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Our morning star was done,
And Shepherdes star lost cleane out of our sight,
When that thou didst thy faith in wedlocke plight:
Dame nature made thee faire,
And ill did carelesse fortune marrie thee,
And pitie, with despaire
It was, that this thy haplesse hap should be,
A faire maide wed to prying iealousie.
Our eies are not so bold
To view the sunne, that flies with radiant wing,
Vnlesse that we doe hold
A glasse before them, or some other thing:
Then wisely this to passe did Fortune bring,
To couer thee with such a vaile:
For heeretofore, when any viewed thee,
Thy sight made his to faile:
For (sooth) thou art, thy beautie telleth me,
One of the fair’st as euer I did see.
Thy graces to obscure,
With such a froward husband, and so base,
She meant thereby, most sure
That Cupids force, and loue thou shouldst imbrace:
For t’is a force to loue, no woondrous case.
Then care no more for kinne,
And doubt no more, for feare thou must forsake,
To loue thou must beginne,
And from hencefoorth this question neuer make,
If that thou should’st a secret louer take?
Of force it doth behooue
That thou should’st be belou’d: and that againe
(Faire Mistresse) thou shouldst loue:
For to what end, what purpose, and what gaine,
Should such perfections serue? as now in vaine.
My loue is of such art,
That (of it selfe) it well deserues to take
In thy sweete loue a part:
Then for no Shepherd, that his loue doth make,
(Sweete Life) doe not my secret loue forsake.
Firmius, bicause he would not leaue of his accustomed contention, tooke his Rebecke, and sung thus.
IF that the gentle winde
Doth mooue the leaues with pleasant sound,
If that the kid, behinde
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