But shall still a true affection owe her,

Which prayers, sighs, tears, do show her,
And shall she still disdain me?

Heart, let her go, if they no grace can give me.
Say, shall she go?

Oh! no, no, no, no, no;

She made me her's, and her's she will retain me.

But if the love that hath, and still doth burn me,
No love at length return me,

Out of my thoughts I'll set her.

Heart, let her go; oh heart! I pray thee, let her.
Say, shall she go?

Oh! no, no, no, no, no;

Fix'd in the heart, how can the heart forget her?

But if I weep and sigh, and often wail me,
Till tears, sighs, prayers, fail me,

Shall yet my love preserver ? d

Heart, let her go, if she will right thee never.

Say, shall she go?

Oh! no, no, no, no, no;

Tears, sighs, prayers, fail; but true love lasteth ever.

c" But shall I still a true affection owe her."-edit. 1608. d In the Lee Priory edition this word is altered to persever. It is somewhat doubtful whether the true reading should be,

or,

"Shall yet my love preserve her ?"

"Shall yet my love persevere ?"

SONNET VII.

HIS SIGHS AND TEARS ARE BOOTLESS.

I HAVE entreated, and I have complained;
I have disprais'd, and praise I likewise gave;
All means to win her grace I tried have;
And still I love, and still I am disdained.
So long I have my tongue and pen constrained
To praise, dispraise, complain, and pity crave,
That now nor tongue, nor pen, to me her slave
Remains, whereby her grace may be obtained.
Yet you, my sighs, may purchase me relief;

And ye, my tears, her rocky heart may move:
Therefore, my sighs, sigh in her ear my grief;
And, in her heart, my tears, imprint my love.
But cease, vain sighs; cease, cease, ye fruitless tears;
Tears cannot pierce her heart, nor sighs her ears.

SONNET VIII.

HER BEAUTY MAKES HIM LIVE EVEN IN DESPAIR.

WOUNDED with grief, I weep, and sigh, and plain;
Yet neither plaints, nor sighs, nor tears do good,
But all in vain I strain against the flood,

Gaining but grief for grief, and pain for pain.
Yet though in vain my tears my cheeks distain,
Leaving engraven sorrow where they stood;
And though my sighs consuming up my blood,
For love deserv'd, reap undeserv'd disdain ;
And though in vain I know I beg remorse

At

your remorseless heart, more hard than steel; Yet such, alas, such is your beauty's force,

Charming my sense, that though this hell I feel, Though neither plaints, nor sighs, nor tears can move you, Yet must I still persist ever to love you.

SONNET IX.

WHY HER LIPS YIELD HIM NO WORDS OF COMFORT.

OFT do I plain, and she my plaints doth read,
Which in black colours do paint forth my woe,
So that of force she must my sorrow know;
And know, for her disdain my heart doth bleed :
And knowledge must of force some pity breed,
Which makes me hope, she will some favour show,
And from her sugar'd lips cause comfort flow
Into mine ears, my heart with joy to feed :
Yet though she reads, and reading knows my grief,
And knowledge moves her pity my distress;
Yet do her lips, sweet lips, yield no relief.
Much do I muse, but find no cause in this,

That in her lips, her heavenly lips that bliss them,

Her words loath thence to part, stay there to kiss them.

M

SONNET X.

COMPARISON OF HIS HEART TO A TEMPEST

BEATEN SHIP.

LIKE a sea-tossed bark, with tackling spent,
And stars obscur'd, his wat'ry journey's guide,
By loud tempestuous winds and raging tide,
From wave to wave with dreadful fury sent;
Fares my poor heart, my heart-strings being rent,
And quite disabled your fierce wrath to bide,
Since your fair eyes, my stars, themselves do hide,
Clouding their light in frowns and discontent:
For from your frowns do spring my sighs and tears;
Tears flow like seas, and sighs like winds do blow,
Whose joined rage most violently bears

My tempest-beaten heart from woe to woe.
And if your eyes shine not that I may shun it,
On rock Despair, my sighs, and tears will run it.

ELEGY.

TO HIS LADY, WHO HAD VOWED VIRGINITY."

Ev'N as my

I.

hand my pen and paper lays,

My trembling hand, my pen from paper stays,

e rue it. edit. 1611, but apparently a misprint.

f The Editor has, with great reluctance, felt obliged to take considerable liberties in the arrangement of this Elegy. The

Lest that thine eyes, which shining made me love you, Should frowning on my suit bid cease to move you;

inaccuracy of the copy given in the edition from which this has been reprinted, was too manifest to allow him to follow the plan of adhering to the text of that impression; and, being thus forced to deviate from the rule he had prescribed to himself, it was his next object to render the copy in this edition as perfect as possible. In this attempt he is under much obligation to Mr. Haslewood, not only by availing himself of that gentleman's suggestion in the note to the Lee Priory edition, but also for his prompt replies to the Editor's personal inquiries. It appears from a note in Mr. Park's MS. in the Editor's copy, that in the first edition no numbers were affixed to the stanzas; that in the second they were introduced as given above; whilst in the third and fourth editions, the 1st stanza was No. 6, and those marked in the second edition, and in that by Sir Egerton Brydges, 2, 3, 4, 5, and part of 6, were totally omitted. The cause of this omission is justly attributed by Mr. Haslewood to the copy of this Elegy, from which the third edition was printed, being imperfect; and from the fourth edition having been printed from the third. Under these circumstances the Editor has given this Elegy from the Lee Priory edition of the Rhapsody, with the slight alteration of having taken the concluding lines of the 3rd stanza from the 4th, with which that stanza commences in the second Edition-a change which it is hoped the obvious construction and sense of that stanza justifies; and which is supported by Mr. Haslewood's conjecture, as expressed in a note to the lines in question. It is with no assumed diffidence that the Editor hazards the conjecture with respect to the arrangement of this Elegy, that it ought not to be divided into stanzas, but should form a consecutive