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For I will neuer thinke this part
Of mine hath made so great acrime,
By louing thee with all my hart,
As bauing lost so long a time,
Before I euer came to knowe
Thy beauties which adorne thee so.
Alas I knowe that I am olde,
And that my prime long since did fall,
Which now I wish I had not tolde:
But that which greeues me most of all,
Is that my louing paine appeeres
Not equall with so many yeeres.
Bicause since first I came into
This life, I would in all that space
Haue loued thee as now I doe,
Since first I sawe thy sweetest face,
And as I must with Cupids powre
Vnto my last and dying howre.
And let it not thy minde dismay
To see my haire so gray and white,
For it is ill to take away
The place from any, that of right
Belongs to him in any reason,
Though it comes out of time and season.
And though my valour not my hart,
And force, not will thou dost exceede,
It is not yet so iust a part
That any man should leese his meede
For being old, or be vnpaide
Bicause a souldier now decaide.
The buildings newer that they are,
And lately built in any sort,
By no proportion may compare,
For statelines and princely port,
(The which antiquitie doth showe)
With those of Rome built long agoe.
And so in things of woorthines,
Of prime or goodnes any way,
Of profit, ioy or happines,
Commonly vnto this day
They say (and yet do say most true)
That th’old is better then the new.
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Loue wise in that he went about,
Till now gaue me no sense of paine,
Bicause he sawe it did fall out,
That for the most part did remaine,
In aged men, and like to mee,
More firmnesse as we daily see.
To loue thee more then I can tell,
I am resolued till I die,
And in my firmnesse doe excell
Of all loues torments which I trie:
But olde againe and not to prooue
In all my life, the sweete of loue.
Yoong youthes that most of all doe faine
Themselues to burne in Cupids heate
Are false and double, but to traine
Beleeuing women to deceate:
For when they say, That they doe die
Then doe they liue most merily.
And so their false and changing loue,
And paines alledged in the same,
And all the torments which they prooue
Is but their pastime, sport and game,
It is their iest and common fashion,
It is no will, nor any passion.
Besides, Ismenia doe not feare
That I am like to one of those
Yoong louers, that doe euery wheare
Their fauours openly disclose:
For sooner they receiue not one,
But straight to many it is knowne.
For though I doe receiue at lest
Three hundred fauours one by one,
Yet in my loue I doe protest
To be as much a very stone
In hiding fauours which I gaine,
As that I am in suffring paine.
But yet as far as I can see,
Resolued as thou art in minde
To kill me with thy crueltie,
Suer I am that I shall finde
Much to endure to be reueal’d,
Little ynough to be conceal’d.
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