A Lovers Complaint | Page 4

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,
That maiden's
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 lodg'd
and newly deified.
'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;
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,
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 seemed to wear:
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;
Yet if men mov'd 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 authoriz'd youth
Did livery
falseness in a pride of truth.
'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,
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,
Accomplish'd in

himself, not in his case,:
All aids, themselves made fairer by their
place,
Came for additions; yet their purpos'd trim
Pierc'd not his
grace, but were all grac'd by him.
'So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind 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 the dialect and different skill,
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:
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;
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 mo pleasures to bestow them,

Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them:
'So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
Sweetly suppos'd 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 heart in
youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,

Reserv'd 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,
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 his amorous spoil.
'But ah! who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill she must

herself assay?
Or force'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put
the by-pass'd perils in her way?
Counsel may stop awhile what will
not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to
make our wills more keen.
'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon
others' proof,
To be forbod the sweets that seems so good,
For fear
of harms that preach in our behoof.
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;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards 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.
'And 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 you sworn, to none was
ever said;
For feasts 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,
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