THE AMOROSE Songs, Sonnets, and Elegies: Of M. ALEXANDER CRAIGE, Scoto-Britane.  
Imprinted at London by William White. 1606.   


Prima velim teneris intendat amoribus aetas,  
Et canat ad Cytharam nostra camena suam.   

Molle meum Levibus cor est penetrabile telis,  
Et semper causa est cur ego semper amo.   

Vitantur venti, plwiae, vitantur, et estus,  
Non vitatur amor, mecum tumuletur oportet.    

TO THE MOST GODLY, VIRTUOUS, BEAUTIFUL, and accomplished PRINCESS, meritoriously dignified with all the Titles Religion, Virtue, Honour, Beauty can receive, challenge, afford, or deserve; ANNA, by divine providence, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Queen▪ ALEXANDER CRAIGE wisheth all health, wealth, and royal felicity.  
GReat Tamburlan cloaked his fantastical cruelty he exercised on Lazars and Leprous men, with a foolish kind of humanity, putting all he could find or hear of, to death, (as he said) to rid them from so painful & miserable a life: Though my Poyems (incomparably bountiful, incomparably beautiful, and so peerless Princess) be painful to me, and unpleasant to the delicate Lector; shall I with Tamburlan destroy them? or like a cruel Althaea, consume with fire the fatal Tree, kill mine own Meleager, and so inhumanly cut off mine own birth? I gave life to my Lines, and shall I now become their burreau? O live my deformed Child, some other hand shall commit thee to Phaeton or Deucalion's mercy, than mine: Though Anaxagoras resolved to die; yet for Pericles his masters sake he took courage, & lives. Your royal Godmother poor rhymes hath saved your life: yet am I not like Hercules, who th●●w jonius in the Sea, that by the violence of wind & wave the carcase might be carried to foreign shores, for propagation of his fame. I hunt not for fame; nor print I those Papers for praises, but to pleasure your Princely eyes with variety of my vain inventions▪ Megabysus going to visit Apelles in his workhouse, stood still a long tim● without speaking one word, and then began to censure of Apelles works; of whom he received this rude & nipping check So long as thou held thy peace, thou see●medst a wise man; but now thou has● spoke, and the wotst Boy of my ●oppe thinks thee a fool. I am ●old (divine Lady) to borrow thy blessed name, to beautify my blotted Book; and have se●● those Poems, like Apelles' Pictures through the world: nor do I care (since it is your Princely pleasure to protect them) the foolish judgement of Megabysus. Syrannes' the Persian Prince answered those (who seemed to wonder why his negotiations succeeded so ill, when his discourses were so wise) that he was only master of his Discourses, but Fortune mistress to the success of his affairs. My Sonnets & Songs are (gracious Princess) for the most part, full of complaints, sorrow, and lamentations: The reason is, I was master of my Verses; but Fortune Mistress of my Rewards. When Thetis courted jupiter, and when the Lecedemonians send Legates to the Athenians, they put them not in mind of the good they had done them, but of the benefits they had received of them. Your majesties munificens, and frequent benefits bestowed upon me, have headlong impelled me to propine this worthless work to your Royal view. Happy beyond the measure of my merit shall I be, if I can purchase this portion of your Princely approbation, as to accept and entertain these trivial toys (where your Grace shall smell Flows to refresh, Herbs to cure, and Weeds to be avoided) in the lowest degree of least favour. But howsoever, wishing your Highness as many happy years, as there be words in my Verses, and Verses in my worthless Volume: I am  
Your majesties most obsequious Orator, Alexander Craige, Scoto-Britan.   

Epistle general to Idea, Cynthia, Lithocardia, Kala, Erantina, Lais, Pandora, Penelopae.  
ZEuxis painted a Child bearing Vine clusters in his hand so perfectly, that the Fowls of the air were deceived, & descended thereto in vain: But angry at his work, he cried out, I have painted the Clusters more lively than the Child, and the burden better than the bearer; for had the Child seemed as vine as the Vine Grapes, the Fowls had been affrayed at his face. I have in these amorous Sonnets and Songs matchless Idea, virtuous Cynthia, grave Lithocardia, sweet Kala, lovely Erantina, lascivious Lais, modest Pandora, liberal Penelopae, painted my Love; but have (allasse) taken more pains on the Passions, than the Poyems; and more work on my woes, than the Verses. But had my Lines been as lively as either they should, or I wish they had been. No Momus afraid at the beauty of my Verses, had presumed (to my disgrace) to gather the Grapes of my Errors. Nor had I needed (which necessarily I must do) to employ the Patrociny of your protections. Were I an other Hercules, I could not cut off all the hissing heads of Hydra: & were I as perfect a Painter as Apelles, some saucy Souter shall censure above the Sho●. But with Agatharchus (who did all in haste) I humbly crave at all your hands (which with all reverence, and analogike service I kiss) and look you will excuse  
Your loving, but rude Zeuxis. A. C. Banfa-Britan.   

TO THE READER.  
SMyrnean Maeonides used in his delicate Poems divers Dialects, as jonic, Aeolic, Attic, and Doric: So have I (O courteous Reader) in this; and but alas in this, imitate that renowned Hellenist Homer, in using the Scotish and English Dialectes: the one as innated, I can not forget; the other as a stranger, I can not upon the sudden acquire. The subtle Merchant placed Aesop in the middle betwixt Cantor and Grammaticus, that by the interposition of that deformed fabulator, the other two might appear the fairer. So have I in midst of my modest Affections, committed to the Press my unchaste Love to Lais, that contraries by conttraries, and Virtue by Vice, more clearly may shine. To each (courteous Reader) that will both of this & that mixtture of Ditties and Dialects, courteously censure, I am but end to the fatal end,  
A most loving Friend, in all p●ssible employment. Craige.   

To IDEA.  
MAny times from the Table of my Chamber (matchless Idea) have my dearest Friends, both by themselves, and my Servant (whom I sometimes employed to write for me) stole the inventions of my wanton vain, those amorous Ditties, such as they best liked: and for which having, thereby served the humour of my passion, I cared no more; wherein their gain and my loss were all one. But now, by printing my then scattered, and now lately collected Scrolls (the most and best part whereof, I can not find) I have thought good to ease myself, and satisfy (but with the first, your Ladyship) my friends. The noble Romans were from all antiquity, accustomed to leave those Kings whom they had vanquished, in the possessions of their kingdoms, that Kings by them made slaves, might be instruments to uprayse the trophies of their glory. Thou knowest (Divine Idea) I am thine by conquest; and yet thou allowest me the seeming fruition of my liberty, while in deed I must pay the eternal tribute of unfeigned Love: For as Carn●ades the Cyrenean Philosopher said of Chrysippus; And Chrysippus were not, I could not be▪ my being is by thy munificence. Take this in good part: and still I rest,  
Ideas ever obleged and unmanumissible slave, Ad Ideam.  
O bona non tractanda homini bona digna rapina,  
Caelic●lum, superis o bona digna locis.   

To CYNTHIA.  
OFfend not, fair Dame; Though the Lines of my Picture change and vary. The World runs on Wheels, all things therein move without intermission: the solid Earth, the rocks of Caucasus, and the Pyramids of Memphis; both with public, and their own motion. Constancy itself, is nothing but a languishing and a wavering dance. I am a Pamphilus, and can not settle my object. And since my Love runs staggering with a natural drunkenness, I pray thee (virtuous Cynthia) with patience peruse those Poyems: And (as Aristippus said to his man, who by the way was over burdened with too much money) carry what you may, and cast away the rest.  
Your La. howsoever, and wheresoever. Ad Cynthiam.  
Nil forma natura tuae, nihil astra negarunt,  
una supercilij si tibi dempta nota.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  
I Fear to prefix (Hono. Lady) to these few Poyems, a long Epistle, lest some Diogenes should bid me shut the Ports of Minda ere the Town run out. Let me this much kindly pray, & prevail with your La. as to vouchsafe them some place in the bench of your bibliothek. Xerxes, whose Armies obumbrate all Hellespont, was fain in a small Fishbote for safety of his life, to ●lie from Greece. So may you at some idle hours deign, and descend to behold my rustic Rhymes, and kindly excuse his errors, who ere long, hath purpose to present and please you with some bette● Poyem. Till when, and ever,  
I am your La. own. Ad Lithocardiam.  
Vt nullae cunctis formosa est faemina tantum,  
sic nulla est misero tantum adamata mihi.   

To KALA.  
THese Poyems are, I confess (sweet Kala) unworthy thy presence, and so have more need of thy protection: But let (as Cicero writes in his Epistle to Octavius) Confession be a medicine for Error. Twixt Metellus Macedonicus, and Scipio Africanus, were mortal Wars: but when Scipio died, Metellus prayed the Citie-men to concur, lest their Walls should be overthrown. Many lovely jars have been amongst us; but in my absence, those my Papers like Citizens of a good republic, shall all concur to please and honour thee: And I both at home, & abroad, shall continue  
Thine till death: Craige.  
Et quanquam molli semper sis dedita amori,  
Candida nulla magis, nulla proterua magis.   

To LAIS.  
EVery man (as Pittacus affirmeth) hath some imperfection: in me Love is most predominant. But a● Alcibiades cut off his fair Dogs ears and tail, & so drove him in the market place, that giving this subject of prattle to the people, they might not meddle with his other actions. So have I presumed to publish these my castrat Rhymes under (o lascivious Lais) thy protection, that my chaster Verses may appear less faulty. Antinonides the physician, gave order, that before or after him, some bad physician should cloy and surfeit his auditors. So when the Lector shall be weary to ●uerread these lubric lines, he shall with more alacrity consider and overlook the rest. And thus were not hereby I minded to beautify my other Poyems, I could gladly consent, that all those lines of Lais, were over whelmed in oblivion, I glory not (God knows) in my frailty: and more for evitation, than imitation, are these Songs forth sent to the view of the censuring world. And thus nor craving, nor careful of thy acceptance, O Lais, I cease to serve, or more  
to be Thine.  

O miseri qu●ru● gaudia crimen habent▪   

Dum furtiva dedit nigra munuscula nocte,  
Me tenet, absentes alios suspirat amores.    

To ERANTINA.  
IT is a wonderful delight I take to live i● Love; it is ever at my heart, and most in my mouth: and such assistance it giveth to my life, that it seems the best munition I have found in this human peregrination. The Disciples of Hegesias, hunger starved themselves to death, incensed thereunto with the persuading discourses of his lessons, till the time King Ptolomey forbade him any longer to entertain his School with such murderous precepts. Though I wear the hours of the day, and waste the days of my life in Love: I muse, I rove, and walk: I enregister my humours and my passions. Let none be enticed by my example: for I am borne to love, and to die  
Thy Lover.  
O quid dura tuum sic me contemnis amantem,  
Neglectumque tuas despicis ante fores:  
Frigidasaenit Hiems, immitis et ingruit ather,  
Exclusum pateris me tamen esse foris.   

To PANDORA.  
THE very same Sonnets which a● some time pleased you (modest Pandora) with much more courtesy and honour, than they, or I, any way deserved, to receive and read, I have (but without alteration or change) here placed and reduced in a solid body. When Babylon was besidged by Darius, the number of Women was so great, the Captain commanded every man to choose one; which being accordingly performed, the rest were put to death, that their victuals might the longer endure. Hadst thou been there, and I Captain of the Babilonic, army, thou shouldst been first of all thy sex selected to been saved. Pardon (peerless Pandora) the perseverance of my presumption, in still affecting thee: and for my sake peruse these Sonnets, which may happily continue some days and years after me: That since I could not be beloved being on-life, I may with desperate Herostratus, be famous after death: Till when (as Socrates said) as I may, I am  
Thy unalterable man,  
Ah nùnquam potuj lachrymis, aut fletibus ullis,  
Efficere ut nobis mitior ipsa fores:  
Hoc nocuit misero seruisse fideliter unj,  
Hoc nocuit tanta semper amass fide.   

To PENELOPAE.  
Antiochus' in his youth, writ vehemently in praise of the Academy; but being old, he changed copy, and writ as violently against it. While I am young, I must write of, and for Love; and I must go, because I cannot stand still: I am like the rolling Stone which never stays, till it come to a lying place. As Infants repose in the rocked cradle, so my spirit finds rest in restless love. Alexander disdained the Corinthian Ambassaders, who offered him the Freedom and Burgeosie of their City: But when they told him that Bacchus and Hercules were likewise in their Registers, he kindly thanked them, and accepted their offer. Do not (O virtuous Penelopae) disdain my small and poor propine. O be not ashamed to see thy name in the base Chattons of my Poesy: Since better than Bacchus, and hardy than Hercules are in my Registers. Thus, kissing thy liberal hand, I heartily commend both me and them to thy tuition.  
Your La. A. C.  
Si qua videbuntur scriptis temeraria nostris,  
hoc constans veri pig●us amoris erit:  
Consilio regitur quisquis moderantius ardet,  
quique amor est aliis fit furor ille mihi.   

To the Queen her most excellent Majesty.  
Apelles' man did all his Wits employ  
To paint the shape of Laedais Daughter fair:  
But when he saw his work proved nought, poor Boy,  
He wept for woe, and took exceeding care:  
Then decked he her with jewels rich and rare:  
Which when the brave Apelles did behold.  
Paint on (quoth he) poor Boy, and have no fear,  
When Beauty fails, well done t'enrich with Gold.  
I am (fair Princess) like the Painter's man,  
As ignorant, as scant of skill as he:  
Yet will I strive and do the best I can,  
To manifest my loving mind to thee.  
But to supply the weakness of my skill,  
In place of Gold (great Lady) take goodwill.  
Craige.   

Amorous Songs and Sonnets.  

TO IDEA.  

IN Golden world, when Saturn did upgive  
To Pluto, Jove, and Neptune, his Empire  
They cast their lots both how, & where to live▪  
Because it was old Satur's own desire:  
Jove ruled the Furnace far above the Fire,  
The stately Vault, beyond the starry round:  
And Neptune got the glassy Salt to hire,  
Then Pluto choossed the Hellish black profound:  
When Cupid spied they gave him but the Ground▪  
Impatient wag, went out to walk abroad,  
And conquering these that were but lately crowned,  
He made himself over all those Gods a God.  
Then Love to thee, as to my Lord I yield,  
I fear to fight, where Gods have fled the field.   
 
Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amorjs.   

To IDEA.  

Down from the Skies for to behold my Dame  
Came Goddesses, and all the Gods above:  
Jove, Saturn, Mars, bright Phoebus, and with thame,  
Rich Juno, minerve, and the Queen of Love:  
Her beauty's fame, their minds did so common,  
They run, and took no rest till they came there,  
Thus armies proud, approached for to approve,  
And give their doom, that she was matchless fair:  
Love like the rest, would feign looked on, & swear  
Unknit (fair Dame) this Craip, quoth he, & thou  
Both Bag and Bow a bonny while shalt bear,  
Shoot where thou wilt, and I shall well allow:  
They change, & she shot Love, that he was fain  
To scarf his eyes, and beg the Bow again.   
 
Caecus amor superos superat, lithocardia amorem.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

OF late the blind, and naked Archer Boy,  
A libertine, out through the plains would play  
With ayre-deviding wings without convoy:  
He vaging went, and wist not where away.  
Sad Venus wept, and thus to me can say.  
Didst thou behold my blind Babe any whare?  
For he is gone; O pity strange estray:  
And he is fightles, syndo●les, and bare:  
In craig's and Rocks such Elu's do make repair,  
And so perhaps he harbers in thy heart.  
It was too true, yet durst I not declare  
His being there, for fear of further smart.  
To want her Babe, brave Venus still doth murne,  
she drown's the world with tears, & yet I burn.   
 
Hei mihi quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbi●.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

Love set his Bow, his Bag, and Bolts aside,  
And went out through the watery vaults of air  
Disposed to play; he goes without a guide,  
And with the Winds he wavers here and there:  
Till at the last a fleeting Castle fair  
On smooth and glassy Seas he doth espy:  
He boards their Bark, the fishing craft to leer:  
The poor men yields, not daring to deny,  
He hales their Hooks, and baits them by & by.  
Then Thetis rose, and asked if Love would burn  
The liquid seat wherein her Lord did lie,  
Dissuading him from such a cruel turn.  
Fear not said Love, I came to fish, thou sees,  
And left my flames in Lithocardias' eyes.   
 
O non human● nata puella toro.   

To CYNTHIA.  

THe Hobby Haulke can catch at all no prey,  
Unless above her aim and mark she fly.  
The Palm doth bear the braver boughs some say  
From neighbour trees, the higher that it be.  
So fared of those my fancies fond and me,  
In hope of hap, I cannot cease to sore.  
If loved, I live: and if disdained, I die.  
I pray, I praise, I plead, and I implore:  
Proud Cytherea loved Adonis poor,  
And Cynthia served Endymion Shepherd swain;  
So though I be inglorious and obscure,  
Yet may she love her Poet and her man..  
Mount then brave thoughts through water, fire & air  
And desperately pursue the sweet, proud, fair.   
 
Blanditiis amor est, et succo molli●r omni.   

To PANDORA.  

SInce Jove himself was subject unto Love,  
And left the lift to catch a mortal prey.  
If Neptune did from glassy Seas remove,  
And would for Love, aside the Sceptre lay.  
If Pluto loathed his dark and pitchy Cave,  
To spoil Proserpina Cer●s Daughter fair.  
If proud Apollo Daphui dear to have,  
Left Phaeton to rule his fiery Chair.  
If shaghhaird Satyrs mountaine-climing race,  
Pursued Aenona through the Phrygian Woods.  
If piping Pan from Music sweet did cease,  
To hunt the Naiad Nymp's by banks of Floods?  
What can I do (sweet haare) but love thee still?  
On whom nor God's no● men can gaze their fill.   
 
jussit amor, quis enim mag●● non cedar amorjs,  
In cignum, in pluniam qui jubet ire Jonem.   

To ERANTINA.  

NOr there where as the yoked restless Horse  
With Phaeton begins their wont race,  
and leads their Lord throughout the lift perfor●●  
To circumgire the Earth into each place.  
Nor there where as the hot and fiery face,  
The burning beams of Phoebus' bright appear,  
When he divides the day in equal space  
With glorious rays in his meridian Sphere.  
Nor there, whereas Apollo proud, for fear  
Our coming night, his linger should controls  
With speedy pace from our Horizon hear,  
Is headlong hurled to view th'antarctic Pole.  
Nor no where else can any match at all  
be found to her; whose virtues makes me thrall.   
 
Tu mihi sola places.   

To ERANTINA.  

O Wonder to the world, whom woundering eyen  
Do wonder still as on the rarest fight  
Of Nature's frame; yet come to common light,  
Or Hemisphere, where our Horizon been.  
Sweet lovely Laura, modest, chaste, and clean.  
It seems that Poet Petrarche took delight,  
Thy spotless praise in dainty lines to dight,  
By Prophecies, before thyself was seen.  
And now fair Dame, since thou art borne to be  
That Comet strange, and that prodigious Star,  
Whence life and death, and peace & bloody war▪  
And calm and storm proceed, as pleaseth thee:  
Shine still, and still with sweet aspect infuse,  
Eternal theme, and matter to my Muse.   
 
At mea c●m multis placuisset musa puellis,  
Huic unj, dixj, noster inheret am●r.   

To IDEA.  

THe chastest Child will oft for mercy cry,  
And bid the striker stay and hold his hand:  
Yea though he weep, his tears he will updry  
And kiss (suppose against his will) the wand.  
With chivering chin, but stirring will he stand,  
And patiently suppress his present pain:  
Poor Babe he dare not but obey command,  
And hold his peace, lest he be lashed again.  
Such is my state, I saikles soul am slain,  
Nor can I get the smallest grant of grace,  
Nor dare I now, though I have cause, complain:  
And though I durst, my plaints would have no place  
Thus am I fain for fear of further wrong,  
Even with the Babe to burst, and hold my tongue.   
 
Non tame● audebam tacit●s operire dol●res,  
Ingenium metuens casta puella tuam.   

To CYNTHIA▪  

IT sometime chanced, as Stories tell by chanse,  
That Hercules and Hylas were alone,  
And severally they went apart to pause:  
But he and he, accompanied with none,  
Till Hercules to Hylas made his moan,  
That he for drought was like to give the Ghost.  
Thus Hylas to Ascavius Flood is gone,  
To draw a drink, and lowting life hath lost.  
So when mine eyes had spurred a speedy post,  
To set the floods of favour to their friend,  
My burning heart, which drought of comfort crossed,  
They drowned themselves, & nothing else obtained:  
So Destanies my doleful death concludes,  
By double force of Furious flames and floods.   
 
Vror, et heu nostro manat ab igne liquor.   

To IDEA.  

THe Lipper man, whose voice can not be hard,  
With doleful hoarse unpleasant tune will cry,  
And crave for love of jesus Christ reward,  
And alm's of such as chance for to pass by:  
But when (alas poor soul) he doth espy  
That no man hears, not yet regards his voice,  
No longer then takes he delight to lie,  
But claps his dish, and keeps his language close.  
Right so as cursed, and careful is my Cross,  
Suppose the Fates have not deformed my shape,  
No words I use for to lament my lose,  
But make my Lines to be the Lippars Clap.  
Go Sonnet then and beg, I thee beseech,  
Some grace to him, whom fear deters from speech.   
 
Dicere qua puduit scribere jussit amor.   

To IDEA.  

IN stately Troy which was by force of fire  
Subdued in end, and turned in embers cold,  
Apollo's Church while Priam did empire,  
Was beautiful and brave for to behold:  
In midst whereof hung in a not of gold  
A Cockatrice, that Spider, Bird, nor Fly,  
To enter there, nor build durst not be bold:  
That famous work from filth was kept so frie.  
The like (fair Dame) may well be thought of thee  
For why, before thy beauty's Altar hangs,  
canceled with pride, both blood and birth I see,  
With cold disdain, which serve as certain ●ings,  
To warn a far my fancy to refrain,  
And rather wreck then once reveal my pain▪   
 
Cor dolet g●lidu● torpet sub pert●re sanguit,  
Me tamen oppressum dicere vetat amor.   

To PANDORA.  

I Pause not on the gold of Tagus' sand,  
Nor Erithrean brave and shining shells:  
Ilong not for the limits large of Land,  
Wherein the barber new-found Nations dwells:  
I bid not of these bounds whose bosom swells  
With birth of brave and costly jewels rare,  
Which with their Musk and Sivet sweetest smells  
In fairest Chattons, set perfume the air.  
My pridles heart subdued with Love and fear,  
Seeks that those Songs the Heralds of my heart  
Might move the sweet and flinty hearted fair  
Some favour once, and pity to impart:  
Else that upon the Altar of her wreath,  
She would accept th'oblation of my death.   
 
At sive te regum Muneranulla vol●.   

To PENELOPE.  

I Serve a Mistress infinitely fair,  
And (which I more esteem) exceeding wise,  
In that, beyond the bounds of all compare:  
And this in her the wondering world envies,  
Thence doth of love my restless rage arise,  
Thence flows the font of all the harms I have:  
Her wit my heart, her beauty charmed mine eyes,  
To Venus thus and Pallas I am slave:  
If curious heads to know her name do crave,  
She is a Lady Rich, it needs no more,  
And wealthy juno wont pride may leave,  
And gladly serve the Dame whom I adore:  
Rich, wise, and fair, to thee alone as thrall,  
I consecreate love, life, lines, thoughts, and all.   
 
At mihi seruitium, et tristis iam vita paratur,  
Illaque libertas pristina surripitur.   

To PENELOPE.  
SHort is the day, but long (alas) to me,  
Who live in love, and am not loved again:  
My lovely, fair, and loveles Saint I see,  
Doth gild with gold her hid & coy disdain.  
thinkst thou fair dame, to buy my love with gain  
'Cause thou art rich, I pray thee think not so:  
I am thy slave, and for thy sake am slain.  
Nor can my Rim's reveal my inward woe.  
Put now a point Panelopa I pray,  
unto this web so oft retexed by thee,  
Pay love with love, and make no more delay▪  
O rain no more thy showers of gold on me,  
One kiss of thee would breed me more conten●  
Then make me king of Croesus' Lydian rend.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  By Anagram. 

WHen Churches all of Asia les and more,  
By Xerxes' great were burnt, & cast to ground  
Of pity he Dianais Church forbore.  
A piece of work whose like could not be found:  
And yet by fame's report to be renowned,  
Herostratus did set the same on fire,  
Which Xerxes great suppose a Monarch crowned,  
Did spare unspoyld for all his proud Empire.  
Right so, when as so many did conspire  
To conquer me a poor and Country swain,  
My hardened heart withheld their hot desire,  
And I till now, unconquerd did remain.  
That by my loss, I must enlarge thy fame,  
And slay myself to serve a glorious Dame.   
 
Non ego seruitium Dominae tam mite recuse,  
Ah pereat si quis vincula et ipse times.   

To LITHOCARDIA. Anagram.  

AS Marigould did in her Garden walk,  
One day, O ten times happy was that day  
I thitherward to see my Saint, did stalk:  
Where Flora's Imps joyed with her feet to play,  
And lo unseen behind a Hedge I lay,  
Where I beheld the Roses blush for shame,  
The Lilies were empald upon the spray,  
The Violets were stained about my Dame:  
My Mistress smiled for to behold the game,  
And sometimes pleased upon the grass to sport▪  
Which canging hews new colours did acclaime,  
For blitheness of so sweet a Saint's resort,  
And from that walk while as away she w●nt.  
They weep with dew, & I in tears lament.   
 
Spr●●it nostras galatea querel●●.   

To KALA.  

Fair Kala, fairer than the Wool most fair,  
Of these my fair and silver fleeced Sheep  
Which are committed to my careless care,  
And up and down those dainty Dales I keep:  
Fair Sheppeardesse, for thee alone I weep.  
None hears my plaints but bleating beasts and I,  
And for thy sake I sigh when I should sleep,  
And on thy name amid my dreams I cry.  
Then since thou knows the thraldom of my mind  
And how my neck to bear thy yoke is worn:  
Have pity once, and prove not ay unkind,  
And laugh no more thy shepherd swain to scorn  
But if thou mindest for to remead my moan,  
Let fancies then, flocks, folds, and all, be one.   
 
Tum mistum civerem communi onerare sepulchre,  
Amborumque unus contegat ossa lapis.   

To LAIS.  

What ever thou be that claims or courts my dear  
And in my absence would supply my place,  
If courts thou, I pray thee to forbear,  
Rob not my right, and lately granted grace:  
For if at were, I friendly crave thy case,  
And thou had credit as I sometime bade,  
Were it not wrong, if I should proudly press  
To rave thy right? yes I may surely said:  
Be who thou wilt, I challenge thee therefore,  
That with thy Daffing deaviss my Lais ear;  
Cease from thy suit, and in to time forbear,  
Else we can be companions true no more.  
For put the case thou speed, thou gains these two,  
A facile Dame, and of a friend a foe.   
 
Casta ma●e nec te lusus, nec munera vinca●●.   

To LAIS.  

EVen as a venturing Merchant scant of skill,  
Whom Fortune's frown or fate hath forced to fall  
To recempence his former loss he will  
Within one Ship and Vessel venture all.  
So have I used my Stock, though it be small:  
My heart I send half drowned into despair  
Unto my Saint, whom eue●●erue I shall:  
She is the Ship, and it the ventured ware.  
Oft hath my mind been cloyed with clouds of care  
When contrary winds, with cold and stormy rain  
would threat my loss; but now from bounds of fear  
My venturing thus, hath made me rich again.  
Then shall my Muse triumph & mourn no more,  
Since second winds have brought my Ship to shore.   
 
At nunc tota tua est, te solum candida secum,  
Cogita et frustra credula turba sedet.   

To PANDORA.  
O Watchful Bird proclaimer of the day,  
Withh●ld I pray, thy piercing notes from me:  
Yet crow, and put the Pilgrim to his way,  
And let the Workman rise to earn his fee:  
Yea let the Lion fierce, be feared of thee,  
To leave his prey, and lodge him in his Cave:  
And let the deep Divine from dreaming fly.  
To look his leaves within his close Conclave:  
Each man save I, may some remembrance have,  
That gone is night, and Phosphor draweth nigh:  
Beat not thy breast for me poor sleepless slave,  
To whom the Fat's alternal rest deny:  
But if thou wouldst bring truce unto my tears,  
Crow still for Mercy in my Mistress ●ares.   

