempestious winds, and raine:
But exhalations of my tragick teares,
In frost allace, her cold disdaine appeares;
In thaw, and fire, my melting heart agane:
And thus each thing brings purpose to be pinde
And to my thoughts cōmends the faire vnkind.
To PANDORA.
DEare to my soule, and wilt thou needs be gone,
And leaue thy Man behind thee but a heart?
Is this the pittie which thou dost impart,
Disconsolat to let me die alone?
Thou hast two harts; mine, thine, and I haue none:
Heere springs the surfe of my ensuing smart;
Yet play I pray the gentle Pyrats part,
And as thou lou's my life, yet leaue me one:
But brooke them both I gladlie grant and stay,
How canst thou ride in raging raine and wind?
Yet thou must goe, and woe is me away:
Then take my heart, and leaue me thine behind.
I gaue thee mine, O then giue thine to mee,
That mine and thine be one twix mee & thee.
Ʋna fides, vnus lectus, et vnus amor.
To LAIS.
I Haue compard my Mistris many time
To Angels, Sun, Moone, Stars, & things aboue:
My Conscience then condem'd me of a crime,
To things below when I conferd my Loue:
But when I find her actions all are vane,
I thinke my Rimes and Poyems all profane.
With perfect eyes her Pageants I espy,
To no thing now can I compare my Dame,
But
Theramenes shoo; the reason why,
It seru'd each foote: and she can do the same:
She hears the sutes of rich, poore, great, & small,
And has discretion to content vs all.
Si vitium leuitas, nulla puella hona est.
To PANDORA.
FAine would I goe, and faine would I abide,
Sweet
Hais agene, and kisse me erre I go,
Denie mee not since there is none beside,
No teltale here, though thou wouldst giue me two:
Yet giue me one, if thou wilt giue no mo;
But one is none, then giue mee two or three,
Thy Balmie breath doth still bewitch me so,
As I must haue an other kisse, or die,
Thy Rubent blush now bids take leaue of thee:
Faine would I goe, and I would kisse as faine,
Then giue me one, or change a kisse with mee:
If neither giue nor change, take all againe:
When thine & mine are thus conturb'd, I kno
Thou canst but smile, that I deceiu'd thee so.
Mihi dulcia iunge
Oscula, et in nostr
[...] molle quiesse sinn.
To PENELOPE.
WHile fierce
Achilles at the siedge of
Troy,
(the fatall Nimphs had so decreed) was slaine
A sodaine strife arose who should enioy
The Armes of that praise-worthie
Grecian:
Aiax alleg'd he should the Arm's obtaine,
And by the sword to win and weare them vow'd,
Ʋlisses said, they should be his againe:
And he them gaind, if Stories may be trow'd,
But lo the shield by Sea's was loosd, wee read,
And by a storme driu'n from
Vlisses sight,
And rould to
Aiax graue, though he was dead,
To show the world that he had greatest right:
So when my tombe shal end those teares of mine
there shalt thou sigh & say, I should been thine.
Tum flebit cum mi senserit esse fidem.
To CINTHIA.
OFt haue I ment with Musicke, sleepe, & wine,
The soueraine cur's for superficiall cares,
For to reuiue this wounded heatt of mine,
And free my selfe from sorow, sighs, and teares:
Yet neither all, nor any one of those,
Haue force to end, or cure, or change my woes:
My griefs are growne to such confused force,
No number rests for more, nor place for worse.
If I had merit to be martird still,
And with the furie of thy frowns abus'd,
I could digest thy gloomings with goodwill,
And neither looke nor craue to be excus'd:
I loue my Rod like
Moses; but if I
Perceiue it proue a Serpent, I must flie.
If thou wilt bind me still to be thine owne,
Smile stil (faire Dame) if not, I pray thee frowne.
Ʋincuntur molli pectora dura prece.
To LITHOCARDIA.
FAlse
Eriphile sometime did betray
Facidic wise
Amphiaraus her spouse,
(Who willing from the
Theban warres to stay)
To hide himselfe secure at home he trow's:
Thus while his driftes
Adrastus disallow's,
She (knowing that her husband should be slaine
At
Thebes) for a golden chaine auow's
To tell
Adrastus where he did remaine;
And thus reueald, he goes against his will,
But leaues
Alcmeon to reuenge his wrack
On
Eriphile, which he did fulfill,
When dolefull newes of fathers death came backe
So since in loue thou art so vnloyall so long,
Some strange
Alcmeon must reuenge my wrong.
Quae
(que) prius nobis intulit illa ferat.
To LAIS.
WHen
Cressid went from
Troy to
Calchs tent,
and
Greeks with
Troians were at skirmidg hot
Then
Diomed did late and aire frequent
Her companie, and
Troil was forgot:
Thou lay alone, such was allace thy lot,
And
Paris brookt poore
Menela thy Dame,
Shee twind in two the matrimoniall knot,
And tooke a stranger when thou went from hame.
Such is my case, if I may say for shame,
I florisht once; once there was none but I:
I once was lou'd, and I haue lost the same,
And as God liu's, I know not how nor why:
So that my Sainct for falshood I am sure,
May match the
Grecian or the
Troian whore.
Non sum ego qui fueram, mutat via longa puella
[...],
Quantus in exiguo tempore fugit amor.
To KALA.
OFt haue I sworne; oft hast thou pray'd me too
No more to loue, nor more to looke on thee:
Since looks and loue haue made so much adoo
Twixt loueles thee, and vnbeloued mee:
Yet were I dam'd without redres to die,
I can not cease from seruing thee faire Dame:
Yea thou and all the woondering world shall see
The fayth, the force, the furie of my flame,
Most like vnto the questing Dogge am I,
Who still doth on his angry Maister fawne,
While thou corrects, I kindly quest and cry,
And more thou threats, the more I am thine owne
Thus loue or loath, or cherrish mee or chide,
Where once I bind, but any breach I bide.
Sit mihi panpertas tecum iucunda neaera.
To KALA.
