Such a fire as doth fry

With one blaze both heart and eye,
Such a heat as doth prove

No heat like to heat of love.
Bright she was, for 'twas a she
That traced her steps towards mc:
On her head she ware a bay,
To fence Phoebus' light away:
In her face one might descry
The curious beauty of the sky:
Her eyes carried darts of fire,
Feathered all with swift desire;
Yet forth these fiery darts did pass
Pearlèd tears as bright as glass,
That wonder 'twas in her eyne
Fire and water should combine,
If the old saw did not borrow,
Fire is love, and water sorrow.
Down she sate, pale and sad;
No mirth in her looks she had;
Face and eyes showed distress,
Inward sighs discoursed no less:
Head on hand might I see,
Elbow leaned on her knee.
Last she breathed out this saw,
'O that love hath no law!
Love enforceth with constraint,
Love delighteth in complaint.
Whoso loves, hates his life,
For love's peace is mind's strife.
Love doth feed on beauty's fare,
Every dish sauced with care:
Chiefly women, reason why,
Love is hatched in their eye;
Thence it steppeth to the heart,
There it poisoneth every part,
Mind and heart, eye and thought,

Till sweet love their woes hath wrought:

FRANCESCO'S ODE.

WHEN I look about the place
Where sorrow nurseth up disgrace,
Wrapped within a fold of cares,
Whose distress no heart spares ;
Eyes might look, but see no light,
Heart might think but on despite;
Sun did shine, but not on me.
Sorrow said, it may not be

That heart or eye should once possess

Any salve to cure distress;

For men in prison must suppose
Their couches are the beds of woes.
Seeing this, I sighed then

Fortune thus should punish men:
But when I called to mind her face,
For whose love I brook this place,
Starry eyes, whereat my sight
Did eclipse with much delight,
Eyes that lighten, and do shine,
Beams of love that are divine,
Lily cheeks, whereon beside
Buds of roses show their pride,
Cherry lips, which did speak

Words that made all hearts to break,

Words most sweet, for breath was sweet

Such perfume for love is meet,
Precious words, as hard to tell
Which more pleased, wit or smell;

When I saw my greatest pains
Grow for her that beauty stains,
Fortune thus I did reprove,
Nothing grieffull grows from love.

CANZONE.

S then the sun sat lordly in his pride,

Not shadowed with the veil of any cloud, The welkin had no rack that seemed to glide, No dusky vapour did bright Phoebus shroud; No blemish did eclipse the beauteous sky From setting forth heaven's secret searching eye. No blustering wind did shake the shady trees, Each leaf lay still and silent in the wood; The birds were musical; the labouring bees, That in the summer heap their winter's good, Plied to their hives sweet honey from those flowers, Whereout the serpent strengthens all his powers. The lion laid and stretched him in the lawns; No storm did hold the leopard fro his prey; The fallow fields were full of wanton fawns; The plough-swains never saw a fairer day; For every beast and bird did take delight, To see the quiet heavens to shine so bright. When thus the winds lay sleeping in the caves, The air was silent in her concave sphere, And Neptune, with a calm did please his slaves, Ready to wash the never-drenched bear; Then did the change of my affects begin, And wanton love assayed to snare me in. Leaning my back against a lofty pine,

Whose top did check the pride of all the air, Fixing my thoughts, and with my thoughts mine

eyne,

Upon the sun, the fairest of all fair;

What thing made God so fair as this, quoth I?
And thus I mused until I darked mine eye.
Finding the sun too glorious for my sight,
I glanced my look to shun so bright a lamp:
With that appeared an object twice as bright,
So gorgeous as my senses all were damp;
In Ida richer beauty did not win,

When lovely Venus showed her silver skin.

Her pace was like to Juno's pompous strains, [way;
Whenas she sweeps through heaven's brass-pavèd
Her front was powdered through with azured veins,
That 'twixt sweet roses and fair lilies lay,
Reflecting such a mixture from her face,
As tainted Venus' beauty with disgrace.
Arctophylax, the brightest of the stars,
Was not so orient as her crystal eyes,
Wherein triumphant sat both peace and wars,
From out whose arches such sweet favour flies,
As might reclaim Mars in his highest rage,
At beauty's charge his fury to assuage.

The diamond gleams not more reflecting lights,
Pointed with fiery pyramids to shine,

Than are those flames that burnish in our sights,
Darting fire out the crystal of her eyne,
Able to set Narcissus' thoughts on fire,
Although he swore him foe to sweet desire.
Gazing upon this leman with mine eye,
I felt my sight vail bonnet to her looks;
So deep a passion to my heart did fly,
As I was trapped within her luring hooks,*
Forced to confess, before that I had done,
Her beauty far more brighter than the sun.

Wherein fancy baits her hooks. p. 63.

When I surveyed the riches of her looks

Wherein lay baits that Venus snares with hooks.—p. 65.

Thy cheeks like cherries that do grow-
N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?-
Amongst the western mounts of snow;
Je vous en prie, pity me;
N'oserez vous, mon bel, mon bel,
N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?

Thy lips vermilion, full of love,—
N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?—
Thy neck as silver-white as dove;
Je vous en prie, pity me;
N'oserez vous, mon bel, mon bel,
N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?