DORILVS
in sorrowes deepe,
Autumne
waxing olde and chill,
As
he sate his Flocks to keepe
Vnderneath
an easie hill:
Chanc’d
to cast his eye aside
On
those fields, where he had scene,
Bright
SIRENA Natures pride,
Sporting
on the pleasant greene:
To
whose walkes the Shepheards oft,
Came
her god-like foote to finde,
10
And
in places that were soft,
Kist
the print there left behinde;
Where
the path which she had troad,
Hath
thereby more glory gayn’d,
Then
in heau’n that milky rode,
Which
with Nectar Hebe stayn’d:
But
bleake Winters boystrous blasts,
Now
their fading pleasures chid,
And
so fill’d them with his wastes,
That
from sight her steps were hid.
20
Silly
Shepheard sad the while,
For
his sweet SIRENA gone,
All
his pleasures in exile:
Layd
on the colde earth alone.
Whilst
his gamesome cut-tayld Curre,
With
his mirthlesse Master playes,
Striuing
him with sport to stirre,
As
in his more youthfull dayes,
DORILVS
his Dogge doth chide,
Layes
his well-tun’d Bagpype by,
30
And
his Sheep-hooke casts aside,
There
(quoth he) together lye.
When
a Letter forth he tooke,
Which
to him SIRENA writ,
With
a deadly down-cast looke,
And
thus fell to reading it.
DORILVS
my deare (quoth she)
Kinde
Companion of my woe,
Though
we thus diuided be,
Death
cannot diuorce vs so:
40
Thou
whose bosome hath beene still,
Th’
onely Closet of my care,
And
in all my good and ill,
Euer
had thy equall share:
Might
I winne thee from thy Fold,
Thou
shouldst come to visite me,
But
the Winter is so cold,
That
I feare to hazard thee:
The
wilde waters are waxt hie,
So
they are both deafe and dumbe,
50
Lou’d
they thee so well as I,
They
would ebbe when thou shouldst come;
Then
my coate with light should shine,
Purer
then the Vestall fire:
Nothing
here but should be thine,
That
thy heart can well desire:
Where
at large we will relate,
From
what cause our friendship grewe,
And
in that the varying Fate,
Since
we first each other knewe:
60
Of
my heauie passed plight,
As