WHen
Aedipus did foolishly resigne
His Kingdome to his Sonnes, that he & he,
Aboue the
Thebans yeare about should raigne,
And that his Crowne biparted so should be,
Polinices first raignd, but faith we see,
He from the Crowne
Eteocles debars:
Thus while they liue, they neuer can agree,
And after death, their burning bones made warrs.
My riuall foe against all right enioyes
That Crowne & Kingdome which pertains to me
That proud vsurper worker of my noyes,
Shall find a foe, vnto the day I die,
And were we dead, that are too long aliue,
Our Ashes in th'exequial vrne would striue.
Riualem possum non ego ferre Jonem.
At the newes of IDEAS death, Dialogue twixt the Poets Ghost and Charon.
Ghost.
COme Charon come:
(Ch)
Who cals?
(Gh.)
a wandring Ghost,
By fortune led vnto the
Stygian shore.,
(Ch.)
What seeks thou heere?
(Gh.)
a safe transpor
[...] with post,
As thou hast done to many mo before.
(C.)
Who slew thee thus?
(G.)
euen she whom I adore,
Hath rould my name in scrowls of black disgrace.
(Ch)
What made her thus into thy griefe to glore?
(G.)
Loue was my foe, & chang'd in wars my peace.
(C.)
Go then aback, this Barke shall not imbrace
The smallest one whom
Loue at fead hath borne.
(Gh.)
That shall I not, for lo before thy face,
I shall ou'r saile the flood and thou had sworne:
The Darts of
Loue both Boat & Oares, shal bee,
Sighs shall be winds, and Teares a
Styx to mee.
An other Dialogue to the same purpose.
Ghost.
COme Charon come.
(Ch.)
Who cals?
(Gh.)
a martyrd man,
Since Fame foorthtold the fairest faire was deid.
(Ch.)
What seeks thou?
(Gh.)
Help to croce thy waters wan,
And I will pay thee for thy paines with speed.
(Ch.)
Thou seems to be a quick & liuing leid,
And not a vmber, nor a palled Ghaist.
(Gh.)
Feare not for that, since I for passage pleid,
But let mee haue thy helping hand with haist.
(C.)
Though sage
Aeneas did o're-saile my streame
By
Sybils helpe, none els must goe againe.
(G.)
Then thinks thou
Charon, to enioy my Dame
And stay my voyage from th'
Elesian plaine?
(C.)
Yes surely yes.
(G)
No
Charon thou shalt lie
For
Loue hath wings, and I haue learnd to flie.
Panditur ad nullas Janua nigra prec
[...]s.
IDEA after long sicknes, becommeth weil; and as he wept for her, he wishes compensation of her teares in his distresse.
O Beautie doomb astonish'd Maruels chyld,
The wanton obiect of my weeping eie,
Blith was my heart before I was beguyld,
And made to beare a seruile yoake by thee:
But now allace, though I by birth be free,
And not a slaue-borne
Muscouite by kind,
My Sainct so Lords my heart, that now I see,
There is no manumission to my mind.
Faire heauenly
Tigres, be no more vnkind,
I wept for thee, when weerds did all conspire
Thy wrack; O then behold how I am pind:
Weepe thou for me, thy teares may quench my fire
As I did thine, so meene thou my estate,
And be not cald the worst of ills ingrate.
Sis ingrata licet fi modo bella manes.
To CYNTHIA.
PRoud
Zeuxis gaue his Pictures all for nought,
Such was the loue he to his labors bore,
That by no gold nor price they could be bought,
And thus saue thanks poore man, he gaind no more
I am as poore, and euen as proud as hee,
For Loue nor Lines I craue no price from thee.
For if thou digne but with a gracious smile,
To looke my Lines, and spie how I am pind,
And with my toyes the swift wingd time begile,
Then am I paide according to my minde▪
Joues oath was
Styx, and
Phaebus Daphnes haire;
But from hencefoorth I by thy smiles wil sweare.
To ERANTINA.
NO hart so hard, tho wrought of
Vulcans steele,
Or fearcely forg'd of Adamantine stone,
That doe endure or last so long so leele,
As mine, who loues thee most vnlouing one,
Whose purpose is and plot, as I suppone,
Most cruellie her captiue thrall to kill,
Who onely liues to loue but her alone:
Though she reward my true intent with ill:
Such is my state, I but abide her will,
Shee has the fatall stick into her sleeue,
And when she list her furie to fulfill,
Althea-like she may my breath bereaue:
Nor leue vnlou'd, I rather choose to die,
Then beat the fire, and burne the fatall tree.
Nam mea crudeles tetigerunt corda sagitte,
At
(que) animam petijt vulneris asperitas.
To PANDORA.
Canst thou haue eares, & wil not heare my plaint
Canst thou haue eies, & wil not wipe my teares
Hast thou a heart, and feeles not how I faint,
Debating twixt dispairing hops and feares?
Canst thou not see those sad and ciuill weairs
Which are within the kingdome of my heart,
Where Legions of persuing pangs appeairs,
My vtter wrake and ruine to impart?
Heere burns the fire, there sticks the deadly dart:
Here teares me droun, there smoky sighs me smore
Here Beauty wounds, there riuals runs athwart,
And ielous eyes do pry into each pore:
When al these al and thou my wrack contriues,
I can not last, and I had twentie liues.
Perfida sed duris genuit te montibus horrens,
Cantasus, hircane
(que) admorunt vbera tigr
[...]s.
Newyeares gift to PENELOPE.
THat
Colatine did talke in
Tarquins tent,
His Ladie
Lucrece was most chast most faire,
Hee afterward had reason to repent,
Shee died a deemd adultres in dispaire.
The
Lydian King brought naked both and bare,
His wife before his friend for to be seene,
Which brought him selfe wee see into the snare,
For he was slaine, and
Giges brookt his Queene.
Yet can not all these wracks forewarne my Muse,
To hold her peace, but prayse thee more & more:
I loue thee still, and I will not refuse,
Though small allace, be my reward therefore.
And so (faire Dame) for Newyears gift receaue
My heart thine owne, my selfe to be thy slaue.
To PENELOPE.
