But oh dear breast! from thee I 'll ne'er retire me,
Whether thou cool, or warm, or freeze, or fire me.

UPON HER GIVING HIM BACK THE PAPER WHEREON
THE FORMER SONG WAS WRITTEN, AS THOUGH
IT HAD BEEN AN ANSWER THEREUNTO.

LADY of matchless beauty;

When into your sweet bosom I delivered

A

paper, with wan looks, and hand that quivered

'Twixt hope, fear, love, and duty;

Thought you it nothing else contain'd

But written words in rhyme restrain'd?

Oh then your thought abused was;

My heart close wrapt therein, into your breast infused

was.

When that scroll restor❜d me
you

With grateful words, kind grace, and smiling merrily,
My breast did swell with joy, supposing verily,
You, answer did afford me.

But finding only that I writ,

I hop'd to find my heart in it:

But you my hope abused had,

And poison of despair instead thereof infused had.

Why, why did you torment me,

With giving back my humble rhymes so hatefully?

You should have kept both heart and paper gratefulì ̧ Or both you should have sent me.

Hope you my heart thence to remove,

By scorning me, my lines, my love?

No, no; your hope abused is,

Too deep to be remov'd, it in your breast infused is.

Oh, shall I hide or tell it?

Dear, with so spotless, zealous, firm affection,
I love your beauty, virtue, and perfection,
As nothing can expel it.

Scorn still my rhymes, my love despite,
Pull out my heart, yea kill me quite ;

Yet will your hate abused be,

For in my very soul, your love and looks infused be.

COMMENDATION OF HER BEAUTY, STATURE, BEHAVIOUR,

AND WIT.

SOME there are as fair to see too;

But by art and not by nature;
Some as tall and goodly be too ;
But want beauty to their stature.

Some have gracious kind behaviour;
But are foul or simple creatures :
Some have wit, but want sweet favour,
Or are proud of their good features.

Are most fair, tall, kind, and witty,

TO HER HAND, UPON HER GIVING HIM HER GLOVE.

Oh HAND! of all hands living

The softest, moistest, whitest:

More skill'd than PHŒBUS on a lute in running,
More than MINERVA with a needle cunning,
Than Mercury more wily,

In stealing hearts most slily:

Since thou, dear hand, in theft so much delightest, Why fall'st thou now a giving?

Ay me! thy gifts are thefts, and with strange art, In giving me thy glove, thou steal'st my heart.

CUPID PROVED A FENCER.

Aн, Cupid, I mistook thee:

I for an archer, and no fencer took thee.
But as a fencer oft feigns blows and thrusts,
Where he intends no harm,"

Then turns his baleful arm,

And wounds that part which least his foe mistrusts: So thou, with fencing art,

Feigning to wound mine eyes, hast hit my heart.

r Only you in court and city.-edit. 1602.

s Where he doth mean no harm.ibid.

And wounds his foe whereas he least mistrusts.ibid.

UPON HER COMMENDING (THOUGH MOST UNDESERVEDLY) HIS VERSES TO HIS FIRST LOVE.

PRAISE you those barren rhymes long since composed, Which my great love, her greater cruelty,

My constant faith, her false inconstancy, My praises" style, her o'er-praised worth disclosed? Oh, if I lov'd a scornful dame so dearly;

If my wild years did yield so firm affection: If her moon-beams, short of your sun's perfection, Taught my hoarse Muse as you say to sing clearly, How much, how much should I love and adore you, Divinest creature, if you deign'd to love me!

What beauty, fortune, time should ever move me, In these stay'd years, to like aught else before you ? And oh, how should my Muse by you inspired Make heaven and earth resound your praise admired!

My then green heart so brightly did inflame.

HE COMPARES HIMSELF TO A CANDLE-FLY.

LIKE to the seely fly,

To the dear light I fly

Of disdainful eyes,

your

But in a diverse wise:

She with the flame doth play

By night alone, and I, both night and day.

u Praiseless in the Lee Priory edition.

She to a candle runs ;

I to a light, far brighter than the sun's.
She near at hand is fired ;

I both near hand, and far away retired.

She fondly thinks, nor dead, nor hurt to be;
But I my burning and my death foresee.

ANSWER TO HER QUESTION, WHAT LOVE WAS.

IF I behold your eyes,

Love is a paradise:

But if I view my heart,

'Tis an infernal smart.

THAT ALL OTHER CREATURES HAVE THEIR ABIDING
IN HEAVEN, HELL, EARTH, AIR, WATER OR
FIRE, BUT HE IN ALL OF THEM.

In heaven the blessed angels have their being;
In hell are fiends appointed to damnation;
To men and beasts earth yields firm habitation;
The wing'd musicians in the air are fleeing;
With fins the people gliding
Of water have the enjoying;
In fire, all else destroying,

The salamander finds a strange abiding:
But I, poor wretch, since I did first aspire
To love your beauty, beauties all excelling,
Have my strange diverse dwelling,
In heaven, hell, earth, water, air, and fire.