“ Now thou hast loved me one whole day,
To-morrow, when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say?
Wilt thou then ante-date some new-made vow?
Or say, that now
We are not just those persons which we were?
Or, that oaths made in reverential fear
Of Love and his wrath any may forswear?
Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,
So lovers' contracts, images of those,
Bind but till Sleep, Death's image, them unloose?
Or, your own end to justify
For having purposed change and falsehood, you
Can have no way but falsehood to be true? ”

“ Make not so fair to cause our moan,
Or make a heart that's like your own.
John Harrington.
[46]
A SHEPHERD'S SONG TO HIS LOVE.
Diaphenia, like the daffa-down-dilly,
White as the sun, fair as the lily,
Heigh-ho, how I do love thee!
I do love thee as my lambs
Are belovèd of their dams:
How blest I were if thou would'st prove me!
Diaphenia, like the spreading roses,
That in thy sweets all sweets encloses,
Fair sweet, how I do love thee!
I do love thee as each flower
Loves the sun's life-giving power;
For, dead, thy breath to life might move me. ”

“ If so it be one place both hearts contain,
For what do they complain?
What courtesy can Love do more,
Than to join hearts that parted were before?
Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come
Into the self-same room;
'Twill tear and blow up all within
Like a grenade shot into a magazine.
Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts
Of both our broken hearts;
Shall out of both one new one make,
From hers th' alloy, from mine the metal take. ”

“ But if thou do not, Love, I'll truly serve her
In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.
Thomas Lodge.
[32]
ROSALINE.
Like to the clear in highest sphere
Where all imperial glory shines,
Of selfsame colour is her hair
Whether unfolded, or in twines:
Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!
Her eyes are sapphires set in snow,
Resembling heaven by every wink;
The Gods do fear whenas they glow,
And I do tremble when I think
Heigh ho, would she were mine! ”

“ As worthy to be loved by none.
I do confess thou'rt sweet, but find
Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets,
Thy favours are but like the wind,
That kisses everything it meets;
And since thou can with more than one,
Thou'rt worthy to be kiss'd by none.
The morning rose that untouch'd stands,
Arm'd with her briars, how sweetly smells;
But, pluck'd and strain'd through ruder hands,
Her sweet no longer with her dwells.
But scent and beauty both are gone,
And leaves fall from her, one by one.
Such fate ere long will thee betide,
When thou hast handled been a while ”

“ And as fair Philomene again
Can watch and sing when others sleep;
And taketh pleasure in her pain,
To wray the woe that makes her weep;
So sing I now for to bewray
The loathsome life I lead alway.
[15]
The which to thee, dear wench, I write,
Thou know'st my mirth but not my moan;
I pray God grant thee deep delight,
To live in joys when I am gone.
I cannot live; it will not be:
I die to think to part from thee. ”

“ Francis Beaumont.
[82]
FIE ON LOVE.
Now fie on foolish love, it not befits
Or man or woman know it.
Love was not meant for people in their wits,
And they that fondly show it
Betray the straw, and features in their brain,
And shall have Bedlam for their pain:
If simple love be such a curse,
To marry is to make it ten times worse.
Francis Beaumont.
[83]
DAMŒTAS' PRAISE OF HIS DAPHNIS.
Tune on my pipe the praises of my love,
Love fair and bright;
Fill earth with sound, and airy heavens above,
Heavens Jove's delight,
With Daphnis' praise. ”

“ If not in joy, I'll live at least in peace;
Since for the pleasures of an hour,
We must endure an age of pain;
I'll be this abject thing no more,
Love, give me back my heart again.
Despair tormented first my breast,
Now falsehood, a more cruel guest;
O! for the peace of human kind,
Make women longer true, or sooner kind:
With justice, or with mercy reign,
O Love! or give me back my heart again.
George Granville.
[128]
SABINA WAKES.
See, see, she wakes! ”

“ When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes;
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.
Michael Drayton.
[54]
WHO IS SILVIA?
Who is Silvia? What is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she:
The heavens such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness. ”

“ LOVE IS DEAD.
Ring out your bells, let mourning shews be spread;
For Love is dead:
All Love is dead, infected
With plague of deep disdain:
Worth, as nought worth, rejected,
And Faith fair scorn doth gain. ”

