VI.

a

If music and sweet poetry agree,'
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense ;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such,
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.
Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound
That Phæbus' lute, the queen of music, makes ;
And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd,
Whenas himself to singing he betakes.

One god is god of both, as poets feign;
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.

VII.

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

*

*b

Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove,
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.

VIII.
Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon faded,
Pluck'd in the bud, and faded 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.
I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For whyo thou left'st me nothing in thy will:
And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave;
For why I craved nothing of thee still :

• If music and sweet poetry agree. - ] This poem, according to Mr. Collier, was pub. lished in the first edition of R. Barnfield's “Encomion of Lady Pecunia," 1598, but was omitted by the author in his edition of 1605. From which circumstance, Mr. Collier infers that it was written by Shakespeare.

66

O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee,-
Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.

IX.
Venus, with young Adonis sitting by hera
Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him :
She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,
And as he fell to her, so fell she to him.b
“Even thus,” quoth she, “the warlike god embracid me,”
And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms;
“ Even thus,” quoth she,“ the warlike god unlac'd me,”
As if the boy should use like loving charms;
“Even thus,” quoth she," he seized on my lips,"
And with her lips on his did act the seizure;
And as she fetched 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!

X.

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.

• Venus, witn young Adonis sitting by her—] This Sonnet, with some variations, occurs in a collection of Poems by B. Griffin, called Fidessa more Chaste then Kinde. 1596 ; and there the opening line is given as in our text. "The Passionate Pilgrim reads,

“Venus with Adonis sitting by her,” &c. 6 And as he fell to her, so fell she to him.) In “The Passionate Pilgrim " this line is imperfect, $o" being omitted. The word is supplied from Griffin's Fidessa.

“Even thus,” quoth she, "the warlike god embrac'd me,”--) In the latter part of this Sonnet the version in Fidessa differs considerably from the one before us. There, it runs as follows:

“Even thus,' quoth she, 'the wanton god embrac'd me;'

And thus she clasp'd Adonis in her arms :
"Even thus,' quoth she, the warlike

god unlac'd me,'
As if the boy should use like loving charms :
But he, a wayward boy, refus'd her offer,
And ran away, the beauteous queen neglecting ;
Showing both folly to abuse her proffer,
And all his sex of cowardice detecting;
Oh, that I had my mistress at that bay,
To kiss and clip me ull I ran away."

Age, I do abhor thee,
Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young!
Age, I do defy a thee :-
0, sweet shepherd, hie thee!
For methinks thou stay'st too long.

XI.
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly ;
A flower that dies when first it ’gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently:

A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour!

And as goods lost are seld or never found,
As faded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,-

So beauty blemish'd once for ever 's lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.

XII.

:

a

“Good night, good rest." Ah, neither be my share!
She bade good night, that kept my rest away ;
And daff*d me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.

“ Farewell,” quoth she, “and come again to-morrow;"

Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow.
Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether :
'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,
T

may be, again to make me wander thither:
“ Wander!” a word for shadows like myself,
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.

XIII.
Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east !
My heart doth charge the watch; the morning rise
Doth cite each moving sense from idle rest.
Not daring trust the office of mine eyes,

While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,

And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;
For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,
And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night :

Sc. 3,

-defy thee :-] Renounce or contemn thee. So, in “Romeo and Juliet," Act V.

“I do defy thy conjurations," &c.

The night so pack’d, I post unto my pretty;
Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight ;

Sorrow chang’d to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow;

For why she sigh’d, and bade me come to-morrow.
Were I with her, the night would post too soon ;
But now are minutes added to the hours;
To spite me now, each minute seems a moon ja
Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers !

Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow;
Short, night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

SONNETS

TO SUNDRY NOTES OF MUSIC.

XIV.
It was a lording's daughter,
The fairest one of three,
That liked of her master
As well as well might be,
Till looking on an Englishman,
The fair'st that eye could see,

Her fancy fell a-turning.

Long was the combat doubtful
That love with love did fight,
To leave the master loveless,
Or kill the gallant knight:
To put in practice either,
Alas, it was a spite

Unto the silly damsel !

But one must be refused;
llore mickle was the pain,
That nothing could be used

To turn them both to gain, . - each minute seems a moon;] A correction proposed by Steevens, the old copy reading, “ an hour,” &c.

It was a lording's daughter,

The fairest one of three,-1 "This and the five following Sonnets are said in the old copy to have been set to musick. Mr. Oldys, in one of his MSS. says they were set by John and Thomas Morley,”-MALONE.

b

For of the two the trusty knight
Was wounded with disdain :

Alas, she could not help it!
Thus art, with arms contending,
Was victor of the day,
Which by a gift of learning
Did bear the maid away:
Then, lullaby, the learned man
Hath got the lady gay ;
For now my song is ended.

XV.
On a day (alack the day!),
Love, whose month was ever May,
Spy'd a blossom passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
“ Air,” quoth he, “thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But, alas, my hand hath sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn!
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet."
Thou for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiope were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love."

XVI.
My flocks feed not,
My ewes breed not,
My rams speed not,

All is amiss:

9

* On a day (alack the day !),–] This, as we have before remarked, is one of the tnree Sonnets found in “Love's Labour's Lost.” It was printed also, with Shakespeare's name attached, in a collection of poems entitled, “ England's Helicon," 1600, where it is entitled, The Passionate Sheepheard's Song.

b Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.] In “Love's Labour's Lost,” we have here two lines which were omitted both in the present version and in “England's Helicon :

« Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee." c Thou for whom Jove would swear-] In this line, unless some epithet to “ Jove" has been lost, “swear ." is employed as a dissyllable.

d My flocks feed not, &c.) These verses, under the title of The Unknown Sheepheard's Complaint, and subscribed Ignoto, are printed in England's Helicon.” They are found also, with music, in Weelkes's Madrigals, 1599. That Shakespeare had any hand either in them or in the poor effusion beginning, “ It was a lording's daughter," &c. is inconcwivable.