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A LOVER'S PROTESTATION.

First shall the heavens want starry light,
The seas be robbed of their waves,

The day want sun, and sun want bright,

The night want shade, the dead men graves, The April flowers and leaf and tree,

Before I false my faith to Thee.

First shall the tops of highest hills
By humble plains be over-pried,
And poets scorn the Muses' quills,
And fish forsake the water glide,
And Iris lose her colour'd weed,
Before I fail Thee at thy need.

First direful hate shall turn to peace,
And love relent in deep disdain,
And death his fatal stroke shall cease,
And envy pity every pain,

And pleasure mourn, and sorrow smile,
Before I talk of any guile.

First Time shall stay his stayless race,
And Winter bless his brows with corn,
And snow bemoisten July's face,

And Winter spring, and Summer mourn,
Before my pen by help of Fame
Cease to recite thy sacred name.

PHILLIS.

Love guards the roses of thy lips,
And flies about them like a bee:

If I approach he forward skips,
And if I kiss he stingeth me.

Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,
And sleeps within their pretty shine ;

And if I look the Boy will lour,

And from their orbs shoots shafts divine.

Love works thy heart within his fire,
And in my tears doth firm the same;
And if I tempt it will retire,

And of my plaints doth make a game.

Love! let me cull her choicest flowers,
And pity me, and calm her eye!
Make soft her heart! dissolve her lours!
Then will I praise thy deity.

But if thou do not, Love! I'll truly serve her
In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.

HUMFREY GIFFORD.

15- 16

IN THE PRAISE OF friendsHIP.

Reveal, O tongue! the secrets of my thought!
Tell forth the gain that perfect Friendship brings !
Express what joys by her to man are brought!
Unfold her praise which glads all earthly things!
If one might say, in earth a heaven to be,
It is (no doubt) where faithful friends agree.
To all estates true friendship is a stay,
To every wight a good and welcome guest,-
Our life were death were she once ta'en away :
Consuming cares would harbour in our breast;
Foul malice eke would banish all delight,
And puff us up with poison of despite.

If that the seeds of envy and debate

Might yield no fruit, but wither and decay,

-

No canker'd minds would hoard up heaps of hate, No hollow hearts dissembling parts should play, No claw-back then would fawn in hope of meed : Such life to lead were perfect life indeed.

But nowadays desire of worldly pelf
With all estates makes friendship very cold;
Few for their friends, each shifteth for himself:
If in thy purse thou hast good store of gold,
Full many a One thy friendship will embrace;
Thy wealth once spent, they turn away their face.

Let us still pray unto the Lord above,
For to relent our hearts as hard as stone,
That through the world one knot of royal love
In perfect truth might link us all in one!
Then should we pass this life without annoys,
And after death possess eternal joys.

GEORGE PEELE.

1558?-1596?

CUPID'S CURSE.

CENONE-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,—

The fairest shepherd on our green,
A Love for any Ladie!
PARIS-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,

Thy Love is fair for thee alone
And for no other Ladie.

CENONE-My Love is fair, my Love is gay,
As fresh as been the flowers in May;
And of my Love my roundelay,
My merry merry merry roundelay,
Concludes with Cupid's Curse:

They that do change old love for new, Pray Gods they change for worse! BOTH-They that do change old love for new, Pray Gods they change for worse!

CENONE-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,—

The fairest shepherd on our green,
A Love for any Ladie!
PARIS-Fair and fair and twice so fair,
As fair as any may be,

Thy Love is fair for thee alone,
And for no other Ladie.

CENONE-My Love can pipe, my Love can sing,
My Love can many a pretty thing;
And of his lovely praises ring

My merry merry roundelays:

Amen to Cupid's Curse!

They that do change old love for new, Pray Gods they change for worse! BOTH-They that do change old love for new, Pray Gods they change for worse!

COLIN'S SONG.

O gentle Love! ungentle for thy deed:
Thou makest my heart

A bloody mark,

With piercing shot to bleed.

Shoot soft, sweet Love! for fear thou shoot amiss, For fear too keen

Thy arrows been

And hit the heart where my Beloved is !

Too fair that fortune were, nor never I
Shall be so bless'd

Among the rest,

That Love shall seize on her by sympathy:
Then since with Love my prayers bear no boot,
This doth remain

To cease my pain :

I take the wound and die at Venus' foot.

ROBERT GREENE.

1560 ?-1592?

SWEET CONTENT.

Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown ;

Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent ;
The poor estate scorns Fortune's angry frown :

Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.

The homely house that harbours quiet rest,
The cottage that affords no pride nor care,
The mean that grees with country music best,
The sweet consort of mirth and modest fare,-
Obscured life sets down as type of bliss:
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.

SAMELA.

Like to Diana in her summer weed,
Girt with a crimson robe of brightest dye,
Goes fair Samela;

Whiter than be the flocks that straggling feed,
When wash'd by Arethusa Fount they lie,
Is fair Samela;

As fair Aurora, in her morning grey
Deck'd with the ruddy glister of her love,
Is fair Samela;

Like lovely Thetis on a calmed day,
Whenas her brightness Neptune's fancy move,
Shines fair Samela;

Her tresses gold, her eyes like glassy streams,
Her teeth are pearl, the breasts are ivory

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