Page images
PDF
EPUB

I stirr'd my boat, and when I came to shore,
The boy was wing'd; methought it was a wonder;
The dame had eyes like lightning, or the flash
That runs before the hot report of thunder;

Her smiles

Were sweet,

Lovely her face; was ne'er so fair a creature,
For earthly carcass had a heavenly feature.

My friend, quoth she, sweet ferryman, behold,
We three must pass, but not a farthing fare;
But I will give, for I am Queen of love,
The brightest lass thou lik'st unto thy share;
Choose where

Thou lov'st,

Be she as fair as Love's sweet lady is,
She shall be thine, if that will be thy bliss.

With that she smil'd with such a pleasing face,
As might have made the marble rock relent;
But I that triumph'd in disdain of love,
Bad fie on him that to fond love was bent,

And then

Said thus,

So light the ferryman for love doth care,
As Venus pass not, if she pay no fare!

At this a frown sat on her angry brow;
She winks upon her wanton son hard by;
He from his quiver drew a bolt of fire,

And aim'd so right as that he pierc'd mine eye;

And then

Did she

Draw down the veil that hid the virgin's face,

Whose heavenly beauty lighten'd all the place.

Straight then I lean'd mine ear upon mine arm,*
And look'd upon the nymph (if so) was fair;
Her eyes were stars, and like Apollo's locks
Methought appear'd the trammels of her hair :
Thus did

[blocks in formation]

And suck'd in beauty, till that sweet desire
Cast fuel on, and set my thought on fire.

When I was lodg'd within the net of love,
And that they saw my heart was all on flame,
The nymph away, and with her trips along
The winged boy, and with her goes his dame:
O, then

I cried,

Stay, ladies, stay, and take not any care,
You all shall pass, and pay no penny fare!
Away they fling, and looking coyly back,
They laugh at me, O, with a loud disdain!
I send out sighs to overtake the nymphs,
And tears, as lures, to call them back again;
But they

Fly thence;

But I sit in my boat, with hand on oar,
And feel a pain, but know not what's the sore.

At last I feel it is the flame of love,

I strive but bootless to express the pain;
It cools, it fires, it hopes, it fears, it frets,
And stirreth passions throughout every vein;
That down

I sat,

And sighing did fair Venus' laws approve,
And swore no thing so sweet and sour as love.

ear upon mine arm] The 4to. "

arm upon mine ear.”

RADAGON'S SONNET.

No clear appear'd upon the azur'd sky;
A veil of storms had shadow'd Phœbus' face,
And in a sable mantle of disgrace

Sate he that is y-cleped heaven's bright eye,
As though that he,

Perplex'd for Clytia, meant to leave his place,
And wrapt in sorrows did resolve to die,
For death to lovers' woes is ever nigh;
Thus folded in a hard and mournful laze
Distress'd sate he.

A misty fog had thicken'd all the air;
Iris sate solemn and denied her showers;
Flora in tawny hid up all her flowers,
And would not diaper her meads with fair,
As though that she

Were arm'd upon the barren earth to lour;
Unto the founts Diana nild repair,

But sate, as overshadow'd with despair,
Solemn and sad within a wither'd bower,
Her nymphs and she.

Mars malcontent lay sick on Venus' knee;
Venus in dumps sat muffled with a frown;
Juno laid all her frolic humours down,
And Jove was all in dumps as well as she :
'Twas fate's decree;

For Neptune, as he meant the world to drown,
Heav'd up his surges to the highest tree,

And, leagu'd with Eol, marr'd the seaman's glee,
Beating the cedars with his billows down;
Thus wroth was he.

My mistress deigns to shew her sun-bright face,
The air clear'd up, the clouds did fade away;
Phoebus was frolic, when she did display
The gorgeous beauties that her front do grace :
So that when she

But walk'd abroad, the storms then fled away;
Flora did chequer all her treading place,
And Neptune calm'd the surges with his mace;
Diana and her nymphs were blithe and gay
When her they see.

Venus and Mars agreed in a smile,
And jealous Juno ceased now to lour;
Jove saw her face and sighed in his bower;
Iris and Æol laugh within a while
To see this glee.

Ah, born was she within a happy hour,

That makes heaven, earth, and gods, and all, to smile!
Such wonders can her beauteous looks compile

To clear the world from any froward lour;
Ah, blest be she!

EURYMACHUS IN LAUDEM MIRIMIDE.

WHEN Flora, proud in pomp of all her flowers,
Sat bright and gay,

And gloried in the dew of Iris' showers,
And did display

Her mantle chequer'd all with gaudy green;

Then I
Alone

A mournful man in Erecine was seen.

With folded arms I trampled through the grass,
Tracing as he

That held the throne of Fortune brittle glass,
And love to be,

Like Fortune, fleeting, as the restless wind,

Mixed

With mists,

Whose damp doth make the clearest eyes grow blind.

Thus in a maze, I spied a hideous flame;
I cast my sight

And saw where blithely bathing in the same
With great delight,

A worm did lie, wrapt in a smoky sweat,

And yet

'Twas strange,

It careless lay and shrunk not at the heat.

« PreviousContinue »