FROM

PHILOMELA, THE LADY FITZWATER'S NIGHTINGALE.

(ED. 1615.)

PHILOMELA'S ODE THAT SHE SUNG

IN HER ARBOUR.

· SITTING by a river's side,

Where a silent stream did glide,
Muse I did of many things
That the mind in quiet brings.
I gan think how some men deem
Gold their god; and some esteem
Honour is the chief content
That to man in life is lent;
And some others do contend,
Quiet none like to a friend;
Others hold, there is no wealth
Compared to a perfect health;
Some man's mind in quiet stands
When he is lord of many lands:
But I did sigh, and said all this
Was but a shade of perfect bliss;
And in my thoughts I did approve,
Naught so sweet as is true love.
Love 'twixt lovers passeth these,
When mouth kisseth and heart 'grees,
With folded arms and lips meeting,
Each soul another sweetly greeting;
For by the breath the soul fleeteth,
And soul with soul in kissing meeteth.
If love be so sweet a thing,

That such happy bliss doth bring,
Happy is love's sugar'd thrall;
But unhappy maidens all,
Who esteem your virgin* blisses
Sweeter than a wife's sweet kisses.

No such quiet to the mind
As true love with kisses kind:
But if a kiss prove unchaste,
Then is true love quite disgrac'd.
Though love be sweet, learn this of me,
No love sweet but honesty.

PHILOMELA'S SECOND ODE. Ir was frosty winter-season,

And fair Flora's wealth was geason.+ Meads that erst with green were spread, With choice flowers diap'red,

virgin] The 4to. "virgins." geason] i. e. rare, uncommon.

Had tawny veils; cold had scanted *
What the spring + and nature planted.
Leafless boughs there might you see,
All except fair Daphne's tree:
On their twigs no birds perch'd;
Warmer coverts now ‡ they search'd
And by nature's secret reason,
Fram'd their voices to the season,
With their feeble tunes bewraying
How they griev'd the spring's decaying.
Frosty winter thus had gloom'd
Each fair thing that summer bloom'd;
Fields were bare, and trees unclad,
Flowers wither'd, birds were sad: §
When I saw a shepherd fold
Sheep in cote, to shun the cold.
Himself sitting on the grass,
That with frost wither'd was,
Sighing deeply, thus gan say;
"Love is fully when astray:
Like to love no passion such,
For 'tis | madness, if too much;
If too little, then despair;
If too high, he beats the air
With bootless cries; if too low,
An eagle matcheth with a crow:
Thence grow jars. Thus I find,
Love is folly, if unkind;
Yet do men most desire
To be heated with this fire,
Whose flame is so pleasing hot,
That they burn, yet feel it not.
Yet hath love another kind,
Worse than these unto the mind;
That is, when a wanton eye
Leads desire clean awry,
And with the bee doth rejoice
Every minute to change choice,
Counting he were then in bliss,
If that each fair face were his.
Highly thus is** love disgrac'd,
When the lover is unchaste,
And would taste of fruit forbidden,
'Cause the scape is easily hidden.
Though such love be sweet in brewing,
Bitter is the end ensuing;

For the honour †† of love he shameth,
And himself with lust defameth;

For a minute's pleasure gaining,
Fame and honour ever staining.
Gazing thus so far awry,
Last the chip falls in his eye;

Then it burns that erst but heat him,
And his own rod gins to beat him;
His choicest sweets turn to gall;
He finds lust his sin's thrall;
That wanton women in their eyes
Men's deceivings do comprise;
That homage done to fair faces
Doth dishonour other graces.
If lawless love be such a sin,
Curs'd is he that lives therein,
For the gain of Venus' game
Is the downfall unto shame."
Here he paus'd, and did stay;
Sigh'd, and rose, and went away.

SONNET.

ON Women Nature did bestow two eyes,

Like heaven's bright lamps, in matchless beauty

shining,

Whose beams do soonest captivate the wise,
And wary heads, made rare by art's refining.
But why did Nature, in her choice combining,
Plant two fair eyes within a beauteous face,
That they might favour two with equal grace?
Venus did soothe up Vulcan with one eye,
With th'other granted Mars his wishèd glee:
If she did so who Hymen + did defy,
Think love no sin, but grant an eye to me;
In vain else Nature gave two stars to thee:
If then two eyes may well two friends maintain,
Allow of two, and prove not Nature vain.