“ Thou art undone,
Thy faithful heart is crossed by fate;
That love is better not begun,
Where love is come to love too late.
Yet who that saw fair Chloris weep
Such sacred dew, with such pure grace,
Durst think them feignèd tears, or seek
For treason in an angel's face. ”

“ This sweet fair Dea spread,
These sunbeams in mine eye,
These beauties, make me die!
Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford.
[11]
A RENUNCIATION.
If women could be fair, and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond
By service long to purchase their good will;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.
To mark the choice they make, and how they change,
How oft from Phœbus they do flee to Pan;
Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,
These gentle birds that fly from man to man ”

“ Thou art not what thou wert before,
What reason I should be the same?
He that can love unlov'd again,
Hath better store of love than brain:
God send me love my debts to pay,
While unthrifts fool their love away. ”

“ Winter's cold, or summer's heat,
Autumn tempests on it beat,
It can never know defeat,
Never can rebel;
Such the love that I would gain,
Such love, I tell thee plain,
That thou must give or love in vain,
So to thee farewell. ”

“ That thou art graced; so am not I;
Thou singing livest, and I must singing die.
John Danyel.
[105]
ONCE I LOV'D A MAIDEN FAIR.
Once I lov'd a maiden fair,
But she did deceive me;
She with Venus might compare,
In my mind, believe me:
She was young, and among
All our maids the sweetest.
Now I say, ah! well-a-day!
Brightest hopes are fleetest.
I the wedding ring had got,
Wedding clothes provided,
Sure the church would bind a knot
Ne'er to be divided:
Married we straight must be,
She her vows had plighted;
Vows, alas! as frail as glass:
All my hopes are blighted. ”

“ As nothing can be sweeter.
Fair house of joy and bliss
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee;
I know thee what thou art,
I serve thee with my heart,
And fall before thee.
Captain Tobias Hume.
[103]
TO ROSES IN CASTARA'S BREAST.
Ye blushing Virgins happy are
In the chaste Nunn'ry of her breasts,
For he'd profane so chaste a fair,
Whoe'er should call them Cupid's nests.
Transplanted thus how bright ye grow,
How rich a perfume do ye yield?
In some close garden, cowslips so
Are sweeter than in th' open field. ”

“ How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That had'st thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired ”

“ My life retires while thou dost speak,
And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Lost in this pleasing ecstasy,
I join my trembling lips to thine,
And back receive that life from thee
Which I so gladly did resign.
Forbear, Platonic fools! t' inquire
What numbers do the soul compose;
No harmony can life inspire
But that which from these accents flows. ”

“ Sylvia, thou,
I must confess art kind;
But in her cruelty, I vow,
I more repose can find.
For, oh! thy fancy at all games does fly,
Fond of address, and willing to comply.
Thus he that loves must be undone,
Each way on rocks we fall;
Either you will be kind to none,
Or worse, be kind to all.
Vain are our hopes, and endless is our care;
We must be jealous, or we must despair. ”

“ She then is scorn'd, that late adorn'd the fair.
So fade the roses of those cheeks of thine!
No April can revive thy withered flowers,
Whose springing grace adorns thy glory now:
Swift speedy Time, feathered with flying hours,
Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.
Then do not thou such treasure waste in vain,
But love now, whilst thou may'st be loved again.
Samuel Daniel.
[48]
EARLY LOVE.
Ah! ”

“ As a result they introduced the Sonnet of the Petrarchan type into England. The amorous verse of the inhabitants of these sunny climes took hold of the young Englishmen. Many men of rank and education, who did not regard themselves as of the world of letters, penned pleasant verse, much of it being of an amatory character based upon that of the Italians. During the reign of "Good Queen Bess" England was full of song. Of the writers of love verses William Watson occupied a very high, probably the highest, position during the time of Elizabeth. ”

“ HE THAT LOVES.
He that loves and fears to try,
Learns his mistress to deny.
Doth she chide thee? 'tis to show it
That thy coldness makes her do it.
Is she silent, is she mute?
Silence fully grants thy suit.
Doth she pout and leave the room?
Then she goes to bid thee come.
Is she sick? why then be sure
She invites thee to the cure.
Doth she cross thy suit with "No"?
Tush! she loves to hear thee woo.
Doth she call the faith of men
In question? nay, she loves thee then,
And if e'er she makes a blot,
She's lost if that thou hit'st her not. ”

