'Thou art my choice, I constant am, With thee I'll live, for thee I love, That seeks with shame to offend it.' With that she rose like nimble roe, I thought to move this dame of love, Wherefore I pray that those that stay SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616. TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. SILVIA. WHO is Silvia? What is she, That all our swains commend her? Holy, fair, and wise is she, The heavens such grace did lend her, That she might admirèd be. *Or like a nymph with long dishevelled hair SHAKESPEARE.-Venus and Adonis. As falcon to the lure, away she flies; The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light.-Ibid. A foot more light, a step more true, Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew; E'en the slight harebell raised its head, Elastic from her airy tread. THE DRAMATISTS. SCOTT.-Lady of the Lake. 6 Is she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness: To help him of his blindness; Then to Silvia let us sing, LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. WHITE AND RED. IF she be made of white and red, Her faults will ne'er be known; For still her cheeks possess the same, IF 2 THE STUDENT FORSAKES HIS BOOKS FOR LOVE. F love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; These thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed. Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend; * Own-possess. If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; Well learned is that tongue that will ever thee commend: All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder; (Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire ;) Thine eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, Which, not to anger bent, is music, and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue! BEAUTY THROUGH TEARS. So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, And they thy glory through my grief will show: THE DEFENCE OF PERJURY. DID not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but, I will prove, My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gained, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhalest this vapour vow; in thee it is: If broken then, it is no fault of mine, ON FORSWORN FOR LOVE. a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom, passing fair, Through the velvet leaves the wind, Wished himself the heaven's breath. That I am forsworn for thee: Turning mortal for thy love. SPRING AND WINTER. I WHEN daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear, 2 When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, Cuckoo, cuckoo,—O word of fear, 3 When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And milk comes frozen home in pail, Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel* the pot. 4 When all around the wind doth blow, And Marian's nose looks red and raw, Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. *Skim. |