But you, (fayre dame,) in whome dame Nature dyd deuise With cunning hand to woorke that might seeme wondrous in our eyes,

For you, I pray the gods, your pleasures to increase,

And all mishap, with this my death, for euermore to cease.
And mighty Joue with speede of iustice bring them lowe,
Whose lofty pryde, (without our gylt,) our blisse doth ouerblowe,
And Cupide graunt to those theyr spedy wrongs redresse,
That shall bewayle my cruell death and pity her distresse."
Therewith a cloude of sighes he breathd into the skies,
And two great streames of bitter teares ran from his swollen

eyes.

These thinges the auncient fryre with sorow saw and heard,
Of such begynning eke the ende the wiseman greatly feard.
But loe! he was so weake by reason of his age,

That he ne could by force represse the rigour of his rage.
His wise and friendly woordes he speaketh to the ayre,
For Romeus so vexed is with care, and with dispayre,
That no aduise can perce his close forstopped eares,

So now the fryer doth take his part in shedding ruthfull teares.
With colour pale and wan, with armes full hard y-fold,
With wofull cheere his wayling frend he standeth to beholde.
And then our Romeus with tender handes y-wrong,

With voyce with plaint made horce, wt. sobs and with a foltring

tong,

Renewd with nouel mone the dolours of his hart;

His outward dreery cheere bewrayde his store of inward smart, Fyrst Nature did he blame, the author of his lyfe,

In which his ioyes had been so scant, and sorowes aye so ryfe; The time and place of byrth he fiersly did reproue,

He cryed out (with open mouth) against the starres aboue: The fatall sisters three, he said had done him wrong,

The threed that should not haue been sponne, they had drawne foorth too long.

He wished that he had before this time been borne,

Or that as soone as he wan light, his life he had forlorne.
His nurce he cursed, and the hand that gaue him pappe,

The midwife eke with tender grype that held him in her lappe;
And then did he complaine on Venus cruel sonne,

Who led him first vnto the rockes which he should warely shonne:
By meane wherof he lost both lyfe and libertie,

And dyed a hundred times a day, and yet could neuer dye.
Loues troubles lasten long, the ioyes he geues are short;
He forceth not a louers payne, theyr ernest is his sport.
A thousand thinges and more I here let passe to write
Which vnto loue this wofull man dyd speake in great despite.

On Fortune eke he raylde, he calde her deafe, and blynde,
Vinconstant, fond, deceitfull, rashe, vnruthfull, and vnkynd.
And to himself he layd a great part of the falt,

For that he slewe and was not slayne, in fighting with Tibalt.
He blamed all the world, and all he did defye,

But Juliet for whom he liued, for whom eke would he dye.
When after raging fits appeased was his rage,

And when his passions, (powred forth,) gan partly to asswage,
So wisely did the fryre vnto his tale replye,

That he straight cared for his life, that erst had care to dye.
"Art thou, quoth he, a man? Thy shape saith, so thou art;
Thy crying, and thy weping eyes denote a womans hart.
For manly reason is quite from of thy mynd out-chased,
And in her stead affections lewd and fansies highly placed:
So that I stoode in doute, this howre (at the least,)

If thou a man or woman wert, or els a brutish beast.

A wise man in the midst of troubles and distres

Still standes not wayling present harme, but seeks his harmes redres.

As when the winter flawes with dredfull noyse arise,

And heaue the fomy swelling waues vp to the starry skies,
So that the broosed barke in cruell seas betost,