“ From the amatory verses produced by seventy-one writers during the reign of Henry the Eighth and down to those of the early Georges one hundred and thirteen appear in this love anthology. The limitation of space prevents further biographical particulars being given than the years of birth and death, which will be found in the Table of Contents. As writers do not always agree in this respect, "The Dictionary of National Biography" has been taken as the authority. ”

“ Of the Elizabethan amatory verses only a small portion has been transmitted to us. That which possessed least literary merit did not long survive, and, no doubt, some of considerable merit has been lost too. The best has been preserved. Selections from these, arranged in chronological order, appear in this anthology. Richard Tottel printed his "Miscellany" in 1557. It is to this work, and to Richard Edwards' "Paradise of Dainty Devices," issued nineteen years later, that much of the best poetical literature of the sixteenth century has come down to us. ”

“ I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair. 67.
I have a mistress, for perfections rare. 99.
I lately vow'd, but 'twas in haste. 131.
I lov'd thee once, I'll love no more. 69.
I pr'ythee send me back my heart. 106.
I smile at Love, and all its arts. 126.
I wonder what those lovers mean, who say. 110.
If all the world and Love were young. 22.
If women could be fair, and yet not fond. 11. ”

“ Thou pretty bird, how do I see. 104.
'Tis true I never was in love. 114.
Too late, alas! I must confess. 120.
Tune on my pipe the praises of my love. 83.
Two lines shall teach you how. 8.
Two lines shall tell the grief. 7.
Weep eyes, break heart! 72.
Were I as base as is the lowly plain. 52.
What shepherd can express. 9.
When love, with unconfined wings. 113.
When thy beauty appears. 135.
Whence comes my love? O heart, disclose! 45.
While that the sun with his beams hot. 57.
Who is Sylvia? What is she. 54.
Why so pale and wan, fond lover? 107.
Why we love, and why we hate. 130. ”

“ Look, Delia, how we esteem the half-blown rose. 47.
Love guards the roses of thy lips. 31.
Love is a sickness full of woes. 49.
Love me little, love me long. 101.
Love me not for comely grace. 61.
Love mistress is of many minds. 43.
Love, that liveth and reigneth in my thought. 3.
Love, when 'tis true, needs not the aid. 119.
Man is for woman made. ”

“ My girl, thou gazest much. 6.
My Phyllis hath the morning sun. 16.
My true-love hath my heart, and I have his. 27.
Naked Love did to thine eye. 111.
Not an angel dwells above. 125.
Now fie on foolish love, it not befits. 82.
Now thou hast loved me one whole day. 75.
O gentle Love, ungentle for thy deed! 17.
O if thou knew'st how thou thyself dost harm. 77.
Oh, what a plague is love! 64.
Once I loved a maiden fair. 105.
Over the mountains. 62.
Phylida was a fair maid. 12.
Pretty twinkling starry eyes. 42.
Ring out your bells, let mourning shews be spread. 28. ”

“ Celia is cruel. Sylvia, thou. 118.
Cherry ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry. 91.
Come live with me, and be my love. 50.
Cupid and my Campaspe played. 26.
Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again. 95.
Diaphenia, like the daffa-down-dilly. 46.
Dorinda's sparkling wit and eyes. 117.
Drink to me only with thine eyes. 74.
Dry those fair, those crystal eyes. 94.
Fain would I change that note. 102.
False though she be to me and love. 129.
Fame of Dorinda's conquest brought. 133.
Farewell! my joy. 96.
Faustina hath the fairest face. 66.
Foolish love is only folly. 41. ”

“ John Dowland's poem is titled "True till death" in the Table of Contents, but is titled "Love's constancy" on page 95.
TUDOR AND STUART LOVE SONGS SELECTED AND EDITED BY J. POTTER BRISCOE, F.R.S.L. Editor of "The Bibelots"
E. P. DUTTON AND CO.
31 W. 23RD STREET
NEW YORK
[vii]
INTRODUCTION.
The spirit of reform which was developed during the early part of the sixteenth century brought about a desire on the part of young men of means to travel on the continent of Europe. ”