2 And then I saw how my desire
By guiding ill had let the way:
Mine eyen, too greedy of their hire,
Had made me lose a better prey.

3 For when in sighs I spent the day,

And could not cloak my grief with game,1 The boiling smoke did still bewray The present heat of secret flame.

4 And when salt tears do bain 2 my breast, Where Love his pleasant trains hath sown, Her beauty hath the fruits oppress'd,

Ere that the buds were sprung and blown.

5 And when mine eyen did still pursue The flying chase of their request, Their greedy looks did oft renew

The hidden wound within my breast.

6 When every look these cheeks might stain,
From deadly pale to glowing red,
By outward signs appeared plain,
To her for help my heart was fled.

7 But all too late Love learneth me

To paint all kind of colours new,
To blind their eyes that else should see
My speckled cheeks with Cupid's hue.

8 And now the covert breast I claim,
That worshipp'd Cupid secretly,
And nourished his sacred flame,
From whence no blazing sparks do fly.

Game:' cheerfulness.-2 Bain' bathe.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FICKLE AFFECTIONS, PANGS, AND SLIGHTS OF LOVE.

SUCH wayward ways hath Love, that most part in discord Our wills do stand, whereby our hearts but seldom do accord.

Deceit is his delight, and to beguile and mock

The simple hearts, which he doth strike with froward, diverse stroke.

He causeth th' one to rage with golden burning dart;
And doth allay with leaden cold again the other's heart.
Hot gleams of burning fire, and easy sparks of flame,
In balance of unequal weight he pondereth by aim.
From easy ford, where I might wade and pass full well,
He me withdraws, and doth me drive into a deep dark
hell;

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grace;

And me withholds where I am call'd and offer'd place,
And wills me that my mortal foe I do beseech of
He lets me to pursue a conquest well near won,
To follow where my pains were lost, ere that my suit

begun.

So by these means I know how soon a heart may turn From war to peace, from truce to strife, and so again

return.

I know how to content myself in others' lust;

Of little stuff unto myself to weave a web of trust ;
And how to hide my harms with soft dissembling chere,1
When in my face the painted thoughts would outwardly

appear.

I know how that the blood forsakes the face for dread, And how by shame it stains again the cheeks with flaming red.

20

16
'Chere:' countenance.

I know under the green, the serpent how he lurks; 23
The hammer of the restless forge I wot eke how it works.
I know, and can by rote the tale that I would tell ;
But oft the words come forth awry of him that loveth well.
I know in heat and cold the lover how he shakes;
In singing how he doth complain; in sleeping how he
wakes.

To languish without ache, sickless for to consume,

A thousand things for to devise, resolving all in fume. 30
And though he list to see his lady's grace full sore,
Such pleasures as delight his eye do not his health restore.
I know to seek the track of my desired foe,

And fear to find that I do seek. But chiefly this I know,
That lovers must transform into the thing beloved,
And live, (alas! who could believe?) with sprite from
life removed.

I know in hearty sighs, and laughters of the spleen,
At once to change my state, my will, and eke my

clean.

colour

I know how to deceive myself with others' help;
And how the lion chastised is, by beating of the whelp. 40
In standing near the fire, I know how that I freeze;
Far off I burn; in both I waste, and so my life I lese.1
I know how love doth rage upon a yielding mind;
How small a net may take and mesh a heart of gentle kind:
Or else with seldom sweet to season heaps of gall;
Revived with a glimpse of grace, old sorrows to let fall.
The hidden trains I know, and secret snare of love;
How soon a look will print a thought, that never may

remove;

The slipper state I know, the sudden turns from wealth; 2 The doubtful hope, the certain woe, and sure despair of health.

'Lese' lose.-2 Wealth: happiness.

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COMPLAINT OF A LOVER THAT DEFIED LOVE,

AND WAS BY LOVE AFTER THE MORE TORMENTED.

WHEN Summer took in hand the Winter to assail, With force of might, and virtue great, his stormy blasts to quail :

And when he clothed fair the earth about with green,
And every tree new garmented, that pleasure was to seen,
Mine heart 'gan new revive, and changed blood did stir
Me to withdraw my winter woes, that kept within the

dore.

Abroad,' quoth my Desire, assay to set thy foot; Where thou shalt find the savour sweet; for sprung is

every root;

And to thy health, if thou were sick in any case, Nothing more good than in the spring the air to feel a

space.

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There shalt thou hear and see all kinds of birds ywrought, Well tune their voice with warble small, as Nature hath

them taught.'

Thus pricked me my lust the sluggish house to leave, And for my health I thought it best such counsel to receive.

So on a morrow forth, unwist of any wight,

I went to prove how well it would my heavy burden light.

And when I felt the air so pleasant round about,
Lord! to myself how glad I was that I had gotten out.
There might I see how Ver1 had every blossom hent,2
And eke the new-betrothed birds, ycoupled how they
went;

Ver: Spring.-2 Hent:' brought out.

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And in their songs, methought, they thanked Nature

much,

21

That by her licence all that year to love, their hap was

such,

Right as they could devise to choose them feres 1 throughout :

With much rejoicing to their Lord, thus flew they all about. Which when I 'gan resolve, and in my head conceive, What pleasant life, what heaps of joy, these little birds receive,

And saw in what estate I, weary man, was wrought,. By want of that they had at will, and I reject at nought, Lord! how I 'gan in wrath unwisely me demean!

I cursed Love, and him defied; I thought to turn the

stream.

But when I well beheld, he had me under awe,

30

I asked mercy for my fault, that so transgress'd his law : 'Thou blinded god,' quoth I, 'forgive me this offence, Unwittingly I went about to malice thy pretence.' 2

Wherewith he gave a beck, and thus methought he swore: 'Thy sorrow ought suffice to purge thy fault, if it were

more.'

The virtue of which sound mine heart did so revive,
That I, methought, was made as whole as any man alive.
But here I may perceive mine error, all and some,
For that I thought that so it was; yet was it still
undone

40

And all that was no more but mine expressèd mind, That fain would have some good relief, of Cupid well assign'd.

I turned home forthwith, and might perceive it well, That he aggrievèd was right sore with me for my rebel.

6

'Feres : ' mates; my trusty fiere,' Burns has it in 'Auld Langsyne.'— 2 Pretence:' intention.