Dispayreth of the happy hauen, in daunger to be lost,

1

The pylate bold at helme, cryes, mates strike now your sayle,
And tornes her stemme into the waues that strongly her assayle;
Then driuen hard upon the bare and wrackfull shore,
In greater daunger to be wract than he had been before,
He seeth his ship full right against the rocke to ronne,
But yet he dooth what lyeth in him the perilous rocke to shonne;
Sometimes the beaten boate, by cunning gouernment,
The ancors lost, the cables broke, and all the tackle spent,
The roder smitten of, and ouer-boord the mast,
Doth win the long-desyred porte, the stormy daunger past
But if the master dread, and ouerprest with woe
Begin to wring his handes, and lets the gyding rodder goe,
The ship rents on the rocke, or sinketh in the deepe,
And eke the coward drenched is :-So, if thou still beweepe
And seke not how to helpe the chaunges that do chaunce,
Thy cause of sorow shall increase, thou cause of thy mischaunce.
Other account thee wise, proove not thyselfe a foole;
Now put in practise lessons learnd of old in wisdomes schoole.
The wise man saith, beware thou double not thy payne,
For one perhaps thou mayst abyde, but hardly suffer twaine.
As well we ought to seeke thinges hurtfull to decrease,
As to endeuor helping thinges by study to increase.

The prayse of trew fredom in wisdomes bondage lyes, He winneth blame whose deedes be fonde, although his woords be wise.

Sickenes the bodies gayle, greefe, gayle is of the mynd;.

If thou canst scape from heauy greefe, true fredome shalt thou finde.

Fortune can fill nothing so full of hearty greefe,

But in the same a constant mynd finds solace and releefe.
Vertue is alwayes thrall to troubles and annoye,
But wisdome in aduersitie findes cause of quiet ioye.
And they most wretched are that know no wretchednes,
And after great extremity mishaps ay waxen lesse.
Like as there is no weale but wastes away somtime,
So every
kind of wayled woe will weare away in time.
If thou wilt master quite the troubles that the spill,
Endevor first by reasons help to master witles will.
A sondry medson hath eche sondry.faynt disease,

But pacience, a common salue, to euery wound geues ease.
The world is alway full of chaunces and of chaunge,

Wherfore the chaunge of chaunce must not seeme to a wise man

straunge.

For tickel Fortune doth, in chaunging, but her kind,

But all her chaunges cannot chaunge a steady constant mind. Though wauering Fortune toorne from thee her smyling face, And sorow seeke to set himselfe in banishd pleasures place, Yet may thy marred state be mended in a while,

And she eftsones that frowneth now, with pleasant cheere shall smyle.

For as her happy state no long whyle standeth sure,

Euen so the heauy plight she brings, not alwayes doth endure.
What nede so many woordes to thee that art so wyse?
Thou better canst aduise thyselfe, then I can thee aduyse.
Wisdome, I see, is vayne, if thus in time of neede

A wisemans wit vnpractised doth stand him in no steede.
I know thou hast some cause of sorow and of care,
But well I wot thou hast no cause thus frantikly to fare.
Affections foggy mist thy febled sight doth blynde;

But if that reasons beames agayne might shine into thy mynde,
If thou wouldst view thy state with an indifferent eye,

I thinke thou wouldst condemne thy plaint, thy sighing, and thy

crye.

With valiant hand thou madest thy foe yeld vp

his breth,

Thou hast escaped his swerd and eke the lawes that threatten

death.

By thy escape thy frendes are fraughted full of ioy,

And by his death thy deadly foes are laden with annoy.

Wilt thou with trusty frendes of pleasure take some part?
Or els to please thy hatefull foes be partner of theyr smart?
Why cryest thou out on loue? why doest thou blame thy fate?
Why dost thou so crye after death? thy life why dost thou hate?
Dost thou repent the choyce that thou so late didst choose?
Loue is thy lord; thou oughtst obay and not thy prince accuse.
For thou hast found, (thou knowst,) great fauour in his sight,
He graunted thee, at thy request, thy onely hartes delight.
So that the gods enuyde the blisse thou liuedst in;
To geue to such vnthankefull men is folly and a sin.
Methinkes I heare thee say, the cruell banishment
Is onely cause of thy vnrest; onely thou dost lament
That from thy natife land and frendes thou must depart,
Enforsd to flye from her that hath the keping of thy hart:
And so opprest with waight of smart that thou dost feele,
Thou dost complaine of Cupides brand, and Fortunes turning
wheele.

