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All trees and simples, great and small,
That balmy leaf do bear,

Than they were painted on a wall,

No more they move or steir.

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Refreshed with dew and silver showers,
Cast up an odour sweet.

The clogged busy humming bees,

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That never think to drone,

On flowers and flourishes of trees,
Collect their liquor brown.

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So fervently can beat,

That man and beast now seek a place
To save them from the heat.

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The herds beneath some leafy tree,

Amidst the flowers they lie ;

The stable ships upon the sea
Tend up their sails to dry.

With gilded eyes and open wings,

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The cock his courage shows;

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The reek throws right up in the air
From every tower and town.

The gloming comes, the day is spent,
The sun goes out of sight,

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And painted is the occident

With purple sanguine bright.

The scarlet nor the golden thread,
Who would their beauty try,
Are nothing like the colour red
And beauty of the sky.

IIO

Our west horizon circular,

From time the sun be set,

Is all with rubies, as it were,

Or roses red o'erfret.

What pleasure were to walk and see,

Endlong a river clear,

The perfect form of every tree

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And can to other say,

Thanks to the gracious God of heaven,
Which sent this summer day.

Alexander Hume.

IX

A VOW TO LOVE FAITHFULLY, HOWSOEVER HE BE REWARDED.

Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green,
Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice;
In temperate heat where he is felt and seen;
In presence prest of people, mad or wise;
Set me in high, or yet in low degree;
In longest night, or in the shortest day;
In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be;
In lusty youth, or when my hairs are gray :
Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell,
In hill or dale, or in the foaming flood;

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IO

Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell,
Sick or in health, in evil fame or good,
Hers will I be; and only with this thought
Content myself, although my chance be nought.
Earl of Surrey.

X

AN APPEAL.

Forget not yet the tried intent
Of such a truth as I have meant ;
My great travail so gladly spent
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet when first began
The weary ife ye know, since whan
The suit, the service none tell can;
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet the great assays,
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways;
The painful patience in delays,

Forget not yet!

Forget not! oh! forget not this,
How long ago hath been, and is
The mind that never meant amiss-

Forget not yet!

Forget not then thine own approved,
The which so long hath thee so loved,
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved-
Forget not this!

Sir Thomas Wyat.

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ΧΙ

A RENUNCIATION.

If women could be fair, and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond
By service long to purchase their good will;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.

To mark the choice they make, and how they change,
How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan;
Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,
These gentle birds that fly from man to man;
Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist,
And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?

Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,

To pass the time when nothing else can please,
And train them to our lure with subtle oath,
Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;
And then we say when we their fancy try,
To play with fools, oh what a fool was I!
Earl of Oxford.

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ΙΟ

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XII

THE EXCELLENCY OF HIS LOVE.

Give place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your boasts and brags in vain :
My lady's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well say'n,

Than doth the sun the candle light,

Or brightest day the darkest night.

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