To PANDORA.  
GO you o winds that blow from north to south,  
Convey my secret sighs unto my sweet:  
Deliver them from mine, unto her mouth,  
And make my commendations till we meet.  
But if perhaps her proud aspiring spirit,  
Will not accept nor yet receive the same,  
The breast and bulwark of her bosom be it:  
Knock at her heart, and tell from whence you came,  
Importune her, nor cease, nor shrink, for shame:  
Sport with her curls of Amber culloured hair,  
And when she sighs, immix yourselves with thame  
Give her her own, and thus beguile the fair.  
Blow winds, fly sighs, where as my heart doth han●  
And secretly commend me to my sanct.   

To PANDORA.  

IN Arcady sometime (as Sydne says,)  
Demagoras a proud Lord did remain,  
In whom no thing I mark that merits praise,  
Save that he served Parthenia sweet with pain:  
But when he found she loved him not again,  
With leprosy he did infect her face,  
Which caused the constant knight for to complain  
But not to change his love in any case:  
Pandora fair his woose infected alas  
With leprosy of loathsome cold disdain,  
Bred by my foe, to further my disgrace:  
Yet neither faith nor fancy shall refrane:  
Yea, were her face deformed as it is fair,  
I should ay serve, though I should ay despair.   
 
Fortuna potes invita fecisse beatum,  
Quem velis.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  
A Very World may well be seen in me,  
My hot desires as flames of Fire do shine,  
My sighs are air, my tears the Ocean sea  
My steadfast faith, the solid Earth, & sign,  
My hope my heaven, my thoughts are stars divine  
My jealousy the very pangs of Hell,  
My sweet the Saint, to whom I do propine  
For sacrifice my service and my cell.  
That hateful Hag, who near my Dame doth dwell  
My rival foe, my Love the Summer sweet,  
My Spring-time, my deserts which so excel:  
And my Despairs, the Winter cold and wet.  
But (O alas) no Harvest can I see,  
Which spoils my years, & makes me thus to die   

To ERANTINA.  

WEll may I read as on a snowy sheet  
Of paper fair, my fortune in thy face,  
Since at my sight thine eyes are both repleit,  
With loveles looks presaging but disgrace:  
And thou into my visage wan alas,  
May see in sad characters of my care,  
Since neither ruth nor pity can have place,  
A boundless Book, a volume of despair.  
Thus like a Glass my face may well declare  
My love to thee, and with my love my pain:  
Thine shows again (though it be matchless fair)  
Thy hateful heart and undeserved disdain.  
O antipathy strange to be sustained,  
I love my foe, thou hats thy faithful friend.   
 
Vidi ego quae veneris falleudo iura res●suit,  
Perfidiae penas saepe luisse graves.   

To IDEA.  
The Brethren three whose hot persut hath brought  
Death to themselves, & bondage to their land,  
When as their foe before them fled, they thought  
The victory was placed into their hand:  
And yet his flight inferred no fear they found,  
For as they came, he slew them one and one.  
A Parthian form, whose fight in fight doth stand,  
For while they fly, their foes are killed anon.  
Even so may I, unhappiest I complain:  
But pity thus to serve a Parthian Dame,  
Who shuns my suits, and makes my fancy fane,  
With hosts of harms for to pursue the same.  
O sweet discord, O sweet concord again,  
She flies to kill, I chase her to be ta'en.   

To IDEA.  

Fair lovely Haebae Queen of pleasant Youth,  
Who bore brave Nectar to the Gods above:  
Whose glancing beams like Phoebus in the south,  
Do both bewitch and burn my breast with love.  
O thou that war's the wounding world for worth  
Whom Nature made to laugh herself to scorn,  
More excellent than I can set thee forth:  
Whose like nor is, nor shall again be borne.  
My flowing Songs I consecreate to thee,  
Good reason were, that they should all be thine.  
Thy presence creates all those thoughts in me,  
Which me immortal, and makes thee divine:  
And such delight I have with thee to stay,  
As twenty Moons do seem but half a day.   
 
Et tua quod superest temporis esse precor.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

THou who began by Menalus to moon,  
And lay alone for to lament thy loss  
Amid those green and grovie shades to groan  
Where Musidorus knew thee by thy voice:  
Thou hast of me a comfort in thy cross,  
With Prince's proud if poor men may compare,  
For why my cares suppose I keep them close,  
Overmatcheth thine, though thy mishaps were mare:  
Thy thuartring thoughts were drowned in deep despair  
Mine have no hope for to be brought to pass:  
Thy heart has hurt, and mine of bliss is bare:  
Thou changed thy shape, I am not what I was:  
In end thou sped, I ware my work in vain,  
I love alas, and am not loved again.   
 
Speque timor dubia, spesque timore cadis.   

To LAIS.  

SEe Deianira, see how I am shent  
By that same Shirt which Nessus to thee gave,  
And thou again to me by Lichas sent,  
I am inflamed flesh, bons, and all I have,  
That Ichthiophagic Aethiopian slave,  
Who boils his angled Fish by Phoebus' beams  
Upon a Rock, no other stir may crave:  
Nor Sun, nor Rock, but these my gliding gleams▪  
Yet sweet thy sworn Alcides will not die,  
There is no deadly Dipsas in thy Sarke,  
I languish but till I may meet with thee,  
With quent dialogues in the quiet dark:  
And so till time such happy time afford,  
My further will this bearer brings by word.   
 
Saepe greges inter requie●●●us arbore terci,  
Mistaque cum folus perbuit herba torum.   

To PENELOPE.  

THe Persian King in danger to be drowned,  
Asked if no help in human hands did stand.  
The Skipper then cast in the Salt profound,  
Some Persians brave, & brought the King to land.  
Then Xerxes crowns the Skipper with his hand,  
Who saves the King deserves (quoth he) a crown:  
But he at once to kill him gave command,  
Die die, said he, who did my Persians drown.  
My Lady fair, a Xerxes' proud doth prove,  
My worthless Verse she doth reward with gold:  
But (O alas) she lets me die for love,  
And now I rue that I have been so bold.  
As Xerxes crowned, and killed his man; right so  
She seems a friend, and proves a mortal foe.   
 
Credula res amor est. etc.   

At IDEAS direction, these two Sonnets were made. 1.  
MOre than I am, accursed mought I be,  
If ere I did approach my dearest Dame:  
But such a great respect was still in me,  
As ay fear was equal to my flame:  
Suppose some sots spoiled of the sense of shame,  
Or feeling of my honest Love, will say,  
And public to my dispraise proclaim  
That I delight in loathsome Lust as they.  
You sacred powers, I still invoke and pray,  
That all my speech turn poison in a clap,  
If either I by word or writ bewray  
One lusting thought her beauty to entrap,  
Let pale Envy (fair Dame) admire and lie,  
With chaste desires I serve and honour thee.   

To IDEA. 2  

WIth chaste desires I serve and honour thee  
Great Archi-mistris of my ravished mind,  
Most virtuous, wise, and fair, of all thy kind:  
Whose least command I vow to do or die.  
chaste was my Love, yet is, and ay shall be,  
The praising Papers which I have propined,  
May well bear witness how I am inclined,  
And can (ye know) control me when I lie:  
Phronesis erring could espy no place,  
Meet on this mould, but in thy breast to dwell,  
A virtuous mind adorns a beauteous face;  
And thou hast both, and in them both excel:  
This makes my love be chaste, my passions strange  
And I had rather choose to die then change,   
 
Aspice divinas humano in corpore dotes  
Nil mort●lae tibi faemina digna polo es.   

To CYNTHIA.  

HAdst thou been black, or yet had I been blind,  
my muse had slept, & none had known my mind  
Or yet couldst thou as thou art fair, be kind,  
I had not thus with sighs increased the wind:  
But lo these frowning favours which I find,  
To which alas thou art too much inclined,  
By which thy poor afflicted man is pinned,  
Have broke the heart, which beauty first did bind:  
Smile then fair dame, & some time cease to frown  
For smiles please me, and do become thee best:  
And since thou sees how I am sworn thine own,  
Smile still on him who loves thee by the rest,  
So neither shall I wish thee to be black,  
Nor curse my eyes, the causers of my wreck.   
 
Nam si quem placidis facilis dignaris ocellis,  
Nectaris huic fontes, ambrosiaque fluunt.   

To ERANTINA.  
THe Tyrant Nero hovering to behold  
The wrack of Rome on top of Tarpe hill,  
He saw the rich, the poor, the young, the old,  
Amid the flams in in present point to spill:  
Yet wondering on that wonder, stood he still,  
And (cruel man) would neither mend nor mean,  
But took his pleasure to espy their ill,  
And smiled to see them smart before his eyen:  
But had that man, that monstrous man yet been  
Reserved on life by fatal Nymphs till now,  
To view these flames which may in me be seen,  
He would bewail my poor estate I trow,  
whose boiling breast even like mont Aetna burns  
When in his tomb the roaring monster turns.   

To KALA.  

THe Persian Kings all waters did abjure,  
Save those which flowed from fair Ch●aspes flood:  
From age to age this they observed as sure,  
As though no Waters else could do them good.  
This was a form, no rather bondage strange,  
Which by no means these Monarch's brave would change.   

I am as constant as a Persian King,  
And thou more dear than meat or drink to me:  
For all th'enticements beauty bright can bring,  
With lisping tongue, and soul enticing eye:  
In spite of all these all as I began,  
I am thy true and never-changing man.   

Thus will I surfeit on thy beauty brave,  
And Lyzard-like live on thy looks divine:  
In presence absence I am sworn thy slave,  
And still I would (were I a King) be thine:  
And for thy sake, till life and breath endure,  
All other love and service I abjure.   
 
Tu quoque iunge fid●s fido cum coniuge amor●s,  
Ipse etenim et coniunx ipse et amator ero.   

To LAIS.  

Alas that absence hath such force to foyll,  
And to procure my ever piercing pain,  
Bereft of rest I toss, I turn, I toil,  
Half in despair that we may meet again:  
Think on my vows (& think they were not vain)  
My countenance, and each thing else I pray,  
Which then I used, when our goodnight was ta'en,  
My inward wrack and woe for to bewray:  
And when alone in clasped arms we lay,  
With interchange of many soulesooke kisses:  
Think how we shed before the dawn of day,  
With miriads of unaccomplisht wishes:  
Which with myself for lack of presence pinned,  
I recommend unto thy virtuous mind.   
 
Sic mecum fixis herebas nixa lacertis,  
Mutua cum placido trahebamus gaudia lusu.   

To absent ERANTINA.  
EVen as a man by dark that goes astray,  
Would fain behold and look unto the light:  
Or as a Pilgrem erring from the way,  
In wildsome ways, would fain be set a right●  
As Mariners in black and stormy night,  
O'reset with Seas, strange winds, and stormy rain  
Longs to behold the beams of Phoebus' bright,  
That after storm, the calm may come again:  
As he whom still the jailer doth detain  
In bondage close, of freedom would be glade:  
Right so shall I of presence be as fain,  
To see the Saint for whom my sighs are shade,  
Light, wished way, calm, freedom, should not be  
So sweet to them, as Presence unto me.   

To KALA.  

Sore is my head and sorry is my heart,  
And yet for all th'emplasters I apply,  
No help hath Nature, nor no aid brings Art,  
Without, within, I burn, I fret, I fry:  
A childish thing when Care doth come to cry:  
Yet this doth most my Fever fell infect,  
I hid my harms, and so in silence die,  
And thus my head must rive, my heart must break,  
But worst of all, while visage won bewray,  
What secret site my sick soul doth assale,  
How I or'edriue in deadly dooll the day,  
And how this longsome Equinoct I vale:  
She cruel she that should my Surgeon be,  
Allows my loss, and laughs, and lets me die.   
 
Nec tamen ulla mea tangit te cura salutis.   

To absent IDEA.  

Fair dame, for whom my mornfull muse hath worn  
To want thy fight the black & sable weed,  
Whose hovering hairs disheveled rend and torn,  
May show what bail thy absence long can breed:  
Look if thou list my Rhymes, and thou shalt read  
But coal-black woes in coal-black words brought forth  
thy absence long, hath made my comfort deed,  
And makes my Verses be so little worth.  
Shine then upon my parched Sunburnd brain,  
Chief stay of all my tempest-beaten state:  
Leave not thy man disconsolate again,  
Fair Gods of my Fortune both and Fate:  
All earthly hopes for thee since I refuse,  
Be thou my hope, my Mistress, and my Muse.   
 
Vtque supercilio spendo● nutuque loquaci,  
Nonnihil ipsa meis m●ta venis precibus,   

To ERANTINA.  

OVtthrough the fair and famous Scythian land,  
A River runs unto the Ocean mane:  
Height Hypanis with clear and crystal strand,  
Bordered about with Pine, Fir, Oak, and plane:  
Whose silver streams as they delight the eye,  
So none more sweet to either taste or smell.  
Yet Exampeus err his Lord he spies,  
Makes him to stink like Stygian stanks at Hell.  
e'en so fair Dame (whose shap doth so excel)  
Thy glorious rays, thy shining virtues rare,  
No Poets pen, nor Rhetors' tongue can tell  
So far beyond the bounds of all compare:  
Yet are they spoiled with poisoning cold disdain  
And such as drink thy beauty's floods are slain.   
 
Nil nostrae movere preces verba irrita ventis,  
Fudimus et vanas scopulis impegimus undas.   

PANDORA refuseth his Letter.  

THe saikles' soul Philoxenus was slain  
By courts kind Amphialus the Knight,  
(Who for the fair Cornithian Queens disdain  
Borne to his foresaid friend had ta'en the flight:)  
But when his Dog perceived that sorry fight,  
He fawned upon his masters fatal foe:  
Who then with heart and handful of despite,  
Beats back the Dog with many bitter blo.  
My dearest Dame and seemly Saint even so,  
For whose sweet sake I daily die and dwins,  
Hath slain her slave with all the wounds of woe,  
And loathes alas, to look upon my Lins:  
That with the Dog my Ditties must return,  
And help their martyred Master for to murne.   
 
