■ ■ ^ * , ■ f 1866 ERAGILE DOES NOT fe^. CIRCULATE cornfIl fJlNblVcE^SITY lib'rary FROW A FUND RECEIVEEi Br- BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE 1831-1904 FIRST LIBRARIAN OF THIS UNIVERSITY : 1868-1883 Date Due DATE DUE JMiXL T^ W7DMP p£t-^4-irjij.ei of Sophocles when its name was mentioned — he view that love is a disturbing passion, which XX INTRODUCTION. diverts the soul from its higher aims, and which men entrusted with a mission will do well to avoid. Such a mission Sidney conceived himself to have as a champion against Spain, and against anything which threatened to divert him from it he rebelled, yet all the while, as is sufficiently shown by the last lines of each of these seven sonnets, with a pleasingly human consciousness that the real weight of argument might not be on the side of the philosophers. To refer the spiritual struggles in these sonnets to Sidney's scruple in loving a married woman appears, for these reasoihs, a total mistake. Summing up then we may say that, always with the exception of xxiv., these first thirty sonnets liear on their face the marks of having been written while Stella was yet the Lady Penelope Devereux, giving Sidney no real marks of favour, but not ill-pleased to be courted by such a lover. With these sonnets should be read the first seven of the poems printed in our appendix, notably the sixth and seventh, in which the poet speaks of a temporary absence from his lady. Taken together, and in connection with the fragments of biography previously set forth? these two groups of songs and sonnets suggest the following explanation of Sidney's relation to Stella INTRODUCTION, xxi up to her marriage with Lord Rich. At the time of her father's death, in 1576, the Lady Penelope could not have been more than thirteen or four- teen; not an impossible age for an Elizabethan marriage, but still unduly young. Her mother had the best possible reasons for doubting Sidney's con- tinuance as Lord Leicester's heir. Sidney himself (setting apart all neoplatonic objections), was too interested in politics, and too conscious of the narrow- ness of his income to be anxious for marriage. Thus by mutual consent the contract to which Edward Waterhouse alludes in his letter, was allowed to remain in abeyance. But with the one exception of Wilton, wherever Sidney went, to Court, to his uncle Lord Leicester's, to his Aunt Lady Huntingdon's, he was likely to have had opportunities of seeing Stella. As she ripened in grace and beauty between her fourteenth and eighteenth years, such meetings, rendered all the more interesting by the former talk of marriage, would become increasingly dangerous. If Stella did not flirt with her serious "cousin," she forwent unusual opportunities, and it is a patent deduction from these earlier poems that she was by no means so thriftless. Sidney, then interested in founding his poetic Areopagus, as Stella's beauty and charm of xxii INTRODUCTION. wit and manner took ever deeper hold upon him, expressed his love, and the inward conflict of his theories and passions in the sonnets we have been considering. These probably represent the love and the poetry of rather over a year, some dating from before Sidney's flight from Court, others from -his retirement at Wilton; others again appear to have been written while he was seeing Stella in the house of one of their common relatives during the summer of 1580, and yet others after his return to Court in October. For this theory to stand, the presence of Sonnet xxiv. in this group of poems must be attri- buted to a desire on the part, perhaps of the writer himself, perhaps of a copyist or editor, to mislead too curious readers, on which point more hereafter. If the foregoing theory of the relations of Sidney and Stella be in any way correct, when Lord Hunt- ingdon's letter took effect, and the Lady Penelope Devereux was informed that by Her Majesty's pleasure she was to be united in marriage to the young Lord Rich, her fate found her still heart-whole : certainly until nearly the sixtieth sonnet there is no trace of her evincing any affection for Sidney. But Lord Rich, though described by the Earl of Huntingdon as a "propper gentleman," receives a less favourable INTRODUCTION. xxiii character from other sources, and (hke Sidney's earlier supplanter, Lord Oxford), appears to have been coarse, brutal, and overbearing, acceptable as a suitor in nothing but his wealth. In itself most untrustworthy, but partly corroborated by probabilities, a letter of the Earl of Devonshire to James I. distinctly asserts that by Stella Lord Rich was never accepted as a husband, but that " being in the power of her friends, she was by them married against her will unto one against whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever after," who instead of being her " comforter did strive in all things to torment her," and with whom " from the very first day " she lived in " continual discord." It is true that the value of this letter as evidence is enormously diminished by the fact that it was to the protection of its writer that Lady Rich had fled from her husband's asserted cruelty. All the same it remains deserving of at least qualified credence, as offering the only adequate explanation at once of Sidney's conduct and of certain passages in his poems. Where and when this unholy marriage took place we are left to conjecture. Stella was now of full marriageable age, and at all events in Shakespeare, the period of Elizabethan engagements seems to have been reckoned rather by days than weeks. Granting xxiv INTRODUCTION. \ that the marriage was a forced one, the bride's relatives had every reason to hurry it on ; and when, if ever, a record of it is discovered, it will be matter for surprise if the date proves to be later than the first or second week in April, 1581. The marriage would, of course, be followed by the speedy appearapce of the bride at Court, and at Court, from Sonnet xli., we are assured that Stella was playing her part at the end of this month or early in the next. And what of Sidney? Up to March i8th, when Parliament was adjourned preparatory to its dissolu- tion, he was working hard as a legislator, apparently in complete ignorance of the family plots against his own happiness and that of the woman he loved. When the news of the marriage reached him, his first feeling was a hopeless bitter anger. From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us. But he was too closely connected with Stella's guardians for her true feelings towards her husband to be long concealed from him, Alas, I lie : rage hath this error bred ; Love is not dead ; Love is not dead, but sleepeth In her unmatched mind, IN.TRODUCTION. xxv Where she his counsell keepeth Till due deserts she find. Therefore from so vile fancie To call such wit a franzie, Who love can temper thus, Good Lord deliver us ! So Sidney wrote, making his last verse a palinode for the bitterness of its three predecessors. But the pahnode has more mischief in it than the invective, and the mischief is more pronounced in the quaintly titled "Smokes of Melancholy" from which we have already quoted. Penelope Devereux was married to Lord Rich, and Sidney — Sidney, the embodiment of all that is pure, and wise, and brave in his times — was determined to remain her lover. The shock is great, and it is small wonder that his biographers pass hastily over his relations with Stella as an unpleasant episode in a noble career. Yet that the steady pertinacity of aim which is the characteristic of Sidney^ public life should have been lacking in his love, would have stamped him as made in a weaker mould than we would willingly accept as his. To regard an enforced marriage as no marriage may be a cruelty to its victim, but marks the lover neither as wanton nor as base; and though once and again in the later sonnets Sidney returns to his lament that his love xxvi INTRODUCTION. was leading him to forget his higher mission, tliere is no other trace in them of any doubt as to the rectitude of his suit. Of the progress of this suit there is no need here to give a detailed account ; it is written, as in a journal, in the sonnets and songs. The 31st and 32nd in their calm and splendid beauty form a magnificent pause before the turbid eloquence of their successors. If they were not written just before the news of Stella's marriage, it was a fine literary judg- ment which assigned them their position. With the 33rd, " I might ! unhappie word — O me, I might ! " — we plunge into the storm. Even if Dr. Grosart be right in referring it only to an interview missed, the sympathetic reader will hardly fail to conjecture that that interview was the first at which Sidney was to greet Stella as Lady Rich, and in the words in which he mourns his mistake there is blended a sorrow for a deeper error and a deeper loss. In the succeeding sonnets he pursues and comments on his suit in all the different notes of love's gamut. And not without result. As in Sidney sorrow had given new force and passion to his verse, so in Stella misery had procured him a more ready listener. She does not repulse, but expostulates with him. She affects to regard his poems as impersonal and lets him hear her read or INTRODUCTION. xxvii sing them. She praises him in his absence. He catches her gaze directed to him when she thinks he is not looking. She plays the metaphysician : his love for her is to make him cease loving, her own for him to wish him " anchor fast " himself " on virtue's shore." But love has made him.self of their company, and in the 6ist sonnet Sidney can record that Stella has confessed to it. Soon afterwards he finds her sleeping, and awakes her with a kiss. She is angry, but a few sonnets further on her anger is only against kisses become too passionate to be borne in peace. " Sonnets are not bound prentise to annoy," and for a little while Sidney's express all the raptures of a happy lover. But the climax of the drama is expressed in the songs. Twice, these tell us, Sidney asked that their passion should have its full course. Twice Stella repulsed him, the second time finally and for ever, but in words of tenderness and beauty unsur- passable : Astrophel, sayd she, my love, Cease, in these effects, to prove ; Now be still ; yet still beleeve me. Thy greefe more then death w'ould grieve me. If that any thought in me Can last comfort but of thee, Let me, fed with hellish anguish, Joylesse, hopelesse, endlesse languish. INTROD UCTION. If more may be sayd, I say, All my blisse in thee I lay ; If thou love,, my love content thee, For all love, all faith is meant thee. Trust me, while I thee deny, In my selfe the smart I try ; Tyran honour doth thus use thee, Stella's selfe might not refuse thee. Therefore, deere, this no more move, Least, though I leave not thy love. Which too deep in me is