If country loves such sweet desires do gain, His flocks are folded, he comes home at night, And merrier too, For kings bethink them what the state require, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, He kisseth first, then sits as blithe to eat For kings have often fears when they do sup, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, To bed he goes, as wanton then, I ween, For kings have many griefs affects to move, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, Upon his couch of straw he sleeps as sound, For cares cause kings full oft their sleep to spill, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, Thus with his wife he spends the year, as blithe And blither too, For kings have wars and broils to take in hand, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, HEXAMETRA ALEXIS IN LAUDEM ROSAMUNDÆ.* OFT have I heard my lief Coridon report on a loveday, When bonny maids do meet with the swains in the valley by Tempe, How bright-eyed his Phillis was, how lovely they glanced, When fro th' arches ebon-black flew looks as a lightning, That set a-fire with piercing flames even hearts adamantine: Face rose-hued, cherry-red, with a silver taint like a lily: Venus' pride might abate, might abash with a blush to behold her; Phoebus' wires compared to her hairs unworthy the praising; Juno's state and Pallas' wit disgraced with the Graces That graced her, whom poor Coridon did choose for a love-mate. Ah, but had Coridon now seen the star that Alexis Nash humorously describes English hexameters as 'that drunken, staggering kind of verse, which is all up hill and down hill, like the way betwixt Stamford and Beechfield, and goes like a horse plunging through the mire in the deep of winter, now soused up to the saddle, and straight aloft on his tip-toes.'-Have with You to Saffron-Walden. Likes and loves so dear, that he melts to sighs when he sees her, Did Coridon but see those eyes, those amorous eye-lids, From whence fly holy flames of death or life in a moment! Ah, did he see that face, those hairs that Venus, Apollo Bashed to behold, and, both disgraced, did grieve that a creature Should exceed in hue, compare both a god and a goddess! Ah, had he seen my sweet paramour, the taint of Alexis, Then had he said, Phillis, sit down surpassed in all points, For there is one more fair than thou, beloved of Alexis! HEXAMETRA ROSAMUNDÆ IN DOLOREM AMISSI ALEXIS. TEMPE, the grove where dark Hecate doth keep her abiding, Tempe, the grove where poor Rosamond bewails her Alexis, Let not a tree nor a shrubbe green to show thy rejoicing, Let not a leaf once deck thy boughs and branches, O Tempe! Let not a bird record her tunes, nor chant any sweet notes, But Philomel, let her bewail the loss of her amours, And fill all the wood with doleful tunes to bemoan her: Parched leaves fill every spring, fill every fountain; All the meads in mourning weed fit them to lamenting; Echo sit and sing despair i' the valleys, i' the mountains; All Thessaly help poor Rosamond mournful to bemoan her, For she's quite bereft of her love, and left of Alexis! Once was she liked and once was she loved of wanton Alexis: Now is she loathed and now is she left of trothless Alexis. Here did he clip and kiss Rosamond, and vow by Diana, None so dear to the swain as I, nor none so beloved; Here did he deeply swear and call great Pan for a witness, That Rosamond was only the rose beloved of Alexis, That Thessaly had not such another nymph to delight him: None, quoth he, but Venus' fair shall have any kisses; But Rosamond alone, to herself should have her Alexis. You Dryades, and watery Nymphs that sport by the fountains, Fair Tempe, the gladsome grove of greatest Apollo, Shrubs and dales and neighbouring hills, that heard when he swore him, Witness all, and seek to revenge the wrongs of a virgin! Had any swain been lief to me but guileful Alexis, Had Rosamond twined myrtle boughs, or rosemary branches, Sweet hollyhock, or else daffodil, or slips of a bay-tree, And given them for a gift to any swain but Alexis, Well had Alexis done t' have left his rose for a giglot: But Galate ne'er loved more dear her lovely Menalcas, Than Rosamond did dearly love her trothless Alexis; Endymion was ne'er beloved of his Cytherea, Half so dear as true Rosamond beloved her Alexis. Now, seely lass, hie down to the lake, haste down to the willows, And with those forsaken twigs go make thee a chaplet; Mournful sit, and sigh by the springs, by the brooks, by the rivers, Till thou turn for grief, as did Niobe, to a marble; Melt to tears, pour out thy plaints, let Echo reclaim them, How Rosamond that loved so dear is left of Alexis. Now die, die, Rosamond! let men engrave o' thy tombstone, Here lies she that loved so dear the youngster Alexis, Once beloved, forsaken late of faithless Alexis, Yet Rosamond did die for love, false-hearted Alexis! PHILADOR'S ODE THAT HE LEFT WITH THE DESPAIRING LOVER. WH WHEN merry autumn in her prime, Had filled Ceres' lap with store With heart's grief and eyes' gree, A chaplet that did shroud the beams |