But oh dear breast! from thee I 'll ne'er retire me, UPON HER GIVING HIM BACK THE PAPER WHEREON 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 With grateful words, kind grace, and smiling merrily, 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, Scorn still my rhymes, my love despite, 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 have gracious kind behaviour; 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, 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. 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. I both near hand, and far away retired. She fondly thinks, nor dead, nor hurt to be; 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 the blessed angels have their being; The salamander finds a strange abiding: |