To some more soone-enamour'd swaine; Those common wiles Of sighs and smiles Are all bestowed on me in vaine. I have elsewhere vowed a dutie; Where gawdy clothes And fained othes may love obtaine; Whose looke sweares No, That all your labours will be vaine. Can he prize the tainted posies, Which on every brest are worne; That may plucke the virgin roses From their never-touched thorne ? I can goe rest On her sweet brest, That is the pride of Cynthia's traine; Thy mermaid song Is all bestowed on me in vaine. Hee's a foole that basely dallies, Where each peasant mates with him; Shall I haunt the thronged vallies, I know the best can but disdaine; So will thy love Be all bestowed on me in vaine. Shee, shee it is Affoords that blisse For which I would refuse no paine. Fond fooles, adieu; 55 You seeke to captive me in vaine. 60 Leave me then, you Syrens, leave me ! The Spanish Virgin, or Effects of Jealousy. The subject of this ballad is taken from a folio collection of tragical stories, entitled, "The theatre of God's judgments, by Dr. Beard and Dr. Taylor, 1642." Pt. ii. p. 89.-The text is given (with corrections) from two copies; one of them in black-letter in the Pepys collection. In this every stanza is accompanied with the following distich by way of burden: "Oh jealousie! thou art nurst in hell: ALL tender hearts, that ake to hear Fair Isabella's tragedy My tale doth far exceed : Alas, that so much cruelty In female hearts should breed! Ст 5 For on a day it so befell, When he was gone from home, The lady all with rage did swell, And to the damsell come. And charging her with great offence, She bade her servants drag her thence, A dungeon dark and deep, 45 50 That lay beneath the common-shore,— Where they were wont, in days of yore, 55 The toads to croak, and snakes to hiss: "Your cruelty hath sped; Make hast, for shame, and come and see; The door being open'd, strait they found 110 Two dreadful snakes had wrapt her round, One round her legs, her thighs, her waist, The other close her neck embrac'd, 115 And stopt her gentle breath. |