Nature did lend

Each finger's end

A pearl for to repair.

Consent at last,

Since that thou hast

My heart in thy demain,

For service true

On me to rue,

And reach me love again.

And if not so,

There with more woe

Enforce thyself to strain

This simple heart,

That suffered smart,

And rid it out of pain.

II.

THE LOVER BESEECHETH HIS MISTRESS

NOT TO FORGET HIS STEADFAST

FAITH AND TRUE INTENT.

F

ORGET not yet the tried intent

Of such a truth as I have meant ;

My great travail so gladly spent,
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet when first began
The weary life ye know, since whan
The suit, the service none tell can;
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet the great assays,
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,
The painful patience in delays
Forget not yet!

Forget not! Oh! forget not this,
How long ago hath been, and is

The mind that never meant amiss.
Forget not yet!

Forget not then thine own approved, The which so long hath thee so loved, Whose steadfast faith yet never moved: Forget not this!

III.

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF

SURREY,

1517-1547.

COMPLAINT OF THE ABSENCE OF HER

LOVER BEING UPON THE SEA.

HAPPY dames, that

may

embrace

The fruit of your delight,

Help to bewail the woeful case,

And eke the heavy plight

Of me, that wonted to rejoice

The fortune of my pleasant choice:
Good ladies, help to fill my mourning voice.

In ship, freight with rememberance
Of thoughts, and pleasures past,
He sails that hath in governance
My life, while it will last :
With scalding sighs, for lack of gale,
Furthering his hope, that is his sail
Toward me, the swete port of his avail.

Alas! how oft in dreams I see

Those eyes, that were my food,

Which sometime so delighted me,

That yet they do me good. Wherewith I wake with his return,

Whose absent flame did make me burn.

But when I find the lack, Lord! how I mourn.

When other lovers in arms across,

Rejoice their chief delight;
Drowned in tears to mourn my loss,
I stand the bitter night,

In my window where I may see,
Before the winds how the clouds flee.
Lo! what mariner love hath made me.

And in green waves when the salt flood
Doth rise, by rage of wind;

A thousand fancies in that mood
Assail my restless mind.

Alas! now drencheth my sweet foe,
That with the spoil of my heart did go,
And left me; but, alas! why did he so?

And when the seas wax calm again,

To chase from me annoy,

My doubtful hope doth cause me plain:
So dread cuts off my joy.

Thus is my wealth mingled with woe,
And of each thought a doubt doth grow,

Now he comes, will he come? alas! no, no.

IV.

RICHARD EDWARDS,

1523-1566.

AMANTIUM IRE AMORIS REDINTE

GRATIO EST.

IN going to my naked bed as one, that long beers that

N going to my naked bed as one that would have slept,

wept:

She sighed sore and sang full sweet, to bring the babe to

rest,

That would not cease but cried still, in sucking at her

breast.

She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with her

child,

She rocked it and rated it, till that on her it smiled:

Then did she say now have I found this proverb true to

prove,

The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love.

Then took I paper pen and ink, this proverb for to write,
In register for to remain, of such a worthy wight:
As she proceeded thus in song unto her little brat,
Much matter uttered she of weight, in place whereas she

sat.