X.
Good night, good rest. Ah ! neither be my share :
She bade good night, that kept my rest away ;
And dafb met to a cabin hang'd with care.
To descant on the doubts of mv decay.
" Farewell," quoth she. " and come again to-morrow ;"
Farewell 1 could not, lor I supp'd with sorrow.
Yet at my partins sweetly did she smile.
In scorn or frienaship, nill I construe whether :t
May be, she joy*d to lest at my exile.
M^be, again to make me wander thither:
TTander, a word for shadows like myself,
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.
XI.
Lord, how mine eyes throw grazes to the east !
My heart doth charge the watch ;§ the morning rise
Both cite each moving sense firom idle rest.
Not daring trust the office of mine ejres.
While Philomela sits and sings. I sit and mark.
And wish her lays were tuned like the lark ;
For she doth welcome dayUght with her ditty.
And drives away dark, dismal-dreaming night :
The night so packed, I post unto my pretty ;|J
Heart Bath his hope, and eyes their wished sight ;
Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow ;
For why ? she sigh'd, and bade me come to-morrow.
• Refuse, reject. t Put me oflf. t WUl not say which.
§ Perhaps the poet, wishing for the approach of morning, enjoins the
watch to hasten through their nocturnal duty.
I The night so dispatched, I hasten to my pretty one.
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510 XHB PijenoiTATS pilobul"
"Were I with her, the night would post too soon ;
But now are minutes added to the hours ;
To spite me now, each minute seems a moon:<*
Tet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers !
Pack night peep day ; good day, of night now borrow;
Short, Night, io^night, and length thj^lf to-morrow.
XII.
It was a lording's daughter, the fairest one of three,t
That liked of her master as well as well might be.
Till looking on an Englishman, the fairest that eye could see^
HQr fancy fell a-tuming.
Long was the combat doubtful, that love with love did fight,
To leave the master loveless, or kill the gallant knight :
Toput in practice either, alas it was a spite
Unto the silly damsel
But one must be refused, more miokle was the pain,
That nothing could be used, to turn them both to gain.
For of the two the trusty knight was wounded with disdain :
Alas she could not help it !
Thus art with arms contending was victor of the day.
Which by a gift of learning did bear the maid away ;
Then lulkby, the learned man hath got the lady gay ;
For now my song is ended.
xni:
On a day (alack the day IJ)
Love, whose month was ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair.
Playing in the wanton wr.
Through the velvet leaves the wind.
All unseen, *gan passage find ;
That the lover, sick to death,
"Wish'd himself the heaven's breath :
** Air," quoth he, " thy cheeks may blow ;
Air. would I might triumph so !
But alas ! my hand hath sworn
: Ne'er to pluck thoe from thy thorn:
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
Youth, so apt to pluck a sweei
Do not call it sin in me,
That I am forsworn for thee ;
Thou for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiope were ;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love."
* 1. 0. mnnfh.
t lliis and the five following sonnets are said in the old copy to have
Deen set to music. Mr. Oldys, in one of his MSS., says they were set by
John and Thomas Morley.
X This sonnet is likewise found in a collection of verses entitled Bng^
land*g Helicon, printed in 1600 j it is there called The Patsionate Skeep-
heartTa Song, and our author's name is affixed to it. It occurs idso in
Love*» Labour** Lott, activ. sc. iii.
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THE PABSTONATB PILGBIX.
xrv.
My flocks feed not ,•
My ewes breed not,
My rams si)eed not,
All is amiss :
Love's denying,t
Faith's defying.
Heart's renying,J
Causer of this.
An my merry jigs are quite forgot,
AH my lady's love is lost, Qod wot :
Where her faith was firmly fix'd in love,
There a nay is placed without remove.
One silly cross
Wrought all my loss ;
O frowning fortune, cursed, fickle dame !
For now I see.
Inconstancy
More in women than in men remain.
In black mourn I,
All fears scorn I,
Love hath forlorn me,§
Living in thrall :
Heart is bleeding,
All help needing
(O cruel sjpeeding I)
Fraughted with galL
My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal,||
My wethers' bell rings doleful knell ;
My curtail dogl" that wont to have play'd.
Plays not at all, but seems afraid ;
My sighs so deep,
Procure** to weep.
In howling-wise, tq see my doleful plight.
How sighs resound
Through heartless ground, ft
Like a thousand vanquish'd men in bloody fight !
Clear weUs si)ring not.
Sweet birds sin^ not.
Green plants bnng not
Forth ; they die :
Herds stand weeping.
Flocks all sleeping
Nymphs back creeping
Fearfully.
* This sonnet is also found in Englani*9 Helicon, 1000. It is there
entitled The Unknown SheephertTa Complaint t and sabscribed Jgnoto. It
is likewise printed in a collection of Madrigals, by Thomas Weelkes, Mo.,
1097' t Denial. % The French renier. S Deserted.
