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By absence this good means I gain,
That I can catch her,

Where none can watch her,

In some close corner of my brain.
There I embrace and kiss her;
And so I both enjoy and miss her.

THE TRUE LOVE'S KNOT.t

LOVE is the link, the knot, the band of unity;
And all that love, do love with their belov'd to be.
Love only did decree,

To change his kind in me.

For though I lov'd with all the powers of my mind,

X

And though my restless thoughts their rest in her did

find,

Yet are my hopes declin'd,

Sith she is most unkind.

For since her beauty's sun my fruitless hope did breed, By absence from that sun, I hop'd to starve that weed; Though absence did indeed

My hopes not starve, but feed.

For when I shift my place, like to the stricken deer,

I cannot shift the shaft, which in my side I bear:

[blocks in formation]

t This title is omitted in the first edition.

* Through. edit. 1611.

y Ay me, &c.-edit. 1608.

So have I seen the sick to run and turn again,

As if that outward change could ease his inward pain :

But still, alas! in vain,

The fit doth still remain.

Yet goodness is the spring from whence this ill doth

grow,

For goodness caus'd the love, which great respect did

owe.

Respect true love did show:

True love thus wrought my woe.

IGNOTO."

SONNET.

BEST pleas'd she is, when love is most exprest,
And sometimes says, that love should be requited;
Yet is she griev'd my love should now be righted,
When that my faith hath prov'd what I protest.
Am I belov'd whose heart is thus opprest,

Or dear to her, and not in her delighted?
I live to see the sun, yet still benighted:
By her despair is blam'd, and hope supprest;
She still denies, yet still her heart consenteth;
She grants me all but that which I desire;
She fuel sends, but bids me leave the fire;
She lets me die, and yet my death lamenteth.
Oh foolish love, by reason of thy blindness,
I die for want of love, yet kill'd with kindness!

z Omitted in the fourth edition.

SONNET.

WHEN a weak child is sick and out of quiet,
And for his tenderness cannot sustain
Physic of equal strength unto his pain,
Physicians to the nurse prescribe a diet.
Oh I am sick, and in my sickness weak,
And through my weakness dead, if I but take
The pleasantest receipt that art can make,
Or if I hear but my physician speak.

But, ah! fair god of physic, it may be,

But physic to my nurse would me recover.
She whom I love with beauty nurseth me,
But with a bitter mixture kills her lover.
Yet I assure myself, I should not die,
If she were purged of her cruelty.

SONNET.

WERE I as base as is the lowly plain,

And you, my Love, as high as heav'n above,

Yet should the thoughts of me your humble swain
Ascend to heav'n, in honour of my love.

Were I as high as heav'n above the plain,
And you, my Love, as humble and as low
As are the deepest bottoms of the main,
Whereso'er you were, with you my

love should go.

Were you the earth, dear Love, and I the skies,
My love should shine on you like to the sun,
And look upon you with ten thousand eyes,

Till heav'n wax'd blind, and till the world were done. Whereso'er I am, below, or else above you, Whereso'er you are, my heart shall truly love you.

MADRIGAL.

My love in her attire doth shew her wit,

It doth so well become her:

For every season she hath dressings fit,
For Winter, Spring, and Summer.
No beauty she doth miss,

When all her robes are on:

But Beauty's self she is,

When all her robes are gone.

А РОЕМ.

WHEN I to you of all my woes complain,

Which

you make me endure without release;

a Omitted in the fourth edition.

b In the first edition it stands thus:

A MADRIGAL.

When I to you complain of all the woe and pain

Which you make me endure without release,

I. S.a

With scornful smiles you answer me again,
"That lovers true must bear and hold their peace."
Dear, I will bear, and hold my peace, if you
Will hold your peace, and bear what I shall do.

F.D.c

SONNET.

THE poets feign that when the world began,
Both sexes in one body did remain ;
Till Love, offended with this double man,
Caus'd Vulcan to divide him into twain.
In this division he the heart did sever;

But cunningly he did indent the heart,
That if there were a reuniting ever,

Each part might know which was his counterpart.
See then, dear love, th' indenture of my heart,
And read the cov'nants writ with holy fire;
See if your heart be not the counterpart

Of my

true heart's indented chaste desire.

And if it be, so may it ever be,

Two hearts in one, twixt you, my love, and me.

I. S.

You answer nought again, but bear and hold your peace.

Dear, I will bear and hold my peace, if you

Will hold your peace and bear what I shall do.

< No signature in the first edition.

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