WHen
Alexander did subdue and bring
The coastly Iles of
Inde to his Empire,
Hee captiue tooke proud
Porus Indian King,
And bid him aske what most he did desire?
Nought said braue
Porus do I now require,
But that thou vse me as a King should bee,
Thou shalt haue friendly hostage to thy hyre:
And for my sake I graunt thy sute (said hee.)
Long with my passions haue I borne debate,
Oft haue I fought, and now haue lost the feeld,
It is my fortune for to be defeate.
I am thy Captiue, and faire Dame I yeeld:
As
Macedo was to the King of
Jnde,
If not mine, yet for thy cause be kinde.
To LAIS.
WHen
Dionise was shut from Regall seat,
And quite deposd from his Imperial throne
For tyrannies too tedious to repeate,
Which made oft times the
Siracusans grone,
When he was thus disgrac'd, and left alone:
He could not cease to play the tyrant still,
He grew a pedant infants poore anone,
He taught and quhipt to exercise his ill.
I with my Loue haue plaid the licher long,
And shee the loun with many moe then mee:
This custome vile, maks sinne to seeme no wrong▪
And she must turne a common Whoore I see,
Though both be bad, and each of both vnsure,
I rather serue a tyrant then a whoore.
To absent PANDORA.
LOng since hath
Cynthia shown her ful fac'd prid
And now compeirs with crescent horns againe
Since at the banks of
Neptuns flowing tide,
I tooke my leaue and shew how I was slaine:
Allace allace, they haue not wept in vaine,
Who left vs annals of eternall date,
Condemning absence for a cruell paine,
A foe to fayth, a vnfriend vnto fate:
A happy life had I in loue of late,
To ioy the sweete fruition of thy face,
Now from thy sight estranged is my state.
Since all my life is darknes and disgrace:
Yet midst my woes I wish that well thou bee,
And with the winds I send those sighes to thee.
Nulla mihi fine te rident loca, displicet aquor,
Sordet terra, leues od
[...] cum retihus hamos.
To PENELOPE seeke.
WEre I as skild in Medecine as hee,
Who did restore
Hippolits health againe,
When he was torne with horse; then shouldst thou see
I should prepare emplasters for thy paine:
But since I am no
Aesculap at all,
I am thy Bondman, and thy Beadman thrall.
Phaebe fau
[...], laus magna tibi trib
[...]etur, in vn
[...]
Corpore seruato restituisse duos.
Newyeares gift to IDEA.
THe
Locrian King
Zaleucus made a law,
That each adultrar both his eyes should lose,
But when his Sonne was faultie first he saw,
That sacred Kings haue hid and secret foes,
Incontenent vnto the stage he goes,
And from his Sonne one eye, one of his owne
He caus'd pull out, and in the sight of those
A carefull King, a father kind was knowne.
In
Janus Kalends faire and louely sweet,
Time out of minde hath been a custome old,
That friends their friends with mutual gifts should greet
To keep true kindnes from becōming cold.
Zaleucus-like these Lines are sent by mee,
To keepe the law and kith my Loue to thee.
Da veniam merui nil ego, iussit amor.
To CINTHIA.
Why loues thou more (faire dame) thy Dog then mee?
what can he do but (as the Scholer said
At
Xanthus feast) shake eares and tayle on thee?
And I can do much more to make thee glade,
With tedious toyle and longsome labour made.
Hee can perhaps bring thee thy Glo
[...]e, or whyl
[...]
Thy Kirchiff when t'is either left or laide
Behind thy heeles with sweet and backast smyles:
But I, whom thou disdainefully exyles
From thy sweet bed, and thy most sweet embrace;
Which fawning Currs with filthy feet defiles,
I could doe more, but I l
[...]ck leaue allace:
Fie Natures bastard, make no Dog thy Loue,
Least thou a Monster, I a Martyr pro
[...]e.
To KALA.
I First receiud since did sweet Sainct vnfold
Thy louely Lines, the legat
[...] of thy mind,
And did with blith & ioy-swolne breast behold
How thou continew'd constant, true, and kind.
But when I did perceiue how thou wast pind,
Pind for the absence of thy loue-sick sw
[...]ne,
My toong was doomb, my silent eyes were blind,
I read and mus'd, and mus'd and read againe:
And be thou
[...]udge (deare hea
[...]) if I was faine▪
When I euolu'd from out the Pape
[...] whit,
That Symboll, swe
[...]te transparent pure & plaine,
Wherein some time thou
[...]
[...]oke so much delight:
Yea th
[...]ise each day▪ (faire Mistris) till we meet,
I kis thy Symboll, and thy golden sheet.
Quisquis ad hanc vertit peregrinam littera puppim,
Ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit.
To KALA.
I Sweare (sweet
Kala) by my flames, thy eyes,
O eyes: no eyes, but rather starres diuine:
Sweet
Dionean twins into their skies,
And by those kind alluring looks of thine,
I sweare by all our teares whils thine, whils mine,
Nor mine nor thine, but both combind in one:
By all the sighs blowne from the sacred shrine
Where
Craigs true heart hath his heroick throne,
I sweare by all our secret vow's each one,
Made in the darke, and reconfirmd by day:
By all our kisses when we were allone,
And all the wishes when I went away:
Let Weerds and Fortune do the worst they can
I am in spight of
Mis
[...]s Nose, thy ma
[...].
To KALA.
O How I long to heare from thee againe,
And vnderstand the tenor of thy state:
Thrise hath the Moone begun to wax and wane,
With spheirs and horns since I receiu'd thy wreat:
Then giue mee leaue (sweet Lady) to regrate,
Since thou may haue of traualing troups such store,
And I haue sent so many lines of late,
Thou art vnkind, and woe is mee therefore:
Each one that comes from thee, or from thy shore,
In hope of newes, I entertaine for thee:
Each Post I meet, each Horne I heare, yeelds more
Harmonious sounds, then musicke sweet to mee:
But when my hopes proue naught with sory mind,
I sigh & say, vnkind, vnkind, vnkind.
Tempora fi numeres bene quae numeramus amantes,
Non venit ante suam nostra querela diem.
