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SAMELA.

Like to Diana in her summer weed,

Girt with a crimson robe of brightest dye,
Goes fair Samela;

Whiter than be the flocks that straggling feed,
When washed by Arethusa faint they lie,
Is fair Samela;

As fair Aurora in her morning grey,

Decked with the ruddy glister of her love,
Is fair Samela;

Like lovely Thetis on a calmèd day,

When as her brightness Neptune's fancy move, Shines fair Samela ;

Her tresses gold, her eyes like glassy streams, Her teeth are pearl, the breasts are ivory

Of fair Samela ;

Her cheeks, like rose and lily yield forth gleams. Her brow's bright arches framed of ebony;

Thus fair Samela

Passeth fair Venus in her bravest hue,

And Juno in the show of majesty,

For she's Samela,

Pallas in wit; all three, if you well view,
For beauty, wit, and matchless dignity

Yield to Samela.

FAWNIA.

Ah, were she pitiful as she is fair,

Or but as mild as she is seeming so,

Then were my hopes greater than my despair,
Then all the world were heaven, nothing woe.

Ah, were her heart relenting as her hand,

That seems to melt even with the mildest touch, Then knew I where to seat me in a land,

Under wide heavens, but yet [I know] not such.

So as she shows, she seems the budding rose,
Yet sweeter far than is an earthly flower,
Sovereign of beauty, like the spray she grows,
Compassed she is with thorns and cankered flower,
Yet were she willing to be plucked and worn,
She would be gathered, though she grew on thorn.

Ah, when she sings, all music else be still,
For none must be compared to her note;
Ne'er breathed such glee from Philomela's bill,
Nor from the morning-singer's swelling throat.
Ah, when she riseth from her blissful bed,

She comforts all the world, as doth the sun,
And at her sight the night's foul vapour's fled;
When she is set, the gladsome day is done.
O glorious sun, imagine me the west,

Shine in my arms, and set thou in my breast!

THE PALMER'S ODE IN 'NEVER TOO LATE'

Old Menalcas, on a day,

As in field this shepherd lay,
Tuning of his oaten pipe,
Which he hit with many a stripe,
Said to Coridon that he

Once was young and full of glee.
'Blithe and wanton was I then :
Such desires follow men.

As I lay and kept my sheep,
Came the God that hateth sleep,
Clad in armour all of fire,
Hand in hand with queen Desire,
And with a dart that wounded nigh,
Pierced my heart as I did lie;
That when I woke I 'gan swear
Phillis beauty's palm did bear.
Up I start, forth went I,

With her face to feed mine eye;

There I saw Desire sit,

That my heart with love had hit,
Laying forth bright beauty's hooks
To entrap my gazing looks.
Love I did, and 'gan to woo,

Pray and sigh; all would not do:
Women, when they take the toy,
Covet to be counted coy.

Coy she was, and I 'gan court;
She thought love was but a sport;
Profound hell was in my thought;
Such a pain desire had wrought,
That I sued with sighs and tears;
Still ingrate she stopped her ears,
Till my youth I had spent.
Last a passion of repent

Told me flat, that Desire

Was a brond of love's fire,
Which consumeth men in thrall,
Virtue, youth, wit, and all.
At this saw, back I start,
Beat Desire from my heart,

Shook off Love, and made an oath
To be enemy to both.

Old I was when thus I fled

Such fond toys as cloyed my head,
But this I learned at Virtue's gate,
The way to good is never late.'

SONG.

Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown;
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent ;
The poor estate scorns fortune's angry frown:
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.

The homely house that harbours quiet rest;
The cottage that affords no pride nor care;
The mean that 'grees with country music best;
The sweet consort of mirth and music's fare;
Obscured life sets down a type of bliss:
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.

PHILOMELA'S ODE.

Sitting by a river's side,

Where a silent stream did glide,
Muse I did of many things,
That the mind in quiet brings.
I 'gan think how some men deem
Gold their god; and some esteem
Honour is the chief content,

That to man in life is lent.
And some others do contend,
Quiet none, like to a friend.
Others hold, there is no wealth
Compared to a perfect health.
Some man's mind in quiet stands,
When he is lord of many lands:
But I did sigh, and said all this
Was but a shade of perfect bliss ;
And in my thoughts I did approve,
Nought so sweet as is true love.
Love 'twixt lovers passeth these,
When mouth kisseth and heart 'grees,
With folded arms and lips meeting,
Each soul another sweetly greeting;

For by the breath the soul fleeteth,
And soul with soul in kissing meeteth.

If love be so sweet a thing,

That such happy bliss doth bring,
Happy is love's sugared thrall,

But unhappy maidens all,

Who esteem your virgin blisses,
Sweeter than a wife's sweet kisses.
No such quiet to the mind,

As true Love with kisses kind:
But if a kiss prove unchaste,
Then is true love quite disgraced.

Though love be sweet, learn this of mc,
No sweet love but honesty.

ORPHEUS' SONG.

He that did sing the motions of the stars,
Pale-coloured Phoebe's borrowing of her light,
Aspects of planets oft opposed in jars,

Of Hesper, henchman to the day and night; Sings now of love, as taught by proof to sing, Women are false, and love a bitter thing.

I loved Eurydice, the brightest lass,

More fond to like so fair a nymph as she; In Thessaly so bright none ever was,

But fair and constant hardly may agree: False-hearted wife to him that loved thee well, To leave thy love, and choose the prince of hell!

Theseus did help, and I in haste did hie

To Pluto, for the lass I lovèd so:

The god made grant, and who so glad as I?
I tuned my harp, and she and I 'gan go;
Glad that my love was left to me alone,
I looked back, Eurydice was gone:

She slipped aside, back to her latest love,
Unkind, she wronged her first and truest feere!
Thus women's loves delight, as trial proves
By false Eurydice I loved so dear,

To change and fleet, and every way to shrink,
To take in love, and lose it with a wink.

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