An Altar and Sacrifice to Disdain, for freeing

him from love.

My muse by thee restor'd to life,
To thee, Disdain, this altar rears;
Whereon she offers causeless strife,
Self-spending sighs, and bootless tears.

Long suits in vain,
Hate for good will,
Still-dying pain,
Yet living still :
Self-loving pride,
Looks coyly strange,
Will, reason’s ‘guide,
Desire of change,
And last of all
Blind fancy's fire,
False beauty's thrall,

That binds desire:
All these I offer to Disdain,
By whom I live from fancy free;
With vow, that if I love again,
My life the sacrifice shall be.

STREPHON'S PALINODE.

Sweet, I do not pardon crave,

Till I have
By deserts this fault amended;
This, I only this desire,

That your ire
May with penance be suspended.

Not my will, but fate did fetch

Me, poor wretch,
Into this unhappy error:
Which to plague, no tyrant's mind.

Pain can find
Like my heart's self-guilty terror.

Then, O then! let that suffice,

Your dear eyes
Need not, need not more afflict me:
Nor your sweet tongue, dipt in gall,

Need at all
From your presence interdict me.

By my love, long, firm, and true,

Borne to you,

By these tears my grief expressing,
By this pipe, which nights and days

Sounds your praise,
Pity me my fault confessing.

Or, if I may not desire

That your ire
May with penance be suspended,
Yet, let me full pardon crave,

When I have
With soon death my fault amended.

CUPID'S PASTIME.

It chanc'd of late a shepherd swain,

That went to seek a strayed sheep, Within a thicket, on the plain,

Espied a dainty nymph asleep.

Her.golden hair o'erspread her face,

Her careless arms abroad were cast, Her quiver had her pillow's place,

Her breast lay bare to every blast,

The shepherd stood and gaz’d his fill,

Nought durst he do, nought durst he say; When chance, or else perhaps his will,

Did guide the god of love that way.

The crafty boy that sees her sleep,

Whom, if she wak’d, he durst not see, Behind her closely seeks to creep,

Before her nap should ended be.

There come, he steals her shafts away,

And puts his own into their place; Ne dares he any longer stay,

But, ere she wakes, hies thence apace.

Scarce was he gone when she awakes,

And spies the shepherd standing bý,. Her bended bow in haste she takes,

And at the simple swain let fly.

Forth flew the shaft, and pierc'd his heart,

That to the ground he fell with pain; But up again forthwith he start,

And to the nymph he ran amain.

Amaz’d to see so strange a sight,

She shot, and shot, but all in vain;

The more his wounds, the more his might,

Love yieldeth strength in midst of pain.

Her angry eyes are great with tears,

She blames her hands, she blames her skill, The bluntness of her shafts she fears,

And try them on herself she will.

Take heed, sweet nymph, try not the shaft,

Each little touch will prick the heart ; Alas! thou know'st not Cupid's craft,

Revenge is joy, the end is smart.

Yet try she will, and prick some bare,

Her hands were glov’d, and next to hand Was that fair breast, that breast so rare,

That made the shepherd senseless stand,

That breast she prick’d, and through that breast

Love finds an entry to her heart; At feeling of this new-come guest,

Lord ! how the gentle nymph doth start.

She runs not now, she shoots no more,

Away she throws both shafts and bow; She seeks for that she shunn'd before,

She thinks the shepherd's haste too slow. VOL. III.