To CYNTHIA.
WHen those which at
Ardea did remaine
With
Aracins did many times contend
For Confind Lands, which neither could obtaine,
In many Battails, though much blood they spend,
Yet that sometime the strife should take good end
Both they and those referre them selu's to
Rome,
Imperious
Romans parties both offend,
And to them selues the questiond Lands assume.
Long warres heue been betwixt thy Maid & mee,
Yf shee or I my louesicke heart should haue;
Shee thinks it hers, it was once mine, and wee
To end this strife, thy sacred sentence craue.
Thou like these conquering
Romans in this cas
[...]
By spoyling both, posseyds my heart in peace.
Cynthia prima fuit Cynthia finis erit.
To ERANTINA.
THe ielous eyes which watch my louing Dame,
And
Argus-like to trap mee still attend,
They with my losse allace, but seeke her shame:
Which I beseech thee louing Lord defend.
O would to God my honest course were kend,
Or that my breast were made of Cristall cleare,
That triall might be tane what I intend:
And my true part in presence might appeare.
But (O allace and weladay) I feare,
These iarres shall soone ingender such debate,
As shall but doubt debarre mee from my deare,
And enterchange my wonted good estate.
O harmonie vnhappiest of all,
Bad chance brings change, and change hath fram'd my fall.
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.
To ERANTANA.
DIsordered Haires the types of my disgrace,
The testimonies of my seruile state:
Ou'ruaile my wanne and pale disfigured face,
And let my fauour answere to my fate:
For since I am th'vnhappiest hee, I waite
That Loue, or Fortunes enuie can assaile:
What resteth then? but still for to regrate,
Since word, nor writ, nor prayers can preuaile:
And since my deare disdainfullie doth deale
With hopeles mee, who was and is her owne,
My pearsing paines shall on my visage pale,
With hoarie, rough, & crumpled skin be knowne.
And such as sees my furrowed face, shall say,
The faire Vnkind is cause of my decay.
Illa dies fatum misero mihi dusit ab illa,
Pessi
[...]a mutati cepit amoris hyems.
To ERANTINA.
LOng haue I had long haires vpon my head,
Long haue I had hid harmes within my heart,
Yet none of those are powerfull for to plead
The smallest salue or softning to my smart.
Could I draw foorth the sharpe and golden dart,
Wherewith allace, I secretlie am slaine:
Or put those black vnpouled locks apart,
For which the world accompts mee to be vaine:
Could I to flit as to be fast be faine,
Or thinke that foule that I haue thought too faire,
There should no harme into my heat remaine,
Nor should my head be ouerhung with haire.
Sweet, if thou loues me, powll those locks I pray
Yf not, cut life, loue, locks, and all away.
To PANDORA.
O What a world I suffer of extreames,
Twixt hot desire and icie cold dispaire:
Most like the swift impetuous tyds of Theames,
Are those the ebs and flowings of my care:
I liue allace, a martire late and aire,
Coold with dispaire, and burnd with hot desire:
I see allace, and can not slip the snare,
In floods I frie, and freeze amid the fire:
In
Sestian seas to
Her
[...] sweet I swim,
And faine would touch the fimber of her goun,
Hoys'd with desire vnto the clouds I clim,
But by dispaire
Leander-like I drown:
My
D
[...]lphin deare, let not
Arion dee,
Saue mee vnsunke, and I shall sing to thee.
Quicquid
[...]o
[...]abor dicere uersus erit.
To PANDORA.
FAire
Sicil fertill first of Cruell Kings,
When
Dionise did all thy state ouerthrow,
And wrought so many strange & monstrus things
And led so long a life without all law:
Sad sorrow was the
Syracusan Song,
And all saue old
Hymera, wish'd him dead,
Shee wish'd him weel, cause many tyrants sprong:
And were hee gone, a worser would succeed.
It is my weird, and woe is mee therefore,
To serue and loue where recompence is none.
Oft haue I chang'd, and now can change no more
For badder ay succeeds, when bad are gone.
And this sweet hart maks me thy beadman thral,
Least by thy losse, in harder haps I fall.
Quando ego non t
[...]ui graniora pericula verit.
To PANDORA.
When
Scythian Lords long frō their lands had bein
Their slaues vsurp'd their absent Maisters place:
both wealth & wiues they breok'd before their eine
And did the same seuen yeares posses in peace:
They turning home, and seeing such disgrace,
fought with their seruants for their wealth & wiues
But by the men the maisters gat the chase,
And hardly scap'd with hazard of their liues.
Then they consult with neither swords nor glaues,
Nor open warres, to make their foes to yeeld,
with whips & wands they bat their randring slaues
And by the change of weapons wan the feeld.
Since sighs, nor teares, nor ditties can subdue thee
I must (faire sweet) with
Scythian armes persue thee
To IDEA.
I Put my hand by hazard in the hat
Where many names did intermixtly lie,
With her and her were you and this and that,
A fortune blind, or niuie nake to trie:
And lo such was my luckie lucke that I
Among so many, found thy Noble name,
And on my head, that thou and all may spie,
I well auow the wearing of the same:
It shall inferre no foyle vnto thy fame,
That thou art borne vpon so base a head:
A Begger find's a stone of curious frame,
And yet the stone remaines a stone indead.
So thou art thou, and of more worth to mee,
Deare Valentine, then thou wast wont to bee.
To LITHOCARDIA.
GReat
Alexander gaue a straight command,
That euery Souldier in the Camp should shaue
And that his face as haireles as his hand,
Both
Greeke and
Persian time of warrs should haue:
When Armes were put a part, he lent full leaue
To weare long beards; a signe of fat-fed peace:
And thus in
Greece a stranger might perceiue
The Countries state into the Souldiers face.
I am content that custome to imbrace;
I haue no beard to show my peace with thee:
But thou wilt say, my hairs portend disgrace,
And discontent is in my downcast eye:
It is too true; but let me rise or fall,
Or sinke or swim, I am thy feruient thrall.
Addimus his precibus lachrimas quo
(que) verba preantis,
Perlegis, et lachrimas fi
[...]ge iudere meas.
