From the French of CLEMENT MAROT. 
Translation of LOUISE STUART COSTELLO.

THE SPINNER.

The spinner twisted her slender thread
As she sat and spun: 
“The earth and the heavens are mine,” she said,
“And the moon and sun;
Into my web the sunlight goes,
And the breath of May,
And the crimson life of the new-blown rose
That was born to-day.”

The spinner sang in the hush of noon
And her song was low: 
“Ah, morning, you pass away too soon,
You are swift to go. 
My heart o’erflows like a brimming cup
With its hopes and fears. 
Love, come and drink the sweetness up
Ere it turn to tears.”

The spinner looked at the falling sun: 
“Is it time to rest? 
My hands are weary,—­my work is done,
I have wrought my best;
I have spun and woven with patient eyes
And with fingers fleet. 
Lo! where the toil of a lifetime lies
In a winding-sheet!”

MARY AINGE DE VERE (Madeline Bridges).

TAKE, O, TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY.[1]

Take, O, take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, like break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn;
But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but sealed in vain.

Hide, O, hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are yet of those that April wears! 
But first set my poor heart free,

Bound in those icy chains by thee.

SHAKESPEARE and JOHN FLETCHER.

[1] The first stanza of this song appears in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” Activ.  Sc.  I.; the same, with the second, stanza added, is found in Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Bloody Brother,” Act v.  Sc. 2.

WOMAN’S INCONSTANCY.

I loved thee once, I’ll love no more,
Thine be the grief as is the blame;
Thou art not what thou wast before,
What reason I should be the same? 
He that can love unloved again,
Hath better store of love than brain: 
God sends me love my debts to pay,
While unthrifts fool their love away.

Nothing could have my love o’erthrown,
If thou hadst still continued mine;
Yea, if thou hadst remained thy own,
I might perchance have yet been thine. 
But thou thy freedom didst recall,
That if thou might elsewhere inthrall;
And then how could I but disdain
A captive’s captive to remain?

When new desires had conquered thee,
And changed the object of thy will,
It had been lethargy in me,
Not constancy, to love thee still. 
Yea, it had been a sin to go
And prostitute affection so,
Since we are taught no prayers to say
To such as must to others pray.

Yet do thou glory in thy choice. 
Thy choice of his good fortune boast;
I ’ll neither grieve nor yet rejoice,
To see him gain what I have lost;
The height of my disdain shall be,
To laugh at him, to blush for thee;
To love thee still, but go no more
A begging to a beggar’s door.