Montemayor's Diana

Page 027

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FOolish loue, ah foolish louer,
I for thee, thou for another.

I am a foole, and seeme no lesse,
For thee who will not be?
For he’s a foole I doe confesse,
That is not one for thee:
And yet this doth not well agree,
To be a foolish louer,
Or foole for her, that is a foole for louing of another.

Now seeing thee, thou seest not mee,
And diest for my foe,
Eate me with sauce (that loueth thee)
Of him thou louest soe:
So shalt thou make me (to my woe)
To be a foolish louer,
And such a foole for louing thee as thou art for another.

When he had made an ende of the last verses, notwithstanding the present ago∣nie and sorrow, that we al suffered, we could not choose but laugh hartily to see how Montanus would haue me deceiue my taste by looking on him, with the sauce and appetite of Alanius, whom I loued, as if it might haue fallen in the compasse of my thought, to suffer it to be deceiued by the apparance of an other thing. But now
with greater firmnesse then the rest, I began to tune and play on my Bagpipe, and to
sing a song to it, as you shall heare; for by the same I thought to shew how more
constantly then any of the rest there, I had perseuered in my loue to Alanius.

ALthough my quiet it doth let,
Rather then blame discredit me,
(For God forbid that I forget)
Let me with wrong forgotten be.

Not onely where obliuion raineth,
There is no loue, nor can be none,
Nay, where there is suspicion,
There is no loue, but such as faineth;
Great harme it is to loue, where set
In bootelesse hopes, the minde they free,
But God defend that I forget,
Forgotten though a iest it bee.

If that I loue, why then loue I,
To sport or leaue to loue at all?
For what more honor can befall,
Then die for that, for which I die:
To liue therefore and to forget,
Is such a shamefull life I see,
That I had rather loue one yet,
Forgotten though to death I bee.

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