And with that the king flew away in a rage, and left poor Saladyne greatly perplexed; who grieving at his exile, yet determined to bear it with patience, and in penance of his former follies to travel abroad in every coast till he had found out his brother Rosader.  With whom now I begin.

Rosader, being thus preferred to the place of a forester by Gerismond, rooted out the remembrance of his brother’s unkindness by continual exercise, traversing the groves and wild forests, partly to hear the melody of the sweet birds which recorded,[1] and partly to show his diligent endeavor in his master’s behalf.  Yet whatsoever he did, or howsoever he walked, the lively image of Rosalynde remained in memory:  on her sweet perfections he fed his thoughts, proving himself like the eagle a true-born bird, since as the one is known by beholding the sun, so was he by regarding excellent beauty.  One day among the rest, finding a fit opportunity and place convenient, desirous to discover his woes to the woods, he engraved with his knife on the bark of a myrtle tree, this pretty estimate of his mistress’ perfection: 

[Footnote 1:  sang.]

Sonetto

    Of all chaste birds the Phoenix doth excell,
    Of all strong beasts the lion bears the bell,
    Of all sweet flowers the rose doth sweetest smell,
    Of all fair maids my Rosalynde is fairest.

    Of all pure metals gold is only purest,
    Of all high trees the pine hath highest crest,
    Of all soft sweets I like my mistress’ breast,
    Of all chaste thoughts my mistress’ thoughts are rarest.

    Of all proud birds the eagle pleaseth Jove,
    Of pretty fowls kind Venus likes the dove,
    Of trees Minerva doth the olive love,
    Of all sweet nymphs I honor Rosalynde.

    Of all her gifts her wisdom pleaseth most,
    Of all her graces virtue she doth boast: 
    For all these gifts my life and joy is lost,
    If Rosalynde prove cruel and unkind.

In these and such like passions Rosader did every day eternize the name of his Rosalynde; and this day especially when Aliena and Ganymede, enforced by the heat of the sun to seek for shelter, by good fortune arrived in that place, where this amorous forester registered his melancholy passions.  They saw the sudden change of his looks, his folded arms, his passionate sighs:  they heard him often abruptly call on Rosalynde, who, poor soul, was as hotly burned as himself, but that she shrouded her pains in the cinders of honorable modesty.  Whereupon, guessing him to be in love, and according to the nature of their sex being pitiful in that behalf, they suddenly brake off his melancholy by their approach, and Ganymede shook him out of his dumps thus: 

“What news, forester? hast thou wounded some deer, and lost him in the fall?  Care not man for so small a loss:  thy fees was but the skin, the shoulder, and the horns:  ’tis hunter’s luck to aim fair and miss; and a woodman’s fortune to strike and yet go without the game.”