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I know (though she say nay, and would it well withstand) When in her grace thou held thee most, she bare thee but in hand.1

I see her pleasant chere in chiefest of thy suit;

When thou art gone, I see him come that gathers up the fruit.

And eke in thy respect, I see the base degree

Of him to whom she gave the heart, that promised was to thee.

I see (what would you more) stood never man so sure On woman's word, but wisdom would mistrust it to endure.

THE FORSAKEN LOVER DESCRIBETH AND

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FORSAKETH LOVE.

LOATHSOME place! where I
Have seen, and heard my dear;
When in my heart her eye
Hath made her thought appear,
By glimpsing with such grace,-
As fortune it ne would
That lasten any space,
Between us longer should.

As fortune did advance
To further my desire;

Even so hath fortune's chance
Thrown all amidst the mire.
And that I have deserved,
With true and faithful heart,
Is to his hands reserved,
That never felt the smart.

1 An expression used in a variety of ways-as to keep a person in play, to pretend for a sinister purpose, to deceive.

2 Shining or flashing upon the sight.

But happy is that man
That scaped hath the grief,
That love well teach him can,
By wanting his relief.

A scourge to quiet minds
It is, who taketh heed;
A common plage that binds;
A travail without meed.

This gift it hath also:
Whoso enjoys it most,
A thousand troubles grow,
To vex his wearied ghost.
And last it may not long;
The truest thing of all:
And sure the greatest wrong,
That is within this thrall.

But since thou, desert place,
Canst give me no account
Of my desired grace,
That I to have was wont;
Farewell! thou hast me taught,
To think me not the first
That love hath set aloft,

And casten in the dust.

THE LOVER DESCRIBETH HIS RESTLESS STATE.1

AS oft as I behold, and see

The sovereign beauty that me bound;

The nigher my comfort is to me,
Alas! the fresher is my wound.

1 Three additional stanzas, the third, sixth, and eighth, are supplied by Dr. Nott from the Nuga Antiquæ. There is a poem, Of Love, by Wyatt in which the images in this piece are reproduced, sometimes in the same words.

As flame doth quench by rage of fire,
And running streams consume by rain;
So doth the sight that I desire
Appease my grief, and deadly pain.

Like as the fly that seeth the flame,
And thinks to play her in the fire;
That found her woe, and sought her game
Where grief did grow by her desire.

First when I saw those crystal streams,1
Whose beauty made my mortal wound;
I little thought within their beams
So sweet a venom to have found.

But wilful will did prick me forth,
Blind Cupid did me whip and guide;
Force made me take my grief in worth;2
My fruitless hope my harm did hide;

Wherein is hid the cruel bit,
Whose sharp repulse none can resist;
And eke the spur that strains each wit
To run the race against his list.

As cruel waves full oft be found
Against the rocks to roar and cry;
So doth my heart full oft rebound
Against my breast full bitterly.

And as the spider draws her line,
With labour lost I frame my suit;
The fault is hers, the loss is mine:

Of ill sown seed, such is the fruit.

1There is no expression,' says Dr. Nott, 'more common among our early poets than streams for eyes.' The same remark applies to the frequent use of the expression crystal eyes.' An instance occurs amongst the poems of Uncertain Authors:'

'In each of her two crystal eyes,

Smileth a naked boy.'-p. 237.

2 That is, to bear, or endure it. The old word worthe meant to be, to go-hence to suffer and submit.

I fall, and see mine own decay;
As he that bears flame in his breast,
Forgets for pain to cast away

The thing that breedeth his unrest.

THE LOVER EXCUSETH HIMSELF OF SUSPECTED

CHANGE.

HOUGH I regarded not
The promise made by me;
Or passed not to spot
My faith and honesty:
Yet were my fancy strange,
And wilful will to wite,1

If I sought now to change
A falcon for a kite.

All men might well dispraise
My wit and enterprise,
If I esteemed a pese2
Above a pearl in price:
Or judged the owl in sight
The sparhawk to excel;
Which flieth but in the night,
As all men know right well.

Or if I sought to sail
Into the brittle port,

Where anchor hold doth fail

To such as do resort;

And leave the haven sure,

Where blows no blustering wind;

Nor fickleness in ure,

So far-forth as I find.

The word occurs in Chaucer in the sense of blame or censure; it also means to know.

2 This familiar comparison was in general use amongst the poets of the 16th century. Not worth a pese' was a common phrase, and occurs in Spenser's Pastorals.

No! think me not so light,
Nor of so churlish kind,
Though it lay in my might
My bondage to unbind,
That I would leave the hind
To hunt the gander's foe.
No! no! I have no mind
To make exchanges so.

Nor yet to change at all;
For think, it may not be
That I should seek to fall
From my felicity.
Desirous for to win,
And loth for to forego;
Or new change to begin;
How may all this be so?

The fire it cannot freeze,
For it is not his kind;
Nor true love cannot lese
The constance of the mind.
Yet as soon shall the fire
Want heat to blaze and burn;
As I, in such desire,

Have once a thought to turn.

A CARELESS MAN

SCORNING AND DESCRIBING THE SUBTLE USAGE OF WOMEN
TOWARD THEIR LOVERS.1

W

RAPT in my careless cloak, as I walk to and fro, I see how love can shew what force there reigneth in his bow:

And how he shooteth eke a hardy heart to wound; And where he glanceth by again, that little hurt is found.

1 In no instance is Dr. Nott's system of perversion more conspicuous than in the title he has given to this poem; the purpose of which is declared by the opening line, which describes a looker-on, himself

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