Our west horizon circular,

From time the sun be set,

Is all with rubies, as it were,

Or roses red o'erfret.

What pleasure were to walk and see,

Endlong a river clear,

The perfect form of every tree

Within the deep appear.

Oh then it were a seemly thing,

While all is still and calm,

The praise of God to play and sing
With cornet and with shalm!

All labourers draw home at even,

And can to other say,

Thanks to the gracious God of heaven,
Which sent this summer day.

Alexander Hume.

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IX

A VOW TO LOVE FAITHFULLY, HOWSOEVER HE BE REWARDED.

Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green,
Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice;
In temperate heat where he is felt and seen;
In presence prest of people, mad or wise;
Set me in high, or yet in low degree;
In longest night, or in the shortest day;
In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be;
In lusty youth, or when my hairs are gray :
Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell,
In hill or dale, or in the foaming flood;

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ΙΟ

Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell,
Sick or in health, in evil fame or good,
Hers will I be; and only with this thought
Content myself, although my chance be nought.
Earl of Surrey.

X

AN APPEAL.

Forget not yet the tried intent
Of such a truth as I have meant ;
My great travail so gladly spent
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet when first began
The weary ife ye know, since whan
The suit, the service none tell can;
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet the great assays,

The cruel wrong, the scornful ways;
The painful patience in delays,

Forget not yet!

Forget not! oh! forget not this,
How long ago hath been, and is
The mind that never meant amiss-

Forget not yet!

Forget not then thine own approved,
The which so long hath thee so loved,
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved---

Forget not this!

Sir Thomas Wyat.

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IC

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XI

A RENUNCIATION.

If women could be fair, and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond
By service long to purchase their good will ;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.

To mark the choice they make, and how they change,
How oft from Phœbus they do flee to Pan;
Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,

These gentle birds that fly from man to man; Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist, And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?

Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,

To pass the time when nothing else can please,
And train them to our lure with subtle oath,
Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;
And then we say when we their fancy try,
To play with fools, oh what a fool was I!

Earl of Oxford.

5

ΙΟ

15

XII

THE EXCELLENCY OF HIS LOVE.

Give place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your boasts and brags in vain :
My lady's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well say'n,
Than doth the sun the candle light,

Or brightest day the darkest night.

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And thereto hath a troth as just

As had Penelope the fair;

For what she saith, ye may it trust,
As it by writing sealèd were ;
And virtues hath she many mo,
Than I with pen have skill to show.

I could rehearse, if that I would,

The whole effect of Nature's plaint, When she had lost the perfect mould,

The like to whom she could not paint:
With wringing hands how she did cry,
And what she said, I know it, I.

I know she swore with raging mind,
Her kingdom only set apart,

ΙΟ

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20

There was no loss by law of kind

That could have gone so near her heart;

And this was chiefly all her pain:

'She could not make the like again.'

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise

To be the chiefest work she wrought;
In faith, methink! some better ways
On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare, as ye have done,
To match the candle with the sun.
Earl of Surrey.

XIII

When first mine eyes did view and mark
Thy beauty fair for to behold,

And when mine ears 'gan first to hark

The pleasant words that thou me told,

I would as then I had been free

From ears to hear, and eyes to see.

C

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5

And when in mind I did consent
To follow thus my fancy's will,
And when my heart did first relent

To taste such bait, myself to spill,
I would my heart had been as thine,
Or else thy heart as soft as mine.

O flatterer false! thou traitor born,
What mischief more might thou devise
Than thy dear friend to have in scorn,

And him to wound in sundry wise;
Which still a friend pretends to be,
And art not so by proof I see?

Fie, fie upon such treachery!

William Hunnis.

ΙΟ

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XIV

TO HIS FORSAKEN MISTRESS.

I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair,

And I might have gone near to love thee,

Had I not found the slightest prayer

That lips could speak, had power to move thee; But I can let thee now alone,

As worthy to be loved by none.

I do confess thou'rt sweet, but find

Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets,

Thy favours are but like the wind,

That kisses everything it meets :

And since thou can with more than one,
Thou'rt worthy to be kissed by none.

5

ΙΟ

The morning rose that untouched stands,
Armed with her briars, how sweetly smells
But, plucked and strained through ruder hands,
Her scent no longer with her dwells.

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