But, like the turtles fair,

Live one in two, a well-united pair :
Which that no chance may stain,

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

O Heaven, awake! show forth thy stately face;
Let not these slumbering clouds thy beauties hide;
But with thy cheerful presence help to grace
The honest Bridegroom and the bashful Bride,
Whose loves may ever bide,

Like to the elm and vine,

With mutual embracements them to twine :
In which delightful pain,

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

Ye Muses all, which chaste affects allow,
And have to Thyrsis showed your secret skill,
To this chaste love your sacred favours bow,
And so to him and her your gifts distil,
That they all vice may kill,

And, like to lilies pure,

May please all eyes, and spotless may endure
Where that all bliss may reign:

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain!

Ye Nymphs which in the waters empire have, Since Thrysis' music oft doth yield you praise, Grant to the thing which we for Thyrsis crave: Let one time-but long first-close up their days, One grave their bodies seize,

And like two rivers sweet,

When they, though diverse, do together meet,
One stream both streams contain :

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

Pan, father Pan, the god of silly sheep,
Whose care is cause that they in number grow,
Have much more care of them that them do keep,-
Since from these good the others' good doth flow,---
And make their issues show

In number like the herd

Of younglings which thyself with love hast reared,
Or like the drops of rain :

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

Virtue-if not a god, yet God's chief part-
Be thou the knot of this their open vow,
That still he be her head, she be his heart;
He lean to her, she unto him do bow.
Each other still allow ;

Like oak and mistletoe,

Her strength from him, his praise from her do grow:
In which most lovely train,

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain!

But thou, foul Cupid, sire to lawless lust,
Be thou far hence with thy empoisoned dart,
Which, though of glittering gold, shall here take rust
Where simple love, which chasteness doth impart,
Avoids thy hurtful art,

Not needing charming skill

Such minds with sweet affections for to fill ;
Which being pure and plain,

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

All churlish words, shrewd answers, crabbèd looks,
All privateness, self-seeking, inward spite,

All waywardness which nothing kindly brooks,
All strife for toys and claiming master's right,
Be hence aye put to flight!
All stirring husband's hate

'Gainst neighbours good for womanish debate,
Be fled, as things most vain!

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

All peacock pride, and fruits of peacock's pride,
Longing to be with loss of substance gay,
With recklessness what may the house betide
So that you may on higher slippers stay,

For ever hence away!

Yet let not sluttery,

The sink of filth, be counted housewif'ry
But keeping whole your mean:

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

But, above all, away, vile jealousy-
The evil of evils, just cause to be unjust!
How can he love suspecting treachery?

How can she love where love can not win trust?
Go, snake, hide thee in dust,

Nor dare once show thy face

Where open hearts do hold so constant place,
That they thy sting restrain :

O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain !

The Earth is decked with flowers, the Heavens displayed;

Muses grant gifts, Nymphs, long and joined life,

Pan, store of babes, Virtue, their thoughts well stayed ; Cupid's lust gone, and gone is bitter strife.

Happy man, happy wife!

No pride shall them oppress,

Nor yet shall yield to loathsome sluttishness;
And jealousy is slain :

For Hymen will their coupled joys maintain.

(Arcadia: Bk. III.)

Philomela

THE nightingale, as soon as April bringeth
Unto her rested sense a perfect waking,

While late bare earth, proud of new clothing, springeth,
Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making,
And mournfully bewailing,

Her thought in tunes expresseth

What grief her breast oppresseth

For Tereus' force on her chaste will prevailing.

O Philomela fair, O take some gladness, That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness : Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth ;

Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.

Alas, she hath no other cause of anguish
But Tereus' love, on her by strong hand wroken,
Wherein she suff'ring, all her spirits languish,
Full womanlike complains her will was broken.
But I, who, daily craving,

Cannot have to content me,

Have more cause to lament me,

Since wanting is more woe than too much having.
O Philomela fair, O take some gladness;
That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness :
Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth ;
Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.

Song

(To the Tune of a Neopolitan Villanelle)

ALL my sense thy sweetness gainèd,—
Thy fair hair my heart enchainèd;
My poor reason thy words movèd,
So that thee like heaven I lovèd.
Fa la la leridan dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
While to my mind the outside stood
For messenger of inward good.

Now thy sweetness sour is deemed,
Thy hair not worth a hair esteemèd;
Reason hath thy words removed,
Finding that but words they proved.

Fa la la leridan dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
For no fair sign can credit win
If that the substance fail within.

No more in thy sweetness glory;
For thy knitting hair be sorry;
Use thy words but to bewail thee,
That no more thy beams avail thee.
Fa la la leridan dan dan dan deridan,

Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei :
Lay not thy colours more to view
Without the picture be found true.

Woe to me, alas, she weepeth ;—
Fool in me what folly creepeth :
Was I to blaspheme enragèd
Where my soul I have engaged?
Fa la la leridan dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei,
And wretched I must yield to this:
The fault I blame her chasteness is.

Sweetness, sweetly pardon folly;
Tie me, hair, your captive wholly ;
Words, O words of heavenly knowledge,
Know my words their faults acknowledge.
Fa la la leridan dan dan dan deridan,

Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:

And all my life I will confess
The less I love I live the less.