"The cause of thine unhappy day

"By love was first begun.

"For thou went'st' first by suit to seek

"A tiger to make tame;

"That sets not by thy love a leek, "But makes thy grief her game.

"As easy it were for to convert
"The frost into the flame,
"As for to turn a froward heart,

"Whom thou so fain would'st frame.

"Corin he liveth careless,

"He leaps among

the leaves

;

"He eats the fruits of thy redress.2 "Thou reap'st, he takes the sheaves.

"My beasts, awhile your food refrain, "And hark your herdman's sound! "Whom spiteful Love, alas! hath slain, "Through-girt3 with many a wound.

"O happy be ye, beastes wild,
"That here your pasture takes!

1 So ed. I.-Ed. 1567,

2 Labour.

"wenest."

Pierced-through.

"I see that ye be not beguil'd
"Of these your faithful makes. 1

"The hart he feedeth by the hind,
"The buck hard by the doe,
"The turtle dove is not unkind
"To him that loves her so.

"But, welaway! that Nature wrought “Thee, Phillida, so fair;

"For I may say that I have bought Thy beauty all too dear!

66

"What reason is that cruelty

"With beauty should have part? "Or else that such great tyranny "Should dwell in woman's heart?

"O, Cupid, grant this my request,
"And do not stop thine ears!
"That she may feel within her breast
"The pains of my despairs :

"Of Corin that is careless

"That she may crave her fee,

1 Mates.

2

So ed. 1567.-Ed. I. " is it."

"As I have done in great distress "That lov'd her faithfully.

"But since that I shall die her slave, "Her slave and eke her thrall,

"Write you, my friends, upon my grave "This chance that is befall.

"HERE LIETH UNHAPPY HARPALUS, "BY CRUEL LOVE NOW SLAIN, "WHOM PHILLIDA UNJUSTLY THUS "HATH MURDER'D WITH DISDAIN."