framed, I should blush when thou art named. " The Argument " writes Nash, with annoying glibness "cruell chastitee; the Prologue, hope; the Epilogue, dispaire." It is only the Epilogue of Astrophel and Stella which remains for us to recite. In the two songs and thirty sonnets which follow Stella's final refusal there is much fine poetry, and yet we cannot help feeling that Sidney's "song" is "broken." Now he blazes forth in anger, now he rejoices that Stella shares his unhappiness. He is absent from her, and half chides, half excuses himself for taking any pleasure in other society. In one sonnet he is distressed by her illness, in another he records his overwhelming sorrow that through some "foul stumbling" of his Stella had been caused annoyance. But the prevailing tone is INTRODUCTION. xxix one of heavy, dull, despair, and in this a man of Sidney's aims and Sidney's temperament could not abide for ever. In the 107th Sonnet he asks Stella as the " right princesse " of all his powers to allow a certain " great cause, which needs both use and art " to occupy for a time the chief place in his thoughts. In the next sonnet, the last of the book, he returns beneath the sway of "rude dispaire," but two still later poems, the last two of our appendix, show him in astaJtejof^alm_s_g-MJ^^ " as his worst enemy, .andjiooking away to thingsriiJtjDf thi£, world. Leave me, TD Love, which reachest but to dust ; And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things ; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust ; AWhat ever fades, but fading pleasure brings. Draw in thy beames, and humble all thy might To that sweet yoke where lasting freedomes be ; Which breakes the clowdes, and opens forth the light. That doth both shine, and give us sight to see. O take fast hold ; let that light be thy guide In this small course which birth drawes out to death, And think how evil becommeth him to slide, Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heavenly breath. Then farewell, world ; thy uttermost I see : Eteinall Love maintaine thy life in me. Splendidis longum vakdico nugisi Thus, in a strain worthy of himself, Philip Sidney bade final farewell to XXX INTRODUCTION. liis " splendid toying." For us, in this section of our already too long introduction, it only remains to glance at the after-fates, so tragically different, of these two noble lovers. How long this passion continued at its height is a point on which different conjectures may be hazarded. For myself, I cling stedfastly to my already expressed belief that the May of the 8th song is the May of 1581, and that the magnificent series of Sonnets beginning with xxxiii. and ending with Ixxxvi., together with the accompanying songs, form the immortal love-diary of some six or seven weeks after Stella's return to court as Lady Rich. The time occupied by the " Epilogue " was probably much longer. There is unfortunately nothing in Sidney's biographies (certainly not the letter of May, 1581, from the self-styled King of Portugal asking his aid) which enables us to identify the " great cause which needes both use and art" of Sonnet cvii. It is possible, indeed, that the words have only a general reference to Sidney's life-mission of political antagonism to Spain. In any case, by the autumn of the year 1581 his life seems to have resumed its accustomed tenour. In October we find him in correspondence with Burleigh, asking for impropriations to the amount of j^ioo a year to eke out his slender income; in INTRODUCTION. xxxi November he is writing to the Queen about a cypher for her use. The next February saw him one of the splendid escort of EngHsh noblemen and gentlemen who attended the Duke of Anjou to the Netherlands, and on his return to England in March he settled down once more to the old weary work of supporting his father's interests at Court against constant mis- representation. The year 1583 was more eventful. On January 8th, Sidney received the honour of knighthood, in order that he might act as proxy for his friend Prince Casimir, at his investiture as a Knight of the Garter. In March, or soon after, he married Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, a lady who at the hands of seme recent writers has been somewhat hardly dealt with, partly because of her speedy re-marriages, but partly perhaps from a needless desire to pair her off with Lord Rich as an unworthy mate. At the time of Sidney's death she hastened to his side at no small risk to herself, and we have no reason to believe that she was other than a good and affectionate wife for the short space that her marriage with Sidney endured. In 15 84 her husband was again in Parliament, and in the following year he was associated with the Earl of Warwick in the Mastership xxxii INTRODUCTION. of the Ordnance. But these small employments did not sufifice him, and at the end of the year lie formed a secret project of joining Drake in a voyage to attack Spain in the West Indies. He had actually reached Plymouth, and was waiting to embark, when the Queen (it is said by some treachery of Drake's) was apprised of his intention, and peremptorily recalled him. But it was now obvious that active employment of some sort Sidney would have, and he was accord- ingly appointed to the Governorship of Flushing, one of the towns placed by the Dutch in Enghsh keeping as a pledge of their good faith during the ensuing campaign under the generalship of the Earl of Leicester. On November 21st, 1585, Sidney took possession of his new office, and during his short governorship acquitted himself to admiration. He put Flushing into a thorough state of defence, formed many military plans, captured the town of Axel by surprise, and did much to lessen the friction to which Leicester's haughtiness and folly speedily gave rise. The career of useful and honourable activity for which he had so long been chafing, appeared at last ■ to be opening brightly before him, when it was suddenly and cruelly cut short by a chance shot in an engage- ment, which but for the miserable accident that it INTRODUCTION. xxxiii brought Sidney his death, would hardly have been recorded in English history. Such, and so untimely, was Sidney's end : it would have been well for Stella if the one and twenty years by which she survived him had been fewer by a half. In whatever secret unhappiness, she appears to have lived blamelessly with Lord Rich for some twelve years after their marriage, during which time she bore him seven children. But about 1595 she formed an unhappy intimacy with her brother's faithful friend. Sir Christo- pher Blount, and though in 1600 she returned to her husband in order to nurse him through a dangerous illness, on his recovery she lived publicly with her lover, and by mutual agreement was soon afterwards divorced from Lord Rich. Her unhappy life was no bar to her advancement at Court. When on the accession of James I., Blount, who had previously gained the title of Lord Mountjoy, was advanced to the rank of Earl of Devonshire, his partner, that there might be no disparity between them, "was elevated to the title and dignity of the most ancient Earls of Essex, the Bouchiers, and thus had the precedence of all the Earls' daughters in the kingdom, with the exception of four." But when on December 26th, 1605, permanence was given to their irregular 1** xxxiv INTRODUCTION. relations by a marriage solemnized, curiously enough, by the High-Church Laud, James drove the unhappy couple from his Court ; and neither long survived their disgrace, the Earl dying in the following April, and Stella only outliving him by two years. To champion her cause with the somewhat blind chivalry of Dr. Grosart or Professor Arber is to the present writer impossible. But we may beUeve that, if she sinned, she was also deeply sinned against, and in the stray glimpses we catch of her life, there is much that is both touching and gracious. Certainly to Sidney she behaved as a good and true woman, and if in after years she descended nearer to the level of her husband, it is not for any lover of Sidney to speak hardly of her. From the heights of love and romance we must now make a brief excursion into the regions of textual criticism and bibliography. As has been already noted, Sidney allowed none of his works to be printed during his lifetime ; copies, however, were made in manuscript for the use of his friends, and to the great annoyance of his family, these from time to time after the Author's death, fell into the hands of speculative publishers, who were with difficulty restrained from printing them. In 1591, according INTRODUCTION. xxxv to a dedicatory epistle "to the worshipfull and his very good Freende, Ma. Frauncis Flower," it was the fortune of a publisher named Thomas Newman, to light upon one of these copies of " the famous device" of Astrophel and Stella, which he straightway " thought good to publish," using, according to his own account, much care in the printing. For "Whereas," he writes, " being spred abroade in the written coppies, it had gathered much corruption of ill writers, I have used their helpe and advice in correcting and restoring it to his first dignitee, that I knowe were of skill and experience in those matters." Another publisher, named Matthew Lownes, was so pleased with Newman's edition that he straightway reprinted it, with a few trifling corrections and some new errors to counterbalance them. Within the year, however, Newman himself, probably under pressure from Sidney's family, saw fit to bring out a second edition to take the place of the first. In this second edition the dedication to Master Flower is omitted, and with it an Epistle to the Reader, by Thomas Nash, and " Sundry other rare Sonnets of diuers Noblemen and Gentiemen," which, added by Newman to swell the size of his volume, contained among them one by Sidney's old enemy the Earl of Oxford. Along with xxxvi INTRODUCTION. these omissions the text of the poems was revised, obviously from a different manuscript, and while many stupid errors were allowed to remain, a large number of fresh readings were introduced in passages in which the text of the first edition makes excellent sense. So emended, Newman's edition held the field until the appearance, in 1598, of Sidney's collected works in folio, entitled from its principal content, The Countess of Pembroke' s Arcadia. In this edition Astrophel and Stella is placed between the Defence of Poesie and Sidney's Mask of May, the sonnets are for the first time numbered, the songs, which in the "previous editions had been placed at the end, are distributed among the sonnets, and three important additions are made to the text, viz.. Sonnet xxxviii., with its obvious punning on the name " Rich," the eight stanzas of Song viii., containing Stella's reply, and Song xi., where Sidney talks to Stella at her