And supplicant their sighs to you extend,

To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath,
That shall prefer and undertake my troth."

41 'This said, his watery eyes he did dismount, Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face; Each cheek a river running from a fount

With brinish current downward flow'd apace: Oh how the channel to the stream gave grace! Who, glazed with crystal, gate1 the glowing roses That flame through water which their hue encloses.

42 'Oh, father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear!
But with the inundation of the eyes

What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here?

Oh, cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath!

43 For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,

Even there resolved my reason into tears;
There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
Shook off my sober guards and civil2 fears;
Appear to him, as he to me appears,

All melting; though our drops this difference bore,
His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.

44 In him a plenitude of subtle matter,

Applied to cautels,3 all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,

1Gate:' got.-2 Civil:' decorous.- Cautels:' deceits, insidious purposes.

Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
In either's aptness, as it best deceives,

To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,

Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows;

45 That not a heart which in his level came,

Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
Showing fair nature is both kind and tame ;

And veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury,1
He preach'd pure maid, and praised cold chastity.

46 Thus merely with the garment of a Grace

The naked and concealed fiend he cover❜d,
That the unexperienced gave the tempter place,
Which, like a cherubim, above them hover'd.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ah me! I fell; and yet do question make
What I should do again for such a sake.

47 'Oh, that infected moisture of his eye,

Oh, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
Oh, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
Oh, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
Oh, all that borrow'd motion, seeming owed,2
Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
And new pervert a reconciled maid !'

''Luxury:' lewdness.-Owed:' owned, his own.

PASSIONATE PILGRIM.

I.

SWEET Cytherea, sitting by a brook,

With young Adonis, lovely, fresh, and green, Did court the lad with many a lovely look,

Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen. She told him stories to delight his ear;

She show'd him favours to allure his eye;

To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there:
Touches so soft still conquer chastity.

But whether unripe years did want conceit,
Or he refused to take her figured proffer,
The tender nibbler would not touch the bait,
But smile and jest at every gentle offer:
Then fell she on her back, fair queen, and toward;
He rose and ran away; ah, fool too froward!

II.

Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,

A longing tarriance for Adonis made,
Under an osier growing by a brook,

A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen.
Hot was the day; she hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,

And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim ; The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,

Yet not so wistly as this queen on him :
He spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood;
O Jove, quoth she, why was not I a flood?

III.

Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love,

Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove,

1

For Adon's sake, a youngster proud and wild; Her stand she takes upon a steep-up hill:

Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds; She, silly queen, with more than love's good will, Forbade the boy he should not pass those grounds; Once, quoth she, did I see a fair sweet youth

Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar, Deep in the thigh, a spectacle of ruth!

See in my thigh, quoth she, here was the sore: She showed hers; he saw more wounds than one, And blushing fled, and left her all alone.

IV.

Venus, with Adonis sitting by her,

Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him:
She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,
And as he fell to her, she fell to him.

Even thus, quoth she, the warlike god embraced me;
And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms:

And thus, quoth she, the warlike god unlaced me,
As if the boy should use like loving charms.

Even thus, quoth she, he seizèd on my lips,

And with her lips on his did act the seizure; And as she fetchèd breath, away he skips,

And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure. Ah! that I had my lady at this bay, To kiss and clip me till I run away!

1 Here a line has been lost.

V.

Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care:
Youth like summer morn,

Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport,

Age's breath is short.

Youth is nimble, age is lame:
Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

Oh, my love, my love is young!

Age, I do defy thee;

Oh, sweet shepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou stay'st too long.

VI.

1 Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded,' Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in the spring! Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded!

Fair creature, kill'd too soon by death's sharp sting! Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree, And falls, through wind, before the fall should be.

2 I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For why? thou left'st me nothing in thy will.

1 Vaded: faded.