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Then thus to liue in such a sort,

And death it is, mine onely port,

To which my shiuer’d barke doth creepe,

Since thou so ill thy faith dost keepe.

Her syllables were not so many which she pronounced by singing, as her teares which she powred foorth by weeping. The which by little and little she wiped away with a christalline hand, which made the Shepherds not a little to maruell, when they sawe it, wherefore Syrenus saide. If thou hadst not told vs any thing (faire and forlorne Shepherdesse) thy soueraigne hand had beene enough to haue made me knowe thee. O that they were cut off, answered Cardenia, since they were the cause of my miserable happe. All of them being mooued to compassion of her sorrow, sometimes accompanying her with teares, and sometimes helping her with their comforts, at last Syrenus saide vnto her. It is not possible but Faustus, if he knew thy firmnes and constant loue, woulde mollifie his hart, and take pitie on thee, when aboue all things thou deseruest to bee loued, though hee had as much in him as a man might haue. Speake not of his deserts, saide Cardenia, for in them he hath not his equall, and as to the first thou speakest of, that if he knew in what estate I were, he would haue had some compassion on me, I answer thee, that since he went hence, I enformed him in what paine I remained for his absence. And being ignorant of that which now (to mine owne harme) I know, bicause he promised to come backe againe, as a woman ioyfull to heare such an answer, I sent him this Sonnet.

THerest is sweete to him that wearied is,
Succour and aide poore wretches wish for fast:
The doome of death from him, that now is cast
With fauour to reuoke, is thought a blisse:
The shade in chiefest heate is not amisse,
Pleasant of sheepe and Shepherdes to be past:
The water ioies the meade, with drynesse waste:
The frozen ground with ioy the sunne doth kisse:
But yet the glorie, ioy, and sweete content,
The wish of wishes, when the Shepherdesse
Staies for her louer, these doe far exceede.
Toong hold thy peace, and thought tell my intent,
How great a lightening hope is in distresse
Vnto the brest, that louing flames doth breede.

Not long after, seeing his tarrying there was longer then I desired, I wrote this other vnto him.

NOw doe I knowe at last (though to my smart)
How far the greefe of absence doth extend,
But that this knowledge neuer any friend
Of mine may learne, and wish with all my hart:
Thus haue I liu’d deceiued with this art,
Esteeming small of presence in the end:
But woe is me that proofe doth now commend,
And tels me cleere of this erronius part:

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