window. At the same time " Certaine Sonets of Sir Philip Sidney, never before printed " made, with one or two trifling exceptions, their first appearance, occupying a few leaves immediately before the Defence of Poesie. The whole of this 1598 folio was issued with the sanction and revision of Sidney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke, and we are accordingly INTRODUCTION. xxxvii not surprised to find that the text oi Astrophel and Stella, while broadly concurring with that of Newman's second edition, is in every way improved. The deductions which may be made from the facts thus recited are noteworthy. Thus we see (i.) that on each of the three occasions of printing, the sonnets are presented in the same order; (ii.) that at least two, if not three, different texts were in existence, with variations, as our notes sufficiently show, that are undoubtedly beyond the ingenuity of any mere copyist or editor; (iii.) that the manuscript in the posses- sion of the Countess of Pembroke is the only one of the three which contains certain verses of a very intimate character, and that it is in the Countess of Pembroke's edition that such deeply personal poems as the "Smokes of Melancholy " and " Ring out your bells" are first given to the world. Two further conclusions seem sufficiently justifiable; (i.) that Sidney spent some pains in improving and altering his love poems after they had served their immediate purpose ; (ii.) that he exercised some care for Stella's reputation- in the form in which he permitted them to circulate among his friends, reserving the most purely biographical for his sister's eye, and possibly for hers alone. If these conclusions be granted, the appear- xxxviii INTRODUCTION. ance of the invective against Lord Rich as Sonnet xxiv, may be attributed to the same reason as that which dictated the temporary suppression of xxxvii. On the other hand, the general sequence of the Sonnets is justified against its attackers by the con- sensus of all the manuscripts, by the failure of commentators ^o find any single group which has been broken up and can be reconstructed, and by the readiness with which the present order yields itself to a connected narrative. As regards the position of the songs the c^se is not equally clear. Here the folio and the quartos are at variance, but the obvious correctness of the placing of the more important songs, and the gap which the omission of these leaves in what may be called the narrative of the sonnets, is a strong argument in favour of following the order of the best edition. It only remains for me to add that the text of the present edition is that of 1598 reprinted, so far as human weakness will permit such a boast to be safely made, word for word, and letter for letter, with the exception of the variations set forth at the end of the book. The notes give all such variations in the earlier editions as seemed on a liberal estimate to possess INTRODUCTION. xxxix any literary value. Some day T Hope we shall have a three-text Astrophel and ^idn.Jy. I doubt if any collation short of this will be ultimately accepted as satisfactory. The portrait of Sidney, which forms the frontispiece, is reproduced by Mr. Praetorius, from the copy in the British Museum of the engraving of his funeral by Thomas Lant. I have still to add that among my predecessors in Sidney-work, my chief obligations are due to Mr. Fox-Bourne, without whose life of Sidney it would have been impossible for me to gather together all the facts on which I have based this introduction. Other debts have been acknow- ledged as they occur. ALFRED W. POLLARD. May, i8S8. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. I. Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show, That she, deare She, might take some pleasure of my -^r paine, — '' Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know. Knowledge might pitie winne, and pitie grace obtaine, — i^' I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe ; Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertaine, Oft tumingLadiers^eaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitfull showers upon my sunne-burn'd braine. But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay ; ^' Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Studie^s blowes ; ''~ And others' feete still seem'd but strangers in my way. Thus, great with childe to speak, and helplesse in my throwes, Biting my trewand pen, beating myselfe for spite ; Foole, said my Muse to me, l ooke in thy heart, and write. ^ B ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Not at the first sight, nor with a dribb^d shot, Love gave the wound, which, while I breathe, will But knowne worth did in mine of time proceed, Till by degrees it had full conquest got. ' I saw, and liked ; I liked, but lovfed not ; I loved, but straight did not what Love decreed : At length, to Love's decrees I, forc'd, agreed. Yet with repining at so partiall lot. Now, even that footstep of lost libertie Is gone ; and now, like slave-borne Muscovite, I calHt praise to suffer tyi'annie ; And now employ the remnant of my wit To make me selfe beleeve that all is well, While, with a feeling skill, I paint iiiy hell. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. III. Let daintie wits crie on the Sisters nine, That, bravely maslct, their fancies may be told ; Or, Pindare's apes, flaunt they in phrases fine, Enam'ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold ; Or else let them in statelier glorie shine, Ennobling new-found tropes with problemes old ; Or with strange similes enrich each line, Of herbes or beastes which Inde or Afrike hold. For me, in sooth, no Muse but one I know ; Phrases and problemes from my reach do grow ; And strange things cost too deare for my poore sprites How then ? even thus, — in Stella's face I reed What Love and Beautie be ; then all my deed But copying is, what in her Nature writes. B 2 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. IV. ^^ertu^ alas, now let me take some rest ; Thou set'st a bate betweene my^^SjAndwTj If vaine Love have my simple soule opprest, Leave what thou likest not, deale not thou with it. « ■ - \' Thy scepter use in some olde Catoe's brest, Churches or schooles are for thy seate more fit : I do confesse — pardon a fault confest — My mouth too tender is for thy hard bit. But if that needs thou wilt usurping be The little reason that is left in me, And still th' effect of thy perswasions prove, I sweare, my heart such one shall shew to thee. That shrines in flesh so true a deitie. That, Vertue, thou thy selfe shalt be in love. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. V. ■■' It is most true that eyes are form'd to serve 6' The inward light, and that the heavenly part '^^ Ought to be King, from whose rules who do swerve, ;^> Rebels to nature, strive for their owne smart. r It is most true, what we call Cupid's dart An image is, which for ourselves we carve, ^ And, fooles, adore in temple of our hart, V Till that good god make church and churchmen starve. ^ True, that truejaeautie vertue is indeed. Whereof this beautie can be but a shade, ^' Which, elements with mortall mixture breed. h" True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made, , X And should in soule up to our countrey move : True, and yet true— that I must Stella love. X ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Some lovers speake, when they their Muses entertaii Of hopes begot by feare, of wot not what desires, Of force of heav'nly beames infusing hellish paine, Of living deaths, deare wounds, faire stormes, and f ing fires : Some one his song in Jove and Jove's strange tales at Bordred with buls and swans, powdred with golden r; Another, humbler wit, to shepheard's pipe retires, Yet hiding royall bloud full oft in rurall vaine. To some a sweetest plaint a sweetest stile affords, While teares powre out his inke, and sighs breath his words. His paper pale dispaire, and paine his pen doth mov I can speake what I feele, and feele as much as they But thinke that all the map of my state I display When trembling voice brings forth, that I do Stella 1 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. VII.- Wlien Nature made her chiefe worke, Stella's eye?, In colour blacke why wrapt she beames. so bright ? Would she, in beamie blacke, like painter wise,- Frame daintiest lustre, mixt of shades and light ? Or did she else that sober hue devise, In object best to knit and strength our sight ; Least, if no vaile these brave gleames did disguise, They, sunlike, should more dazle then delight ? Or would she her miraculous power show, That, whereas blacke seemes beautie's contrary, She even in blacke doth make all beauties flow ? Both so, and thus, — she, minding Love should be Placed ever there, gave him this mourning weed To honor all their deaths who for her bleed. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. VIII. Love, borne in Greece, of late fled from his native place Forc'd by a tedious proofe that Turkish hardned hart Is not fit marke to pierce with his fine-pointed dart— ^ And, pleas'd with our soft peace, staid here his flying rai But, finding these north clymes too coldly him embrac Not usde to frozen clips, he strave to find some part Where with most ease and warmth he might employ art ; At length he perch'd himself in Stella'sjoyfull face. Whose faire skin, beamy. eyes, like morning sun on snc Deceiv'd the quaking boy, who thought, from so pure lig Effects of lively heat must needs in nature grow : But she, most faire, most cold, made him thence take flight \To my close heart ; where, while some firebrands he ( lay, le burnt unwares his wings, and cannot fly away. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. IX. Queene Vertue's Court, which some call Stella's face, Prepar'd by Nature's choisest furniture, Hath his front built of alabaster pure ; ^ Gold is the covering of that stately place. The doore, by which sometimes comes forth her grace, Red porphir is, which locke of pearle makes sure, Whose porches rich (which name of cheekes endure) JMarble, mixt red and white, do enterlace. The windowes now, through which this heav'nly guest Looks over the world, and can find nothing such. Which dare claime from those lights the name of best, Of touch they are, that without touch doth touch, Which Cupid's selfe from Beautie's mine did draw : Of touch they are, and poore I am their straw. