Page 076

Yet in the circumstance I would
That more or lesse it did import.

For that may be of such behoofe,
And Mistresse, so much it may doe
That loue may giue thee greater proofe,
Then it hath giu’n thee hitherto.
And whom an ill and firmest loue
Can neither greeue, nor mollifie,
It may be such a greefe may moue
Thee, of some greater qualitie.

Vnto the meade if thou dost goe,
Vnto the riuer or the plaine,
Then am I diligent to knowe,
If thou art gone or come againe.
If angrie, when I follow thee,
Or mocke me, if behinde I stay:
See then how feare doth trouble me,
And what extremes I doe essay.

To Syluia then thy deerest friend
I goe (to seeke a poore releefe)
To know if (haply) in the end
Thou hast inform’d her of my greefe.
But nothing when of thee she speakes,
Then doe I say, this cruell foe
Vnto her good companion breakes
Nothing of me, nor of my woe.

Some other times I watch the place,
To heare the singing in the night,
With singular and sweetest grace,
A thousand songs of great delight:
For I doe heare them one by one,
And thou seek’st out the worst of all,
And euer from thy mouth heare none
That in loue matters doe befall.

I sawe thee yet the other day,
Talking with Maudline, who in fine
To thee her sorrow did bevvray:

[/one-half-first]

[one-half]
O would to God it had bene mine.
I thought thou wouldst not long defer
(Poore soule) to cheere her heauy hart,
But laughing, thou didst answere her.
It is a iest, in loue’s no smart.

Thou left’st her weeping all in vaine,
And I came thither by and by:
Of thy hard hart she did complaine,
And sighing, this I did reply:
No wonder, for this cruell one
Delights not onely, that aboue
All others she loues not alone,
But that all others should not loue.

Some other times I thee espie
Talking with other Shepherdesses,
All is of feastes and brauerie,
Who daunceth best, and like digresses:
That this maide hath a seemely grace,
And he this, or that interest:
But if of loue they touch an ace,
Then straight thou turn’st it to a iest.

Beware yet, liue not too secure,
For in braue loue and fortunes art,
There is not anything lesse sure
Then such a free exempted hart.
And it may be with after woe
That cruell loue will subiect thee,
To one that will intreate thee soe,
(Cruell) as thou intreatest me.

But (if that fall out to thy cost)
God graunt the same may neuer bee,
And first I wish my life were lost,
Rather then such a thing to see.
For this poore hart which in my brest
Is burning in so strange a fire,
Feares more thy harme and thy vnrest,
Then it respects her owne desire.
[/one-half]

With the greatest signes of dolour and of a most afflicted hart indeede, the Shepherdesse Belisa rehearsed Arsenius his letter, or (to say more truely) the letter of his sonne Arsileus, staying betweene many verses, and repeating some of them twise, and at other some lifting vp her eies to heauen with such anguish and greefe of minde, that one woulde haue thought her hart would haue burst in