Page 025

[one-half-first]

[/one-half-first]
[one-half]

That libertie, which was mine owne but lately,
Giue me againe, and to the same restore me:
And that milde hart, so full of loue and pittie,
Which thou didst yeeld to me, and euer owe me.
Behold (my Nymph) I was not then so witty
To knowe that sincere loue, that thou didst shew me:

Now wofull man full well I knowe and rue it,
Although it was too late before I knew it.

How could it be (my enemie) say, tell me,
How thou (in greater fault and errour being
Then euer I was thought) should’st thus repell me?
And with new league and cruell title seeing
Thy faith so pure and woorthy to be changed.
And what is that Ismenia, that doth binde it
To loue, whereas the same is most estranged,
And where it is impossible to finde it?

But pardon me, if herein I abuse thee,
Since that the cause thou gau’st me doth excuse me.

But tell me now what honour hast thou gained,
Auenging such a fault by thee committed;
And thereunto by thy occasion trained:
What haue I done, that I haue not acquitted?
Or what excesse, that is not amply paied,
Or suffer more, that I haue not endured?
What cruell minde, what angry brest displaied,
With sauage hart, to fiercenes so adiured,

Would not such mor tall greefe make milde and tender,
But that, which my fell Shepherdesse doth render?

Now as I have perceiued well thy reasons,
Which thou hast had, or hast yet to forget me,
The paines, the greefes, the guiltes of forced treasons,
That I haue done, wherein thou first didst set me:
The passions, and thine cares, and eies refusing
To heare, and see me, meaning to vndoe me:
Cam’st thou to know, or be but once perusing
Th’vnsought occasions, which thou gau’st vnto me,

Thou should’st not haue wherewith to more torment me,
Nor I to pay the fault my rashnes lent me.

Thus did my Alanius end his sweet song, wherewith I would my life had also ended, & not without great cause, since my mishap could not be more extreme, then to see him (whom I loued more then my selfe) before mine eies to pine so much for the loue of another, and so strangely to forsake me. But as I was not alone in these mis∣fortunes, I did dissemble them for that time (as well as I could) as also bicause faire Ismenia, casting her eies vpon her Montanus, began to sing that which followeth.

[/one-half]