Quis Deus opposuit nostris sua numina notis.   

To KALA.  
TWixt Fortune, Love, and most unhappy me,  
Behold a chase, a fatal threesome Reel,  
She leads us both, suppose she can not see,  
And spurs the Post on her unconstant wheel:  
I follow her, but while I press to speele  
My bounds above, I fail, and so I fall:  
Love lifts me up, and says all shall be well,  
In hope of hap my comfort I recall:  
We journey on, Love is the last of all;  
He on his wings, I on my thoughts do soot:  
I fly from him, suppose my speed be small;  
She flies from me, and woe is me therefore.  
Thus am I still twixt Love and Fortune slain,  
I neither take nor tarry to be ta'en.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  
GOod cause hadst thou Euarchus to repent,  
The reakles rashness of thy bad decreet:  
Thy cruelty did spring from good intent,  
The grounds whereof were tedious to repeet:  
Yet when thy Son fell down before thy feet,  
And made thine eyes confess that he was thine,  
Thou wept for woe, yet could thou not retreat  
The sentence said, but sighed and sorowed sine:  
So may it be that once those eyes divine,  
Which now disdain and loath to look so low,  
As to behold these miseries of mine,  
shall weep when they my constant truth shall know  
And thou shalt sigh (though out of time) to see,  
By thy decret thine own Pirocl●s die.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

I Fear not Love with blind and frowning face,  
His Bow, his flame, nor sharpest hooked head:  
A braver Archer Death shall have his place,  
And put a point to all my pain with speed:  
And since it is my fate to be at feed  
With her whom once I duly did adore:  
Yet fatal Atropos now shall cut the thread,  
And break the heart which she enjoyed of yore:  
For favours floods which I did oft implore,  
Of Letheis Lake I time by time shall teast,  
Her Marbel heart shall make me mourn no more  
The burial stone my dolour shall digeast:  
Then farewell she, auth, love, hard-heart, each one,  
Come Atropos, Lethe, Death, and Burial ston●.   
 
Nunc te tam formae tangit decor iste superbae,  
Vt tua commorint taedia iniqua deos.   

To inconstant LAIS.  

HOw oft hast thou with Sivet smelling breath,  
told how thou loudest me, loudest me best of all?  
And to repay my love, my zeal, my faith,  
Said, to thy captive thou wast but a thrall:  
And when I would for comfort on thee call,  
Be true to me dear to my soul, said I,  
Then sweetly quhespering would thou say, I shall:  
And echo-like dear to my soul, reply:  
But breach of faith now seems no fault to thee,  
Old promises new perjuries do prove.  
Ape's turse the whelps they love from tree to tree  
And crush them to the death with too much love.  
My too much love I see hath changed thee so,  
That from a friend thou art become a foe.   
 
Carminibus celebrata meis formosa N●aera,  
Aterius mawlt esse puella viri.   

To LAIS.  

SWeet Lais, trust me, I can love no more,  
And which is worse, my Love is turned to hate:  
Thou art unkind, and woe is me therefore,  
Inconstant falls and to my grief ingrate,  
It is too true I loved thee well of late,  
And even as true thou lov'dst me well again:  
I have alas, no pleasure to repeat  
Our wishes and our vows since all are vain:  
What resolutions and what plots profane  
We two have had in love to live and die,  
The time, the place, the tokens given and ta'en;  
If they could speak, can thy accusers be:  
But since thou still art false (I must confess)  
Thy love was lightly won, and lost for less.   
 
Ah crudele genus nec fidum faemina nomen.   

To ERANTINA.  

Blind naked love, who breeds those stormy broils  
Which from my dear me to my dole debars:  
To me the pangs, to thee pertain the spoils:  
Thou takes advantage of our civil wars,  
I live exiled, but thou remains too near,  
Yet like a tyrant she triumphs o'er thee.  
Her presence makes thee more than blind I hear:  
And absence is far worse than death to me,  
Could I as thou, from jealous eyes be free,  
Then should I be as blithe as thou art blind:  
I should not then despair, nor wish to die,  
Nor should my sighs increase the wavering wind.  
O rigour strange since Love must still remain,  
In presence blind, and I in absence slain.   
 
una di●s tantum est, qua te non femina vidi,  
Et sine iam videor seusibus es●s ●●is.   

To PENELOPE.  
WHen stately Troy by subtle Sinon's guile,  
And Grecian force was brought to last decay,  
Ulysses brave with fair and facund style,  
Achilles' Arm's obtained, and went away:  
In Africa yet he was constrained to stay:  
For when his friends did taste of Lotus try,  
As Homer's works do more at length bewray,  
They greened no more the Greekish soil to see.  
So fares with me, O most unhapie me,  
Since I beheld thy fair and heavenly hue,  
The glorious rays of thy all conquering eye,  
My rendering heart and soul did so subdue,  
That for thy sake, whom ever serve I shall,  
I have forgot myself, my soil, and all.   

To IDEA.  

MY Muse shall make thy boundless fame to fly  
In bounds where yet thyself was never seen:  
And were not for my Songs thy name had been▪  
Obscurely cast into the grave with thee:  
But lo when cold and limping age shall be,  
A sign of death, and when the grave shall green  
And gape within her bosom to conteene  
Her child, in spite of Death thou shalt not die:  
For why, my Muse, my restless Muse shall eke  
Ten thousand wings for to enlarge thy fame,  
And every quill of every wing fair Dame,  
to preach thy praise ten thousand ways shall seek  
Yet thou repays my labours with disdain,  
Thou lives by me, and I by thee am slain.   
 
O ego non felix qui tam crudeliter a●●,  
Nullaque me redamat.   

To frowning CYNTHIA.  

IF Castor shine, the Seaman hoiseth sail,  
With widkast womb the welcome winds t'embrace  
which gladly grasps the sare & prosperous gail  
And makes the Ship to run a fleeing race:  
But if Orion shine, the storm is me,  
He allows the Sail, which stood of late so high   

Such is my state, if Castor-like thou smile,  
I only live to serve and honour thee:  
But if thou frown, alas alas the while,  
As at the sight of Gorgon's head I die,  
As in thy lift so in thy looks divine,  
Orion black, and Castor brave do shine.   

Then since thou art th' Orison of my love,  
Thine eyes the fatal stars which I adore:  
With gracious blinks behold me from above,  
Let me not sink, safe bring me to thy shore.  
Or if thou loathes that I should live, then frown  
For die I, live I, I am still thine own.   
 
Diccte me Jwenem perijsse in amore maeaeque  
unita quod fuerit Cynthia causa necis.   

To PANDORA.  
EAch thing alas, presents and lets me see▪  
The rare Idea of my rarest Dame,  
Deep sunk into my soul the very same,  
Whose view doth still bewitch unhappy me,  
The shining Sun, her heart transpersing eye.  
The morning red her brave and blushing shame,  
Night absence, and day presence doth proclaim,  
foul wether frowns, & calm sweet smil's may be  
My scalding sighs tempestuous winds, and rain:  
But exhalations of my tragic tears,  
In frost alas, her cold disdain appears;  
In thaw, and fire, my melting heart again:  
And thus each thing brings purpose to be pined  
And to my thoughts commends the fair unkind.   

To PANDORA.  

Dear to my soul, and wilt thou needs be gone,  
And leave thy Man behind thee but a heart?  
Is this the pity which thou dost impart,  
Disconsolat to let me die alone?  
Thou hast two hearts; mine, thine, and I have none:  
here springs the surfe of my ensuing smart;  
Yet play I pray the gentle Pirates part,  
And as thou loves my life, yet leave me one:  
But brook them both I gladly grant and stay,  
How canst thou ride in raging rain and wind?  
Yet thou must go, and woe is me away:  
Then take my heart, and leave me thine behind.  
I gave thee mine, O then give thine to me,  
That mine and thine be one betwixt me & thee.   
 
una fides, unus lectus, et unus amor.   

To LAIS.  

I Have compared my Mistress many time  
To Angels, Sun, Moon, Stars, & things above:  
My Conscience then condemned me of a crime,  
To things below when I conferred my Love:  
But when I find her actions all are vane,  
I think my Rhymes and Poyems all profane.   

With perfect eyes her Pageants I espy,  
To no thing now can I compare my Dame,  
But Theramenes shoe; the reason why,  
It served each foot: and she can do the same:  
She hears the suits of rich, poor, great, & small,  
And has discretion to content us all.   
 
Si vitium levitas, nulla puella hona est.   

To PANDORA.  

Feign would I go, and fain would I abide,  
Sweet Hais again, and kiss me err I go,  
Deny me not since there is none beside,  
No tell-tale here, though thou wouldst give me two:  
Yet give me one, if thou wilt give no more;  
But one is none, then give me two or three,  
Thy Balmy breath doth still bewitch me so,  
As I must have an other kiss, or die,  
Thy Rubent blush now bids take leave of thee:  
Feign would I go, and I would kiss as fain,  
Then give me one, or change a kiss with me:  
If neither give nor change, take all again:  
When thine & mine are thus conturbed, I know  
Thou canst but smile, that I deceived thee so.   
 
Mihi dulcia iunge  
Oscula, et in nostr● molle quiesse sin.   

To PENELOPE.  

WHile fierce Achilles at the siege of Troy,  
(the fatal Nymphs had so decreed) was slain  
A sudden strife arose who should enjoy  
The Arms of that praiseworthy Grecian:  
Ajax alleged he should the Arm's obtain,  
And by the sword to win and wear them vowed,  
Ulysses said, they should be his again:  
And he them gained, if Stories may be trowed,  
But lo the shield by Sea's was loosed, we read,  
And by a storm driven from Ulysses sight,  
And rolled to Ajax grave, though he was dead,  
To show the world that he had greatest right:  
So when my tomb shall end those tears of mine  
there shalt thou sigh & say, I should been thine.   
 
Tum flebit cum mi senserit esse fidem.   

To CYNTHIA.  

OFt have I meant with Music, sleep, & wine,  
The sovereign curs for superficial cares,  
For to revive this wounded heat of mine,  
And free myself from sorrow, sighs, and tears:  
Yet neither all, nor any one of those,  
Have force to end, or cure, or change my woes:  
My griefs are grown to such confused force,  
No number rests for more, nor place for worse.   

If I had merit to be martyred still,  
And with the fury of thy frowns abused,  
I could digest thy glooming with goodwill,  
And neither look nor crave to be excused:  
I love my Rod like Moses; but if I  
Perceive it prove a Serpent, I must fly.  
If thou wilt bind me still to be thine own,  
Smile still (fair Dame) if not, I pray thee frown.   
 
Vincuntur molli pectora dura prece.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

FAlse Eriphile sometime did betray  
Facidic wise Amphiaraus her spouse,  
(Who willing from the Theban wars to stay)  
To hide himself secure at home he trow's:  
Thus while his drifts Adrastus disallow's,  
She (knowing that her husband should be slain  
At Thebes) for a golden chain auow's  
To tell Adrastus where he did remain;  
And thus revealed, he goes against his will,  
But leaves Alcmeon to revenge his wrack  
On Eriphile, which he did fulfil,  
When doleful news of father's death came back  
So since in love thou art so unloyall so long,  
Some strange Alcmeon must revenge my wrong.   
 
Quaeque prius nobis intulit illa ferat.   

To LAIS.  

WHen Cressida went from Troy to Calchs' tent,  
and Greeks with Troyans' were at skirmidg hot  
Then Diomedes did late and air frequent  
Her company, and Troil was forgot:  
Thou lay alone, such was alas thy lot,  
And Paris brooked poor Menelaus thy Dame,  
She twinned in two the matrimonial knot,  
And took a stranger when thou went from hame.  
Such is my case, if I may say for shame,  
I flourished once; once there was none but I:  
I once was loved, and I have lost the same,  
And as God liu's, I know not how nor why:  
So that my Saint for falsehood I am sure,  
May match the Grecian or the Trojan whore.   
 
Non sum ego qui fueram, mutat via longa puella●,  
Quantus in exiguo tempore fugit amor.   

To KALA.  

OFt have I sworn; oft hast thou prayed me too  
No more to love, nor more to look on thee:  
Since looks and love have made so much ado  
Twixt loveles thee, and unbeloved me:  
Yet were I damned without redress to die,  
I can not cease from serving thee fair Dame:  
Yea thou and all the wondering world shall see  
The faith, the force, the fury of my flame,  
Most like unto the questing Dog am I,  
Who still doth on his angry Master fawn,  
While thou corrects, I kindly quest and cry,  
And more thou threats, the more I am thine own  
Thus love or loath, or cherish me or chide,  
Where once I bind, but any breach I bide.   
 
Sit mihi panpertas tecum jucunda neaera.   

To KALA.  

WHen Aedipus did foolishly resign  
His Kingdom to his Sons, that he & he,  
Above the Thebans year about should reign,  
And that his Crown biparted so should be,  
Polynices first reigned, but faith we see,  
He from the Crown Eteocles debars:  
Thus while they live, they never can agree,  
And after death, their burning bones made wars.  
My rival foe against all right enjoys  
That Crown & Kingdom which pertains to me  
That proud usurper worker of my 'noys,  
Shall find a foe, unto the day I die,  
And were we dead, that are too long alive,  
Our Ashes in th'exequial urn would strive.   
 
Rivalem possum non ego ferre Jonem.   