ANSWER.

NATURE foreeseing how men would devise
More wiles than Proteus, women to entice,
Granted them two, and those bright-shining eyes,
To pierce into men's faults if they were wise;
For they with show of virtue mask their vice:
Therefore to women's eyes belong these gifts,
The one must love, the other see men's shifts.

Both these await upon one simple heart,

And what they choose, it hides up without change.

The emerald will not with his portrait part,
Nor will a woman's thoughts delight to range;
They hold it bad to have so base exchange:
One heart, one friend, though that two eyes do
choose him,

No more but one, and heart will never lose him.

AN ODE.

WHAT is love once disgrac'd,
But a wanton thought ill plac'd?
Which doth blemish whom it paineth,
And dishonours whom it deigneth;
Seen in higher powers most,
Though some fools do fondly boast,
That whoso is high of kin
Sanctifies his lover's sin.

Jove could not hide Io's scape,

Nor conceal Calisto's rape:

Both did fault, and both were fram'd
Light of loves, whom lust had sham'd.
Let not women trust to men;
They can flatter now and then,
And tell them many wanton tales,
Which do breed their after-bales.
Sin in kings is sin, we see,

And greater sin 'cause great of gree;
Majus peccatum, this I read,
If he be high that doth the deed.
Mars, for all his deity,
Could not Venus dignify,

But Vulcan trapp'd her, and her blame

Was punish'd with an open shame:
All the gods laugh'd them to scorn
For dubbing Vulcan with the horn.
Whereon may a woman boast,
If her chastity be lost?
Shame await'th upon her face,
Blushing checks and foul disgrace:
Report will blab, this is she
That with her lust wins infamy.
If lusting love be so disgrac'd,
Die before you live unchaste;
For better die with honest fame,
Than lead a wanton life with shame.

*heaven's] The 4to. "Hemians."

t who Hymen] The 4to. "whom Heimens." men's] The 4to. "man's."

* grec] i. e. degree.

FROM

THE SECOND PART OF MAMILLIA.

(ED. 1593.)

VERSES AGAINST THE GENTLEWOMEN OF SICILIA.

SINCE lady mild, too base in array, hath liv'd as an exile,

None of account but stout; if plain, stale slut, not a courtress:

Dames now-a-days, fie, none, if not new-guised in all points:

Fancies fine, sauc'd with conceits, quick wits very wily,

Words of a saint, but deeds guess how, feign'd

faith to deceive men;

Courtsies coy, no veil,* but a vaunt, trick'd up like a Tuscan,

Pac'd in print, brave lofty looks, not us'd with the vestals;

In hearts, too, glorious, not a glance but fit for an

empress:

As minds most valorous, so strange in array, marry, stately;

Up from the waist like a man, new guise to be cas'd in a doublet,

Down to the foot perhaps like a maid, but hos'd

to the kneestead,

Some close-breech'd to the crotch for cold, tush, peace, 'tis a shame, sir!

Hairs by birth as black as jet, what! art can

amend them,

A periwig frounc'd fast to the front, or curl'd

with a bodkin;

FROM

THE ORPHARION. (ED. 1599.)

ORPHEUS' SONG.

HE that did sing the motions of the stars,
Pale-colour'd Phoebe's* borrowing of her light,
Aspects of planets oft oppos'd in jars,

Of Hesper, henchman to the day and night; Sings now of love, as taught by proof to sing, Women are false, and love a bitter thing.

I lov'd Eurydice, the brightest lass,

More fond to like so fair a nymph as she; In Thessaly so bright none ever was,

But fair and constant hardly may agree:
False-hearted wife to him that lov'd thee well,
To leave thy love, and choose the prince of hell!
Theseus did help, and I in haste did hie
To Pluto, for the lass I loved so:
The god made grant, and who so glad as I?
I tun'd my harp, and she and I gan go;
Glad that my love was left to me alone,
I looked back,-Eurydice was gone.

She slipp'd aside, back to her latest love;
Unkind, she wrong'd her first and truest fere: +
Thus women's loves delight, as trial proves
By false Eurydice I lov'd so dear,
To change and fleet, and every way to shrink,
To take in love and lose it with a wink.

