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Tho' hide it fain ye would,

It plainly doth declare,
Who hath your heart in hold,
And where good-will ye bear.

Fain would ye find a cloak
Your burning fire to hide,
Yet both the flame and smoke
Breaks out on every side.

Ye cannot love so guide
That it no issue win;
Abroad needs must it glide
That brens so hot within.

The Lover determineth to serve faithfully.

SINCE Love will needs that I shall love, Of very force I must agree:

And since no chance may it remove,

In wealth and in adversity,

I shall alway myself apply

To serve and suffer patiently.

Though for good-will I find but hate,

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And cruelty my life to waste;

So ed. I.-ed. 1567, "cruelly."

And though that still a wretched state

Should pine my days unto the last,
Yet I profess it willingly,

To serve and suffer patiently.

There is no grief, no smart, no wo,
That yet I feel, or after shall,
That from this mind may make me go ;

And, whatsoever me befall,

I do profess it willingly,

To serve and suffer patiently.

The Lover prayeth not to be disdained, refused, mistrusted, nor forsaken.

DISDAIN me not without desert,
Nor leave me not so suddenly;
Since well ye wot that in my heart
I mean ye nought but honestly.

Refuse me not without cause why:
For think me not to be unjust,

Since that by lot of fantasy

This careful knot needs knit I must.

Mistrust me not, though some there be
That fain would spot my stedfastness ;
Believe them not, since that ye see
The proof is not as they express.

Forsake me not till I deserve;

Nor hate me not till I offend;
Destroy me not till that I swerve :

But since ye know what I intend,

Disdain me not that am your own;
Refuse me not that am so true;
Mistrust me not till all be known;
Forsake me not now for no new.

Of his return from Spain.

TAGUS farewell, that westward with thy streams
Turns up the grains of gold already tried!
For I with spur and sail go seek the Thames,

Gainward the sun that show'th her wealthy pride,
And to the town that Brutus sought by dreams,
Like bended moon that leans her lusty side.
My king, my country I seek, for whom I live;
O, mighty Jove, the winds for this me give!

The Courtier's Life.

IN court to serve decked with fresh array,

Of sugar'd meats feeling the sweet repast; The life in banquets, and sundry kinds of play Amid the press of worldly looks to waste ;— Hath with it join'd oft-times such bitter taste, That whoso joys such kind of life to hold, In prison joys fetter'd with chains of gold.

A renouncing of Love.

FAREWELL, Love, and all thy laws for ever,
Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more!
Senec and Plato call me from thy lore,
To parfit wealth my wit for to endeavour.
In blind error when I did perséver,

Thy sharp repulse, that pricketh aye so sore,
Taught me in trifles that I set no store,
But scape forththence, since liberty is lever."
Therefore farewell! go, trouble younger hearts,

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And in me claim no more authority!

With idle youth go use thy property,

And thereon spend thy many brittle darts.
For, hitherto though I have lost my time,

Me list no longer rotten boughs to climb.

Or "lieffer," as in ed. 1567, i. e. preferable. * Ed. 1567,"time."

A Description of such a one as he would love.

A FACE that should content me wondrous well
Should not be fair, but lovely to behold;

Of lively look, all grief for to repel;

With right good grace, so would I that it should Speak, without word, such words as none can tell. Her tress also should be of crisped gold. With wit, and these, perchance I might be tried, And knit again with knot that should not slide.

Of the Courtiers Life, written to John Poins.

MINE Own John Poins! since ye delight to know The causes why that homeward I me draw, And flee the press of courts, whereso they go, Rather than to live thrall under the awe

Of lordly looks, wrapped within my cloak,
To will and lust learning to set a law :-

It is not that because I scorn or mock

The power of them whom Fortune here hath lent Charge over us, of right to strike the stroke.

But true it is that I have always meant

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