To LAIS.
WHy loue I her that loues not mee againe▪
Why am I friendly to my fr
[...]mmit foe?
Why doe I weare my wayting on in vaine,
In seruing her that hath deceiu'd mee so?
Why did I thus my freedome sweet forgo,
To pleasure her that plagu
[...] mee with disdaine?
Or wish her weel that euer wrought my woe,
And would not sigh suppose shee saw me slaine:
O foolish I, and haples I alone.
No then, O faythlesse and disloyall shee,
Whose try'd vntrueth thus maks me to complain
[...]
And wish before the fixed day to die:
For now tint time and trauell maks me sure,
I playd the foole, and she has playd the hoore.
Periuriavidet a
[...]aut
[...] ▪
Jupiter et ventos
[...]rrita ferre iubet.
To LAIS.
BRaue
Troilus the
Troian stou
[...] and true,
As more at length in
Chau
[...]er wee may find,
Dreamd that a faire White Bull, as did insue,
Had spoyld his Loue, and left him hurt behind.
The
Phrygian Nymphe
Aenona dround in drerd,
When
Paris towards
Grece made saile from
Troy.
In dreames foresaw, as after did succeed,
Her Loue and foreine Ladie should enioy.
When
Hecuba the Wisemen did imploy,
Her dreame of flaming Fire for to expon
[...],
They shortly shew that
Paris should destroy
And set on fire faire
[...]lion sticke and stone.
Right so might I, if weer
[...]s had not withstand,
In dolefull dreames foreseene the fall I fand.
Quid tuneam ignere tunc
[...] ta
[...]
[...]ia d
[...]wers.
To IDEA.
LAst yeare I drew (faire Dame) by very chance,
Thy Noble name amongst a number moe:
Glad was my soule to see the weirds aduance
The happy hazard of my fortune so:
And proud thereof, vpon my pate I plac'd thee,
With anagram's and Sonets sweet I grac'd thee.
But now (wise Dame) behold a wonder strange,
Which both I wish thee to beleeue and heare:
(I am so loath where once I choose, to change)
That in my heart thou harbours all this yeare:
Then from a Hat I drew thee err I saw thee,
Now from my hart it is my doome to draw thee.
Why should I hazard what I haue so sure,
Or scrape thy name into a scuruie Scrowle?
O thou art writ in blood's characters pure,
Within the center of my louesick soule:
Let others try a fortune blind and beare thee,
Both on my head & in my heart I'le weare thee.
To KALA.
BLind Loue (allace) and Ielosie vndoo
That constant heart which I bequeath to thee:
I loue thee most, and am most ielous too,
By this I liue, by that vndone I die:
Not that I thinke a fickle change can bee,
Where vertue dwels, but that mine owne vnworth
Is worse then twentie riuall foes to mee:
My base estate these bastard thoughts brings foorth
O were my moyane equall to my minde,
Or were my wealth as great as my goodwill,
Could I commaund the costlie Iles of
Jude,
Thou shouldst be weell, and I should feare no ill.
Then Fortune, Fates, & all yee Gods aboue,
Enlarge my luck, or els make les my loue.
Venit amor grauius quo serius vrimur intus,
Vrimur, et secum pectora vulnus habent.
To PANDORA.
WHile gathering in the Muses garden flowrs,
I made a Nosegay, which perfum'd the aire,
Whose smell shall sauour to times latest hours,
And shall for ay adorne thee cruel, faire.
I laide mee downe vpon the grassie greene,
Where I beheld fruit's, flowr's, and hearbs anew,
Foorthspred by
Flora glorious Sommers Queene,
Whereon the calme and gentle
Zephir blew:
On haughtie hils, which Giant-like did threat
To pearse the heauens with their aspiring head,
Grew war-like Firs, strong Oaks, & Ceeders great,
Whose shaddie boughs the leau
[...]e groues ou'rspred
Thus high and low I looked where I lay,
Yet neither fruite nor flower was like my
Hay.
To KALA.
WHen silent night had spred her pitchie vaile
On all the parts of
Vestais fruitfull lace.
And horned
Luna pensiue fad and paile,
Was at thy presence darkned with disgrace;
Thinke (comely
Kala) with what kind embrace
Wee shew the secrets of our sigh-swolne soule,
How strict a bond we ty'd in litle space:
Which none but heau'ns haue credit to controul
[...] ▪
Sweet Shippardes thinke on thy Loue-sick swane,
Whose life, whose all, doth on thy loue depend:
Let nought saue death, deuide vs two againe,
And let our loues euen with our liues take end▪
And when I cease for to be true to thee,
Breath vanish in the winds and let mee die.
Dij preter hoc iuheant vt euntibus ordine fatis,
Jlla meos oculos comprimat, at
(que) suos.
To his Riuall and LAIS.
AS thou art now, so was I once in grace,
And thou wast once disgrac't, as now am I.
O wonderous chaunce, o cruell contrarie case,
O strange discord, yet greeing harmonie.
I once was lou'd, thou loath'd; but now espie
How I am loath'd, and thou art lou'd alone:
In this the wheele of Fortune you may try:
I raignd, thou had no raigne; thou raignes againe,
Then happie thou, if so thou might remaine:
But fayth thou must come downe there is no dout,
And thou must be a partner of my paine,
The nixt must needs haue place his time about:
Els fortunes wheele should whirle about no more
Nor
Lais faire be fals, as of before.
Turpius est pulchra nam meretrice nihil.
Farewell to LAIS.
Thou fawns (faire nimph) for frindship at my hand
And sayes, thou seeks no more of worldly blis:
But feid forgot that friendship true may stand,
And cryes met mercie if thou made amis.
But harke my heart, and trust mee weel in this,
I can not loue a faigned friend; no no:
Since I am so acquaint with
Judas kis,
Shape not (my sweet) for to deceiue me so:
For
I haue read in Stories old, of two,
Zethius and
Amphion did discord,
Till time
Amphion musicke did forgo,
Which by his fellow was so much abhord:
Thy sute (my sweet) is seasond with such
[...]als,
We shall not friend so long as thou art fals.