II 7. 0. in no degree, more or less.
% I.e. B. dog which, not paying tax as a game dog, had its tail cat off.
** I. e. make the dog. %% Oroundtliat is exhausted.
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512 THB FASBIOKATE PILGBIK.
All our pleasure ksowu to us -poor swains,
All our merry meetings on the plains.
All our evening sport fi*om us is fled,
All our love is lost, for love is dead.
[Farewell, sweet lass.
Thy like ne'er was
For sweet content, the cause of all my moan :
Poor Goridon
Must live alone,
Other help for him I see that l^re is none.
XV.
When as thine eye hath chose the dame.
And stall'd the deer that thou shouldst strike.
Let reason rule things worthy blame.
As well as fancy, partial tike :
Take counsel of some wiser head.
Neither too young, nor yet unwed.
And when thou oom'st th^ tale to tell.
Smooth not thy tongue with filed talk,*
Lest she some subtle practice smell
(A cripple soon can find a halt) :
But plainly say thou lov'st her well.
And set her person forth to selL
And to her will frame all thy ways ;
Spare not to spend,— and chiefly there
Where thy desert may merit praise,
By ringing always in her ear :
The strongest castle, tower, and town.
The golden bullet beats it down.
Serve always with assured trust.
And in thy suit be humble, true ;
Unless thy lady prove unjust,
Seek never thou to choose^ anew :
When time shall serve, be thou not slack
To profier, though she put thee back.
What though her frowning brows be bent,
Her cloudy looks will clear ere night ;
And then too late she will repent,^
That she dissembled her delight;
And twice desire, ere it be day
That with such scorn she put away.
What though she strive to try her strength.
And banf and brawl, and say thee nay,
Her feeble force will yield at length.
When craft hath taught her thus to say :
** Had women been so strong as men.
In faith you had not had it then.*'
• With studied or polished langraage. f Corse.
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THB PASSIONATE FILGEIM. 513
The wiles and guiles that women work,
Dissembled witn an outward show,
The tricks and toys that in them lurk,
The cock that treads them shall not know.
Have you not heard it said full offc,
A woman's nay doth stand for nought P
Think women love to match with men.
And not to live so like a saint :
There is no heaven ; they holy then
Begin when age doth them attaint.
Were kisses all the joys in bed,
One woman would another wed.
But soffc ; enough,— too much I fear,
For if my lady hear my song ;
She will not stick to wring mine ear,
To teach my tongue to be so long :
Tet will she blush, here be it said.
To hear her secrets so bewray'd.
fOL.v. Ui
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SUPPLEMENTARY POEMS.
I.
Take, oh, take those lips away •
That so sweetly were forsworn ;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn :
But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.
Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow,
Are of those that April wears.
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.
IL .
Let the bird of loudest lay,t
On the sole Arabian tree,t
Herald sad and trumpet oe,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
* This little poem is not Tirinted in Ike PaaaiofuUe Pilgrim, probably
because it was not written so early as 1590. The first dtanza of it is intro.
duced in Measure for Measure. In Fletcher's Bloody Brother it is found
entire. Whether the second stanza was also written by Shakspeare can-
not now be ascertained. All the songs, however, introduced in our
author's plays, appear to have been his own composition; and the present
contains an expression (*' Seals of love, but aeaPd in vmn *'} of which he
seems to have been peculiarly fond.
t In 1601, a book was published entitled '* Love's Martyr, or Rosalin's
Complaint, Allegorically shadowing the Truth of Love, in the constant
Fate of' the Phoenix and Turtle. A Poem enterlaced with much Varietie
and Raritie; now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato
Cseliano, by Robert Chester. ^;\^h the true Legend of fieunous King
Arthur, the last of the nine Worthies; being the first Essay of a new
British Poet : collected out of diverse authentical Records. To tiiese
are added some new Compositions of several modem Writers, whose
names are subscribed to their severall Workes; upon the first Subject,
viz. the Phoenix and Turtle." Among these new compositions is the
following poem, subscribed with our author's name.
t " Now I will believe
That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix* throne ; one phoenix
At this hour reigning theru *• —Tempest.
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SUPPLEMENTAEY POEMS. 615
But thou shrieking harbinger.
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
-Augur of the fever's end *
Toluiis troop oome thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd King :
Keep the oh^equy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That demnctive music can,t
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow.
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giVst and tak'stj
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence :—
Love and constancy is dead ;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one ;
Two distincts, division none :
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder ;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen :
But in them it were a wonder.§
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his ri^ht ||
Flaming in the phoenix' sight :
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd.
That the self was not the same ;T
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
* The screech-owl.
