With folded arms I trampled through the grass, That held the throne of Fortune brittle glass, Like Fortune, fleeting as the restless wind, Mixed With mists, Whose damp doth make the clearest eyes grow blind Thus in a maze, I spied a hideous flame; And saw where blithely bathing in the same A worm did lie, wrapped in a smoky sweat, And yet 'Twas strange, It careless lay and shrunk not at the heat. I stood amazed and wondering at the sight, That shone like to the heaven's rich sparkling light And said, my friend, this worm within the fire, Which lies Is Venus' worm, and represents desire. A salamander is this princely beast: Given him by Cupid as a gorgeous crest Content he lies and bathes him in the flame, And goes For why, he cannot live without the same. As he, so lovers lie within the fire Of fervent love, And shrink not from the flame of hot desire, From any heat that Venus' force imparts, But lie Content Within a fire, and waste away their hearts. Up flew the dame, and vanished in a cloud, And many thoughts within my mind did shroud I felt within my heart a scorching fire, And yet, The salamander, 'twas my whole desire. RADAGON IN DIANAM. T was a valley gaudy green, IT Where Dian at the fount was seen; And did pass All other of Diana's bowers, A fount it was that no sun sees, As Phoebus' eye Could not do the virgins scathe, She sat there all in white, Ought to go, For white in armory is placed Her taffata cassock might you sec Which did show There below Legs as white as whale's bone; So white and chaste were never none. Hard by her, upon the ground, And singing all in notes high, Fie on love, it is a toy; All his fires, And desires, Are plagues that God sent down from high, As thus the virgins did disdain Did espy, Grieving at Diana's song, His bow of steel, darts of fire, In their eyes, And at the entrance made them start, Calisto straight supposed Jove Was fair and frolic for to love; Scaped not free, For, well I wot, hereupon She loved the swain Endymion; Clytia Phoebus, and Chloris' eye Did discuss By her son in darts of fire, Dian rose with all her maids, Show their thrall; And flinging hence pronounce this saw,- MULIDOR'S MADRIGAL. ILDIDO, dildido, O love, O love, I feel thy rage rumble below and above! In summer time I saw a face, Trop belle pour moi, helas, helas! Like to a stoned horse was her pace: Was ever young man so dismayed? Her eyes, like wax torches, did make me afraid: Trop belle pour moi, voila mon trepas. Thy beauty, my love, exceedeth supposes; That I with the primrose of my fresh wit Trop belle pour moi, helas, helas! Trop belle pour moi, voila mon trepas. THE PALMER'S VERSES. IN greener years, whenas my greedy thoughts The year begins, and in itself returns. That sometimes nigh and sometimes far sojourns; So love in me, conspiring my decay, With endless fire heedless bosom burns, my And from the end of my aspiring sin, ARIES. When in the Ram the sun renews his beams, TAURUS. When Phoebus with Europa's bearer bides, I blindfold walked, disdaining to behold |