The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Poems
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• Sonnets
• A Lover’s Complaint
• The Passionate Pilgrim
• Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music
• The PhŒnix and the Turtle

SONNETS TO SUNDRY NOTES OF MUSIC

• • I.

  • It was a lording’s daughter, the fairest one of three,
  • That liked of her master as well as well might be,
  • Till looking on an Englishman, the fair’st that eye could see,
  • Her fancy fell a-turning.4
  • Long was the combat doubtful that love with love did fight,
  • To leave the master loveless, or kill the gallant knight:
  • To put in practice either, alas! it was a spite
  • Unto the silly damsel.8
  • But one must be refused; more mickle was the pain
  • That nothing could be used to turn them both to gain,
  • For of the two the trusty knight was wounded with disdain:
  • Alas! she could not help it.12
  • Thus art with arms contending was victor of the day,
  • Which by a gift of learning did bear the maid away;
  • Then lullaby, the learned man hath got the lady gay;
  • For now my song is ended.16

• • II.

  • On a day, alack the day!
  • Love, whose month was ever May,
  • Spied a blossom passing fair,
  • Playing in the wanton air:4
  • Through the velvet leaves the wind,
  • All unseen, ’gan passage find;
  • That the lover, sick to death,
  • Wish’d himself the heaven’s breath.8
  • ‘Air,’ quoth he, ‘thy cheeks may blow;
  • Air, would I might triumph so!
  • But, alas! my hand hath sworn
  • Ne’er to pluck thee from thy thorn:12
  • Vow, alack! for youth unmeet:
  • Youth, so apt to pluck a sweet.
  • Thou for whom Jove would swear
  • Juno but an Ethiop were;16
  • And deny himself for Jove,
  • Turning mortal for thy love.’

• • III.

  • My flocks feed not,
  • My ewes breed not,
  • My rams speed not,
  • All is amiss:4
  • Love’s denying,
  • Faith’s defying,
  • Heart’s renying,
  • Causer of this.8
  • All my merry jigs are quite forgot,
  • All my lady’s love is lost, God wot:
  • Where her faith was firmly fix’d in love,
  • There a nay is plac’d without remove.12
  • One silly cross
  • Wrought all my loss;
  • O! frowning Fortune, cursed, fickle dame;
  • For now I see16
  • Inconstancy
  • More in women than in men remain.
  • In black mourn I,
  • All fears scorn I,20
  • Love hath forlorn me,
  • Living in thrall:
  • Heart is bleeding,
  • All help-needing,24
  • O! cruel speeding,
  • Fraughted with gall.
  • My shepherd’s pipe can sound no deal,
  • My wether’s bell rings doleful knell;28
  • My curtal dog, that wont to have play’d,
  • Plays not at all, but seems afraid;
  • My sighs so deep
  • Procure to weep,32
  • In howling wise, to see my doleful plight.
  • How sighs resound
  • Through heartless ground,
  • Like a thousand vanquish’d men in bloody fight!36
  • Clear well spring not,
  • Sweet birds sing not,
  • Green plants bring not
  • Forth their dye;40
  • Herds stand weeping,
  • Flocks all sleeping,
  • Nymphs back peeping
  • Fearfully:44
  • All our pleasure known to us poor swains,
  • All our merry meetings on the plains,
  • All our evening sport from us is fled,
  • All our love is lost, for Love is dead.48
  • Farewell, sweet lass,
  • Thy like ne’er was
  • For a sweet content, the cause of all my moan:
  • Poor Corydon52
  • Must live alone;
  • Other help for him I see that there is none.

• • IV.

  • Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame,
  • And stall’d the deer that thou should’st strike,
  • Let reason rule things worthy blame,
  • As well as fancy, partial wight:4
  • Take counsel of some wiser head,
  • Neither too young nor yet unwed.
  • And when thou com’st thy tale to tell,
  • Smooth not thy tongue with filed talk,8
  • Lest she some subtle practice smell;
  • A cripple soon can find a halt:
  • But plainly say thou lov’st her well,
  • And set thy person forth to sell.12
  • What though her frowning brows be bent,
  • Her cloudy looks will clear ere night;
  • And then too late she will repent
  • That thus dissembled her delight;16
  • And twice desire, ere it be day,
  • That which with scorn she put away.
  • What though she strive to try her strength,
  • And ban and brawl, and say thee nay,20
  • Her feeble force will yield at length,
  • When craft hath taught her thus to say,
  • ‘Had women been so strong as men,
  • In faith, you had not had it then.’24
  • And to her will frame all thy ways;
  • Spare not to spend, and chiefly there
  • Where thy desert may merit praise,
  • By ringing in thy lady’s ear:28
  • The strongest castle, tower, and town,
  • The golden bullet beats it down.
  • Serve always with assured trust,
  • And in thy suit be humble true;32
  • Unless thy lady prove unjust,
  • Seek never thou to choose anew.
  • When time shall serve, be thou not slack
  • To proffer, though she put thee back.36
  • The wiles and guiles that women work,
  • Dissembled with an outward show,
  • The tricks and toys that in them lurk,
  • The cock that treads them shall not know.40
  • Have you not heard it said full oft,
  • A woman’s nay doth stand for nought?
  • Think, women love to match with men
  • And not to live so like a saint:44
  • Here is no heaven; they holy then
  • Begin when age doth them attaint.
  • Were kisses all the joys in bed,
  • One woman would another wed.48
  • But, soft! enough! too much, I fear;
  • For if my mistress hear my song,
  • She will not stick to ring my ear,
  • To teach my tongue to be so long:52
  • Yet will she blush, here be it said,
  • To hear her secrets so bewray’d.

• • V.

  • Live with me, and be my love,
  • And we will all the pleasures prove
  • That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
  • And all the craggy mountains yields.4
  • There will we sit upon the rocks,
  • And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
  • By shallow rivers, by whose falls
  • Melodious birds sing madrigals.8
  • There will I make thee a bed of roses,
  • With a thousand fragrant posies,
  • A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
  • Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle.12
  • A belt of straw and ivy buds,
  • With coral clasps and amber studs;
  • And if these pleasures may thee move,
  • Then live with me and be my love.16
  • love’s answer.
  • If that the world and love were young,
  • And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
  • These pretty pleasures might me move,
  • To live with thee and be thy love.20

• • VI.

  • As it fell upon a day
  • In the merry month of May,
  • Sitting in a pleasant shade
  • Which a grove of myrtles made,4
  • Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,
  • Trees did grow, and plants did spring;
  • Every thing did banish moan,
  • Save the nightingale alone:8
  • She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
  • Lean’d her breast up-till a thorn,
  • And there sung the dolefull’st ditty,
  • That to hear it was great pity:12
  • ‘Fie, fie, fie!’ now would she cry;
  • ‘Tereu, Tereu!’ by and by;
  • That to hear her so complain,
  • Scarce I could from tears refrain;16
  • For her griefs, so lively shown,
  • Made me think upon mine own.
  • Ah! thought I, thou mourn’st in vain,
  • None takes pity on thy pain:20
  • Senseless trees they cannot hear thee,
  • Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee:
  • King Pandion he is dead,
  • All thy friends are lapp’d in lead,24
  • All thy fellow birds do sing
  • Careless of thy sorrowing.
  • Even so, poor bird, like thee,
  • None alive will pity me.28
  • Whilst as fickle Fortune smil’d,
  • Thou and I were both beguil’d.
  • Every one that flatters thee
  • Is no friend in misery.32
  • Words are easy, like the wind;
  • Faithful friends are hard to find:
  • Every man will be thy friend
  • Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend;36
  • But if store of crowns be scant,
  • No man will supply thy want.
  • If that one be prodigal,
  • Bountiful they will him call,40
  • And with such-like flattering,
  • ‘Pity but he were a king.’
  • If he be addict to vice,
  • Quickly him they will entice;44
  • If to women he be bent,
  • They have him at commandement:
  • But if Fortune once do frown,
  • Then farewell his great renown;48
  • They that fawn’d on him before
  • Use his company no more.
  • He that is thy friend indeed,
  • He will help thee in thy need:52
  • If thou sorrow, he will weep;
  • If thou wake, he cannot sleep:
  • Thus of every grief in heart
  • He with thee does bear a part.56
  • These are certain signs to know
  • Faithful friend from flattering foe.