Non amo te fateor quid enim simulare accesse est.
A sparing farewell to KALA.
FOnd
Celuis some time in a foolish vaine.
Would needs applie emplasters to his foot,
And would as sick men doe, sigh, weepe, & plaine,
And make the world beleeue he had the Gout:
And by this custome which he had, wee reed
Dissembling
Celuis tooke the Gout in deed.
How many broyls betwixt vs two haue beene,
Which I oft times of purpose would deuise,
That in that sort our loue should scape vnseene,
And vndeuulged in a darke disguise?
But fayth that custome hath deceiu'd mee so,
That in effect I am thy fremcast foe.
When first our Loue was in the pleasant prime,
Thou lou'dst mee well, I lou'd thee well againe:
But heere behold the strange effects of time,
My fire turns frost, thy loue turns cold disdaine:
Yet time may friend which made vs foes; til whan,
I wish thee weell, but am no more thy man.
N
[...]m
(que) vbi non amor est vbi non miscentur amoris,
Suauia nil lauti, nil
(que) leporis inest.
A wrathfull farewell to KALA.
THe whitest Siluer drawes the blackest skore,
In greenest Grasse the deadly Adder lowrs,
The fairest Sunne doth breed the sharpest showrs,
The fowlest Toads haue fairest Stons in store:
So fairs'd of Loue, and woe is mee therefore.
In greenest Grasse lies hid the stinging Adder,
In fairest shining Sunne the fowlest wadder,
A precious Pearle plac'd in a poysning Pore:
Shall I supp sweet mixt with so sowre a fals?
Or drinke the Gall out of a Siluer pot?
Or shall I cast on libertie a knot?
Als fast, als lows; als lowse, als fast, ay fals:
No, I beseech the Gods that rule aboue,
They let me neuer leue, and euer I loue▪
Durius in terris nihil est quod viuat antant
[...],
Nec modo si sapias quod minus esse velis.
To PENELOPE.
WHen
Tyndaris was broght from
Troy againe
and princely
Pergam leueld with the ground
And fatfed earth with
Phrygian flesh was faine
Through shallow furrs faire fruit's for to refound,
The facund wise
Ʋlisses most renound,
By fatall answers was foretold wee find,
That he should not in deadlie deep's be dround,
Although withheld with many contrar wind:
Yet that vnhappy and that bastard brat,
That Parricid which from a farre should come,
Telegonus whom he with
Circe gat,
Should kill his father at his comming home:
Though I haue past as many storm's as hee,
The last is worst, and for thy loue I die.
Elegie to KALA.
REed this, and then no more,
this shalbe last of all,
And should been first, if now I could,
my publisht Rymes recall,
But they are gone abrod
vpon the winges of Fame:
Na, can the glyding Ocean waues
put bounds vnto the same:
The spacious Continent,
Nor yet the bordering mane,
Can neither h
[...]ld the woes nor vowes
of my vnquiet vane.
Nor prayers, nor the prayse
which I haue pend for thee,
Which makes me thus for to be pind,
and thee so proud to bee.
This then shall be the last,
since first it can not bee;
For I haue waird alreadie els
a world of words on thee:
But worlds
Democrit said,
were infinite, and so
[Page]Thou looks to find infinites
of worlds of words, or moe:
No no; my Poyems haue
proclaymd thy prid, my paine,
And I am wo that I haue waitd
so many words in vaine.
For I haue dryd the braine
of my inuention quit,
And neither conquered my desire,
nor purchast thy delight.
Lo then how I was led
with Loue, that Lordly elff,
That bred no pleasure vnto thee,
nor profet to my selff:
But as
Phaeneus poore
for Phisick sought in vaine,
And by his foe was cur'd, when as
hee hop'd hee had been slaine.
So thy disdains haue cur'd
my hurt and vlcerd hart,
And I am weell against thy will,
but sense of old-felt smart.
To Sea with sweetest streams
flows
Hypanis the flood,
[Page]But
Exampeus poysning well,
maks bad which erst was good.
And thus vnlike it selfe
grow's
Hypanis: euen so
Thy coy disdaine hath changd a friend,
into a fremmed so.
Thou sawst my dwining looks,
my scalding sighs and sobs:
Thou sawst my teare swolne eyes were full
of liquid pearlie globs.
And yet, as
Nero proud,
when
Rome was burnd, did grow
As glad as at a Comick sport,
and laugh to see the low.
So thou fals Tyran, thou
from turret of thy prid,
Thou smild at my mishaps as proud,
as braue as
Neptuns brid.
But woorthy
Phocion
a Captaine braue and stout,
For these vnkind
Athenians,
fought fourtie Batels out,
And yet was slaine by them:
and when he died, 'tis told
[Page]Hee pray'd his Sone for to forgiue
his death, for kindnes old.
So though I be in poynt
by thy disdaine to die,
My heart shall charge my houering hand,
to write no ill of thee:
For like
Themistocles,
I rather drinke the Gall,
Then fight against my once good friend,
though now my loue be small.
Then sometime friend, farewell;
this is my most reuenge,
To thinke no good, to write no ill,
but last of all to change.
His Resolution of absence and farewell to Lithocardia.
FAire Dame adue, for whom I dayly die,
And quicke and dead a martyr still remaine:
Now must I
[...]lit o fairest, farre from thee,
And flie the force of vndeseru'd disdaine,
Since I haue weard my warbling Verse in vaine.
O Verse to be my sorows children borne,
Abortiue birth brought foorth with too much paine
And recompens'd too much with too much scorne:
Since Lines and I and all are all forlorne,
Faire Dame receiue this last enforst adew,
For I shall see, if Fates haue not forsworne,
If change of Nations natures can renew,
If tract of time, if change of soyle or aire,
May helpe thy Loue, or hinder my dispaire.
Quid loquor infaelix, an non per sax a per igne,
Quo me cun
(que) pedes ducunt me
[...]s agra sequetur.
His Reconciliation to Lithocardia after absence.
O
Lautia poore was glad,
when th'
Amazon Queene of yore,
Receiu'd a Nosegay from her hand,
suppose shee smeld no more.
