LOVE is the blossom where there blows Every thing that lives or grows:

Love doth make the Heavens to move,

And the Sun doth burn in love:

Love the strong and weak doth yoke, And makes the ivy climb the oak, Under whose shadows lions wild,

Softened by love, grow tame and mild: Love no medicine can appease,

He burns fishes in the seas:

Not all the skill his wounds can stench, Not all the sea his fire can quench. Love did make the bloody spear

Once a leavy coat to wear,

While in his leaves there shrouded lay

Sweet birds, for love that sing and play And of all love's joyful flame

I the bud and blossom am.

Only bend thy knee to me,

Thy wooing shall thy winning be!

See, see the flowers that below
Now as fresh as morning blow;
And of all the virgin rose

That as bright Aurora shows;
How they all unleavèd die,

Losing their virginity!

Like unto a summer shade,

But now born, and now they fade.

Every thing doth pass away;

There is danger in delay:

Come, come, gather then the rose,

Gather it, or it you

lose!

All the sand of Tagus' shore
Into my bosom casts his ore:
All the valleys' swimming corn
To my house is yearly borne:

Rosalind's Madrigal

Every grape of every vine

Is gladly bruised to make me wine:
While ten thousand kings, as proud,
To carry up my train have bowed,
And a world of ladies send me
In my chambers to attend me:
All the stars in Heaven that shine,
And ten thousand more, are mine:

461

Only bend thy knee to me,
Thy wooing shall thy winning be.
Giles Fletcher [1549?-1611]

ROSALIND'S MADRIGAL

From "Rosalind"

Love in my bosom like a bee
Doth suck his sweet:

Now with his wings he plays with me,
Now with his feet.

Within mine eyes he makes his nest,
His bed amidst my tender breast;

My kisses are his daily feast,

And yet he robs me of my rest:
Ah! wanton, will ye?

And if I sleep, then percheth he
With pretty flight,

And makes his pillow of my knee
The livelong night.

Strike I my lute, he tunes the string;
He music plays if so I sing;

He lends me every lovely thing,

Yet cruel he my heart doth sting:
Whist, wanton, still ye!

Else I with roses every day

Will whip you hence,

And bind you, when you long to play,
For your offence.

I'll shut mine eyes to keep you in;
I'll make you fast it for your sin;
I'll count your power not worth a pin.
-Alas! what hereby shall I win
If he gainsay me?

What if I beat the wanton boy
With many a rod?

He will repay me with annoy,
Because a god.

Then sit thou safely on my knee;
Then let thy bower my bosom be;
Lurk in mine eyes, I like of thee;
O Cupid, so thou pity me,

Spare not, but play thee!

Thomas Lodge [1558?-1625]

SONG

From "Hymen's Triumph "

LOVE is a sickness full of woes,

All remedies refusing;

A plant that with most cutting grows,
Most barren with best using.
Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies;
If not enjoyed, it sighing cries-
Heigh ho!

Love is a torment of the mind,
A tempest everlasting;

And Jove hath made it of a kind

Not well, nor full nor fasting.
Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies;

If not enjoyed, it sighing cries

Heigh ho!

Samuel Daniel [1562-1619]

Venus' Runaway

463

LOVE'S PERJURIES

From "Love's Labor's Lost"

ON a day, alack the day!
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wished himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But, alack, my hand is sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

Do not call it sin in me

That I am forsworn for thee:

Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear

Juno but an Ethiope were,

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.

William Shakespeare [1564-1616]

VENUS' RUNAWAY

From "The Hue and Cry After Cupid"

BEAUTIES, have ye seen this toy,
Called Love, a little boy,
Almost naked, wanton, blind;
Cruel now, and then as kind?
If he be amongst ye, say?
He is Venus' runaway.

She that will but now discover
Where the wingèd wag doth hover,

Shall to-night receive a kiss,

How or where herself would wish:

But who brings him to his mother,
Shall have that kiss, and another.

He hath marks about him plenty:
You shall know him among twenty.
All his body is a fire,

And his breath a flame entire,

That, being shot like lightning in,
Wounds the heart, but not the skin.

At his sight, the sun hath turned,
Neptune in the waters burned;
Hell hath felt a greater heat;
Jove himself forsook his seat:
From the centre to the sky,
Are his trophies reared high.

Wings he hath, which though ye clip,
He will leap from lip to lip,
Over liver, lights, and heart,
But not stay in any part;
But if chance his arrow misses,
He will shoot himself in kisses.

He doth bear a golden bow,
And a quiver, hanging low,
Full of arrows, that outbrave
Dian's shafts; where, if he have

Any head more sharp than other,

With that first he strikes his mother.

Still the fairest are his fuel.

When his days are to be cruel,

Lovers' hearts are all his food,

And his baths their warmest blood:

Naught but wounds his hands doth season,

And he hates none like to Reason.

Trust him not; his words, though sweet,

Seldom with his heart do meet.