At the news of IDEAS death, Dialogue twixt the Poet's Ghost and Charon.  Ghost. 
COme Charon come:  (Changed) 
Who calls?  (Gh.) 
a wandering Ghost,  
By fortune led unto the Stygian shore.,  (Ch.) 
What seeks thou here?  (Gh.) 
a safe transport with post,  
As thou hast done to many more before.  (C.) 
Who slew thee thus?  (G.) 
even she whom I adore,  
Hath rolled my name in scrowls of black disgrace.  (Ch) 
What made her thus into thy grief to glore?  (G.) 
Love was my foe, & changed in wars my peace.  (C.) 
Go then aback, this Bark shall not embrace  
The smallest one whom Love at fead hath borne.  (Gh.) 
That shall I not, for lo before thy face,  
I shall o'er sail the flood and thou had sworn:  
The Darts of Love both Boat & Oars, shall be,  
Sighs shall be winds, and Tears a Styx to me.   

another Dialogue to the same purpose.  Ghost. 
COme Charon come.  (Ch.) 
Who calls?  (Gh.) 
a martyred man,  
Since Fame foorthtold the fairest fair was died.  (Ch.) 
What seeks thou?  (Gh.) 
Help to croce thy waters wan,  
And I will pay thee for thy pains with speed.  (Ch.) 
Thou seems to be a quick & living leid,  
And not a umber, nor a palled Ghaist.  (Gh.) 
Fear not for that, since I for passage pleid,  
But let me have thy helping hand with haste.  (C.) 
Though sage Aeneas did o're-saile my stream  
By Sibyl's help, none else must go again.  (G.) 
Then thinks thou Charon, to enjoy my Dame  
And stay my voyage from th' Elesian plain?  (C.) 
Yes surely yes.  (G) 
No Charon thou shalt lie  
For Love hath wings, and I have learned to fly.  

Panditur ad nullas Janua nigra prec●s.    

IDEA after long sickness, becometh weil; and as he wept for her, he wishes compensation of her tears in his distress.  

O Beauty doomb astonished Marvels child,  
The wanton object of my weeping eye,  
Blithe was my heart before I was beguiled,  
And made to bear a servile yoke by thee:  
But now alas, though I by birth be free,  
And not a slave-borne Muscovite by kind,  
My Saint so Lords my heart, that now I see,  
There is no manumission to my mind.  
Fair heavenly Tigers, be no more unkind,  
I wept for thee, when weerds did all conspire  
Thy wrack; O then behold how I am pinned:  
Weep thou for me, thy tears may quench my fire  
As I did thine, so mean thou my estate,  
And be not called the worst of ills ingrate.   
 
Sis ingrata licet fi modo bella manes.   

To CYNTHIA.  

PRoud Zeuxis gave his Pictures all for nought,  
Such was the love he to his labours bore,  
That by no gold nor price they could be bought,  
And thus save thanks poor man, he gained no more  
I am as poor, and even as proud as he,  
For Love nor Lines I crave no price from thee.   

For if thou dign but with a gracious smile,  
To look my Lines, and spy how I am pinned,  
And with my toys the swift winged time beguile,  
Then am I paid according to my mind▪  
Jove's oath was Styx, and Phoebus Daphne's hair;  
But from henceforth I by thy smiles will swear.    

To ERANTINA.  

NO heart so hard, though wrought of Vulcan's steel,  
Or fiercely forged of Adamantine stone,  
That do endure or last so long so leele,  
As mine, who loves thee most unloving one,  
Whose purpose is and plot, as I suppone,  
Most cruelly her captive thrall to kill,  
Who only lives to love but her alone:  
Though she reward my true intent with ill:  
Such is my state, I but abide her will,  
She has the fatal stick into her sleeve,  
And when she list her fury to fulfil,  
Althea-like she may my breath bereave:  
Nor leave unloved, I rather choose to die,  
Then beat the fire, and burn the fatal tree.   
 
Nam mea crudeles tetigerunt corda sagitte,  
Atque animam petijt vulneris asperitas.   

To PANDORA.  

Canst thou have ears, & will not hear my plaint  
Canst thou have eyes, & will not wipe my tears  
Hast thou a heart, and feels not how I faint,  
Debating twixt despairing hops and fears?  
Canst thou not see those sad and civil weairs  
Which are within the kingdom of my heart,  
Where Legions of pursuing pangs appeairs,  
My utter wreck and ruin to impart?  
here burns the fire, there sticks the deadly dart:  
Here tears me droun, there smoky sighs me smore  
Here Beauty wounds, there rivals runs athwart,  
And jealous eyes do pry into each poor:  
When all these all and thou my wrack contrives,  
I can not last, and I had twenty lives.   
 
Perfida sed duris genuit te montibus horrens,  
Cantasus, hircaneque admorunt ubera tigr●s.   

newyear's gift to PENELOPE.  
THat Collatine did talk in Tarquin's tent,  
His Lady Lucrece was most chaste most fair,  
He afterward had reason to repent,  
She died a deemed adultres in despair.  
The Lydian King brought naked both and bare,  
His wife before his friend for to be seen,  
Which brought himself we see into the snare,  
For he was slain, and Gyges' brooked his Queen.  
Yet can not all these wracks forewarn my Muse,  
To hold her peace, but praise thee more & more:  
I love thee still, and I will not refuse,  
Though small alas, be my reward therefore.  
And so (fair Dame) for Newyears gift receive  
My heart thine own, myself to be thy slave.   

To PENELOPE.  
WHen Alexander did subdue and bring  
The coastly Isles of Ind to his Empire,  
He captive took proud Porus Indian King,  
And bid him ask what most he did desire?  
Nought said brave Porus do I now require,  
But that thou use me as a King should be,  
Thou shalt have friendly hostage to thy hire:  
And for my sake I grant thy suit (said he.)  
Long with my passions have I borne debate,  
Oft have I fought, and now have lost the field,  
It is my fortune for to be defeat.  
I am thy Captive, and fair Dame I yield:  
As Macedo was to the King of Jnde,  
If not mine, yet for thy cause be kind.   

To LAIS.  
WHen Dionise was shut from Regal seat,  
And quite deposed from his Imperial throne  
For tyrannies too tedious to repeat,  
Which made oft times the Siracusans groan,  
When he was thus disgraced, and left alone:  
He could not cease to play the tyrant still,  
He grew a pedant infants poor anon,  
He taught and quhipt to exercise his ill.  
I with my Love have played the licher long,  
And she the loun with many more than me:  
This custom vile, makes sin to seem no wrong▪  
And she must turn a common Whore I see,  
Though both be bad, and each of both unsure,  
I rather serve a tyrant then a whore.   

To absent PANDORA.  

LOng since hath Cynthia shown her full faced pride  
And now compeirs with crescent horns again  
Since at the banks of Neptune's flowing tide,  
I took my leave and show how I was slain:  
Alas alas, they have not wept in vain,  
Who left us annals of eternal date,  
Condemning absence for a cruel pain,  
A foe to faith, a unfriend unto fate:  
A happy life had I in love of late,  
To joy the sweet fruition of thy face,  
Now from thy sight estranged is my state.  
Since all my life is darkness and disgrace:  
Yet midst my woes I wish that well thou be,  
And with the winds I send those sighs to thee.   
 
Nulla mihi fine te rident loca, displicet aquor,  
Sordet terra, leaves od● cum retihus hamos.   

To PENELOPE seek.  

WEre I as skilled in Medicine as he,  
Who did restore Hippolits health again,  
When he was torn with horse; then shouldst thou see  
I should prepare emplasters for thy pain:  
But since I am no Aesculap at all,  
I am thy Bondman, and thy Beadman thrall.   
 
Phoebe fau●, laus magna tibi trib●etur, in vn●  
Corpore seruato restituisse duos.   

newyear's gift to IDEA.  

THe Locrian King Zaleucus made a law,  
That each adultrar both his eyes should lose,  
But when his Son was faulty first he saw,  
That sacred Kings have hid and secret foes,  
Incontenent unto the stage he goes,  
And from his Son one eye, one of his own  
He caused pull out, and in the sight of those  
A careful King, a father kind was known.  
In Janus Kalends fair and lovely sweet,  
Time out of mind hath been a custom old,  
That friends their friends with mutual gifts should greet  
To keep true kindness from becoming cold.  
Zaleucus-like these Lines are sent by me,  
To keep the law and kith my Love to thee.   
 
Da veniam merui nil ego, jussit amor.   

To CYNTHIA.  
Why loves thou more (fair dame) thy Dog then me?  
what can he do but (as the Scholar said  
At Xanthus' feast) shake ears and tail on thee?  
And I can do much more to make thee glade,  
With tedious toil and longsome labour made.  
He can perhaps bring thee thy Glo●e, or whyl●  
Thy Kirchiff when 'tis either left or laid  
Behind thy heels with sweet and backast smiles:  
But I, whom thou disdainfully exyles  
From thy sweet bed, and thy most sweet embrace;  
Which fawning Curs with filthy feet defiles,  
I could do more, but I l●ck leave alas:  
Fie Nature's bastard, make no Dog thy Love,  
Lest thou a Monster, I a Martyr pro●e.   

To KALA.  

I First received since did sweet Saint unfold  
Thy lovely Lines, the legat● of thy mind,  
And did with blithe & ioy-swolne breast behold  
How thou continued constant, true, and kind.  
But when I did perceive how thou wast pinned,  
Pinned for the absence of thy lovesick sw●●ne,  
My tongue was doomb, my silent eyes were blind,  
I read and mused, and mused and read again:  
And be thou ●udge (dear hea●●) if I was feign▪  
When I euolued from out the Pape● whit,  
That Symbol, swerte transparent pure & plain,  
Wherein some time thou ●●oke so much delight:  
Yea th●ise each day▪ (fair Mistress) till we meet,  
I kiss thy Symbol, and thy golden sheet.   
 
Quisquis ad hanc vertit peregrinam littera puppim,  
Ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit.   

To KALA.  
I Swear (sweet Kala) by my flames, thy eyes,  
O eyes: no eyes, but rather stars divine:  
Sweet Dionean twins into their skies,  
And by those kind alluring looks of thine,  
I swear by all our tears lest thine, lest mine,  
Nor mine nor thine, but both combined in one:  
By all the sighs blown from the sacred shrine  
Where craig's true heart hath his heroic throne,  
I swear by all our secret vow's each one,  
Made in the dark, and reconfirmd by day:  
By all our kisses when we were alone,  
And all the wishes when I went away:  
Let Weerds and Fortune do the worst they can  
I am in spite of Mis●●s Nose, thy ma●.   

To KALA.  

O How I long to hear from thee again,  
And understand the tenor of thy state:  
Thrice hath the Moon begun to wax and wane,  
With spheirs and horns since I received thy wreat:  
Then give me leave (sweet Lady) to regrate,  
Since thou may have of travaling troops such store,  
And I have sent so many lines of late,  
Thou art unkind, and woe is me therefore:  
Each one that comes from thee, or from thy shore,  
In hope of news, I entertain for thee:  
Each Post I meet, each Horn I hear, yields more  
Harmonious sounds, than music sweet to me:  
But when my hopes prove nought with sorry mind,  
I sigh & say, unkind, unkind, unkind.   
 
Tempora fi numeres bene quae numeramus amantes,  
Non venit ante suam nostra querela diem.   

To CYNTHIA.  

WHen those which at Ardea did remain  
With Aracins did many times contend  
For Confined Lands, which neither could obtain,  
In many Battles, though much blood they spend,  
Yet that sometime the strife should take good end  
Both they and those refer them selus to Rome,  
Imperious Romans parties both offend,  
And to themselves the questioned Lands assume.  
Long wars have been betwixt thy Maid & me,  
If she or I my lovesick heart should have;  
She thinks it hers, it was once mine, and we  
To end this strife, thy sacred sentence crave.  
Thou like these conquering Romans in this cas●  
By spoiling both, posseyds my heart in peace.   
 
Cynthia prima fuit Cynthia finis erit.   

To ERANTINA.  

THe jealous eyes which watch my loving Dame,  
And Argus-like to trap me still attend,  
They with my loss alas, but seek her shame:  
Which I beseech thee loving Lord defend.  
O would to God my honest course were kend,  
Or that my breast were made of Crystal clear,  
That trial might be ta'en what I intent:  
And my true part in presence might appear.  
But (O alas and welladay) I fear,  
These jars shall soon engender such debate,  
As shall but doubt debar me from my dear,  
And interchange my wont good estate.  
O harmony unhappiest of all,  
Bad chance brings change, and change hath framed my fall.   
 
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.   

To ERANTANA.  

DIsordered Hairs the types of my disgrace,  
The testimonies of my servile state:  
Ou'ruaile my wan and pale disfigured face,  
And let my favour answer to my fate:  
For since I am th'unhappiest he, I wait  
That Love, or Fortune's envy can assail:  
What resteth then? but still for to regrate,  
Since word, nor writ, nor prayers can prevail:  
And since my dear disdainfully doth deal  
With hopeless me, who was and is her own,  
My piercing pains shall on my visage pale,  
With hoary, rough, & crumpled skin be known.  
And such as sees my furrowed face, shall say,  
The fair Unkind is cause of my decay.   
 
Illa dies fatum misero mihi dusit ab illa,  
Pessi●a mutati cepit amoris hyems.   

To ERANTINA.  
LOng have I had long hairs upon my head,  
Long have I had hid harms within my heart,  
Yet none of those are powerful for to plead  
The smallest salve or softening to my smart.  
Could I draw forth the sharp and golden dart,  
Wherewith alas, I secretly am slain:  
Or put those black unpouled locks apart,  
For which the world accounts me to be vain:  
Could I to flit as to be fast be fain,  
Or think that foul that I have thought too fair,  
There should no harm into my heat remain,  
Nor should my head be overhung with hair.  
Sweet, if thou loves me, powll those locks I pray  
If not, cut life, love, locks, and all away.   

To PANDORA.  

O What a world I suffer of extremes,  
Twixt hot desire and icy cold despair:  
Most like the swift impetuous tyds of Themes,  
Are those the ebbs and flow of my care:  
I live alas, a martyr late and air,  
Cooled with despair, and burnt with hot desire:  
I see alas, and can not slip the snare,  
In floods I fry, and freeze amid the fire:  
In Sestian seas to Her● sweet I swim,  
And fain would touch the fimber of her goun,  
Hoist with desire unto the clouds I climb,  
But by despair Leander-like I drown:  
My D●lphin dear, let not Arion dee,  
Save me unsunke, and I shall sing to thee.   
 
Quicquid ●o●abor dicere versus erit.   

To PANDORA.  