Cherillus heart was hois'd
to highest heauens hee thought,
When
Macedo ouer lookt his Lines;
suppose hee lik'd them nought.
So, if thou take my Verse,
a louing poore propine,
Which ouer-shadowed with thy sight,
throughout the world shall shine.
If thou the sheet receiue,
though thou vnfold no folds,
Yet shall those hidden Lines be blith,
whilst thou their backs beholds:
And I poore hopeles soule,
thy weell affected man,
Shall be as blith as
Cherill was,
or yet
Olautia than.
[Page]Take then my faultles Sheet,
bedewd with mourning Inke,
And if thou wilt not view my Verse,
to know the thing I thinke;
Yet shall the Paper serue
(O faire and matchles Dame)
To be a Bottom to thy Silke,
or safftie to thy Seame:
But least my mourning Inke
like
Niobe's blacke tears,
Should blacke thy braue
Mineruik worke,
whilst it thereto adhears,
Pine with thy snow-white hand
the Verse before thy view,
That they may not infect nor foyle
the farfet Silks faire hew:
And thou shalt see no more
set downe before thy face,
For to reueale my endles woe,
but this one word
Allace,
Allace, allace, allace,
Allace, allace againe,
Ten thousand times allace allace,
can not expres my paine.
[Page]Allace I am thine owne,
na haue I hap to vew
Heraclits flood of change thereby,
my nature to renew.
None knew of
Hercules
the poysoning deadly shafts,
But
Philoctetes; none but I
complains conceals thy crafts.
Though thou hast faild to mee,
I am not false to thee:
I am thy Beadman day by day,
and bondman till I die.
And would to God thou hadst
rich
Amaltheas horne,
To yeeld what fruites thou list, though I
liue lightlied and forlorne.
Aeneas lost at
Troy,
Creusa faire his wife
And through and with ten thousand
Greeks
hee made a desperat strife:
And rooming vp and downe,
emboldned with dispaire,
Hee cryd aloud
Creusa come,
but could not find her there,
[Page]And still he crid, till time
her pallid ghost anone
Appeard, and gaue him certaine signs
that she was dead and gone.
So shall thy soule thy Ghost
begin for to remoue,
And leaue to be within thy brest,
before I leaue to loue:
And when thy Ghost is gone,
and past th'
Elisian lake,
No
Dido shall complaine of mee,
nor suffer for my sake.
If
Romans did returne
in Arms of shining Steell
Our
Rubicon, then were they deemd
foes to the common weell:
But my returns to thee,
are full of loue and peace,
As witnesseth this iterat,
and oft said word Allace.
If I haue said too much,
let mee thy peace implore,
And my Epiloge with a sigh
I seale and say no more:
[Page]Protesting since thou knows
how I am sworne thine owne,
And how thy Vertues by my Verse,
throughout the world be known:
Thou wilt haue some remorse
vpon my carefull case,
And let thy Courtasies conclude,
my long long-cri'd Allace.
To LAIS.
THe faire faced Woman, and deformed Ape,
Hath Nature fram'd to want a taile wee see:
The sillie beast with her vnseemelie shape,
Seems well content and pleas'd that so should bee:
And yet the Woman striueth euen and morne,
To haue a taile and still in Naturs scorne.
But let it be (for to supplie this want)
Each discontented whore should haue one taile,
What reason is't (since Nature knew them skant)
A pockie Punck with pluralties should deale?
This then is true, which I obserue as sure,
A Beast hath more discretion, then a Whore.
Hac venit in thalamos dote superba tuos.
His constant Resolution to ERANTINA.
SHall absence long, or distance farr of place,
With lowring looks of frem'd vnfriendly foes?
Shall tract of time for les or longer space,
Haue any force to cause mee change my choyse?
No surelie no; I am not one of those:
I shall be found no falce nor flitting friend,
My loue shall last as long as life suppose,
Luck be not such as sometime I haue seen'd:
But what reme
[...]d, I may not mend▪ but meen'd,
And with your will I hold mee well content:
Though many thwartering things haue interueend
To interturb and stay our true intent,
Yet all those iarres shall not my minde remoue
The day of death shall be the date of loue.
Dum paris aenone poterit spirare relicta,
Ad fontem xanthi versa recurrat aqua.
Confirmation of his loue to ERANTINA.
SHall absence long bring change,
or make my minde to moue?
Or yet shall distaunce farre of place,
vnlock the linke of Loue?
Shall either this or that,
yon, or the other thing,
Haue force to breake the blocke we band,
before the
Paphian King?
Thou art mine
Hero still,
and though the streams be stark,
I through the waltering waues shall swim
to thee but Boat or Barke.
I am not
Iasons meat,
Maedea to beguile:
My fayth is firme, this the cause
exponis mee exile.
Nor am I come by line
of traytor
Troians race▪
I neuer thought no not by dreame,
my
Dido to disgrace.
[Page]Nor am I hee who brought
the black
[...]aill for the white,
Least
Ariad
[...]e kild his syre,
and if their wrack was white.
A
Pyramus I am
in deed, in thought, in word,
And should (wist I thou wert not weell)
with blood imbrew my sword:
And if by Fames report
thy pains I can perceaue
As
Hemon did, shall I giue
the Ghost aboue the graue.
No that I looke to find
such friendship on thy part,
Or promis kept which ay shall be
inshrind within my hart:
Or that I greeue for grace
thy honor to degrade,
For if my Sainct be safe and sound,
how can I but be glade.
In tears as
Biblus did,
though I consume away,
Who was huerted in a Well,
as auncient Writers say.
[Page]And though I be resolued
to loue thee tearme of life,
Yet must I leaue thee for a while,
Ʋlysses left his wife.
My word shall be my word,
my kindnes shall be knowne,
And with my oath I will no boure,
for I am sworne thine owne.
And for thy sake I vow
the Pilgrems weed to weare,
And when in wildsome wayes I walke,
the Rod and Bag to beare:
And this my hoarie head
vnrased shall remaine;
A tipe of my continuing trueth,
till wee two meet againe.
