Page images
PDF
EPUB

Print in your heart some parcel of my tene,1
For I, alas! in silence all too long,
Of mine old hurt yet feel the wound but green.
Rue on my life, or else your cruel wrong
Shall well appear, and by my death be seen.

51

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING,

WHEREIN EVERYTHING RENEWS, SAVE ONLY THE LOVER.

2

THE SOote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale:
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;

The turtle to her make3 hath told her tale:
Summer is come, for every spray now springs;
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repairèd scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale ;5
The busy bee her honey now she mings ;6
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.7
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs !

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESTLESS STATE OF A LOVER.

1 WHEN youth had led me half the race That Cupid's scourge had made me run,

I looked back to mete the place

From whence my weary course begun.

Tene: sorrow.

Soote :' sweet.- Make: ' mate.- Flete: float. -''Smale:' small.—Mings:' mingles. - Bale:' destruction.

2 And then I saw how my desire
By guiding ill had let the way:
Mine eyen, too greedy of their hire,
Had made me lose a better prey.

3 For when in sighs I spent the day,

And could not cloak my grief with game,1 The boiling smoke did still bewray

The present heat of secret flame.

4 And when salt tears do bain2 my breast, Where Love his pleasant trains hath sown, Her beauty hath the fruits oppress'd,

Ere that the buds were sprung and blown.

5 And when mine eyen did still pursue The flying chase of their request, Their greedy looks did oft renew

The hidden wound within my breast.

6 When every look these cheeks might stain,
From deadly pale to glowing red,
By outward signs appeared plain,
To her for help my heart was fled.

7 But all too late Love learneth me
To paint all kind of colours new,
To blind their eyes that else should see
My speckled cheeks with Cupid's hue.

8 And now the covert breast I claim,
That worshipp'd Cupid secretly,
And nourished his sacred flame,
From whence no blazing sparks do fly.

Game:' cheerfulness.- Bain: bathe.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FICKLE AFFECTIONS, PANGS, AND SLIGHTS OF LOVE.

SUCH wayward ways hath Love, that most part in discord Our wills do stand, whereby our hearts but seldom do accord.

Deceit is his delight, and to beguile and mock

The simple hearts, which he doth strike with froward, diverse stroke.

He causeth th' one to rage with golden burning dart;
And doth allay with leaden cold again the other's heart.
Hot gleams of burning fire, and easy sparks of flame,
In balance of unequal weight he pondereth by aim.
From easy ford, where I might wade and pass full well,
He me withdraws, and doth me drive into a deep dark

hell;

10

And me withholds where I am call'd and offer'd place,
And wills me that my mortal foe I do beseech of grace;
He lets me to pursue a conquest well near won,
To follow where my pains were lost, ere that my suit
begun.

So by these means I know how soon a heart may turn From war to peace, from truce to strife, and so again return.

I know how to content myself in others' lust;

Of little stuff unto myself to weave a web of trust;
And how to hide my harms with soft dissembling chere,1
When in my face the painted thoughts would outwardly

appear.

I know how that the blood forsakes the face for dread, And how by shame it stains again the cheeks with flaming red.

20

Chere:' countenance.

I know under the green, the serpent how he lurks ; 23
The hammer of the restless forge I wot eke how it works.
I know, and can by rote the tale that I would tell ;
But oft the words come forth awry of him that loveth well.
I know in heat and cold the lover how he shakes;
In singing how he doth complain; in sleeping how he
wakes.

To languish without ache, sickless for to consume,

A thousand things for to devise, resolving all in fume. 30
And though he list to see his lady's grace full sore,
Such pleasures as delight his eye do not his health restore.
I know to seek the track of my desired foe,

And fear to find that I do seek. But chiefly this I know,
That lovers must transform into the thing beloved,
And live, (alas! who could believe?) with sprite from
life removed.

I know in hearty sighs, and laughters of the spleen,
At once to change my state, my will, and eke my colour

clean.

I know how to deceive myself with others' help;
And how the lion chastisèd is, by beating of the whelp. 40
In standing near the fire, I know how that I freeze;
Far off I burn; in both I waste, and so my life I lese.1
I know how love doth rage upon a yielding mind;
How small a net may take and mesh a heart of gentle kind:
Or else with seldom sweet to season heaps of gall;
Revived with a glimpse of grace, old sorrows to let fall.
The hidden trains I know, and secret snare of love;
How soon a look will print a thought, that never may

remove;

The slipper state I know, the sudden turns from wealth; 2 The doubtful hope, the certain woe, and sure despair of health.

'Lese:' lose.-2Wealth: happiness.

50

COMPLAINT OF A LOVER THAT DEFIED LOVE,

AND WAS BY LOVE AFTER THE MORE TORMENTED.

WHEN Summer took in hand the Winter to assail,
With force of might, and virtue great, his stormy blasts

to quail :

And when he clothed fair the earth about with green,
And every tree new garmented, that pleasure was to seen,
Mine heart 'gan new revive, and changed blood did stir
Me to withdraw my winter woes, that kept within the

dore.

[ocr errors]

'Abroad,' quoth my Desire, assay to set thy foot; Where thou shalt find the savour sweet; for sprung is every root;

And to thy health, if thou were sick in any case,
Nothing more good than in the spring the air to feel a

space.

10

There shalt thou hear and see all kinds of birds ywrought, Well tune their voice with warble small, as Nature hath them taught '

Thus pricked me my lust the sluggish house to leave, And for my health I thought it best such counsel to receive.

So on a morrow forth, unwist of any wight,

I went to prove how well it would my heavy burden light.

And when I felt the air so pleasant round about,
Lord! to myself how glad I was that I had gotten out.
There might I see how Ver1 had every blossom hent,2
And eke the new-betrothed birds, ycoupled how they
went;

Ver: Spring.-2 Hent: brought out.

20

« PreviousContinue »