Fair Sicil fertile first of Cruel Kings,  
When Dionise did all thy state overthrow,  
And wrought so many strange & monstrous things  
And led so long a life without all law:  
Sad sorrow was the Syracusan Song,  
And all save old Hymera, wished him dead,  
She wished him we'll, cause many tyrants sprung:  
And were he gone, a worse would succeed.  
It is my weird, and woe is me therefore,  
To serve and love where recompense is none.  
Oft have I changed, and now can change no more  
For badder ay succeeds, when bad are gone.  
And this sweet heart makes me thy beadman thrall,  
Lest by thy loss, in harder haps I fall.   
 
Quando ego non t●●●ui graniora pericula verit.   

To PANDORA.  
When Scythian Lords long from their lands had bein  
Their slaves usurped their absent masters place:  
both wealth & wives they breoked before their eine  
And did the same seven years possess in peace:  
They turning home, and seeing such disgrace,  
fought with their servants for their wealth & wives  
But by the men the masters got the chase,  
And hardly scaped with hazard of their lives.  
Then they consult with neither swords nor glaives,  
Nor open wars, to make their foes to yield,  
with whips & wands they bat their randring slaves  
And by the change of weapons won the field.  
Since sighs, nor tears, nor ditties can subdue thee  
I must (fair sweet) with Scythian arms pursue thee   

To IDEA.  
I Put my hand by hazard in the hat  
Where many names did intermixtly lie,  
With her and her were you and this and that,  
A fortune blind, or nivie take to try:  
And lo such was my lucky luck that I  
Among so many, found thy Noble name,  
And on my head, that thou and all may spy,  
I well avow the wearing of the same:  
It shall infer no foil unto thy fame,  
That thou art borne upon so base a head:  
A Beggar finds a stone of curious frame,  
And yet the stone remains a stone indeed.  
So thou art thou, and of more worth to me,  
Dear Valentine, than thou wast wont to be.   

To LITHOCARDIA.  

GReat Alexander gave a strait command,  
That every Soldier in the Camp should shave  
And that his face as haireles as his hand,  
Both Greek and Persian time of wars should have:  
When Arms were put a part, he lent full leave  
To wear long beards; a sign of fatfed peace:  
And thus in Greece a stranger might perceive  
The Country's state into the soldiers face.  
I am content that custom to embrace;  
I have no beard to show my peace with thee:  
But thou wilt say, my hairs portend disgrace,  
And discontent is in my downcast eye:  
It is too true; but let me rise or fall,  
Or sink or swim, I am thy feruient thrall.   
 
Addimus his precibus lachrimas quoque verba preantis,  
Perlegis, et lachrimas fi●ge iudere meas.   

To LAIS.  

WHy love I her that loves not me again▪  
Why am I friendly to my fremmit foe?  
Why do I wear my waiting on in vain,  
In serving her that hath deceived me so?  
Why did I thus my freedom sweet forego,  
To pleasure her that plagu●● me with disdain?  
Or wish her we'll that ever wrought my woe,  
And would not sigh suppose she saw me slain:  
O foolish I, and hapless I alone.  
No then, O faithless and disloyal she,  
Whose tried untruth thus makes me to complain●  
And wish before the fixed day to die:  
For now tint time and travel makes me sure,  
I played the fool, and she has played the whore.   
 
Periuriavidet a●aut●●▪  
Jupiter et ventos ●rrita ferre jubet.   

To LAIS.  

Brave Troilus the Trojan stou● and true,  
As more at length in Chau●er we may find,  
Dreamt that a fair White Bull, as did ensue,  
Had spoiled his Love, and left him hurt behind.  
The Phrygian Nymph Aenona drowned in drerd,  
When Paris towards Grece made sail from Troy.  
In dreams foresaw, as after did succeed,  
Her Love and foreign Lady should enjoy.  
When Hecuba the Wisemen did employ,  
Her dream of flaming Fire for to expon●,  
They shortly show that Paris should destroy  
And set on fire fair ●lion stick and stone.  
Right so might I, if weerts had not withstand,  
In doleful dreams foreseen the fall I found.   
 
Quid tuneam ignere tunc● ta●●●●●●ia dowers.   

To IDEA.  

LAst year I drew (fair Dame) by very chance,  
Thy Noble name amongst a number more:  
Glad was my soul to see the weirds advance  
The happy hazard of my fortune so:  
And proud thereof, upon my pate I placed thee,  
With anagrams and Sonnets sweet I graced thee.   

But now (wise Dame) behold a wonder strange,  
Which both I wish thee to believe and hear:  
(I am so loath where once I choose, to change)  
That in my heart thou harbours all this year:  
Then from a Hat I drew thee ere I saw thee,  
Now from my heart it is my doom to draw thee.   

Why should I hazard what I have so sure,  
Or scrape thy name into a scurvy Scroll?  
O thou art writ in blood's characters pure,  
Within the centre of my lovesick soul:  
Let others try a fortune blind and bear thee,  
Both on my head & in my heart I'll wear thee.    

To KALA.  

BLind Love (alas) and jealousy undo  
That constant heart which I bequeath to thee:  
I love thee most, and am most jealous too,  
By this I live, by that undone I die:  
Not that I think a fickle change can be,  
Where virtue dwells, but that mine own unworth  
Is worse than twenty rival foes to me:  
My base estate these bastard thoughts brings forth  
O were my moyane equal to my mind,  
Or were my wealth as great as my goodwill,  
Could I command the costly Isles of Jude,  
Thou shouldst be well, and I should fear no ill.  
Then Fortune, Fates, & all ye Gods above,  
Enlarge my luck, or else make les my love.   
 
Venit amor gravius quo serius urimur intus,  
Vrimur, et secum pectora vulnus habent.   

To PANDORA.  
WHile gathering in the Muse's garden flowers,  
I made a Nosegay, which perfumed the air,  
Whose smell shall savour to times latest hours,  
And shall for ay adorn thee cruel, fair.  
I laid me down upon the grassy green,  
Where I beheld fruits, flowers, and herbs anew,  
Foorthspred by Flora glorious summers Queen,  
Whereon the calm and gentle Zephir blew:  
On haughty hills, which Giantlike did threat  
To pierce the heavens with their aspiring head,  
Grew warlike Firs, strong Oaks, & Ceeders great,  
Whose shaddie boughs the leau●e groves ou'rspred  
Thus high and low I looked where I lay,  
Yet neither fruit nor flower was like my Hay.   

To KALA.  

WHen silent night had spread her pitchy vail  
On all the parts of Vestais fruitful lace.  
And horned Luna pensive fad and pail,  
Was at thy presence darkened with disgrace;  
Think (comely Kala) with what kind embrace  
We show the secrets of our sigh-swolne soul,  
How strict a bond we tied in little space:  
Which none but heavens have credit to controul●▪  
Sweet Shippardes think on thy lovesick swain,  
Whose life, whose all, doth on thy love depend:  
Let nought save death, divide us two again,  
And let our loves even with our lives take end▪  
And when I cease for to be true to thee,  
Breath vanish in the winds and let me die.   
 
Dij preter hoc iuheant ut euntibus ordine fatis,  
Jlla meos oculos comprimat, atque suos.   

To his Rival and LAIS.  

AS thou art now, so was I once in grace,  
And thou wast once disgraced, as now am I  
O wondrous chance, o cruel contrary case,  
O strange discord, yet greeing harmony.  
I once was loved, thou loathed; but now espy  
How I am loathed, and thou art loved alone:  
In this the wheel of Fortune you may try:  
I reigned, thou had no reign; thou reigns again,  
Then happy thou, if so thou might remain:  
But faith thou must come down there is no doubt,  
And thou must be a partner of my pain,  
The next must needs have place his time about:  
Else fortunes wheel should whirl about no more  
Nor Lais fair be falls, as of before.   
 
Turpius est pulchra nam meretrice nihil.   

Farewell to LAIS.  

Thou fawns (fair nymph) for friendship at my hand  
And says, thou seeks no more of worldly bliss:  
But feid forgot that friendship true may stand,  
And cries met mercy if thou made amiss.  
But hark my heart, and trust me we'll in this,  
I can not love a feigned friend; no no:  
Since I am so acquaint with Judas kiss,  
Shape not (my sweet) for to deceive me so:  
For I have read in Stories old, of two,  
Zethius and Amphion did discord,  
Till time Amphion music did forego,  
Which by his fellow was so much abhorred:  
Thy suit (my sweet) is seasoned with such ●als,  
We shall not friend so long as thou art false.   
 
Non amo te fateor quid enim simulare access est.   

A sparing farewell to KALA.  

FOnd Celuis some time in a foolish vain.  
Would needs apply emplasters to his foot,  
And would as sick men do, sigh, weep, & plain,  
And make the world believe he had the Gout:  
And by this custom which he had, we read  
Dissembling Celuis took the Gout in deed.   

How many broils betwixt us two have been,  
Which I oft times of purpose would devise,  
That in that sort our love should scape unseen,  
And undewlged in a dark disguise?  
But faith that custom hath deceived me so,  
That in effect I am thy fremcast foe.   

When first our Love was in the pleasant prime,  
Thou lov'dst me well, I loved thee well again:  
But here behold the strange effects of time,  
My fire turns frost, thy love turns cold disdain:  
Yet time may friend which made us foes; till when,  
I wish thee well, but am no more thy man.   
 
N●mque ubi non amor est ubi non miscentur amoris,  
Suavia nil lauti, nilque leporis inest.   

A wrathful farewell to KALA.  

THe whitest Silver draws the blackest score,  
In greenest Grass the deadly Adder lowrs,  
The fairest Sun doth breed the sharpest showers,  
The foulest Toads have fairest Stones in store:  
So fairsed of Love, and woe is me therefore.  
In greenest Grass lies hid the stinging Adder,  
In fairest shining Sun the foulest wadder,  
A precious Pearl placed in a poisoning Poor:  
Shall I sup sweet mixed with so sour a false?  
Or drink the Gall out of a Silver pot?  
Or shall I cast on liberty a knot?  
Als fast, als lows; als louse, als fast, ay false:  
No, I beseech the Gods that rule above,  
They let me never leave, and ever I love▪   
 
Durius in terris nihil est quod vivat antant●,  
Nec modo si sapias quod minus esse velis.   

To PENELOPE.  
WHen Tyndaris was brought from Troy again  
and princely Pergam leveled with the ground  
And fatfed earth with Phrygian flesh was fain  
Through shallow furs fair fruits for to refound,  
The facund wise Ulysses most renowned,  
By fatal answers was foretold we find,  
That he should not in deadly deep's be drowned,  
Although withheld with many contrary wind:  
Yet that unhappy and that bastard brat,  
That Parricid which from a far should come,  
Telegonus whom he with Circe got,  
Should kill his father at his coming home:  
Though I have passed as many storm's as he,  
The last is worst, and for thy love I die.   

Elegy to KALA.  
Read this, and then no more,  
this shallbe last of all,  
And should been first, if now I could,  
my published Rhymes recall,  
But they are gone abroad  
upon the wings of Fame:  
Na, can the gliding Ocean waves  
put bounds unto the same:  
The spacious Continent,  
Nor yet the bordering mane,  
Can neither h●ld the woes nor vows  
of my unquiet vane.  
Nor prayers, nor the praise  
which I have penned for thee,  
Which makes me thus for to be pinned,  
and thee so proud to be.  
This than shall be the last,  
since first it can not be;  
For I have waird already else  
a world of words on thee:  
But worlds Democrit said,  
were infinite, and so  
Thou looks to find infinites  
of worlds of words, or more:  
No no; my Poyems have  
proclaimed thy pride, my pain,  
And I am woe that I have waitd  
so many words in vain.  
For I have dried the brain  
of my invention quit,  
And neither conquered my desire,  
nor purchased thy delight.  
Lo then how I was led  
with Love, that Lordly elff,  
That bred no pleasure unto thee,  
nor profit to myself:  
But as Phaeneus poor  
for Physic sought in vain,  
And by his foe was cured, when as  
he hoped he had been slain.  
So thy disdains have cured  
my hurt and ulcerd heart,  
And I am well against thy will,  
but sense of old-felt smart.  
To Sea with sweetest streams  
flows Hypanis the flood,  
But Exampeus poisoning well,  
makes bad which erst was good.  
And thus unlike itself  
grows Hypanis: even so  
Thy coy disdain hath changed a friend,  
into a fremmed so.  
Thou sawst my dwining looks,  
my scalding sighs and sobs:  
Thou sawst my tear swollen eyes were full  
of liquid pearly globs.  
And yet, as Nero proud,  
when Rome was burnt, did grow  
As glad as at a Comic sport,  
and laugh to see the low.  
So thou falls Tyrant, thou  
from turret of thy pride,  
Thou smiled at my mishaps as proud,  
as brave as Neptune's bird.  
But worthy Photion  
a Captain brave and stout,  
For these unkind Athenians,  
fought forty Battles out,  
And yet was slain by them:  
and when he died, 'tis told  
He prayed his Sun for to forgive  
his death, for kindness old.  
So though I be in point  
by thy disdain to die,  
My heart shall charge my hovering hand,  
to write no ill of thee:  
For like Themistocles,  
I rather drink the Gall,  
Then fight against my once good friend,  
though now my love be small.  
Then sometime friend, farewell;  
this is my most revenge,  
To think no good, to write no ill,  
but last of all to change.   

His Resolution of absence and farewell to Lithocardia.  

Fair Dame adieu, for whom I daily die,  
And quick and dead a martyr still remain:  
Now must I ●lit o fairest, far from thee,  
And fly the force of undeserved disdain,  
Since I have weard my warbling Verse in vain.  
O Verse to be my sorrows children borne,  
Abortive birth brought forth with too much pain  
And recompensed too much with too much scorn:  
Since Lines and I and all are all forlorn,  
Fair Dame receive this last enforced adieu,  
For I shall see, if Fates have not forsworn,  
If change of Nations natures can renew,  
If tract of time, if change of soil or air,  
May help thy Love, or hinder my despair.   
 
Quid loquor infaelix, an non per sax a per igne,  
Quo me cunque pedes ducunt me●s agra sequetur.   