' t For con; i. e. knows, understands tune, real music.
t I suppose this expression means, that the crow^ or raven, continues
its race hy the breath it givee to them as its parent, and by that which it
takes from other animals, t. e. by first producing its young from itself, and
then providing for thenr support by depredation.
§ I. e. So extraordinary a phenomenon as hearts remote, yet not asunder,
&c., would have excited astonishment anywhere else except in these two
birds.
H /. e. the turtle saw those qualities which were his right, which wore
peculiarly appropriated to him, in the phoenix.
^ I. e. this communication of appropriated qualities alarmed the power
that presides oyer property. Finding that the self was not the same, he
began to fear that nothing would remain distinct and individual; that all
things would become common.
2 L ?
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516 8UPPLEMENTAEY POEMS.
Beason, in itself confounded.
Saw division grow together ;
To thempeives yet either-neithen
Simple were so well oompounded;
That it cried, how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one !
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain *
Whereupon it made this threnef
To the phOBnix and the dove,
Go-supremes and stars of love ;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
THBENOS.
Beauty, truth, and rarily
Grace in all simpUcity,
Here inclosed in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest ;
And the turtle's loyal hreast
To eternity doth rest.
Leaving no posterity :—
'Twas not. their infirmity.
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be ;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she ;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair ;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
William Shakspeabs.
IIL
PEDLAE'S SONG.:
. From the far Lavinian shore,
I your markets come to store ;
Muse not, though so far I dwell,
And my wares come here to sell ;
* Love is reasonable, and reason has no reason, if two that are diu
united from each other, can yet remain togetlier and undivided.
t TitiB funeral »ong.
X ** These verses, which would form a very appropriate song for Auto-
lycna, were arrangfed as a glee for three voices, by Dr. Wilson, aboot the
year 1667. They are published in Playford's Musical Companion in 1673 ;
in Warren's Collection of Glees and Catches, and in S. Webbe's Convito
Harmonico. The words were, I believe, first ascribed to ShsJcspeare by
Clark, in 1824, in his Words of Glees , Madrigals, fyc. ; but he has not given
Uis authority for so doing. It is stated, however, that they have since
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SUPPLEMENTABY POEMS. 517
Such is the sacred hunger for gold.
Then come to my pack.
While 1 cry
« What d'ye lack,
What d^e buy?
For here it is to be sold."
1 have beauty, honour, grace.
Fortune, favour, time, and place,
And what else tnou wouldst request,
E^en the thing thou likest best ;
First let me have but a touch of your gold.
Then come to me, lad,
Thou shalt have
What thy dad
Never gave ;
For here it is sold.
Madam, come, see what you lack,
Pve complexions in my pack ;
White and red you may have in this place,
To hide your old and wrinkled face.
First let me have but a touch of your gold,
Then you shall seem
Like a girl of fifteen.
Although you be threescore and ten years old.
been discovered in a common-place book, written abont Shakspeare's
time, with his name attached to them, and with this hidirect evidence in
favour of their being written by him, that the other pieces in the collection
are attributed to their proper writers, Mr. Dance was induced to consider
the song: to have been written bjr Shakspeare."— i\ro<e« and Queries,
Noo. 10, 1849.
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A LOVER'S COMPLAINT.
[This poem was first printed in 1609, with our author's name,
at the end of the 4to. edition of his Sonnets.]
From off a hill whose concaye womb re-worded*
A plaintful stoi^ from a sistering vale,
My spirits to attend this double voice aooorded,
And down I lav to list the sad-tuned tale :
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain.
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.t
Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
W hich fortified her visage ftrom the sun.
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun.
Nor youth all quit : but, spite of heaven's fell rage.
Some beauly peep'a through lattice of sear'd age.
Offc did she heave her napkin t to her evne,
Which on it had conceited omiracters,$
Laundringll the silken figures in the orine
That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears, IB"
And often reading what contents it bears ;
As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe.
In clamours of all size, both high and low.
Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,**
As they did battery to the spheres intend ;
Sometime divertedff their poor balls are tied «
To the orbed earth ; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on ; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd,
The mina and sight distractedly commix'd.
Her hair, nor loose nor tied m formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride ;
Por some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,Jt
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside ;
Some in their threaden fillet still did bide.
And, true to bondaj?e, would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negUgence.
* Re-echoed. f I. e. sighs and tears. t Handkenddef.
^ Fanciful imagres. I Washkigr. if Made into round tears.
** The allusion is tP apiece of ordnance.
-^t Turned IVom their former direction. tt Her straw hat.
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A. LOVEE'S COMPLiJNT. 619
A thousand fayours from a maund* she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set, —
Like usury, applying wet to wet.
Or monarcns' nands, that let not bounty fall
Where want cries some, but where excess begs alL
Of folded schedulesf had she many a one.
Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood ,
Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone.
