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A Lover's complaint

	From off a hill whose concave womb reworded
	A plaintful story from a sistering vale,
	My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,
	And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale;
	Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,	5
	Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
	Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain..

	Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
	Which fortified her visage from the sun,
	Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw	10
	Te carcass of a beauty spent and done;
	Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
	Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,
	Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.

	Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,	15
	Which on it had conceited characters,
	Laundering the silken figures in the brine
	That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,
	And often reading what contents it bears;
	As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,	20
	In clamours of all size, both high and low.

	Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride
	As they did battery to the spheres intend;
	Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
	To the orbed earth; sometimes they do extend	25
	Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
	To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd
	The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

	Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
	Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride;	30
	For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
	Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside
	Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
	And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,
	Though slackly braided in loose negligence.	35

	A thousand favours from a maund she drew
	Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
	Which one by one she in a river threw,
	Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
	Like usury, applying wet to wet,	40
	Or monarch's hands that lets not bounty fall
	Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.

	Of folded schedules had she many a once,
	Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood,
	Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,	45
	Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
	Found yet moe letters sadly penn'd in blood,
	With sleided silk feat and affectedly
	Enswathed, and seal'd to curious secrecy.

	These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes	50
	And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear;
	Cried: «O false blood, thou register of lies,
	What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
	Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!»
	This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,	55
	Big discontent so breaking their contents.

	A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh-
	Sometime a blustered, that the ruffle knew
	Of court, of city, and had let go by
	The swiftest hours, observed as they flew-	60
	Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;
	And, privileged by age, desires to know
	In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.

	So slides he down upon his grained bat,
	And comely-distant sits he by her side;	65
	When he again desires her, being sat,
	Her grievance with his hearing to divide:
	If that from him there may be aught applied
	Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
	Tis promised in the charity of age.	70

	Father, she says, though in me you behold
	The injury of many a blasting hour,
	Let it not tell your judgement I am old;
	Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power:
	I might as yet have been a spreading flower,	75
	Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
	Love to myself, and to no love beside.

	But, woe is me! too early I attended
	A youthful suit it was to gain my grace-
	Of one by nature's outwards so commended,	80
	That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face:
	Love lack'd a dwelling and made him her place;
	And when in his fair parts she did abide,
	She was new lodged and newly deified.

	His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;	85
	And every light occasion of the wind
	Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
	What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:
	Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind;
	For on his visage was in little drawn	90
	What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.

	Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
	His phoenix down began but to appear,
	Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
	Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear	95
	Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear;
	And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
	If best were as it was, or best without.

	His qualities were beauteous as his form,
	For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;	100
	Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
	As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
	When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
	His rudeness so with his authorized youth
	Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.	105

	Well could he ride, and often men would say,
	That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
	Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
	What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!
	And controversy hence a question takes,	110
	Whether the horse by him became his deed,
	Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.

	But quickly on this side the verdict went:
	His real habitude gave life and grace
	To appertainings and to ornament,	115
	Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case;
	All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
	Came for additions; yet their purposed trim
	Pierced not his grace, but were all graced by him.

	So on the tip oh his subduing tongue	120
	All kinds of arguments and question deep,
	All replication prompt and reason strong,
	For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
	To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
	He had thad dialect and different skill,	125
	Catching all passions in his craft of will;

	That he did in the general bosom reign
	Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,
	To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
	In personal duty, following where he haunted:	130
	Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted,
	And dialogued for him what he would say,
	Ask'd their own wills and made their wills obey.

	Many there were that did his picture get,
	To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;	135
	Like fools that in the imagination set
	The goodly objects which abroad they find
	Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd:
	And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them
	Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them:	140

	So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
	Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.
	My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
	And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
	What with his art in youth and youth in art,	145
	Threw my affections in his charmed power,
	Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.

	Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
	Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
	Finding myself in honour so forbid,	150
	With safest distance I mine honour shielded;
	Experience for me many bulwarks builded
	Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil
	Of this false jewel, and this amorous spoil.

	But, ah, who ever shunn'd by precedent	155
	The destined ill she must herself assay?
	Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content,
	To put the by-past perils in her way?
	Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay;
	For when we rage, advice is often seen	160
	By blunting us to make our wits more keen.

	Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
	That we must curb it upon others' proof;
	To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
	For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.	165
	O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!
	The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
	Though Reason weep, and cry «It is thy last»

	For further I could say «This man's untrue»,
	And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;	170
	Heard where his plants in others' orchands grew,
	Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
	Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
	Thought characters and words merely but art,
	And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.	175

	A long upon these terms I held my city,
	Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid,
	Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
	And be not of my holy vows afraid:
	That's to ye sworn to none was ever said;	180
	For feass of love I have been call'd unto,
	Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.

	All my offences that abroad you see
	Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
	Love made them not; with acture they may be,	185
	Where neither party is nor true nor kind:
	They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
	And so much less of shame in me remains
	By how much of me their reproach contains.

	Among the many that mine eyes have seen,	190
	Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
	Or my affection put to she smallest teen,
	Or any of my leisures ever charmed:
	Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
	Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,	195
	And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.

	Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me
	Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood;
	Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
	Of grief and blushes, aptly understood	200
	In bloodless white and the encrimson'd modd;
	Effects of terror and dear modesty,
	Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

	And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
	With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,	205
	I have received from many a several fair,
	Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
	With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,
	And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
	Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality.	210

	The diamond, why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
	Whereto his invised properties did tend;
	The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard
	Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
	The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend	215
	With objects manifold; each several stone,
	With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan.

	Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
	Of pensived and subdues desires the tender,
	Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,	220
	But yield them up where I myself must render,
	That is, to you, my origin and ender;
	For these, of force, must your oblations be,
	Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

	O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand,	225
	Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
	Take all these similes to your own command,
	Hallow'd with sight that burning lungs did raise;
	What me your minister or you obeys,
	Works under you; and to your audit comes	230
	Their distract parcels in combined sums.

	Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
	Or sister sanctified, of holiest note;
	Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
	Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;	235
	For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
	But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
	To spend her living in eternal love.

	But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave
	The thing we have not, mastering what not strives,	240
	Playing the place which did no form receive,
	Playing patient sports in unconstrained gives?
	She that her fame so to herself contrives,
	The scars of battle 'scapech by the fight,
	And makes her absence valiant, not her might.	245

	O, pardon me, in that my boast is true:
	The accident which brought me to her eye
	Upon he moment did her force subdue,
	And now she would the caged cloister fly;
	Religious love put out Religion's eye;	250
	Not to be tempted, would she be immured,
	And, now, to tempt all, liberty procured.

	How mighty then you are, O, hear me tell!
	The broken bosoms that to me belong
	Have emptied all their fountains in my well,	255
	And mine I pour your ocean all among:
	I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
	Must for your victory us all congest,
	As compound love to physic your cold breast.

	My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,	260
	Who disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,
	Believed her eyes when they to assail begun,
	All vows and consecrations giving place:
	O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
	In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,	265
	For thou art all, and all things else are thine.

	When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
	Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
	How boldly those impediments stand forth
	Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!	270
	Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame;
	And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
	The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.

	Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
	Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine;	275
	And supplicant their sight to you extend,
	To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
	Lending soft audience to my sweet desing,
	And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
	That shall prefer and undertake my troth.	280

	This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
	Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;
	Each cheek a river running from a fount
	With brinish current downward flow'd apace;
	O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!	285
	Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
	That flame through water which their hue encloses

	O, father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
	In the small orb of one particular tear!
	But with the inundation of the eyes	290
	What rocky heart to water will not wear?
	What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
	O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
	Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

	For, lo, his passion, but an art of craft,	295
	Even there resolved my reason into tears;
	There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
	Shook off my sober guards and civil fears;
	Appear to him, as to me appears,
	All melting; though our drops this difference bore,	300
	His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.

	In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
	Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
	Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
	Or swounding paleness; and he takes and leaves,	305
	In either's aptness, as it best deceives,
	To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
	Or to turn white and swound at tragic shows:

	That not a heart which in his level came
	Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,	310
	Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
	And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
	Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
	When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury,
	He preach'd pure maid and praised cold chastity.	315

	Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
	The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd;
	That the unexperient gave the tempter place,
	Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd.
	Who, young a simple, would not be so lover'd?	320
	Ay me! I fell, and yet do question make
	What I should do again for such a sake.

	O, that infected moisture of his eyes,
	O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
	O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,	325
	O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
	O, all that borrow'd motion seeming owed,
	Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
	And new pervert a reconciled maid!