THE SONG OF ARION.

SEATED upon the crookèd dolphin's back, Scudding amidst the purple-colour'd waves,

plum'd like a peacock;

Ruffs of a size, stiff-starch'd to the neck, of lawn,

marry, lawless;

Gowns of silk, why, those be too bad, side,† wide with a witness,

Small and gent i' the waist, but backs as broad as a burgess;

Needless naughts, as crisps and scarfs, worn à la Morisco,

Fum'd with sweets, as sweet as chaste, no want but abundance.

* veil] Qy. "vail," i. e. mark of recognition? (to "vail (i. e. lower) the bonnet," was a common expression).The 4to. has "vale."

tside] i. e. long.

Attended with the Tritons as his slaves, Threw forth such storms as made the air thick,§ For grief his lady Thetis was so sick.

Such plaints he throbb'd as made the dolphin

stay: [health," "Women," quoth he, "are harbours of man's Pleasures for night, and comforts for the day;

What are fair women but rich nature's wealth?
Thetis is such, and more if more may be;
Thetis is sick, then what may comfort me?

* Phoebe's] The 4to. "Phoebus."
fond] i. e. foolish, simple.
fere] i. e. mate.

§ Threw forth such storms as made the air thick] Here | "air" is a dissyllable: sce Walker's Shakespeare's Verncation, &c., p. 146.

"Women are sweets that salve men's sourest ills;
Women are saints, their virtues are so rare;
Obedient souls that seek to please men's wills;
Such love with faith, such jewels women are :
Thetis is such, and more if more may be;
Thetis is sick, then what may comfort me?"
With that he div'd into the coral waves,
To see his love, with all his watery slaves:
The dolphin swam; yet this I learned then,
Fair women are rich jewels unto men.

SONNET.

CUPID abroad was lated in the night,
His wings were wet with ranging in the rain;
Harbour he sought, to me he took his flight,
To dry his plumes: I heard the boy complain;
I op'd the door, and granted his desire,
I rose myself, and made the wag a fire.

Looking more narrow by the fire's flame,

I spied his quiver hanging by his back: Doubting the boy might my misfortune frame, I would have gone for fear of further wrack; But what I drad, did me poor wretch betide, For forth he drew an arrow from his side.

He pierc'd the quick, and I began to start,

A pleasing wound, but that it was too high; His shaft procur'd a sharp, yet sugar'd smart: Away he flew, for why his wings were dry; But left the arrow sticking in my breast, That sore I griev'd I welcom'd such a guest.

FROM

PENELOPE'S WEB. (ED. 1601.)

SONNET FROM ARIOSTO.

THE Sweet content that quiets angry thought,
The pleasing sound of household harmony,
The physic that allays what fury wrought,

The huswife's means to make true melody,
Is not with simple, harp, or worldly pelf,
But smoothly by submitting of herself.
Juno, the queen and mistress of the sky,

When angry Jove did threat her with a frown, Caus'd Ganymede for nectar fast to hie,

With pleasing face to wash such choler down; For angry husbands find the soonest ease, When sweet submission choler doth appease.

The laurel that impales the head with praise, The gem that decks the breast of ivory, The pearl that's orient in her silver rays,

The crown that honours dames with dignity; No sapphire, gold, green bays, nor margarite, But due obedience worketh this delight.

BARMENISSA'S SONG.

THE stately state that wise men count their good,
The chiefest bliss that lulls asleep desire,
Is not descent from kings and princely blood,

Ne stately crown ambition doth require;
For birth by fortune is abasèd down,
And perils are compris'd within a crown.

The sceptre and the glittering pomp of mace,

The head impal'd with honour and renown, The kingly throne, the seat and regal place,

Are toys that fade when angry Fortune frown: Content is far from such delights as those, Whom woe and danger do envý as foes.

The cottage seated in the hollow dale,

That Fortune never fears because so low, The quiet mind that want doth set to sale,

Sleeps safe when princes seats do overthrow : Want smiles secure when princely thoughts do feel That fear and danger tread upon their heel.

Bless Fortune thou whose frown hath wrought thy good,

Bid farewell to the crown that ends thy care; The happy Fates thy sorrows have withstood By 'signing want and poverty thy share: For now Content, fond Fortune to despite, With patience 'lows thee quiet and delight.