Bidding them find tneir sepulchres in mud ;
Found yet more letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
Enswathed and seal'd to curious secrecy .J
These often bathed she in her fluxive§ eyes.
And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear ;
Cried, " O false blood ! thou register of lies.
What unapproved witness dost thou bear !
Ink would nave seem'd more black and damned here !"
This said, in top of rage, the lines she rents.
Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle|| knew.
Of court of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours, observed as they flew ;^
Towards this afflicted fancj;** fastly drew;
And, privileged by age, desires to know
In t)nef, the grounds and motives of her woe.
So slides he down upon his grained batjff"
And comely-distant sits he by her side ;
When he again desires her, being sat.
Her grievance with his hearing to divide :
If that from him there may be aught applied
Which may her sufi*ering ecstasy assuage,
'Tis promised in the charity of age.
" Father," she says, " though in me you behold
The injury of many a blastmg hour,
Let it not tell your judgment I am old ;
Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power :
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had sell applied
Love to myself and to no love cieside.
• A hand-basket. t Rolls of paper.
t If the reader will consult the Royal Letters, &c., in the British
Mnsetim, he •will find that anciently the ends of a piece of narrow ribbon
were ravelled and placed under the seals of letters, to connect them more
closely. i Flowing. i| Bustle.
f I. e, though engaged in the bustle of the court and city, had not
suffered the busy and gay period of youth to pass by without observation.
** This afflicted lone-sick lady.
His staff, on which the grain of the wood was visible.
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620 A lovbb's compiaint.
" But woe is me ! too early I attended
A youthful suit (it was to gain my grace)
Of one hj nature's outwards so commended,
That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face :
Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place ;
And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodged, and newly deified.
" His browny locks did hang in crooked curls ;
And every light occasion of the wind
Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What's sweet to do. to do will aptly find:*
Each eye that saw nim did enchant the mind ;
Por on his visage was in little drawn,
What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.t
'* Small show of man was yet upon his chin ;
His phoenix downt began but to appear, *
Like unshorn velvet, on that termless§ skin,
Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear ;
Yet show'd his visage, by that cost, most dear ;
And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
If best 'twere as it was, or best without.
'* His qualities were beauteous as his form.
Por maiden tongued he was, and thereof free ;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see.
When winds breathe sweet, unruly tnough they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth.
Bid livery falseness in a pride of truth.
" Well could he ride, and often men would say,
* TTtat horse his mettle from his rider takes :
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway^
What rounds, what boxmds, what course, what stop he
makes!**
And controversy hence a question takes.
Whether the horse by him became his deed.
Or he his manege by the well-doing steed.
" But quickl^r on his side the verdict went ;
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
AccompUsh'd in himself, not in his case :
All aids, themselves made fairer by their i>laoe.
Came for additions ; vet their purposed trim
Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.
* I. e. thing's pleasant to be done -will easily find people enougb to do
them. •); I.e. seen.
t I suppose she means matchless, rare down.
S Indescribable.
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A loveb's complaint. 621
** So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind of arguments and, question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep :
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and mfferent skill.
Catching all passions in his craft of will ;
" •That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old ; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted :
Consents bewitch*(L ere he desire have granted ;
And dialogued for him what he would say,
Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.
" Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind ;
Like fools that in the imagination set
The goodly objects which abroad they find
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd ;
And labouring in more pleasures to b^tow them.
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owef them :
" So many have, that never touched his hand,
Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart,
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple (not in part).
What with his art in youth, and youth in art^
Threw my aflfections in his charmed i)ower,
lleserved the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
** Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired, yielded ;
Finding myself in honour so forbid.
With safest distance I mine honour shielded :
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
" But ah ! who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destined ill she must hersmfassay ?
Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content.
To put the by-past perils in her wav ?
Counsel may stop a while what will not stay ;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen,
** Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood.
That we must curb it upon others* proof.
To be forbid the sweets that seem so gooo.
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from iudement stand aloof !
The one a palate hatn that needs will taste.
Though reason weep, and cry it is thy last,
* (So). t Own.
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622 A LOVEB'S COMPLAINT.
** For further I could say, this man '* untrue,
And knew the patterns* of his foul beguiling ;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiUng ;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiUng ;
Thought characters, and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.
" And long upon these terms I held ray city.
Till thus he 'gan besiege me : * Gentle maid.
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pi^,
And be not of my holy vows afraid :
That's to you sworn, to none was ever said ;
For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,
Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow.
" f All my offences that abroad you see^
Are errors of the blood, none or the mind :
Love made them not ; with acturef they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind :
They sought their shame that so their shame did find ;
And so much less of shame in me remains.
By how much of me their reproach contains.
" ' Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,
Or my affection put to the smallest teenj:
Or any of my leisures ever charm'd :
Harm have 1 done to them, but ne'er was harm'd ;
Kept hearts in Uverie& but mine own was tree.