Else I with roses every day
Will whip you hence;
And bind you when you want to play,
For your offence:
I'll shut mine eyes to keep you in,
I'll make you fast it for your sin,
I'll count your power not worth a pin :
Alas! what hereby shall I win,
If he gainsay me?
What if I beat the wanton boy
With many a rod?
He will repay me with annoy,
Because a God.
Then sit thou safely on my knee,
And let thy bower my bosom be!
Look in mine eyes! I like of thee:
O Cupid! so thou pity me,
Spare not, but play thee!
Like to the clear in highest sphere
Where all imperial glory shines,
Of self-same colour is her hair,
Whether unfolded or in twines :
Heigh ho! fair Rosalynde !
Her eyes are sapphires set in snow,
Resembling heaven by every wink ;
The Gods do fear whenas they glow,
And I do tremble when I think,
Heigh ho! would she were mine!
Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud
That beautifies Aurora's face;
Or like the silver crimson shroud
That Phoebus' smiling looks doth grace:
Heigh ho! fair Rosalynde !
Her lips are like two budded roses
Whom ranks of lilies neighbour nigh,
Within which bounds she balm encloses
Apt to entice a deity.
Heigh ho! would she were mine!
Her neck is like a stately tower
Where Love himself imprison'd lies
To watch for glances every hour
From her divine and sacred eyes:
Heigh ho! fair Rosalynde!
Her paps are centres of delight;
Her breasts are orbs of heavenly frame,
Where Nature moulds the dew of light
To feed perfection with the same.
Heigh ho! would she were mine!
With orient pearl, with ruby red,
With marble white, with sapphire blue,
Her body every way is fed,
Yet soft in touch and sweet in view:
Heigh ho! fair Rosalynde!
Nature herself her shape admires ;
The Gods are wounded in her sight;
And Love forsakes his heavenly fires,
And at her eyes his brand doth light.
Heigh ho! would she were mine!
Then muse not, Nymphs! though I bemoan
The absence of fair Rosalynde :
Since for a Fair there's fairer none,
Nor for her virtues so divine.
Heigh ho! fair Rosalynde!
Heigh ho, my heart! would God that she were mine!
A LOVER'S PROTESTATION.
First shall the heavens want starry light,
The seas be robbed of their waves,
The day want sun, and sun want bright,
The night want shade, the dead men graves,
The April flowers and leaf and tree,
Before I false my faith to Thee.
First shall the tops of highest hills
By humble plains be over-pried,
And poets scorn the Muses' quills,
And fish forsake the water glide,
And Iris lose her colour'd weed,
Before I fail Thee at thy need.
First direful hate shall turn to peace,
And love relent in deep disdain,
And death his fatal stroke shall cease,
And envy pity every pain,
And pleasure mourn, and sorrow smile,
Before I talk of any guile.
First Time shall stay his stayless race,
And Winter bless his brows with corn,
And snow bemoisten July's face,
And Winter spring, and Summer mourn,
Before my pen by help of Fame
Cease to recite thy sacred name.
Love guards the roses of thy lips,
And flies about them like a bee:
If I approach he forward skips,
And if I kiss he stingeth me.
Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,
And sleeps within their pretty shine ;
And if I look the Boy will lour,
And from their orbs shoots shafts divine.
Love works thy heart within his fire,
And in my tears doth firm the same;
And if I tempt it will retire,
And of my plaints doth make a game.
Love! let me cull her choicest flowers,
And pity me, and calm her eye!
Make soft her heart! dissolve her lours!
Then will I praise thy deity.
But if thou do not, Love! I'll truly serve her
In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.
IN THE PRAISE OF friendsHIP.
Reveal, O tongue! the secrets of my thought!
Tell forth the gain that perfect Friendship brings!
Express what joys by her to man are brought!
Unfold her praise which glads all earthly things!
If one might say, in earth a heaven to be,
It is (no doubt) where faithful friends agree.
To all estates true friendship is a stay,
To every wight a good and welcome guest,-
Our life were death were she once ta'en away :
Consuming cares would harbour in our breast;
Foul malice eke would banish all delight,
And puff us up with poison of despite.
If that the seeds of envy and debate
Might yield no fruit, but wither and decay,
No canker'd minds would hoard up heaps of hate, No hollow hearts dissembling parts should play, No claw-back then would fawn in hope of meed : Such life to lead were perfect life indeed.
But nowadays desire of worldly pelf
With all estates makes friendship very cold;
Few for their friends, each shifteth for himself:
If in thy purse thou hast good store of gold,
Full many a One thy friendship will embrace;
Thy wealth once spent, they turn away their face.
Let us still pray unto the Lord above,
For to relent our hearts as hard as stone,
That through the world one knot of royal love
In perfect truth might link us all in one!
Then should we pass this life without annoys,
And after death possess eternal joys.
CENONE-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,—
The fairest shepherd on our green,
A Love for any Ladie!
PARIS-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,
Thy Love is fair for thee alone
And for no other Ladie.
CENONE-My Love is fair, my Love is gay,
As fresh as been the flowers in May;
And of my Love my roundelay,
My merry merry merry roundelay,
Concludes with Cupid's Curse:
They that do change old love for new,
Pray Gods they change for worse!
BOTH-They that do change old love for new,
Pray Gods they change for worse!
|