I saw, in secret to my dameHow little Cupid humbly came,And said to her, “All hayle, my mother!”But when he saw me laugh, for shameHis face with bashfull blood did flame,Not knowing Venus from the other.“Then, never blush, Cupid,” quoth I,“For many have err’d in this beauty.”

As Diane hunted on a day,She chaunst to come where Cupid lay,His quiver by his head:One of his shafts she stole away,And one of hers did close convay,Into the others stead:With that Love wounded my Loves hart,But Diane, beasts with Cupids dart.

Upon a day, as Love lay sweetly slumbringAll in his mothers lap,A gentle Bee, with his loud trumpet murm’ring,About him flew by hap.Whereof when he was wakened with the noyse,And saw the beast so small,“Whats this,” quoth he, “that gives so great a voyce,That wakens men withall?”In angry wize he flies about,And threatens all with […]

To whom his mother, closely* smiling, sayd,‘Twixt earnest and ‘twixt game:“See! thou thy selfe likewise art lyttle made,If thou regard the same.And yet thou suffrest neyther gods in sky,Nor men in earth, to rest:But when thou art disposed cruelly,Theyr sleepe thou doost molest.Then eyther change thy cruelty,Or give lyke leave unto the fly.” [* Closely, […]

Nathelesse, the cruell boy, not so content,Would needs the fly pursue,And in his hand, with heedlesse hardiment,Him caught for to subdue.But when on it he hasty hand did lay,The Bee him stung therefore.“Now out, alas,” he cryde, “and welaway!I wounded am full sore.The fly, that I so much did scorne,Hath hurt me with his little […]

New yeare, forth looking out of Ianus gate,Doth seeme to promise hope of new delight,And, bidding th’old adieu, his passed dateBids all old thoughts to die in dumpish* spright;And calling forth out of sad Winters nightFresh Love, that long hath slept in cheerlesse bower,Wils him awake, and soone about him dightHis wanton wings and darts […]

The soverayne beauty which I doo admyre,Witnesse the world how worthy to be prayzed!The light wherof hath kindled heavenly fyreIn my fraile spirit, by her from basenesse raysed;That being now with her huge brightnesse dazed,Base thing I can no more endure to view:But, looking still on her, I stand amazedAt wondrous sight of so celestiall […]

Unquiet thought! whom at the first I bredOf th’inward bale of my love-pined hart,And sithens have with sighes and sorrowes fed,Till greater then my wombe thou woxen art,Breake forth at length out of the inner part,In which thou lurkest lyke to vipers brood,And seeke some succour both to ease my smart,And also to sustayne thy […]

Happy, ye leaves! when as those lilly handsWhich hold my life in their dead-doing mightShall handle you, and hold in loves soft bands,Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.And happy lines! on which, with starry light.Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look,And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,And happy rymes! bath’d in the […]

IV* The antique Babel, empresse of the East,Upreard her buildinges to the threatned skie:And second Babell, tyrant of the West,Her ayry towers upraised much more high.But with the weight of their own surquedry**They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare,And buried now in their own ashes ly,Yet shewing, by their heapes, how great […]

III* Upon the Historie of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, King of the Epirots, translated into English. Wherefore doth vaine Antiquitie so vauntHer ancient monuments of mightie peeres,And old heroees, which their world did dauntWith their great deedes and fild their childrens eares?Who, rapt with wonder of their famous praise,Admire their statues, their colossoes great,Their rich […]

II* Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaineUnto the type of true nobility,And not by painted shewes, and titles vaine,Derived farre from famous auncestrie,Behold them both in their right visnomy**Here truly pourtray’d as they ought to be,And striving both for termes of dignitie,To be advanced highest in degree.And when thou doost with equall insight seeThe […]

One day I sought with her hart-thrilling eiesTo make a truce, and termes to entertaine;All fearlesse then of so false enimies,Which sought me to entrap in treasons traine.So, as I then disarmed did remaine,A wicked ambush, which lay hidden longIn the close covert of her guilful eyen,Thence breaking forth, did thick about me throng.Too feeble […]

Dayly when I do seeke and sew for peace,And hostages doe offer for ray truth,She, cruell warriour, doth her selfe addresseTo battell, and the weary war renew’th;Ne wilbe moov’d, with reason or with rewth*,To graunt small respit to my restlesse toile;But greedily her fell intent poursewth,Of my poore life to make unpittied spoile.Yet my poore […]

X. Unrighteous Lord of love, what law is this,That me thou makest thus tormented be,The whiles she lordeth in licentious blisseOf her freewill, scorning both thee and me?See! how the Tyrannesse doth ioy to seeThe hugh massacres which her eyes do make,And humbled harts brings captive unto thee,That thou of them mayst mightie vengeance take.But […]

Long-while I sought to what I might compareThose powrefull eies which lighten my dark spright;Yet find I nought on earth, to which I dareResemble th’ymage of their goodly light.Not to the sun, for they doo shine by night;Nor to the moone, for they are changed never;Nor to the starres, for they have purer sight;Nor to […]

More then most faire, full of the living fireKindled above unto the Maker nere,No eies, but ioyes, in which al powers conspire,That to the world naught else be counted deare!Thrugh your bright beams doth not the blinded guestShoot out his darts to base affections wound;But angels come, to lead fraile mindes to restIn chast desires, […]

Fayre eyes! the myrrour of my mazed hart,What wondrous vertue is contayn’d in you,The which both lyfe and death forth from you dartInto the obiect of your mighty view?For when ye mildly looke with lovely hew,Then is my soule with life and love inspired:But when ye lowre, or looke on me askew,Then do I die, […]

Be nought dismayd that her unmoved mindDoth still persist in her rebellious pride:Such love, not lyke to lusts of baser kynd,The harder wonne, the firmer will abide.The durefull oake whose sap is not yet drideIs long ere it conceive the kindling fyre;But when it once doth burne, it doth divideGreat heat, and makes his flames […]

Rudely thou wrongest my deare harts desire,In finding fault with her too portly pride:The thing which I doo most in her admire,Is of the world unworthy most envide.For in those lofty lookes is close implideScorn of base things, and sdeigne of foul dishonor;Thretning rash eies which gaze on her so wide,That loosely they ne dare […]