Montemayor's Diana

Page 321

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Firmius.
O trie no other Shepherd swaine,
And care not other loues to prooue:
Who though they giue thee all their loue,
Thou canst not such as mine obtaine:
And would’st thou haue in loue more gaine?
O yet I would
Loue thee more, if that I could.
Faustus.
Impossible it is (my friend)
That any one should me excell
In loue, whose loue I will refell,
If that with me he will contend:
My loue no equall hath, nor end.
And yet I would
Loue her more, if that I could.
Firmius.
Behold how loue my soule hath charm’d
Since first thy beauties I did see,
(Which is but little yet to mee)
My freest senses I haue harm’d
(To loue thee) leauing them vnarm’d:
And yet I would
Loue thee more, if that I could.
Faustus.
I euer gaue and giue thee still
Such store of loue, as loue hath lent me:
And therefore well thou maist content thee,
That loue doth so enrich my fill:
But now behold my chiefest will,
That faine I would
Loue thee more, if that I could.

They would not (I thinke) haue made an ende so soone for want of copie of their theame, but that Diana went away from Firmius, bicause her sheepe were in one place, and his in another. Faustus went with her, who had nothing else to doe, but walke vp and downe those fields in corriualitie with Firmius, and waiting on Diana, and staying to see when she would come foorth to them. If Faustus, accom∣panying Diana, did any thing or sing, I know not, for seeing my Firmius all alone, I made haste to him. I will not tell you, what ioy we both felt, what embracing & cour∣teous & louing speeches passed between two such deer friends, meeting so ioyfully togither. Partheus went prosecuting his tale, when they heard a voice not farre from the place where they were, & as they thought to haue gon thither, Syrenus said. Here abouts we found the Shepherd Faustus; and truely if that which he now sings, be no lesse commendable and delightfull, then that, which he then sung, it would not

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