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Reason, in faith thou art well serv'd, that still .Wouldst_brabling_be vvith .seace-aH-d-ieve-tmne ; I rather wisht thee clime the Muses' hill ; Or reach the fruite of Nature's choisest tree ; Or seeke heav'n's course or heav'n's inside to see : Why shouldst thou toyle our thornie soile to till ? Leave sence, and those which sence's objects be ; Deale thou with powers of thoughts, leave love to will. But thou wouldst, needs, fight both with love ajad_s,e,nce. With sword of wit giving wounds of dispraise, Till downe-right blowes did foyle thy cunning fence ; For, soone; as they strake thee with StellaZsrayes, Reason, thou kneel'dst, and- offeredst stiaigbtto prove. By reason good, good reasoit her tojoxe. , ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XI. -4"-^- In truth, O Love, with what a boyish kind Thou doest proceed in thy most serious wayes, That when the heav'n to thee his best displayes, Yet of that best thou leav'st the best behind ! For, like a childe that some faire boolie doth find, With guilded leaves or colourd velume playes, Or, at the most, on some fine picture stayes, But never heeds the fruit of writer's mind ; So when thou saw'st in Nature's cabinet Stella, thou straight look'st babies in her eyes, In her cheekes' pit thou didst thy pitfould set, And in her breast bo-peepe or couching lyes. Playing and shining in each outward part ; But, fQolejieekstjiot.to get into her hart. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XII. V^t"- '■' Cupid, because thou shin'st in Stella's eyes, That from her lockes, thy day-nets, none scapes free, That those lips sweld, so full of thee they bee. That her svveete breath makes oft thy flames to rise. That in her breast thy pap well sugred lies, ^ That her grace gracious makes thy wrongs, that she. What words soere she speake, perswades for thee. That her cleare voyce lifts thy fame to the skies — Thou countest Stella thine, like those whose powers Having got up a breach by fighting well, Crie " Victorie, this faire day all is ours ! " O no ; her heart is such a cittadell. So fortified with wit, stor'd with djsdaine. That to win it is all the skill and paine. fJT'' ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 13 XIII. - ;^ Phcebus was judge betweene Jove, Mars, and Love, Of those three gods, whose armes the fairest were. Jove's golden shield did eagle sables beare. Whose talents held young Ganimed above : But in vert field Mars bare a golden speare, Which through a bleeding heart his point did shove : Each had his creast. Mars caried Venus' glove, Jove on his helme the thunderbolt did reare. Cupid then smiles, for on his crest there lies Stella's faire haire, her face he makes his shield. Where roses gueuls are borne in silver field. Phoebus drew wide the curtaines of the skies. To blaze these last, and sware devoutly then, The- first, thus matcht, were.scantly gentlemen. 14 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XIV. Alas, have I not paine enough, my friend, Upon whose breast a fiercer Gripe doth tire Then did on him who first stale down the fire, While Love on me doth all his quiver spend, — But with your rubarb words ye must contend. To grieve me worse, in saying that Desire Doth pkmge my wel-form'd soule even in the mire Of sinfull thoughts, which do in ruine end ? If that be sinne which doth the maners frame, Well staid with truth in word and faith of deed, Readie of wit, and fearing nought but shame ; If that be sinne which in fixt hearts doth breed A loathing of all loose unchastitie, Then love is sinne, and let me sinfull be. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 15 XV. • You that do search for everie purhng spring WTiich from the ribs of old Parnassus flowes, And everie floure, not sweet perhaps, which growes Neare thereabouts, into your poesie wring ; Ye that do dictionarie's methode bring Into your rimes, running in rathng rowes ; You that poore Petrarch's long-deceasfed woes With new-borne sighes and denisen'd wit do sing ; You take wrong waies ; those far-fet helpes be such --- - — - ' ■ ^ '_ ! .■ As do bewray a want of inward tuch. And sure, at length stolne goods do come to light : But if, both for your love and skill, your name You seeke to nurse at fullest breasts of Fame, Stella behold, and then.begin to endite. i6 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XVI. In nature apt to like, when I did see Beauties which were of manie carrets fine, My boiling sprites did thither soone incline, And, Love, I thought that I was full of thee : But finding not those restlesse flames in rne. Which others said did make their soules to pine, I thought those babes of some pinne's hurt did whine, By my sonle judging what Love's paine might be. But while I thus with this young lyon plaid, Mine eyes — shall I say curst or blest? — beheld Stella : now she is nam'd, need more be said .' In her sight I a lesson new have speld ; I now have learn'd love right, and learn'd even so As,who„by being poispnd doth poison-know. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 17 XVII. His mother deare Cupid offended -late, Because that Mars, growne slacker in her love, With pricking shot he did not throughly move To keepe the place of Their first loving state The boy refusde for feare of Marses hate, Who threatned stripes, if he his wrath did prove ; But she, in chafe, him from her lap did shove. Brake bowe, brake shafts, while Cupid weeping sate : Till thatjhis grandame Nature, pittying it, Of Stella's browes made him two better bowes, And in her eyes of arrowes infinit. O how for joy he leapes ! O how he crowes ! And straight therewith, like wags new got to play, Fals to shrewd turnes ;,and I was- in his- way. i8 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XVIII. With what : ; sharpe checl^es I in my selfe am shent- When into Reason's audite I do gfo, And by just counts my selfe a banclcrout know Of all those goods which heav'n to me hath lent ; Unable quite to pay even Nature's rent, Whiche unto it by birthright I do ow ; And, which is worse, no good excuse can show, But that my wealth I have most idly spent ! My youth doth waste, my knowledge brings forth toyes ; My wit doth strive those passions to defend. Which, for reward, spoile it with vaine annoyes. I see, my course to loose my selfe doth bend ; I see — and yet no greater sorow take Then that Moose no more for Stella's sake. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 19 XIX. M"-'«r-v ■ On Cupid's bow how are my heart-strings bent, That see my wracke, and yet embrace the same ! When most I glorie, then I feele most shame ; I willing run, yet while I run repent ; ,v<-<-' t -'"■ My best wits still their owne disgrace invent : My verie inke turnes straight to Stella's name ; And yet my words, as them my pen doth frame, Avise themselves that they are vainely spent : For though she passe all things, yet what is all That unto nie, who fare like him that both Lookes to the skies, and in a ditch doth fall ? ^£^.A~tz^ r _ _ ;-:J-»-^ O let me prop my mind, yet in his growth, ^^ , '- And not in nature for best fruits Imfit. , Scholler, saith Love, bend hitherward your wit. C 2 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XX. (^-•^■' Fiie, fly, my friends ; I have my death wound, fly ;-- See there that boy that murthring boy, I say, Who, like a theefe, hid in darke bush doth ly. Till bloudie bullet get him wrongfuU pray. So tyran he no fitter place could spie, , I . Nor so faire levell in so secret stay, As that sweete blacke which vailes the heav'nly eye ; There liimselfe with his shot he close doth lay. Poore passenger, passe now thereby I did, And staid, pleas'd with the prospect of the ptace. While that blacke hue from me the bad guest hid : But straight I saw motions of lightning grace ; And then descried the glistring of his dart : But ere I could flie thence, it pierc'd my heart. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXI. Your words, my friend (right healthfull caustjks), blame My young mind marde, whom Love doth windlas so, That mine owne writings, like bad servants, show My wits quicke in vaine thoughts, in vertue lame ; That Plato I read "for nought but if he tame Such coltish yeeres ; that to_jny_birth-LQwe Nobler desires, least else that friendly foe, Great expectation, weare a traine of shame. For since mad March great promise made of me, If now the May of my yeares much decline. What can be hoped my harvest time will be ? Sure, you say well, " Your wisdome's golden mine Dig deepe with Learning's spade.'' Now tell me this — Hath this world ought so faire as Stella is .'' ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXII. ace, o ' o - ^J' — ta — .o T In highest way of hes^V)the Sunna^^id;ride,- ' PiogresEing then jfrom fai,i^\rwinnes' gold'n pi Having fco scarfepf clowds l^ore his face, • O -*•'*- — »J """ 'vs '• ■ ' --• But shining forth of heate in his chiefe -pride i^ When some faire ladies, by hard;promise tied, On horsebacke met him infiis^furious race ; Yet each prepar'd with fannes wel-shading grace From that foe's wounds their tender skinnes to hid^ / ji ' Stella ajone with face unarmed marcht, — », -..^/l ■'•^ /-^ ^'*^ ■ — '^-— ' ^ t. .i ,^ >j, Mf Either to 'do hke him which open shone, '^i '<^-^' "•' . ' {, I Or carelesse of the wealth, because her owne^i > Yet were the hid and meaner beauties parchbr Her damtiest, bare, went free : vthe cause was this, — J *^ The Sunne, which others burn'd, did her but kisse. U f "~ ^ ^■ o ASTROPHEL ASD STELLA. 23 xxin. The curious wits, seeing dull_pensivenesse Bewray it selfe in my long-setled eyes, Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise, \\'ith idle paines and missing ayme, do guesse. Some, that know how my spring I did addresse, Deeme that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies ; Others, because the Prince my service tries, Thinke that I thinke state errours to redress : Pjut harder judges judge ambition's r&^t— Scourge of it selfe, still climing slipprie place- Holds my young braine captiv'd in golden cage. O fooles, or over-wise : alas, the race Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start But. only Stella's eyes and_ Stella's hart. 24 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. (^ Rich fooles there be whose base and filthy hart Lies hatching still the goods wherein they flow, And damning their owne selves to Tantal's smart, Wealth breeding want — more rich, more wretched grow. Yet to those fooles Heav'n such wit doth impart, As what their hands do hold, their heads do know ; And, knowing, love ; and, loving, lay apart As sacred things, far from all daunger's show. But that rich foole, who by blind Fortune's lot The richest gemme of love and life enjoyes, And can with foule abuse such beauties blot ; Let him, depriv'd of sweet but unfelt joyes, Exil'd for ay from those high treasures which He knowes not, grow in only foUie rich ! ASl'ROPHEL AND STELLA. 