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(Nor yet I thinke to fall in this Deceite)
O well, let the first suffice, which I Complaine,
And will (faire Shepherdesse) as many Daies,
As the remembrance lasteth of this Vale.

If (Shepherdesse) that day, when in this Vale
I did behold thee (to my hardest Fortune
The finall end had come of all my Daies,
Or I had lesse beheld those coyest Eies,
The cause should cease, whereof I doe Complaine,
And I would fall no more into Deceite.

But purposing to worke me this Deceite,
When by and by thou sawest me in this Vale,
Milde thou didst seeme: See then if I Complaine
Vniustly of false Loue, and cruell Fortune?
And now I knowe not, why thou turn’st thine Eies
Away, vnlesse thou greeuest at my Daies.

My song of Loue and Fortune I Complaine,
And since a braue Deceite so many Daies
Did last, water mine Eies this hill and Vale.

This did the Shepherd sing, keeping time with his teares, and resting with his sighes, and the Shepherdesse sat harkening vnto him with great content, to see with what a grace he did both play and sing. But after the Shepherd had made an end of his song, laying his rebecke out of his hand, he said to Shepherdesse. Art thou now pleased Amarillis,for (to content thy minde) thou maist make me do that, which doth vtterly displease me. And accursed Alfeus, I wish that Fortune would bring thee to that passe, wherunto by thy detested forceries I am come, bicause thou mightest then know what good cause I haue to hate thee, for the cruell despite that thou hast done me. O sweet Belisa, is there any in the world more bound to thee then I am? God graunt I may deduct this sorrowfull life so long, that mine eies may once again enioy thy peerlesse beautie, & that thine may see, if I do not acknowledge, how much I do owe vnto them. These words the Shepherd spake with such plentie of teares, that there was no hart (had it beene neuer so hard) that by hearing them, would not haue melted. But now that thou hast told me Arsileus (said the Shepher∣desse vnto him) the beginning of thy affection, and how thy father Arsenius was the principall occasion of thy seruice and great loue to Belisa; bicause when he sued vnto her, she did participate, and thou profit thy selfe by thine owne letters & songs, and some times by thine owne musicke, (of all which he might haue well excused himselfe) I pray thee now tell me, how thou didst leese her. This is a thing (said the Shepherd) which I would seldome repeat, but bicause it is euer thy qualitie, to com∣maund me to tell thee that, which is most grieuous vnto my soule, hearke then, and in a few words I will tell it thee.
There was a man in our towne called Alfeus, who had the name amongst vs to be a great Magician, and he loued Belisa extremely, before my Father euer began to serue her, but she could not abide, not onely to see him, but not to heare of his