But one must be refuséd, more mickle 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 lullaby, the learned man hath got the lady gay: For now my song is ended.

XV.

On a day, (alack the day!)
Love, whose month was ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair,

Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wished 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 thee from thy thorn :
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
Youth, so apt to pluck a sweet.
'Thou for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiope were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love."

1 This beautiful little poem also occurs in Love's Labor's Lost. In that copy, in the second line, we find "is every May;" every

My flocks feed not,
My ewes breed not,
My rams speed not,

All is amiss:

Love is dying,
Faith's defying,

Heart's denying,

Causer of this,'

XVI.

All my merry jigs are quite forgot,
All my lady's love is lost, God wot:
Where her faith was firmly fixed in love,
There a nay is placed without remove.
One silly cross

Wrought all my loss;

O frowning Fortune, curséd, fickle dame.
For now I see,

Inconstancy

More in women than in men remain.

which is repeated in the folio of 1623, is clearly a mistake. In the eleventh line we have,

"But, alack, my hand is sworn.'

In the play there is a couplet not found in The Passionate Pilgrim :

"Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee."

16

These lines precede Thou for whom."

one in

1 We have two other ancient copies of this poem "England's Helicon," 1600; the other in a collection of Madrigals by Thomas Weelkes, 1597. In "England's Helicon" these lines are thus given :

-

"Love is denying, Faith is defying;

Hearts renging, (renying,) causer of this."

In black mourn I,

All fears scorn I,

Love hath forlorn me,

Living in thrall:

Heart is bleeding,

All help needing,

(O, cruel speeding!)
Fraughted with gall.

My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal,1
My wether's bell rings doleful knell ;

My curtail dog, that wont to have played,
Plays not at all, but seems afraid;
With sighs so deep,

Procures to weep,

In howling-wise, to see my doleful plight. How sighs resound

Through heartless ground,

Like a thousand vanquished men in bloody fight

All our pleasure known to us poor swains,

All our merry meetings on the plains,

1 No deal, in no degree: some deal and no deal were common expressions.

this

2 Procures. The curtail dog is the nominative case to this verb. 3 The reading in Weelkes's Madrigals is an improvement of

passage:

"Loud bells ring not
Cheerfully."

All our evening sport from us is fled,
All our love is lost, for Love is dead.
Farewell, sweet lass,1

Thy like ne'er was

For a sweet content, the cause of all my

Poor Coridon

Must live alone,

moan:

Other help for him I see that there is none.

XVII.

Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame,
And stalled the deer that thou should'st strike,"
Let reason rule things worthy blame,

As well as fancy, partial might; *

Take counsel of some wiser head,
Neither too young, nor yet unwed.

And when thou com'st thy tale to tell,
Smooth not thy tongue with filéd 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.5

1 Lass. This is the reading of Weelkes. The Passionate Pil grim has love.

2 Moan. This is the reading in "England's Helicon." The Passionate Pilgrim has woe.

3 Strike. So the original. Mr. Dyce, who seldom indulges in conjectural emendation, alters the word to smite, "for the sake of the rhyme." This we think is scarcely allowable; for there are many examples of loose rhymes in these little poems. In the seventh stanza of this poem we have nought to rhyme with oft.

4 Fancy is here used as love, and might as power. Steevens, mischievously, we should imagine, changed partial might to partial tike; and Malone adopts this reading, which makes Cupid a bull-dog.

5 Sell. The reading of The Passionate Pilgrim is sale. A manuscript in the possession of Mr. Lysons gives us sell.

What though her frowning brows be bent,
Her cloudy looks will calm1 ere night;
And then too late she will repent,
That thus dissembled her delight;

And twice desire, ere it be day,
That which with scorn she put away.

What though she strive to try her strength
And ban 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."

And to her will frame all thy ways,
Spare not to spend, — and chiefly there
Where thy desert may merit praise,
By ringing in thy lady's ear:

The strongest castle, tower, and town,
The golden bullet beats it down.

Serve always with assuréd trust,
And in thy suit be humble, true ;
Unless thy lady prove unjust,
Press never thou to choose anew:

When time shall serve, be thou not slack
To proffer, though she put thee back.

The wiles and guiles that women work,
Dissembled with an outward show,
The tricks and toys that in them lurk,

The cock that treads them shall not know.

Calm is the reading of the Passionate Pilgrim; the manu script just mentioned has clear.