25 XXV. The wisest scholler of the wight most wise By Phoebus' doome, with sugred sentence sayes, That vertue, if it once met with our eyes, S trange flames of love it in our soules would raise. But, — for that man with paine this truth descries, Whiles he each thing in Sense's ballance wayes. And so nor will nor can behold those skies Which inward sunne to heroicke minde displaies — Vertue of late, with vertuous care to ster Love of her selfe, tooke Stella's shape, that she To mortall eyes niight sweetly shine in her. It is most true ; for since I her did see, Vertue's great beautie in that face I prove, And find th' eifect, for I do burne in love. 56 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXVI. ■ ' Though dustie wits dare scorne Astrologie, And fooles can thinke those lampes of purest light- Whose numbers, waies, greatnesse, eternitie, Promising wonders, wonder do invite — To have for no cause birthright in the skie But for to spangle the blacke weeds of night ; Or for some brawle, which in that chamber hie, They should still daunce to please a gazer's sight. For me, I do Nature unidle know, And know great causes great effects procure ; And know those bodies high raigne on the low. And if these rules did faile, proofe makes me sure, Who oft fore-judge my after-following race, By only those two starres in Stella's face. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXVII. i^,-'^2,.j^*-.i'<' Because I oft in darke abstracted guise (^eeme most alone in greatest compani^ Witli dearth of words, or answers quite awrie, To them that would make speech of speech arise ; Tliey deeme, and of their doome the rumour fiies, That poison foule of bubhng pride doth lie So in my swelling breast, that only I Fawne on me selfe, and others do despise. ■■Yet pride I thinke doth not my soule possesse ; (Which looks too oft in his unflattring glasse) : But one worse fault, Ambition, I confesse, That makes me oft my best friends overpasse, Unseene, unheard, while thought to highest place Bends all his powers, even unto Stella's grace. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXVIII. - You that with Allegorie's curious frame Of others' children changelings use to make, With me those paines, for God's sake, do not take : I list not dig so deepe for brasen fame. When I say Stella, I do meane the same Princesse of Beautie, for whose only sake The raines of Love I love, though never slake, And joy therein, though nations count it shame. I beg no subject to use eloquence, . Nor in hid wayes do guide philosophie ; Looke at my hands for no such quintessence ; ■(put know that I in pure simplicitie Breathe out the flames which burne within my heart, Love onely reading unto me this artei ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 29 XXIX. .J!-t^'a<. Like some weake lords neighbord by mighty kings, 1 To keepe themselves and their chiefe cities free, -^ Do easly yeeld that all their coasts may be ^ Ready to store their campes ofneedfuU things ; k. So Stella's heart, finding what power Love brings, <■• To keep it selfe in life and liberty, >** Doth willing grauntthat in the frontiers he "''" Use all to helpe his other conquerings. And thus her heart escapes ; but thus her eyes t Serve him with shot, her lips his heralds arre, A. .Her breasts his tents, legs his triumphall carre, -? Her flesh his food, her skin his armour brave ; Ani I, but for because my prospect lies Upon that coast, am giv'n up for a slave. ^ 30 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXX. Whether the Turldsh new-moone minded be To fill his homes this yeare on Christian coast ? How Poles' right king meanes without leave of hoast To warm with ill-made fire cold Moscovy ? If French can yet three parts in one agree ? What now the Dutch in their full diets boast ? How Holland hearts, now so good townes be lost, Trust in the shade of pleasing Orange-tree ? How Ulster likes of that same golden bit Wherewith my father once made it halfe tame ? If in the Scotch Court be no weltring yet ? These questions busie wits to me do frame : I, cumbred with good maners, answer do, But know not how ; for still I thinkg_gf_y.ou. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. With how ^_adsgteps, OuMooue, thou climb'st the skies ! o^ How silently, and with how wanne a face ! J^ VWhat, may it be that even in heav'nly place ',■.-- That busie archer his sharpe arrowes tries ,1 "^Siire, if that long with love acquainted eyes i^ Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's j^se, I reade it in thy lookes ; thy languisht grace, '■ To me, that feele the like, thy state descries."'"^' Then, ev'n of fellowship, O ^loone, tell me, Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit ? Are beauties there as proud as here they b^>-^ Do they above love to be lov'd, and yet. Those lovers scorne whom that love doth possesse : Do they call vertue there ungratefulnesse ? 32 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Morpheus, the hvely sonne of deadly Sleepe, Witnesse of life to them that living die, A prophet oft, and oft an historie, A poet eke, as humours fly or creepe ; Since thou in me so sure a power doest keepe, That never I with clos'd-up sense do lie, But by thy worke my Stella I descrie, Teaching blind eyes both how to smile and weepe ; Vouchsafe, of all acquaintance, this to tell, Whence hast thou ivorie, rubies, pearle, and gold. To shew her skin, lips, teeth, and head so well ? Foole ! answers he.; no Indes such treasures hold ; But from thy heart, while my sire charmeth thee, Sweet Stella's image I do steale to mee. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 33 I might ! — unhappie word — O me, I might, And then would not, or could not, see my blisse ; Till now wrapt in a most infernall night, I find how heav'nly day, wretch ! I did misse. Hart, rent thy selfe, thou doest thy selfe but right ; No lovely Paris made thy Hellen his. No force, no fraud robd thee of thy delight, Nor Fortune of thy fortune author is ; But to my selfe my selfe did give the blow, While too much wit, forsooth, so troubled me, — That I respects for both our sakes must show : And yet could not, by rising morne foresee How faire a day was neare : O punisht eyes, That I had bene more foolish, or more wise ! 34 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXXIV. Come, let me write. And to what end ? To ease A burthned hart. How can words ease, which are The glasses of thy dayly-vexing care ? Oft cruell fights well pictured-forth do please. Art not asham'd to publish thy disease ? Nay, that may breed my fame, it is so rare. But will not wise men thinke thy words fond ware ? Then be they close, and so none shall displease. What idler thing then speake and not be hard ? What harder thing then smart and not to speake ? Peace, foolish wit ! with wit my wit is mard. Thus write I, while I doubt to write, and wreake My harmes on ink's poore losse. Perhaps some find Stella's great powrs, that so confuse my mind. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 35 Hiat may words say, or what may words not say, ,^here truth it selfe must speake like flatterie ? /ithin what bounds can one his liking stay, /here Nature doth with infinite agree ? /hat Nestor's counsell can my flames alay, ince Reason's selfe doth blow the cole in me ? .nd, ah, what hope that hope should once see day, /here Cupid is sworne page to Chastity ? [onour is honour'd, that thou doest possesse lim as thy slave, and now long-needy Fame )oth even grow rich, naming my Stella's name. Vit learnes in thee perfection to expresse, lot thou by praise, but praise in thee is raisde : t is a praise to praise, when thou art praisde 36 ASTRO PHEL AND STELLA. XXXVI. Stella, whence doth this new assault arise, A conquerd, yolden, ransackt heart to winne. Whereto long since, through my long-battred eyes, Whole armies of thy beauties entred in ? And there, long since. Love, thy lieutenant, lies, My forces razde, thy banners raisd within ; Of conquest do not these effects suffice, But wilt now warre upon thine owne begin ? With so sweete voice, and by sweete Nature so In sweetest strength, so sweetly skild withall In all sweete stratagems sweete Arte can show, That not my soule, which at thy foot did fall Long since, forc'd by thy beames : but stone nor tree, By Sence's priviledge, can scape from thee ! ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 37 XXXVII. My mouth doth water, and my breast doth swell, My tongue doth itch, my thoughts in labour be : Listen then, lordings, with good eare to me, For of my life I must a riddle tell. Toward Aurora's Court a nymph doth dwell. Rich in all beauties which man's eye can see ; Beauties so farre from reach of words, that we Abase her praise saying she doth excell ; Rich in the treasure of deserv'd renowne. Rich in the riches of a royall hart. Rich in those gifts which give th' eternall crowne ; Who, though most rich in these and everie part Which make the patents of true worldly blisse, Hath no misfortune but that Rich she is. 38 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XXXVIII. This night, while sleepe begins with heavy wings To hatch mine eyes, and that unbitted thought Doth fall to stray, and my chiefe powres are brought To leave the scepter of all subject things ; The first that straight my fancie's error brings Unto my mind is Stella's image, wrought By Love's owne selfe, but with so curious drought That she, me thinks, not onely shines but sings. I start, looke, hearke ; but what in closde-up sence Was held, in opend sense it flies away, Leaving me nought but wailing eloquence. I, seeing better sights in sight's decay, Cald it anew, and woo^d sleepe againe ; But him, her host, that unkind guest had slaine. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 39 XXXIX. Come, Sleepe ! O Sleepe, the certaine knot of peace, The baiting place of wit, the balme of woe, The poore man's wealth, the prisoner's release, Th' indifferent judge betweene the high and low ; With shield of proofe shield me from out the pretfse Of those fierce darts dispaire at me doth throw : make in me those civill warres to cease ; 1 will good tribute pay, if thou do so. Take thou of me smooth pillowes, sweetest bed, A chamber deafe to noise and blind to light, A rosie garland and a wearie hed : And if these things, as being thine by right, Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me. Livelier then else-where, Stella's image see. XL. As good to write, as for to lie and grone. O Stella deare, how much thy power hath wrought. That hast my mind, none of the basest, brought My still-kept course,while others sleepe, to mone ; Alas, if from the height of Vertue's throne Thou canst vouchsafe the influence of a thought Upon a wretch that long thy grace hath sought. Weigh then how I by thee am overthrowne ; And then thinke thus — although thy beautie be Made manifest by such a victorie, Yet noblest conquerours do wreckes avoid. Since then thou hast so farre subdufed me. That in my heart I offer still to thee, O do not let thy temple be destroyd. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 41 XLI. > Having this day my horse, my hand, my launce Guided so well that I obtain'd the prize. Both by the judgment of the Enghsh eyes And of some sent from that sweet enemie Fraunce ; Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advaunce, Towne-folkes my strength ; a daintier judge applies His praise to sleight which from good use doth rise ; Some luckie wits impute it but to chaunce ; Others, because of both sides I do take My bloud from them who did excell in this, Thinke Nature me a man of armes did make. How farre they shot awrie ! the true cause is, Stella lookt on, and from her heav'nly face Sent forth the beames which made so faire my race. 42 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XLII. O eyes, which do the spheares of beautie move ; Whose beames be joyes, whose joyes all vertues be ; Who, while they make Love conquer, conquer Love ; The schooles where Venus hath leam'd chastitie : O eyes, where humble lookes most glorious prove, Only-lov'd tyrants, just in cruelty ; — Do not, O do not, from poore me remove, Keep still my Zenith, ever shine on me : For though I never see them, but straightwayes My life forgets to nourish languisht sprites ; Yet still on me, O eyes, dart downe your rayes : And if from majestie of sacred lights Oppressing mortal! sense my death proceed, Wrackes triumphs be which Love high set doth breed. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 43 XLIII. Faire eyes, sweet lips, deare heart, that foolish I Could hope, by Cupid's helpe, on you to pray, Since to himselfe he doth your gifts apply. As his maine force, choise sport, and easefuU stay ! For when he will see who dare him gainesay, Then with those eyes he lookes : lo, by and by Each soule doth at Love's feet his weapons lay, Glad if for her he give them leave to die. When he will play, then in her lips he is, Where blushing red, that Love's selfe them doth love. With either lip he doth the other kisse ; But when he will, for quiet's sake, remove From all the world, her heart is then his rome, Where well he knowes no man to him can come. 44 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XLIV. My words I know do well set forth my mind ; My mind bemones his sense of inward smart ; Such smart may pitie claime of any hart ; Her heart, sweete heart, is of no tygre's kind : And yet she heares, and yet no pitie I find. But more I crie, lesse grace she doth impart. Alas, what cause is there so overthwart, That Noblenesse it selfe makes thus unkind ? I much do guesse, yet find no truth save this, That when the breath of my complaints doth tuch Those daintie dores unto the court of blisse. The heav'nly nature of that place is such, That, once come there, the sobs of mine annoyes Are metamorphos'd straight to tunes of joyes. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 45 XLV. Stella oft sees the verie face of wo Painted in my beclowded stormie face, But cannot skill to pitie my disgrace, Not though thereof the cause herselfe she know : Yet hearing late a fable, which did show Of lovers never knowne, a grievous case, Pitie thereof gate in her breast such place. That, from that sea deriv'd, teares' spring did flow. Alas, if Fancy, drawne by imag'd things Though false, yet with free scope, more grace doth breed Then servants' wracke, where new doubts honor brings ; Then thinke, my deare, that you in me do reed Of lovers' ruine some sad tragedie. I am not I ; pitie the tale of me. 46 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. XLVI. I curst thee oft, I pitie now thy case, Bhnd-hitting Boy, since she that thee and me Rules with a becke, so tyrannizeth thee, That thou must want or food or dwelling-place, For she protests to banish thee her face, Her face ! O Love, a rogue thou then shouldst be, If Love learne not alone to love and see. Without desire to feed of further grace. Alas, poore wag, that now a scholler art To such a schoole-mistresse, whose lessons new Thou needs must misse, and so thou needs must smart. Yet, deare, let me his pardon get of, you, So long, though he from book myche to desire. Till without fewell you can make hot fire. XLVII. What, have I thus betrayed my hbertie ? Can those blacke beames such burning markes engrave In my free side ; or am I borne a slave, Whose necke becomes such yoke of tyranny ! Or want I sense to feele my miserie, Or sprite, disdaine of such disdaine to have ! Who for long faith, the' dayly helpe I crave. May get no almes, but scorne of beggerie. Vertue, awake ! Beautie but beautie is ; I may, I must, I can, I will, I do Leave following that which it is gaine to misse. Let her go ! Soft, but here she comes ! Go to, Unkind, I love you not ! O me, that eye Doth make my heart give to my tongue the lie ! XLVIII.X Joule's joy, bend not those morning starres from me, Where Vertue is made strong by Beautie's might, Where Love is chastnesse, Paine doth learne delight, \nd Humblenesse growes one with Majestie. What ever may ensue, O let me be "opartner of the riches of that sight ; Let not mine eyes be hel-driv'n from that light ; D looke, O shine, O let me die, and see. For though I oft my selfe of them bemone That through my heart their beamie darts be gone. Whose curelesse wounds even now most freshly bleed, iTet since my death-wound is already got, Deare Killer, spare not thy sweet cruell shot : \ kind of grace it is to slay with speed. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 49 XLIX. ■^ I on my horse, and Love on me, doth trie Our horsmanships, while by strange worke I prove A horsman to my horse, a horse to Love, And now man's wrongs in me, poore beast, descrie. The raine wherewith my rider doth me tie Are humbled thoughts, which bit of reverence mo\e, Curb'd in with feare, but with guilt bosse above Of hope, which makes it seeme faire to the eye : The wand is will ; thou, fancie, saddle art. Girt fast by memorie ; and while I spurre My horse, he spurres with sharpe desire my hart ; He sits me fast, however I do sturre ; And now hath made me to his hand so right. That in the manage my selfe takes delight. so ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. L. Stella, the fulnesse of my thoughts of thee Cannot be staid within my panting breast, But they do swell and struggle forth of me. Till that in words thy figure be exprest : And yet, as soone as they so formed be, According to my lord Love's owne behest, With sad eyes I their weake proportion see To portrait that which in this world is best. So that I cannot chuse but write my mind. And cannot chuse but put out what I write. While these poore babes their death in birth do find ; And now my pen these lines had dashfed quite, But that they stopt his furie from the same, Because their forefront bare sweet Stella's name. ASTROPBEL AND STELLA. LI. Pardon mine eares, both I and they do pray ; So may your tongue still fluently proceed, To them that do such entertainment need ; So may you still have somewhat new to say. On silly me do not the burthen lay Of all the grave conceits your braine dotk breed ; But find some Hercules to beare, in steed Of Atlas tyr'd,. your wisedome's heav'nly sway. For me, — while you discourse of courtly tides, Of cunning fishers in most troubled streames, Of straying wayes, when valiant errour guides,— Meanewhile my heart confers with Stella's beames And is even irkt that so sweet comedie By such unsuted speech should hindred be. 52 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LII. A strife is growne between Vertue and Love, While each pretends that Stella must be his. \fi'^ Her eyes, her lips, her all, saith Love, do this, Since they do weare his badge, most firmely prove. But Vertue thus that title doth disprove, That Stella, (O deare name !) that Stella is That vertuous soule, sure heire of heav'nly blisse, Not this faire outside, which our hearts doth move : And therefore, though her beautie and her grace Be Love's indeed, in Stella's selfe he may By no pretence claime any maner place. Well, Love, since this demurre our sute doth stay, Let Vertue have that Stella's selfe ; yet thus. That Vertue but that body graunt to us. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 53 LIII. In martiall sports I had my cunning tride, And yet to breake more staves did mee adresse, While, with the people's shouts, I must confesse, Youth, lucke, and praise even fil'd my veines with pride ; When Cupid, having me, his slave, descride In Marses livery prauncing in the presse : What now. Sir Foole ! said he, — I would no lesse — Looke here, I say ! I look'd, and Stella spide, Who, hard by, made a window send forth light. My heart then quak'd, then dazled were mine eyes, One hand forgat to rule, th' other to fight, Nor trumpet's sound I heard, nor friendly cries : My foe came on, and beat the aire for me. Till that her blush taught me my shame to see. 54 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LIV. Because I breathe not love to everie one, Nor do not use set colours for to weare, Nor nourish speciall lockes of vowfed haire, Nor give each speech a full point of a grone, I The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the mone Of them who in their lips Love's standerd beare : What, he ! (say^ they of me) : now I dare sweare He cannot love ; no, no, let him alone. And thinke so still, so Stella know my minde ; Professe in deed I do not Cupid's art ; But you, faire maides, at length this true shall find. That his right badge is but worne in the hart : Dumbe swannes, not chatring pies, do lovers prove ; They love indeed who quake to say they love. ASTROrHEL AND STELLA. 55 LV. Muses, I oft invoked your holy ayde, With choisest flowers my speech to engarland so, That it, despisde in true but naked shew. Might winne some grace in your sweet grace anaid ; And oft whole troupes of saddest words I staid, Striving abroad a-foraging to go, Untill by your inspiring I might know How their blacke banner might be best displaid. But now I meane no more your helpe to trie. Nor other sugring of my speech to prove. But on her name incessantly to crie ; For let me but name her whom I do love, So sweete sounds straight mine eare and heart do hit, That I well find no eloquence like it. 56 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. , LVI. Fy, schoole of Patience, fy ! your lesson is Far, far too long to learne it without booke : What, a whole weeke without one peece of looke, And thinke I should not your large precepts misse ! When I might reade those letters faireof blisse Which in her face teach vertue, I could brooke Somwhat thy lead'n counsels, which I tooke As of a friend that meant not much amisse. But now that I, alas, do want her sight, What, dost thou thinke that I can ever take In thy cold stuffe a flegmatike delight ? No, Patience ! if thou wilt my good, then make Her come and heare with patience my desire. And then with patience bid me beare my fire. