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And in their songs, methought, they thanked Nature

much,

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That by her licence all that year to love, their hap was

such,

Right as they could devise to choose them feres 1 throughout :

With much rejoicing to their Lord, thus flew they all about.
Which when I 'gan resolve, and in my head conceive,
What pleasant life, what heaps of joy, these little birds
receive,

And saw in what estate I, weary man, was wrought,
By want of that they had at will, and I reject at nought,
Lord! how I 'gan in wrath unwisely me demean!
I cursed Love, and him defied; I thought to turn the

stream.

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But when I well beheld, he had me under awe,
I asked mercy for my fault, that so transgress'd his law:
Thou blinded god,' quoth I, 'forgive me this offence,
Unwittingly I went about to malice thy pretence.' 2
Wherewith he gave a beck, and thus methought he swore:
Thy sorrow ought suffice to purge thy fault, if it were
more.'

The virtue of which sound mine heart did so revive,
That I, methought, was made as whole as any man alive.
But here I may perceive mine error, all and some,
For that I thought that so it was; yet was it still
undone ;

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And all that was no more but mine expressèd mind, That fain would have some good relief, of Cupid well

assign'd.

I turned home forthwith, and might perceive it well, That he aggrieved was right sore with me for my rebel.

Feres:' mates; 'my trusty fiere,' Burns has it in 'Auld Langsyne.'— Pretence:' intention.

My harms have ever since increasèd more and more, And I remain, without his help, undone for evermore. A mirror let me be unto ye lovers all;

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Strive not with Love; for if ye do, it will ye thus befall.

COMPLAINT OF A LOVER REBUKED.

LOVE, that liveth and reigneth in my thought,
That built his seat within my captive breast,
Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,
Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.
She, that me taught to love, and suffer pain :
My doubtful hope and eke my hot desire
With shamefaced cloak to shadow and restrain;
Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire,
And coward Love then to the heart apace

Taketh his flight, whereas 1 he lurks, and plains His purpose lost, and dare not show his face.

For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pains; Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove: Sweet is his death, that takes his end by love.

COMPLAINT OF THE LOVER DISDAINED.

IN Cyprus springs, whereas dame Venus dwelt,
A well so hot, that whoso tastes the same,
Were he of stone, as thawèd ice should melt,

And kindled find his breast with fixèd flame;
Whose moist poison dissolvèd hath my hate.
This creeping fire my cold limbs so oppress'd,

1 Whereas where.

That in the heart that harbour'd freedom late,
Endless despair long thraldom hath impress'd.
Another so cold in frozen ice is found,

1

Whose chilling venom of repugnant kind,
The fervent heat doth quench of Cupid's wound,
And with the spot of change infects the mind;
Whereof my dear hath tasted to my pain:
My service thus is grown into disdain.

DESCRIPTION AND PRAISE OF HIS LOVE
GERALDINE.

FROM Tuscane came my lady's worthy race;
Fair Florence was sometime her 2 ancient seat.
The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face
Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat.
Foster'd she was with milk of Irish breast:

Her sire an earl; her dame of prince's blood.
From tender years, in Britain doth she rest,
With kinges child, where she tasteth costly food.
Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyen:

Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight.
Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine;

And Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight. Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above; Happy is he that can obtain her love!

THE FRAILTY AND HURTFULNESS OF
BEAUTY.4

BRITTLE beauty, that Nature made so frail,

Whereof the gift is small, and short is the season;

1 Another:' another well.- - Her:' their.- Kind: 'nature. It is somewhat uncertain whether this poem be Surrey's; it is also ascribed to Lord Vaux.

Flowering to-day, to-morrow apt to fail;
Tickle1 treasure, abhorr'd of reason;
Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail;

Costly in keeping; past, not worth two peason;2
Slipper in sliding, as is an eel's tail;

Hard to attain, once gotten, not geason ;3
Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail;
False and untrue, enticed oft to treason;
Enemy to youth, that most may I bewail;

Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison,
Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken;
To-day ready ripe, to-morrow all-to shaken.

A COMPLAINT BY NIGHT OF THE LOVER NOT BELOVED.

ALAS, SO all things now do hold their peace!
Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing;
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The nightès car the stars about doth bring;
Calm is the sea; the waves work less and less :
So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful case.

For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring; But by and by, the cause of my disease

Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,

When that I think what grief it is again

To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

14

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36

Tickle:' unstable, ticklish.- Peason:' peas. Geason: ' rare, or uncommon.-All-to:' altogether.

HOW EACH THING, SAVE THE LOVER, IN
SPRING REVIVETH TO PLEASURE.

WHEN Windsor walls sustain'd my wearied arm,
My hand my chin, to ease my restless head;
The pleasant plot revested green with warm,
The blossom'd boughs, with lusty Ver yspread,
The flowered meads, the wedded birds so late,
Mine eyes discover; and to my mind resort
The jolly woes, the hateless, short debate,

The rakehell1 life, that 'longs to love's disport:
Wherewith, alas! the heavy charge of care

Heap'd in my breast breaks forth, against my will, In smoky sighs that overcast the air,

My vapour'd eyes such dreary tears distil,

The tender spring which quicken where they fall,
And I half bend to throw me down withal.

A VOW TO LOVE FAITHFULLY, HOWSOEVER
HE BE REWARDED.

SET me whereas the sun doth parch the green,
Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice;
In temperate heat, where he is felt and seen;
In presence prest2 of people mad or wise;
Set me in high, or yet in low degree ;

In longest night, or in the shortest day;
In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be;

In lusty youth, or when my hairs are gray :

Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell,

In hill, or dale, or in the foaming flood;

6

Rakehell:' or rakel, careless.- Prest: ' usually means ready; here it may, perhaps, mean a press or crowd of people.

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