And so with heauie hart,
adue my dearest Dame,
In happie state long mayst thou liue,
till I enuie the same:
And would to God thy wealth
were such as I would wish.
So till the Gods our meetings grant,
thy snowie hand I kis.
To LAIS.
IF
Rodopae the loath some Strumpet vile,
Became to be a great
Aegyptian Queene,
Put not sweet heart thy hop's into exile,
Good luck may light vpon a life vncleene:
Shee was a Queene, thou must an Emprice bee,
For thou art thrise as great a whoore as shee.
Cui madidos minxit mentula
[...]ulta sinus.
His vnwilling Farewell to PENELOPE.
A Frind some time to
Thracian Cotys send▪
In signe of loue, a vessell rich and rare:
But back againe before the bearer wend,
Hee brake the same in peeces heere and there;
Not for contempt, but to preuent my care,
I brake this gift which thou hast brought, said hee,
For if my seruants breake the fame, I sweare,
They should been bate, and I incensed bee.
I
Cotys-like (proud Dame, to ease my paine,
And that thou be not forst to heare my cries)
Must leaue to loue; nor shall my Songs againe
Thy surfet breed, nor come before thine eyes:
Not, that I loath, where I so long did loue▪
Thou art vnkind, and I must needs remoue.
His louing farewell to PANDORA.
DEare to my soule once degne,
those passions to peruse,
The Swan-like Dir'ges and the Songs,
of this my deeing Muse;
Which are
Minerua-like,
by beating of my braine,
Brought foorth to shew the wondering world,
my long suppressed paine:
For like the doomb borne sonne
of that rich
Lydian King,
Now at the imminent of death,
with toong vntied I sing.
Had
Atis-like my foe
thy wedding day been slaine
By
Tydeus fearce, then had I brook'd
faire
Ismene allaine.
Or had thou been a man
like her whom
Phestne bred,
Whom
Telethusa promest with
Ja
[...]the faire to wed.
[Page]Then had my riuall been
as farr from thee as I,
Nor had he now, nor thou been iudge
to my complaint and cry.
As
Tantalus did cut
poore
Pelops corps a sunder,
And made a banquet of his Sonne,
vnro the Gods rare woonder:
Yet did they recollect
his cutted Corps againe,
And
Tantall they condemd to die
In hunger staruing paine.
So cruell thou hes karu'd
ten thousand wayes my hart,
And thou indures obdurat still,
and senceles of my smart:
Yet will the Gods, I hope,
recure and purge my paine,
And punish all thy cruelties,
with cruelties againe.
Had I
Ixion-like
made vaunt of
Iunoes spoyle,
With patience then I should abide
thy furie and this foyle.
[Page]But since it must be thus.
from
Athens I will flie,
With wise
Demosthen
[...]s, and then
in
Neptuns asyll die.
Then cruell faire farewell,
I may remaine no more,
I mind before wee meet againe,
to see the
C
[...]ltik shore.
But howsoeuer I err,
or wheresoeuer I vaig,
In weell, in wo, in want, and wealth,
thou shalt command poore
Crag:
Yea might I make a Feast,
as did
Democrits sire,
To all the
Persian troups, ou'r which
great
Xerxes bore empire.
Or were I begging bread
like
Ithák Irus poore,
Whom proud
Ʋlisses with his fist
feld dead into the floore.
Yea be I rich or poore,
or poore and rich againe,
At hazards all I am thy man,
and so shall ay remaine.
[Page]Faire Homicid farewell,
against my heart I goe,
And that al-make
[...] knows I make
a voyage full of woe:
But euen as
At
[...]ri
[...]
with silence swee
[...] doth
[...] ▪
And none pe
[...]ce
[...]'s
[...]f vp or downe,
or whither
[...] the
[...]
So none saue thou shall
[...]
the caus of all my pai
[...] ▪
And none shall know wherefore I goe,
nor when I
[...] againe.
And so till time wee
[...] ▪
deare heart, whom I
[...] ▪
Farewell; ye
[...]
[...] me leaue to
[...]gh▪
and say, Farewell once more.
To his PANDORA from England.
NOw while amid those daintie Douns & Dales
with Shepheard Swains I sit vnknown to mee
Wee sweetly sing, and tell pastorall tales:
But my discourse and Songs-theame is of thee;
For otherwayes allace, how can it be.
Let
Venus leaue her blest abod aboue
To tempt my Loue, yet thou sweet soule shalt see
That I thy man, and thou shalt die my loue.
No tract of time, nor sad eclipse of place,
Nor absence long, which sometime were due cures
To my disease, shall make thy slaue to cease
From seruing thee till life or breath indures:
And till wee meet, my rustick mats and I,
Through woods & plains,
Pandoras prayse shal cry.
To LAIS.
HArpaste poore, was blind of either eye,
Yet would thee not beleeue that it was so▪
The roomes are darke wherein I dwell, sayd shee,
Take mee abrod, and but a guyd I'le go:
The wife was led abrod into the wind,
And yet poore soule she still continued blind.
Thinks thou that change frō this to yonder place▪
Can caus thy shame and scandall to decay?
No
Lais no, I pray thee hold thy peace,
And put these fond opinions quite away:
For while thy life, or yet my sins endu
[...],
The world shall say, thou art a shameles whore.
Faemina nulla bona est, vel si bona contigit vlla,
Nescio quo casu r
[...]s mala facta bona est.
His faythfull seruice to IDEA.
MY wandring Verse hath made thee known al
[...] where
Thou known by them, & they are known by mee▪
Thou, they, and I, a true relation beare:
As but the one, an other can not bee;
For if it chance by thy disdane I die,
My Songs shal cease, and thou be known no more.
Thus by experience thou mayst plainly see,
I them, thou mee, and they do thee decore.
Thou art that Dame whom I shall ay adore
In spight of Fortune and the frowning Fats,
Whose shining beautie makes my Songs to sore
In
Hyperbolik loftie
[...]eigh conceits:
Thou, they, & I throughout the world be known
They mine▪ thou theirs, and last I am thine own.