Some Longer Elizabethan Poems

B rave Princes of this civil Age! E nter into this pilgrimage! T his Saint's tongue is an Oracle! H er eye hath made a Prince a page; A nd works, each day, a miracle!

The Ladies jest! command him to feign still! Tell him, how, one day, he may be in love! That lover's reason hath not Love's free will! Smile in disdain, to think of that he prov...

The style of this Poem is more lofty than any of the rest, and THEOCRITUS wrote it to HIERO, King of Syracuse in Sicily. Wherein he reproveth the nigardise of Princes and Great...

Calls players "fools! The Fool, he judgeth wiseth, Will learn them action out of Chaucer's _Pander_, Proves of their poets bawds, even in the highest, Then drinks a health! and...

The Spring of Youth, which now is in his prime; Winter of Age, with hoary frosts shall nip! Beauty shall then be made the prey of Time! And sour Remorse, deceitful Pleasures whi...

_Parve liber Domini vanos dicture labores, Insomnes noctes, sollicitosque dies, Errores varios, languentis tædia vitæ, Mærores certos, gaudia certa minus, Peruigiles curas, susp...

She lodgeth heat, and cold! and moist, and dry! And life, and death! and peace, and war together: Ten thousand fighting things in her do lie, Yet neither troubleth or disturbeth...

Ah, where were ye this while, his shepherd peers? To whom alive was nought so dear as he. And ye fair maids, the matches of his years! Which in his grace, did boast you most to...

=Colin.= PHILLISIDES is dead! O harmful death! O deadly harm! Unhappy Albion! When shalt thou see emong thy shepherds all Any so sage, so perfect? Whom uneath Envy could touch f...

Though little sign of love in show appear; Yet think, True Love, of colours hath no need! It's not the glorious garments, which men wear, That makes them other than they are ind...

And when it pleaseth thee to walke abroad, (Abroad into the fields to take fresh ayre:) The Meades with _Floras_ treasure should be strowde, (The mantled meaddowes, and the fiel...

Since Nature fails us in no needful thing; Why want I means, mine inward self to see? Which sight, the Knowledge of Myself might bring; Which, to true wisdom, is the first degree.

Thus these good men, with holy zeal were blind, When on the other part the truth did shine, Whereof we do clear demonstrations find, By light of Nature, and by light Divine.

Thou shalt (indeede) fore-tell of things to come; And truely, too; (for why my vowes are past) But heare the end of _Ioues_ eternall doome: Because thy promise did so little las...

Of the first edition of _Alcilia: Philoparthen's Loving Folly_, 1595 (pp. 319-362), only one copy is known, preserved in the public library at Hamburgh. On the last page are sub...

Now had the cole-blacke steedes, of pitchie Night, (Breathing out Darknesse) banisht cheerfull Light, And sleepe (the shaddowe of eternall rest) My seuerall senses, wholy had po...

But though the Apprehensive Power do pause, The Motive Virtue then begins to move! Which in the heart below, doth Passions cause, Joy, Grief, and Fear, and Hope, and Hate, and Love

"_What if to you these sparks disordered seem, As if by chance they had been scattered there? The gods a solemn measure do it deem And see a just proportion everywhere, And know...

_For your sweet beauty daintily transfused With due proportion, throughout every part; What is it but a dance where LOVE hath used His finer cunning, and more curious Art? Where...

Give her th' Eoan Brightness! Winged with that subtle lightness That doth transpierce the air; The Roses of the Morning! The rising heaven adorning, To mesh with flames of hair;

Sweet Corrall lips, where Nature's treasure lies, The balme of blisse, the soueraigne salue of sorrow, The secret touch of loues heart-burning arrow, Come quench my thirst or el...

In _Pan_ repose thy trust; extoll his praise (That neuer shall decay, but euer liues): Honor thy Parents (to prolong thy dayes), Let not thy left hand know what right hand giues...

The texts contained in the present volume are reprinted with very slight alterations from the _English Garner_ issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London, 8vo) by Professor Arbe...

_Louely a Lasse, so loued a Lasse, and (alas) such a louing_ _Lasse, for a while (but a while) was none such a sweet bonny Loue-Lasse_ _As_ Helen, Mænelaus _louing, lou'd, louli...

What Thing is then, so well belou'd as money? It is a speciall Comfort to the minde; More faire then Women are; more sweet then honey: Easie to loose, but very harde to finde. I...

Where be the Graces? Where be those fair Three? In any hand, they may not absent be! They to the Gods are dear: And they can humbly Teach us, ourselves to bear, And do things co...