His Reconciliation to Lithocardia after absence.  
O Lautia poor was glad,  
when th' Amazon Queen of yore,  
Received a Nosegay from her hand,  
suppose she smelled no more.  
Cherillus' heart was hoist  
to highest heavens he thought,  
When Macedo over looked his Lines;  
suppose he liked them nought.  
So, if thou take my Verse,  
a loving poor propine,  
Which overshadowed with thy sight,  
throughout the world shall shine.  
If thou the sheet receive,  
though thou unfold no folds,  
Yet shall those hidden Lines be blithe,  
whilst thou their backs beholds:  
And I poor hopeless soul,  
thy well affected man,  
Shall be as blithe as Cherill was,  
or yet Olautia then.  
Take then my faultless Sheet,  
bedewed with mourning Ink,  
And if thou wilt not view my Verse,  
to know the thing I think;  
Yet shall the Paper serve  
(O fair and matchless Dame)  
To be a Bottom to thy Silk,  
or safftie to thy Seam:  
But lest my mourning Ink  
like Niobe's black tears,  
Should black thy brave Mineruik work,  
whilst it thereto adhears,  
Pine with thy snow-white hand  
the Verse before thy view,  
That they may not infect nor foil  
the farfet Silks fair hue:  
And thou shalt see no more  
set down before thy face,  
For to reveal my endless woe,  
but this one word Alas,  
Alas, alas, alas,  
Alas, alas again,  
Ten thousand times alas alas,  
can not express my pain.  
Alas I am thine own,  
na have I hap to view  
Heraclits' flood of change thereby,  
my nature to renew.  
None knew of Hercules  
the poisoning deadly shafts,  
But Philoctetes; none but I  
complains conceals thy crafts.  
Though thou hast failed to me,  
I am not false to thee:  
I am thy Beadman day by day,  
and bondman till I die.  
And would to God thou hadst  
rich Amalthea's horn,  
To yield what fruits thou list, though I  
live lightlied and forlorn.  
Aeneas lost at Troy,  
Creusa fair his wife  
And through and with ten thousand Greeks  
he made a desperate strife:  
And rooming up and down,  
emboldened with despair,  
He cried aloud Creusa come,  
but could not find her there,  
And still he crid, till time  
her pallid ghost anon  
Appeared, and gave him certain signs  
that she was dead and gone.  
So shall thy soul thy Ghost  
begin for to remove,  
And leave to be within thy breast,  
before I leave to love:  
And when thy Ghost is gone,  
and past th' Elysian lake,  
No Dido shall complain of me,  
nor suffer for my sake.  
If Romans did return  
in Arms of shining steel  
Our Rubicon, then were they deemed  
foes to the common well:  
But my returns to thee,  
are full of love and peace,  
As witnesseth this iterat,  
and oft said word Alas.  
If I have said too much,  
let me thy peace implore,  
And my epilog with a sigh  
I seal and say no more:  
Protesting since thou knows  
how I am sworn thine own,  
And how thy Virtues by my Verse,  
throughout the world be known:  
Thou wilt have some remorse  
upon my careful case,  
And let thy Courtasies conclude,  
my long long-cried Alas.   

To LAIS.  

THe fair faced Woman, and deformed Ape,  
Hath Nature framed to want a tail we see:  
The silly beast with her unseemly shape,  
Seems well content and pleased that so should be:  
And yet the Woman striveth even and morn,  
To have a tail and still in natures scorn.   

But let it be (for to supply this want)  
Each discontented whore should have one tail,  
What reason is't (since Nature knew them scant)  
A pocky Punk with pluralties should deal?  
This then is true, which I observe as sure,  
A Beast hath more discretion, than a Whore.   
 
Hac venit in thalamos dote superba tuos.   

His constant Resolution to ERANTINA.  

SHall absence long, or distance far of place,  
With lowering looks of fremed unfriendly foes?  
Shall tract of time for les or longer space,  
Have any force to cause me change my choice?  
No surely no; I am not one of those:  
I shall be found no false nor flitting friend,  
My love shall last as long as life suppose,  
Luck be not such as sometime I have seened:  
But what reme●d, I may not mend▪ but meened,  
And with your will I hold me well content:  
Though many thwartering things have interueend  
To interturb and stay our true intent,  
Yet all those jars shall not my mind remove  
The day of death shall be the date of love.   
 
Dum paris aenone poterit spirare relicta,  
Ad fontem xanthi versa recurrat aqua.   

Confirmation of his love to ERANTINA.  
SHall absence long bring change,  
or make my mind to move?  
Or yet shall distance far of place,  
unlock the link of Love?  
Shall either this or that,  
yond, or the other thing,  
Have force to break the block we band,  
before the Paphian King?  
Thou art mine Hero still,  
and though the streams be stark,  
I through the weltering waves shall swim  
to thee but Boat or Bark.  
I am not jasons meat,  
Maedea to beguile:  
My faith is firm, this the cause  
exponis me exile.  
Nor am I come by line  
of traitor Troyans' race▪  
I never thought no not by dream,  
my Dido to disgrace.  
Nor am I he who brought  
the black ●aill for the white,  
Lest Ariad●e killed his sire,  
and if their wrack was white.  
A Pyramus I am  
in deed, in thought, in word,  
And should (witted I thou wert not well)  
with blood embrew my sword:  
And if by Fame's report  
thy pains I can perceive  
As Hemon did, shall I give  
the Ghost above the grave.  
No that I look to find  
such friendship on thy part,  
Or promise kept which aye shall be  
inshrind within my heart:  
Or that I grieve for grace  
thy honour to degrade,  
For if my Saint be safe and sound,  
how can I but be glade.  
In tears as Biblus did,  
though I consume away,  
Who was huerted in a Well,  
as ancient Writers say.  
And though I be resolved  
to love thee term of life,  
Yet must I leave thee for a while,  
Ulysses left his wife.  
My word shall be my word,  
my kindness shall be known,  
And with my oath I will no bower,  
for I am sworn thine own.  
And for thy sake I vow  
the Pilgrems weed to wear,  
And when in wildsome ways I walk,  
the Rod and Bag to bear:  
And this my hoary head  
unrased shall remain;  
A type of my continuing truth,  
till we two meet again.  
And so with heavy heart,  
adieu my dearest Dame,  
In happy state long mayst thou live,  
till I envy the same:  
And would to God thy wealth  
were such as I would wish.  
So till the Gods our meetings grant,  
thy snowy hand I kiss.   

To LAIS.  

IF Rodopae the loath some Strumpet vile,  
Became to be a great Egyptian Queen,  
Put not sweet heart thy hop's into exile,  
Good luck may light upon a life uncleene:  
She was a Queen, thou must an empress be,  
For thou art thrice as great a whore as she.   
 
Cui madidos minxit mentula ●ulta sinus.   

His unwilling Farewell to PENELOPE.  
A Friend some time to Thracian Cotys send▪  
In sign of love, a vessel rich and rare:  
But back again before the bearer wend,  
He broke the same in pieces here and there;  
Not for contempt, but to prevent my care,  
I broke this gift which thou hast brought, said he,  
For if my servants break the fame, I swear,  
They should been bate, and I incensed be.  
I Cotys-like (proud Dame, to ease my pain,  
And that thou be not forced to hear my cries)  
Must leave to love; nor shall my Songs again  
Thy surfeit breed, nor come before thine eyes:  
Not, that I loathe, where I so long did love▪  
Thou art unkind, and I must needs remove.   

His loving farewell to PANDORA.  
Dear to my soul once degne,  
those passions to peruse,  
The Swanlike Dir'ges and the Songs,  
of this my deeing Muse;  
Which are Minerva-like,  
by beating of my brain,  
Brought forth to show the wondering world,  
my long suppressed pain:  
For like the doomb borne son  
of that rich Lydian King,  
Now at the imminent of death,  
with tongue untied I sing.  
Had Atis-like my foe  
thy wedding day been slain  
By Tydeus fierce, then had I brooked  
fair Ismene allaine.  
Or had thou been a man  
like her whom Phestne bred,  
Whom Telethusa promised with  
Ja●the fair to wed.  
Then had my rival been  
as far from thee as I,  
Nor had he now, nor thou been judge  
to my complaint and cry.  
As Tantalus did cut  
poor Pelops corpse a sunder,  
And made a banquet of his Son,  
unro the Gods rare wonder:  
Yet did they recollect  
his cutted Corpse again,  
And Tantal they condemned to die  
In hunger starving pain.  
So cruel thou hes karu'd  
ten thousand ways my heart,  
And thou endures obdurate still,  
and senseless of my smart:  
Yet will the Gods, I hope,  
recure and purge my pain,  
And punish all thy cruelties,  
with cruelties again.  
Had I Ixion-like  
made vaunt of juno's spoil,  
With patience than I should abide  
thy fury and this foil.  
But since it must be thus.  
from Athens I will fly,  
With wise Demosthen●s, and then  
in Neptuns asyll die.  
Then cruel fair farewell,  
I may remain no more,  
I mind before we meet again,  
to see the C●ltik shore.  
But howsoever I ere,  
or wheresoever I vaig,  
In well, in woe, in want, and wealth,  
thou shalt command poor Crag:  
Yea might I make a Feast,  
as did Democrits sire,  
To all the Persian troops, o'er which  
great Xerxes bore empire.  
Or were I begging bread  
like Ithák Irus poor,  
Whom proud Ulysses with his fist  
field dead into the floor.  
Yea be I rich or poor,  
or poor and rich again,  
At hazards all I am thy man,  
and so shall ay remain.  
Fair Homicide farewell,  
against my heart I go,  
And that al-make● knows I make  
a voyage full of woe:  
But even as At●ri●  
with silence swee● doth 〈◊〉▪  
And none pe●ce●●'s ●f up or down,  
or whither 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉  
So none save thou shall 〈◊〉  
the cause of all my pai●●▪  
And none shall know wherefore I go,  
nor when I 〈…〉 again.  
And so till time we 〈◊〉▪  
dear heart, whom I 〈◊〉▪  
Farewell; ye● 〈◊〉 me leave to ●●gh▪  
and say, Farewell once more.   

To his PANDORA from England.  
NOw while amid those dainty Douns & Dales  
with Shepheard Swains I sit unknown to me  
We sweetly sing, and tell pastoral tales:  
But my discourse and Songs-theame is of thee;  
For otherways alas, how can it be.  
Let Venus leave her blessed abode above  
To tempt my Love, yet thou sweet soul shalt see  
That I thy man, and thou shalt die my love.  
No tract of time, nor sad eclipse of place,  
Nor absence long, which sometime were due cures  
To my disease, shall make thy slave to cease  
From serving thee till life or breath endures:  
And till we meet, my rustic mats and I,  
Through woods & plains, Pandora's praise shall cry.   

To LAIS.  

HArpaste poor, was blind of either eye,  
Yet would thee not believe that it was so▪  
The rooms are dark wherein I dwell, said she,  
Take me abroad, and but a guided I'll go:  
The wife was led abroad into the wind,  
And yet poor soul she still continued blind.   

Thinks thou that change from this to yonder place▪  
Can cause thy shame and scandal to decay?  
No Lais no, I pray thee hold thy peace,  
And put these fond opinions quite away:  
For while thy life, or yet my sins endu●●,  
The world shall say, thou art a shameless whore.   
 
Faemina nulla bona est, vel si bona contigit ulla,  
Nescio quo casu r●s mala facta bona est.   

His faithful service to IDEA.  
MY wandering Verse hath made thee known al● where  
Thou known by them, & they are known by me▪  
Thou, they, and I, a true relation bear:  
As but the one, an other can not be;  
For if it chance by thy disdain I die,  
My Songs shall cease, and thou be known no more.  
Thus by experience thou mayst plainly see,  
I them, thou me, and they do thee decore.  
Thou art that Dame whom I shall ay adore  
In spite of Fortune and the frowning Fats,  
Whose shining beauty makes my Songs to sore  
In Hyperbolik lofty ●eigh conceits:  
Thou, they, & I throughout the world be known  
They mine▪ thou theirs, and last I am thine own.    

To my Honourable good Lord and Master (the true Maecenas of my Muse) George Earl of Dunbar, Lord Barwick, high Tresurar of Sotland.  
I Am (Noble Maecenas) a spendthrift, unwisely liberal; more prone to propine Presents, and make foolish Feasts, then to pay my Debts: All my babbling Bills are already baptised, and nothing left, save these subsequent Songs; which to your Honour, in all dutiful love and devotion, I dedicate. Philopaemen did sometime leave his company, and coming alone to a house where he was expressly looked for; his Hosts, who knew him not, and saw him so evil favoured a fellow, employed him to help her Maids to draw water, and mend the fire for Philopaemen. The Gentlemen of his train finding him busy at work, inquired what he did? who answered, I pay the forfeiture of my unhandsomeness. I have thought good (my Honourable good Lord and Master) to give these Songs the last place in my Book: if any demand the cause, I answer with Philopaemen, For their methodles and irregular unhandsomeness. If your Honour do not besiege and defend them, some Parasitical Abdagasis will seek to kill Asineus and his brother under trust: But be you a royal and second Artabanus, who said to Abdagasis, (I can not consent to betray a man that trusteth to my protection; and since he hath given me his hand, I will keep the oath I have made to him by my Gods:) Do herein (dear Lord) as you will encourage me hereafter to undertake a greater task. I have highly (I confess) abused both time and talon in these amorose and idle toys. But your Honour upon the gracious acceptance hereof, may haply ere long see me recover my estate, and re-edify the decayed walls of my youth. What I have here set down, is for your solace; and so I beseech your Honour to accept from the Table of my Chamber, at your liberal charge and allowance, the .5. day of November 1606.  
Your Honours own man to the last article of expiration, Craige.   