Vnto a valiant hart there is no banishment,

All countreys are his natiue soyle beneath the firmament.

As to the fishe the sea, as to the fowle the ayre,

So is like pleasant to the wise eche place of his repayre.
Though froward fortune chase thee hence into exyle,

With doubled honor shall she call thee home within a whyle.
Admyt thou shouldst abyde abrode a yere or twayne,
Should so short absence cause so long and eke so greeuous payne?
Though thou ne mayst thy frendes here in Verona see,
They are not banishd Mantua, where safely thou mast be.
Thether they may resort, though thou resort not hether,
And there in suretie may you talke of your affayres together.
Yea, but this whyle, (alas!) thy Juliet must thou misse,
The onely piller of thy helth, and ancor of thy blisse.
Thy hart thou leauest with her, when thou dost hence depart,
And in thy brest inclosed bearst her tender frendly hart.
But if thou rew so much to leaue the rest behinde,
With thought of passed ioyes content thy vncontented mynde;
So shall the mone decrease wherwith thy mynd doth melt,
Compared to the heauenly ioyes which thou hast often felt.
He is too nyse a weakeling that shrinketh at a showre,
And he vnworthy of the sweete, that tasteth not the sowre.
Call now againe to mynde thy first consuming flame;
How didst thou vainely burne in loue of an vnlouing dame?
Hadst thou not welnigh wept quite out thy swelling eyne?
Did not thy parts, fordoon with payne, languishe away and

pyne?

Those greefes and others like were happly ouerpast,

And thou in haight of Fortunes wheele well placed at the last!

VOL. XX.

X

From whence thou art now falne, that, raysed vp agayne,
With greater joy a greater whyle in pleasure mayst thou raygne.
Compare the present while with times y-past before,

And thinke that fortune hath for thee great pleasure yet in

store.

The whilst, this little wrong receive thou paciently,

And what of force must nedes be done, that doe thou willingly.
Folly it is to feare that thou canst not auoyde,

And madnes to desire it much that cannot be enioyde.
To geue to Fortune place, not ay deserueth blame,
But skill it is, according to the times thy selfe to frame."
Whilst to this skilfull lore he lent his listning eares,

His sighs are stopt, and stopped are the conduits of his teares.
As blackest cloudes are chaced by winters nimble winde,
So haue his reasons chaced care out of his carefull mynde.
As of a morning fowle ensues an euening fayre,

So banisht hope returneth hope to banish his despayre.
Now his affections veale remoued from his eyes,

He seeth the path that he must walke, and reson makes him wise.

For very shame the blood doth flashe in both his cheekes,
He thankes the father for his lore, and farther ayde he seekes.
He sayth, that skilles youth for counsell is vnfitte,

And anger oft with hastines are ioynd to want of witte;
But sound aduise aboundes in heddes with horishe heares,
For wisdom is by practise wonne, and perfect made by yeares.
But aye from this time forth his ready bending will
Shal be in awe and gouerned by fryer Lawrence' skill.
The gouernor is nowe right carefull of his charge,

To whom he doth wisely discoorse of his affaires at large.
He telles him how he shall depart the towne vnknowne,
Both mindfull of his frendes safetie, and carefull of his owne.
How he shall gyde himselfe, how he shall seeke to winne
The frendship of the better sort, how warely to crepe in
The fauour of the Mantuan prince, and how he may
Appease the wrath of Escalus, and wipe the fault away;
The choller of his foes by gentle meanes tasswage,
Or els by force and practises to bridle quite theyr rage:
And last he chargeth him at his appointed howre

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goe with manly mery cheere vnto his ladies bowre, And there with holesome woordes to salue her sorowes smart, And to ceviue, (if nede require,) her faint and dying hart. The old mans woords have fild with ioy our Romeus brest, And eke the old wiues talke hath set our Juliets hart at rest. Whereto may I compare, (O louers,) thys your day? Like dayes the painefull mariners are woonted to assay;