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 57 Wo having made, with many fights, his owne Each sence of mine, each gift, each power of mind ; Growne now his slaves, he forst them out to find The thorowest words fit for woe's selfe to grone, Hoping that v/hen they might finde Stella alone, Before she could prepare to be unkind, Her soiile, arm'd but with such a dainty rind. Should soone be pierc'd with sharpnesse of the mone. She heard my plaints, and did not only heare. But them, so sweete is she, most sweetly sing, With that faire breast .making woe's darknesse cleare. A prety case ; I hopfed her to bring To feele my griefes ; and she, with face and voice, So sweets my paines, that my paines me rejoyce. S8 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LVIII. Doubt there hath bene when with his golden chaine The oratour so farre men's harts doth bind, That no pace else their guided steps can find But as he them more short or slacke doth raine, Whether with words this soveraignty he gaine, Cloth'd with fine tropes, with strongest reasons lin'd, Or else pronouncing grace, wherewith his mind Prints his owne lively forme in rudest braine. Now judge by this : in piercing phrases late The anatomy-of all my woes I wrate ; Stella's sweete breath the same to me did reed. O voice, O face ! maugre my speeche's might Which woofed wo, most ravishing delight Even those sad words even in sad me did breed. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 59 LIX. Deare, why make you more of a dog then me ? If he do love, I burne, I burne in love ; If he waite well, I never thence would move ; If he be faire, yet but a dog can be ; Litle he is, so litle worth is he ; He barks, my songs thine owne voyce oft doth prove : Bid'n, perhaps he fetcheth thee a glove, But I, unhid, fetch even my soule to thee. Yet, while I languish, him that bosome clips. That lap doth lap, nay lets, in spite of spite, This sowre-breath'd mate tast of those sugred lips. Alas, if you graunt only such delight To witlesse things, then Love, I hope (since wit Becomes a clog) will sopne ease me, of it. 6o ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LX. When my good angell guides me to the place "Where all my good I do in Stella see, That heav'n of joyes throwes onely downe on me Thundred disdaines and lightnings of disgrace ; I But when the ruggedst step of Fortune's race Makes me fall from her sight, then sweetly she, , With words wherein the Muses' treasures be, 'Shewes love and pitie to my absent case. Now I, wit-beaten long by hardest fate, So dull am, that I cannot looke into The ground of this fierce love and lovely hate. Then, some good body, tell me how J_do, Whose presence absence, absence presence is ; BlisLin-myjri.irse,_and_cursfed in my blisse. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 6i LXI. Oft with true sighes, oft with uncalled teares, Now with slow words, now with dumbe eloquence, I Stella's eyes assaid, invade her eares ; But this, at last, is her sweet breath'd defence : That who indeed infelt affection beares, So captives to his Saint both soule and sence, That, wholly hers, all selfnesse he forbeares, Then his desires he learnes, his live's course thence. Now, since her chast mind hates this love in me, With chastned mind I straight must shew that she Shall quickly me from what she hates remove. O Doctor Cupid, thou for me reply ; Driv'n else to graunt, by angel's sophistrie, That I love not without I leave to love. 62 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXII. Late tyr'd with wo, even ready for to pine With rage of love, I cald my Love unkind ; She in whose eyes love, though -unfeIt,-doth-shine, Sweet said, that I true lovejn her should find. I joyed ; but straight thus watred was, my wine : That love shedidy-butlovedaJove not blind, Which would not let me, whom she loved, decline From nobler course, fit for my birth and mind : And therefore, by her love's authority, WiM me these tempests of vaine love to flie. And anchor fast my selfe on Vertue's shore. Alas, if this the only mettall be O f lov e new-coind to helpe my beggery, Deare, love me not, that ye may love me more. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 63 LXIII. grammer-rules, O now your vertues show ; So children still reade you with awfuU eyes, As my young Uove may, in your precepts wise, Her graunt to me by her owne vertue know : For late, with heart most high, with eyes most low, 1 crav'd the thing which ever she denies ; She, lightning love, displaymg Venus' skies, Least once should not be heard, twise said. No, No ! Sing then, my Muse, now lo Peean sing ; Heav'ns envy not at my high triumphing, But grammer's force with sweet successe confirme : For grammer says, — O this, deare Stella, say, — For grammer sayes, — to grammer who sayes nay ? — That in one speech two negatives affirme ! 64 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. FIRST SONG. Dnnht jnii tn wTi nm my M"gp thfSf ""t-p" pntonripH-i^ Which now my breast, orecharg'd, to musicke lendeth ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Only in you my song begins and endeth. Who hath the e^s which marrie state with pleasure ? Who keepes the key of Nature's chiefest treasure ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Only for you the heav'n forgate all measure. Who hath the lips, where wit in fairenesse raigneth ? Who womankind at once both deckes and stayneth ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Oaely_b Y..you Cupid his cro wne ma intaineth . ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 65 Who hath the feet , whose step of sweetnesse planteth ? Who else, for whom Fame worthy trumpets wanteth ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Onely to you her scepter Venus granteth. Who hath the breas t, whose milke doth passions nourish? Whose grace is such, that when it chides doth cherish ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : O nelie through you the_tree_q f life doth fl ourish . Who hath the hand .which, without stroke, subdueth } Who long dead beautie with increase reneweth ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due ; Onely at you a)l ^nvie hopelesse-rn^th . 66 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Who hath the haire . which, loosest, fastest tieth ? Who makes a man hve then glad when he dieth ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Only of you the fl atterer never lieth . Who hath the voyre, whir h soule from sences sunder s '. Whose force, but yours, the bolts of beautie thunders ? To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Only with you not miracles are wonders. Doubt you, to whom my Muse these notes intendeth. Which now my breast, orecharg'd, to musicke lendeth ' To you, to you, all song of praise is due : Only in you my song begins and endeth. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 67 LXIV. No more, my deare, no more these counsels trie ; O give my passions leave to run their race ; Let Fortune lay on me her worst disgrace ; Let folke orecharg'd with braine against me crie ; Let clouds bedimme my face, breake in mine eye ; Let me no steps but of lost labour trace ; Let all the earth with scorne recount my case, B ut do not will me from my love to flie. I do not envie Aristotle's wit, Nor doaapire to Caesar's bleeding fame ; Nor ou ght do ca re though some above me sit ; Nor hope nor wish another course to frame. But that which once may win thy cruell hart ; T hou art mv wit, and thou my vertue art . !■• 2 68 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXV. Love, by sure proofe I may call thee unkind, That giv'st no better eare to my just cries ; Thou whom to me such my good turnes should bind, As I may well recount, but none can prize : For when, nak'd boy, thou couldst no harbour find In this old world, growne now so too too wise, I lodg'd thee in my heart, and being blind By nature borne, I gave to thee mine eyes ; Mine eyes ! my light, my heart, my life, alas ! If so great services may scorned be, Yet let this thought thy tygrish courage passe, That I perhaps am somewhat kinne to thee ; Since in thine arme s, if learnd fame truth hath spread, Thou bear'st the arrow^Ithe arrow head. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXVI. And d o I see some cause a hope to feede Or doth the tedious burd'n of long wo In weakened minds quicke apprehending breed Of everie image which may_comfqrt show ? I cannot brag of word, much lesse of deed, Fortune wheeles still with me in one sort slow ; My wealth no more, and no whit lesse my need ; Desire still on the stilts of Feare doth go. And yet amid all feares a hoj)e therejs, Stolne to my heart since last faire night, nay da\', Stella's eyes sent to me the beames of blisse, Looking on me while I lookt other way ■; But when mine eyes backe to their heav'n did move, T hey fled wit h blush jwhich guiltie_s.e£m'd of love. 70 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXVU. Hope, art thou true, or doest thou flatter me? Doth Stella now begin with piteous eye The ruines of her conquest to espie ? Will she take time before all wracked be ? Her eyes-speech is translated thus by thee, But failst thou not in phrase so heav'nly hie ? Looke on againe, thejaire-text better trie ; What blushing notes doest thou in margine see ? What sighes stolne out, or kild before full borne ? Hast thou found such and such like arguments, Or art thou else to comfort me forsworne ? Well, how so thou interpret the cont^i^nts. I am resol v'd thy errour to maintaine , Rather then by more truth to ge.t more paine. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 71 LXVIII. Stelkj the^onely planet of my light, Light of my li fe, and life of my desire, Chiefe good whereto my hope doth only aspire, World of my wealth, and heav'n of my delight ; Why doest thou spend the treasures of thy sprite, With voice more fit to wed Amphion's lyre. Seeking to quench in me the noble fire Fed by thy worth, and kindled by thy sight ? And all in vaine : for while thy breath most sweet With choisest words, thy words with reasons rare, Thy reasons firmly set on Vertue's feet, Labour to kill in me this killing care : O thinke I then, what ^paradise of joy I t is, so fair e a vertue_tQ-£n.joy-l 72 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXIX. O joy too high for my low stile to show ! O blisse fit for a nobler jtate then me ! Enyie, put out thine eyes, least thou do see What oceans of delight in me do flow ! My friend, that oft saw through all maskes my wo. Come, come, and let me powre my selfe on thee. Gone is the winter of my miserie ! My spring appeares ; O see what here doth grow : For Stella hath, with words where faith doth shine, Of her high heart giv'n me the monarchic : I, I, O I, may say tTiat she is mine ! And though she give but thus conditionly This realme of blisse, while vertuous course I take. No kings be crown'd but they some covenants make. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. My j\Ius£_mav well grudge at my heav'nly joy, If still I force her in sad rimes to creepe : She oft hath drunke my teares, now hopes to enjoy Nectar of mirth, since I Jove's cup do keepe. Sonets be not bound prentise to annoy ; Trebles sing high, as well as bases deepe ; Griefe but Love's winter liverie is ; the boy Hath cheekes to smile, as well as eyes to weepe. Come then, my Muse, shew thou height of delight In well raisde notes ; myjpen, the best it may. Shall paint out joy, though but in blacke and white. Cease, eager Muse ; peace, pen, for my sake stay, I give you here my hand for truth of this, — Wise^silenceis^besLmu^ck£_iuitQ-blisse. 74 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXI. Who will in fairest booke of Nature know How vertue may best lodg'd in beautie be, Let him but learne of Love to reade in thee, Stella, those faire lines which true goodnesse show. There shall he find all vices' overthrow, Not by rude force, but sweetest soywajgntLe Qf_reason, from whose light those night-birds flie ; That inward sunne in thine eyes shineth so. And, not content to be Perfection's heire Thy selfe, doest strive all minds that way to move, Who marke in thee what is in thee most faire. So while thy beautie drawes the heart to love, As fast thy vertue bends that love to good : But, ah, Desire^stiU^rieSi Gjy^m^ somejfood. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 75 LXXII. D esire, though thou my olcl companion art, And oft so chngs to my pure love that I One from the other ^carcely can descrie, While each doth blow the fier of my hart ; Now from thy fellowship I needs must part ; Venus is taught with Dian's wings to flie ; I must no more in thy sweet passions lie ; Vertue's gold now must head my Cupid's dart. Service and honor, wonder with delight, Feare to offend, will worthie to appeare, Care shining in mine eyes, faith in my sprite ; These things are left me by my only Deare : But thou, Desire, because thou wouldst have all, Now banisht art ; but yet, alas, how shall ? 76 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. SECOND SONG. Have I caught my heav'niy jewell, Teaching sleepe most faire to be ! Now will I teach her that she, When she wakes, is too too cruell. Since sweet sleep her eyes hath charmed, The two only darts of Love, Now will I with that boy prove Some play, while he is disarmed. Her tongue, waking, still refuseth Giving frankly niggard no : Now will I attempt to know What no her tongue, sleeping, useth. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. TI See the hand which, waking, gardeth, Sleeping, grants a free resort : Now will I invade the fort. Cowards Love with losse rewardeth. But, O foole, thinke of thejianger Of her just and high disdaine ; Now will I, alas, refraine ; Love feares nothing else but anger. Yet those lips, so sweetly swelling, Do invite a stealing kisse. Now will I but venture this ; Who will read, must first learne spelling Oh, sweet kisse ! but ah, she is waking ; Lowring beautie chastens me : Now will I away hence flee ; Foole ! More foqle, for no morejaking. 78 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXiir. Love, still a boy, and oft a wanton is, School'd onely by his mother's tender eye ; What wonder then if he his lesson misse, When for so soft a rod deare play he trie ': And yet my Starre, because a sugred kisse In sport I suckt while she asleepe did lie, Doth lowre, nay chide, nay threat for only this. Sweet, it was saucie Love, not humble I. But no scuse serves ; she makes her wrath appeare In beautie's throne : see now, who dares come neare Those scarlet judges, threatning bloudy paine. O heav'nly foole, thy most kisse-worthy face Anger invests with such a lovely grace. That Anger selfe I needs must kisse againe. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 79 LXXIV. I never dranke of Aganippe well, Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit, And Muses acornewith vulgar braines to dwell ; Poore layman I, for sacred rites unfit. Some do I heare of poets' furie tell. But, God wot, wot not what they meane by it ; And this I sweare by blackest brooke of hell, I am no pick-purse of another's wit. How falles it then, that with so smooth an ease My thoughts I speake ; and what I speake doth flow In verse, and that my verse best wits doth please ? Guesse we the cause ? What, is it thus ? Fie, no. Or so ? Much lesse. How then .'' Sure thus it is : My lips are sweet, inspired with Stella^ kisse. So ASTROPHEL AND STELLA LXXV. Of all the kings that ever here did raigne, Edward, named fourth, as first in praise I name : Not for his faire outside, nor well hned braine, Although lesse gifts impe feathers oft on fame. Nor that he could, young-wise, wise-valiant, frame His sire's revenge, joyn'd with a kingdome's gaine ; And gain'd by Mars, could yet mad Mars so tame, That ballance weigh'd what sword did late obtaine. Nor that he made the Flouredeluce so fraid, Though strongly hedg'd, of bloudy Lyons' pawes. That wittie Lewes to him a tribute paid : Nor this, nor that, nor any such small cause ; But only for this worthy knight durst prove To loose his crowne, rather .thenJaila his love. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 8i LXXVI. She comes, and straight therewith her shining twins do move Their rayes to me, who in her tedious absence lay Benighted in cold wo ; but now appeares my day The onely Hght of joy, the onely warmth of love. She comes with light and warmth, which, lilte Aurora prove Of gentle force, so that mine eyes dare gladly play With such a rosie morne, whose beames, most freshly gay, Scortch not, but onely do darke chilling sprites remove. But, lo, while I do speake, it groweth noone with me. Her flamie glistring lights increase with time and place, My heart cries, ah ! it burnes, rnine eyes now dazled be ; No wind^no shade can coole : what helpe then in my case, But with short breath, long lookes, staid feet, and walking hed, Pray that my^sunne go dovvnewith meeker Jaeames to hed .? 82 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXVII. Those lookes, whose beames be joy, whose motion is delight ; That face, whose lecture shewes what perfect beautie is ; That presence, which doth give darke hearts a living light ; That grace, which Venus weepes that she hej selfe doth misse ; That hand, which without touch holds more then Atlas might ; Those lips, which make death's pay a meane price for a kisse ; That skin, whose passe-praise hue scornes this poore terme of white ; Those words, which do sublime the quintessence of blisse ; That voyce, which makes the soule plant himselfe in the eares ; That conversation sweet, where such high comforts be. As, consterd in true speech, the name of heav'n it beares; Makes me in my best thoughts and quietst judgments see That in no more but these I might be fully blest : Yet, ah, my mayd'n Muse doth blush to tell the best. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXVIII. O how the pleasant aires of true love be Infected by those vapours which arise From out that noysome gulfe, which gaping lies Betweene the jawes of hellish jealousie ! A monster, others' harme, selfe-miserie, Beautie's plague, Vertue's scourge, succour of lies ; Who his owne joy to his owne hurt applies, And onely cherish doth with injurie : Who since he hath, by Nature's speciall grace. So piercing pawes as spoyle when they embrace ; So nimble feet as stirre still, though on thornes ; So manie eyes, ay seeking their owne woe ; So ample eares as never good newes know : Is it not evill that such a devill wants homes ? G 2 84 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXIX. Sweet kisse^ thy sweets I faine would sweetly endit Which, even of sweetnesse sweetest sweetner art ; Pleasingst consort, where each sence holds a part ; Which, coupling doves, guides Venus' chariot right Best charge, and bravest retrait in Cupid's fight ; A double key, which opens to the heart. Most rich when most his riches it impart ; Neast of young joyes, schoolmaster of delight, Teaching the meane at once to take and give ; The friendly fray, where blowes both wound and he The prettie death, while each in other live. Poore hope's first wealth, ostage of promist weale ; Breakefast of love. But lo, lo, where she is, Cease we to praise ; now pray we for a kisse. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. 85 LXXX. Sweet_§sceJl«ig lip, well maist thou swell in pride, Since best wits thinke jt wit thee to admire ; Nature's praise, Vertue's stall ; Cupid's cold fire, Whence words, not words but heav'nly graces slide ; The new Pemassus, where the Muses bide ; Sweetner of musicke, wisedom's beautifier. Breather of life, and fastner of desire, Where Beautie's blush in Honour's graine is dide. Thus much my heart compeld my mouth to say ; But now, spite of my heart, my mouth will stay, Loathing all lies, doubting this flatterie is : And no spurre can his resty race renew, Without, how farre this praise is short of you, Sweet lip, you teach my mouth with one sweet kisse. 86 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXXI. O kisse, which doest those ruddie gemmes impart, Or gemmes or frutes of new-found Paradise, Breathing all blisse, and sweetning to the heart, Teaching dumbe lips a nobler exercise ; O kisse, which soules, even soules, together ties By linkes of love and only Nature's art, How faine would I paint thee to all men's eyes. Or of thy gifts at least shade out some part ! But she forbids ; with blushing words she sayes She builds her fame on higher seated praise. But my heart burnes^ Ixann»t sJlent-be.— Then, since, deare life, you faine would have me peai And I, mad with delight, want wit to cease. Stop you my mouth with still, still kissing me. ASTROPHEL AKD STELLA. S; LXXXII. Nymph of the gard'n where all beauties be, — Beauties which do in excellencie passe His who till death lookt in a watrie glasse, Or hers whom naked the Trojan boy did see ; Sweet-gard'n -nymph, which keepes the cherrie-tree Whose fruit doth farre th' Esperian tast surpasse, Most sweet-faire, most faire-sweet, do not, alas, From comrning neare those cherries banislxmee. For though, full of desire, emptie of wit, Admitted late by your best-graced grace, I caught^at one of them, a hun^ieiit ; Pardon that fault ; once more graunt me the place ; And I do sweare, even by the same delight, I will but kisse ; I never more will bite. 88 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. LXXXHI. Good brother Philip, I have borne you long ; I was content you should in favour creepe, While craftily you seem'd your cut to keepe, As though that faire soft hand did you great wrong : I bare, with envie, yet I bare, your song. When in her