To the Reader.  
Marry of Vitezokia beyond jordane, flying to jerusalem when Titus and his Romans besieged the same, was enforced for hunger to kill her sucking Son, and having eaten the one half, the rest she reserved. The Enemies smelling the sent of that ezecrable meat, threatened to kill her, unless they were sharers with her. Then she uncovered that part of her Son which she had left uneaten. At which sight they trembled, and horror fell upon them. Then said Marie, this is truly my Son, & my doing; eat you of it, as I have done; be you no more effeminate than a woman, nor more merciful than a Mother. My Poyems and Verses are (beloved Lector) the birth of my brain, & the offspring of my ill adventured youth. I have these years by-gone luxuriously feasted and surfeited hereon, and have with the Vitez●kian Woman, covered this part of my Child till now: I pray thee with patience, take a part with the Parent; next time (God willing) thou shalt far better. But if any ask (how I presumed to invite my noble Ma●ster my Lord, my Maecenas, my all, to this foolish and filthy Feast of mine?) I answer: Themistocles was animated to noble actions by beholding Miltiades trophies. And Alexander beholding Achilles' Tomb, did grievously sigh with an honourable emulation. And his courteous welcoming of my vanities, will ravish brave minds from the boundless troubles of the world, and win them to the contemplation of Virtue. And so his Honourable example in reading and respecting Learning and the Learned, shall pull down the Babel of ignorance. I confess (as Plutarch speaketh of Aristophanes Poyems) my Verses are written for no moderate man's pleasure: yet since by his Honour they are countenanced, I beseech thee (good Reader) use me kindly; and for his sake, sit still with him, and take a part of my profane Feast. My Lord payeth for all, it costs thee nought save thanks.  
Thine as thou behaves thyself, A. Craige.   


ALEXIS to LESBIA.  

COme be my Love, and live with me,  
And thou shalt all the solace see,  
That glassy gulfs or earth can bring,  
From Vesta's wealth, or Neptune's reign.   

For we shall on the Mountains go,  
In shaddie umbers too and fro:  
In Valleys low, and on the Bray,  
And with thy feet the flowers shall play.   

And I shall make thee pleasant Poses,  
Of Daisies Gilliflowrs and Roses:  
My Arms shallbe a Belt to thee:  
Thine if thou wilt, the like to me.   

Of Flora's tapestry thy Gown,  
Thy Cap shall be my Laurel Crown:  
Which dressed of Daphne's hair shall shine,  
while on my head, and whiles on thine.   

And thou upon thy rock shalt rest,  
And hear the Echoes from my breast▪  
For I shall sing in Sonnets shill,  
the charming numbers of my quill.   

Yea we with woond'ring eyes shall gaze  
On many sundry c●ous maze:  
And view the Architecture fare,  
Of rich and stately ●uddings rare.   

And we shall look a●out and see,  
The wrack of time before our ee:  
The pendul stones, their builders ban,  
Imploring help at hand of man.   

And we shall see the Rivers run,  
With delicate and dainty din:  
And how my Dovern night and day.  
With sweet Meanders slides away.   

To pay her debts unto the Sea.  
And like a wanton Nymph doth fly  
Through blooming banks with smiling face  
Her Lord the Ocean to embrace.   

And we shall see the towers of tree,  
Half seem to swim, and half to fly:  
Part in the Sea, part in the Air,  
And Eag'l here, a Dolphin th'air.   

We shall behold Nereid Nymphs,  
Make waters welcome from their lymps:  
And every hour into the day,  
Fresh Floods and th'Ocean billows play.   

And we shall hear the Roches ring,  
While storme-presageing Mermaids sing:  
And on the Rocks the law's shall roar,  
Salut and resalut the Shore.   

And when Apollo takes his rest,  
With weary Horses in the West:  
And Cynthia begins to shine,  
Thy Poet's Tugar shall be thine.   

Then shalt thou see my homely fare,  
And what poor riches I have there:  
And if those things can move thy mind,  
Come, come, and be no more unkind.    

LESBIAN her answer to ALEXIS.  

IF all were thine that there I see,  
Thou paints to breed content to me:  
Then those delights might move my mind  
To yield, and be no more unkind.   

Sith nought is thine that thou sets down,  
Save Songs, thyself, thy Belt, thy Crown,  
Thy Tugure, and thy homely fare:  
And that poor wealth which thou hast there.   

I might be counted most accursed,  
To dwell with thee, suppose I durst:  
And men might think me more than mad,  
To leave the better for the bad.   

Yet lest I should be deemed ingrate,  
To loathe thee for thy poor estate,  
Though Fortune be thy fremmit foe,  
No reason were I should be so.   

Thy Lines allure me to be thine,  
And thou shalt see it soon or sine:  
The crystal streams shall backward move,  
Ere I forget thy faithful love.    

A new persuasion to LESBIA.  
ONce more I pray thee be my Love,  
Come live with me, and thou shalt prove  
All pleasures that a Poets vain,  
Can find on mould or in the mane.  
Wilt thou upon my Paruas walk,  
And tread the Flowers with levy stalk,  
Which bud on my biforked tops:  
Bedewed with sweet Cactalian drops.  
On Thithorea wilt thou go,  
Or Hyampeus too and fro?  
Or wilt thou with Pierid Nymphs,  
Drink of these ever-flowing Limphs,  
From Hippocrene which divall,  
Or springs of Aganippe wall?  
Wilt thou repose thee in the shade,  
Which Nature hath divinely made?  
Apollo's Laurel thou shalt see,  
And lovely Venus' Myrtle tree,  
Alcides' Poplar full of state,  
The Palm which thrives in spite of hate.  
Minerva's Olive, and the Myrrh,  
And of great Mars the warlike Fir:  
Which Nature hath so well disposed,  
And therewithal such walks enclosed,  
As for rich Tapestry shall serve,  
From beams thy beauty to preserve:  
The Gilliflowrs and Roses sweet,  
Shall stoop their tops beneath thy feet:  
The Violet and Primrose fair,  
The Marigold with yellow hair:  
Both Moli and the Balm shall smell,  
With Miriads more than I can tell:  
The lovely Herald of the Spring,  
The Philomela to thee shall sing,  
Both Lark and Maves shall abo●e.  
Thy head their small recordars' toone:  
I'll make thee Garlands fair of Flowers,  
With Amadriads in their bowers,  
With Myrtill boughs brave to behold,  
And paint their leaves with spangs of gold,  
Which I will chequer all with frets  
Of pretty pinks and Violets:  
And when Apollo's Coach agave  
Gives way unto Diana's Wane:  
Thy Poet on his piping Reed,  
Thy fancy with sweet Songs shall feed.  
Thou shalt want no content of mind,  
S●ue wealth, which seldom Poets find:  
If poverty hath power to move,  
Come, come sweet heart, and be my love.   

A Letter to LESBIA, showing his discontents.  
OFt have I prayed thee be my Love,  
Come live with me, and thou shalt prove  
All pleasures that a Poets vain  
Can find on mould, or in the mane:  
Yet neither can my Love (alas)  
Nor my oblectaments have place,  
To move thy hard and flinty heart,  
Some pity's portion to impart.  
displeasure makes my Muse be doomb,  
And Parnas barren is become:  
My Wells are dry, trite ways my walks,  
My Flowers do fade upon their stalks:  
Trees lack both leaves, and Larks to sing:  
Those Fruits thy falset doth forth bring,  
Hadst thou not known that I was poor,  
Then Luker might thy love allure:  
Why art thou of so churlish kind,  
To love the moyan, not the mind?  
Proud in her heart would Phillis be,  
To prove thy pediseque, for me:  
She followeth me, and yet I fly,  
Pursewed of her, and plagued of thee:  
But wouldst thou to thy servile slave,  
Bequeath the credit which I crave?  
Muse, Birds, Hills, Wells, Trees, Flowers, & Walks,  
Would sing, flow, flourish on their stalks:  
And I reviv'd by thee (fair Dame)  
My wont courage would acclame.  
Then let me know thy utter will,  
Upon this Paper good or ill:  
And so till I the same receive,  
I am thy well affected slave.   

Sonnet to LESBIA.  
TIme and my thoughts Together spur the Post,  
For once I thought to spend my time for gain:  
Yet while I thought this thought, the ti●● was lo●t  
And left me there, to think my thought was va●●e  
And while I pause the posting time to spend,  
Time spends itself and me: but how I muse:  
The more I muse, the mo●e ● hast my end.  
Thus Time doth me, an● do Time abuse:  
That Time once tint can not return again.  
A secret sorrow doth possess my mind,  
But least the world should know why I complain  
Dear to my soul I pray thee prove more kind.  
I dream the dark, and drive in dooll the day,  
Thus wast my time, and wear myself away.   

LESBIAN her answer.  
Drive not dear heart, in dooll the day,  
Wast not thyself nor Time away:  
Do not so much as dream by night,  
Unless thy Dreams be short and slight.  
Though wavering wits in time will vaige,  
Be thou thyself a constant Craige.  
And for thy Love thou bears to me,  
I am thy debtor till I die.  
What I have hight hap good or ill,  
But fraud or fear I shall fulfil,  
I am not of a churlish kind,  
To love the moyane not the mind,  
No contrary chause, nor fortune strange,  
Shall make my settled mind to change:  
I am thine sworn, and I shall seal  
What I have said; till when fareweale.   

CODRUS Complaint and Farewell to Ralatibia.  

A Shepherd poor with store of pains oppressed  
Beneath the branches of a levy tree,  
With Lute in hand delivered his unrest,  
When none was nigh but Satyrs, Fauns, and hee●  
And having tuned his base and treble string,  
He sighed, he sobbed, and thus began ro sing.   

Why am I banished from those blessed bounds  
Where I was wont with pleasure to repair?  
What cruel doom my comfort so confounds,  
And casts me in the confines of despair?  
What have I done, said, thought (alas the while)  
that can procure proscription and exile?   

I am condemned, and no inditment heard:  
There is no grace nor mercy in her eyes.  
I plead for peace, and presence is debarred:  
I love, she loaths; I follow, and she flies:  
All modest means that may be, I have used,  
My Songs, myself, my friends, are all refused.   

Why, was I borne to be the point of pain,  
The scorn of Time, the obloquy of Fame?  
My fellow Shepherds frolic over the plain,  
They feed their flocks, & court the country Dame  
On Holidays their Sonnets sweet thy sing,  
And to their Loves their best oblations bring.   

But I exiled from Kalatibia's eyes  
By her decret, whom I shall ay adore:  
Must sacrifice, sigh, tears, plaints, gro●s, and cries:  
But all in vain, and woe is me therefore:  
I long, I love, I fry, I frieze, I pine,  
No punishment can be compared to mine.   

Alas, alas, my flocks both starve and stray,  
quit macerat to want their masters eye:  
Which with Liciscais harmless Bark would stay,  
And turn again from neighbour corns to me:  
My little Lambs, my fair and fertile Ewes,  
With sad reports their plaints for me renews.   

What madness moves remorseless fair, thy mind,  
Since neither plaints nor prayers can have place?  
Hast thou concluded still to kithe unkind,  
And day by day delight in my disgrace?  
O be it so! if needs it must be so,  
For I am armed for every kind of woe.   

Since I am thus proscribed, I pray thee take  
(Fair Kalatihia) this enforced fareweale.  
Since Fortune, Love, and weerds, avow my wreck,  
To whom shall I (despised soul) appeal?  
O love no more, nor leave no more a thrall,  
Die Codrus die, end love and life and all.   

But Pusillany me poor and heartless man,  
Why wouldst thou die to please so proud a Dame?  
Though thou be banished for a while, what than,  
she's not so cruel but she may reclaim?  
Yet fly, be gone; let good or bad befall thee.  
And care no more, suppose she never recall thee   

And thus poor soul, from out the Grove he goes,  
And leaves (alas) both Lines and Lute behind:  
Which I (the true Secretary to his woes.  
And fellow of his fortun●) did forth find:  
And for his sake I sigh, sing, say, & show them  
that cruel she, whom they concern may know them.    

CODRUS his reconciliation to his heart, after he hath abjured KALATIBIA.  

Poor wandering heart, which like the prodig child  
From reason's rule hath run so long astray,  
Misled by Love, with fancies fond beguiled:  
And now returned with torn and rend array,  
my half and better part since thou art come,  
with true remorse most kindly welcome home.   

Lascivious looks of life bewitching eye,  
Inconstant oath's of most unsettled mind,  
You falls inflections of a judas knee,  
You worthless vows which vanish with the wind,  
Dispatch yourself, and let me live in peace,  
Within my heart thou have no dwelling place.   

Come sit thee down (dear heart) we'll have a feast  
My fond Conceits I for a Calf will kill:  
I am thy Oast, and thou shalt be my guest,  
Repenting Tears will furnish Wine at will:  
Our Music Sighs: and if I were more able,  
Faith thou should find a banquet for thy table.   

With hearty draughts will we to drink begin,  
Unto the brim let reasonn fill each bowll:  
I'll lock the gate, and Love shall not look in,  
That our contract may knit without control,  
In surest sort let us betrothe ourself,  
And band 'gainst Beauty, and the blinded elf.   

Sigh sorry heart, and I will weep with thee,  
Let no eclipse divide us two again:  
Let Reason henceforth guided and ruler be,  
And wa●t no more the swift winged Time in vain  
And while my tears can entertain thy feast,  
Repenting heart thou art a pleasing Guest.   

Now setlet heart secure and f●ee from fear,  
Though all the earth should sink in seas of Love,  
Fleet in the Ark, sit still in Reason's char,  
And to the world give verdicts from above,  
The life of Wisdom in Experience lies:  
Then let thine own misfortuns make thee wise.   

Faemineos post hac disce canere dolos.    
FINIS.   

To the Author.  
Love now resolved to work so rare a wonder,  
As to make Rocks bereavers, Stones a Stream,  
Strait to a Craig of Caledon he came:  
Whose yet undaunted pride he 'gan to ponder.  
Have I (said he) the Earth's deep Centre under,  
Made Phlegeton his floods to fear my flame?  
Did I the mighty Trident bearer tame,  
And threatened roo, the thrower of the thunder?  
And shall one only Craig withstand my dart,  
With that his Arrow to his ear he drew,  
which through the yielding air loud whistling flew  
And turned his hardness to a human heart:  
From out whose wound, witness you Nymphs but names  
Great Floods gush out of sweet Castalian streams.  
I. M.   

Cragio suo.  
INgenij si verna seges primoribus annis,  
in tam laudandum luxuriavit opus:  
Quos fructus sperare jubes cum forttibus annis,  
judicij accedit lima severa tui.  
Robertus Aytonus.   

De Alexandro Rupoeo populari, familiari et amico suo qui supra plebem vulgus et populum.  
THreicij quisquis credit modulamine vatis  
saxa, feras, scopulos ressilijsse locis:  
Orphea crediderit rediviwm carmine Rupis  
Arctoae tumulo ressilijsse suo.  
Arthurus Gordonus.