VERSES.

ASPIRING thoughts led Phaethon amiss;

Proud Icarus did fall, he soar'd so high; Seek not to climb with fond Semiramis,

Lest son revenge the father's injury: Take heed, ambition is a sugar'd ill, That Fortune lays, presumptuous minds to spill.

The bitter grief that frets the quiet mind,

The sting that pricks the froward man to woe, Is envy, which in honour seld we find,

And yet to honour sworn a secret foe: Learn this of me, envy not others' state; The fruits of envy are envý and hate.

The misty cloud that so eclipseth fame,
That gets reward a chaos of despite,
Is black revenge, which ever winneth shame,
A fury vile that's hatchèd in the night:
Beware, seek not revenge against thy foe,
Lest once revenge thy fortune overgo.

These blazing comets do foreshow mishap;

Let not the flaming lights offend thine eye: + Look ere thou leap, prevent an after-clap;

These three, forewarned, well mayest thou fly:+ If now by choice thou aim'st at happy health, Eschew self-love, choose for the common-wealth.

Where chilling frost alate did nip,
There flasheth now a fire;
Where deep disdain bred noisome hate,
There kindleth now desire.

Time causeth hope to have his hap:
What care in time not eas'd?
In time I loath'd that now I love,
In both content and pleas'd.

FROM

ARBASTO.

(ED. 1626.)

SONG.

WHEREAT erewhile I wept, I laugh ;
That which I fear'd, I now despise;
My victor once, my vassal is;

My foe constrain'd, my weal supplies:
Thus do I triumph on my foe;
I weep at weal, I laugh at woe.

My care is cur'd, yet hath no end;

Not that I want, but that I have; My charge was change, yet still I stay; I would have less, and yet I crave: Ay me, poor wretch, that thus do live, Constrain'd to take, yet forc'd to give! She whose delights are signs of death,

Who, when she smiles, begins to lour, Constant in this, that still she change, Her sweetest gifts time proves but sour: I live in care, cross'd with her guile; Through her I weep, at her I smile.

FROM

ALCIDA.

(ED. 1617.)

VERSES WRITTEN UNDER A PICTURE OF VENUS

HOLDING THE BALL THAT BROUGHT TROY TO
RUIN.

WHEN Nature forg'd the fair unhappy mould,
Wherein proud beauty took her matchless shape,
She over-slipp'd her cunning and her skill,
And aim'd too fair, but drew beyond the mark;
For, thinking to have made a heavenly bliss,
For wanton gods to dally with in heaven,
And to have fram'd a precious gem for men,
To solace all their dumpish thoughts with glee,
She wrought a plague, a poison, and a hell:
For gods, for men, thus no way wrought she well.
Venus was fair, fair was the Queen of Love,
Fairer than Pallas, or the wife of Jove;
Yet did the giglot's beauty grieve the smith,
For that she brav'd the creeple + with a horn.
Mars said, her beauty was the star of heaven,
Yet did her beauty stain him with disgrace.
Paris for fair gave her the golden ball,
And bought his and his father's ruin so.
Thus Nature making what should far excell,
Lent gods and men a poison and a hell.

*

SONG.

IN time we see the silver drops

The craggy stones make soft;
The slowest snail in time we see
Doth creep and climb aloft.

With feeble puffs the tallest pine
In tract of time doth fall;

The hardest heart in time doth yield
To Venus' luring call.

vile] The 4to." vilde": but see note +, p. 167, sec. col. teye] The 4to. "eyes."

These three, forewarned, well mayest thou fly] In this line Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c., p. 34) "suspects that something s lost."

VERSES

WRITTEN UNDER A PICTURE OF A PEACOCK.

THE bird of Juno glories in his plumes;
Pride makes the fowl to prune his feathers so:
His spotted train, fetch'd from old Argus' head,
With golden rays like to the brightest sun,
Inserteth self-love in a silly bird,

Till, midst his hot and glorious § fumes,

He spies his feet, and then lets fall his plumes.

giglot's] See note †, p. 306, sec. col.

creeple] A form of cripple, sometimes used by old writers.

fair] i. e. beauty.

§ and glorious] The 4to. "an glorious."-Qy. "and his vain-glorious"?