And weeping hid the beauty of her face,
Whilst I amazed at her discontent,
With tears and sighs do humbly sue for grace;
But she regarding neither tears nor moan,
Flies from the fountain leaving me alone.
X
Am I a Gorgon that she doth
me fly,
Or was I hatched
in the river Nile?
Or doth my Chloris
stand in doubt that I
With syren songs
do seek her to beguile?
If any one of these she can
object
’Gainst
me, which chaste affected love protest,
Then might my
fortunes by her frowns be checked,
And blameless
she from scandal free might rest.
But seeing I am no hideous
monster born,
But have that
shape which other men do bear,
Which form great
Jupiter did never scorn,
Amongst his subjects
here on earth to wear,
Why should she then that soul
with sorrow fill,
Which vowed hath to love and
serve her still?
XI
Tell me, my dear, what moves
thy ruthless mind
To be so cruel,
seeing thou art so fair?
Did nature frame
thy beauty so unkind?
Or dost thou scorn
to pity my despair?
O no, it was not nature’s
ornament,
But winged love’s
unpartial cruel wound,
Which in my heart
is ever permanent,
Until my Chloris
make me whole and sound.
O glorious love-god, think
on my heart’s grief;
Let not thy vassal
pine through deep disdain;
By wounding Chloris
I shall find relief,
If thou impart
to her some of my pain.
She doth thy temples and thy
shrines abject;
They with Amintas’ flowers
by me are decked.
XII
Cease, eyes, to weep sith
none bemoans your weeping;
Leave off, good
muse, to sound the cruel name
Of my love’s
queen which hath my heart in keeping,
Yet of my love
doth make a jesting game!
Long hath my sufferance laboured
to inforce
One pearl of pity
from her pretty eyes,
Whilst I with
restless oceans of remorse
Bedew the banks
where my fair Chloris lies,
Where my fair Chloris bathes
her tender skin,
And doth triumph
to see such rivers fall
From those moist
springs, which never dry have been
Since she their
honour hath detained in thrall;
And still she scorns one favouring
smile to show
Unto those waves proceeding
from my woe.
XIII
A Dream
What time fair Titan in the
zenith sat,
And equally the
fixed poles did heat,
When to my flock
my daily woes I chat,
And underneath
a broad beech took my seat,
The dreaming god which Morpheus
poets call,
Augmenting fuel
to my Aetna’s fire,
With sleep possessing
my weak senses all,