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228 THE LOVE OF DOM DIEGO AND GYNEURA.[R. L[inche

"O look, fair Love! as in the springing plant,

one branch entwines and grows within another, So grow my griefs! which makes my heart to pant when thick-fetched sighs my vital breath doth smother. I, spoiled by Cruelty, am adjudged to death, Thus all alone to yield my living breath."

"Thou hast the fairest face that e'er was seen!
but in thy breast (that alabaster rock!)
Thou hast a fouler heart! Disdain hath been
accounted blacker than the chimney's stock.
O purify thy soul, my dearest Love!

Dislodge thy hate, and thy disdain remove!"

"But, all in vain, I speak unto the wind!

then should they carry these my plaints unto her; Methinks, thou still shouldst bear a gentle mind,

'dear-loving ZEPHYR! pray, intreat, and woo her! Tell her, 'twere pity I should die alone

Here in these woods, where none can hear me moan.""

66

But 'tis no matter, She is pitiless!

like the Sicilian stone, that more 'tis beat

Doth wax the harder. Stones are not so ruthless which smallest drops do pierce, though ne'er so great. If seas of tears would wear into her heart;

I had, ere this, been easèd of my grief!"

Thus, in these speeches, would DIEGO sit,
bathing his silver cheeks with trickling tears;
Which, often running down, at last found fit
channels to send them to their standing meres.
Who, at his feet (before his feet there stood
A pool of tears) received the smaller flood.

R. L[inche? THE LOVE OF DOM DIEGO AND GYNEURA. 229

1596.

Ne'er had the world a truer loving heart!
Abydos cease to speak of constant love!
For, sure, thou, Signior Dom DIEGO! art

the only man that e'er Hate's force did prove! Thy changeless love hath close enrolled thy name In steel-leaved Book of ever-living Fame.

That wide-mouthed Time, which swallows good deserts,
shall shut his jaws, and ne'er devour thy name!
Thou shalt be crowned with bays by loving hearts,
and dwell in Temple of eternal Fame!

There, is a sacred place reserved for thee!
There, thou shalt live with perpetuity!

So long lived poor DIEGO in this case,

that, at the length, he waxed somewhat bold To search the wood, where he might safely chase (necessity, thy force cannot be told!)

The fearful hare, the coney, and the kid:
Time made him know the places where they bid.

This young-yeared hermit, one day among the rest, as he was busily providing meat,

Which was, with Nature's cunning, almost dresst
dried with the sun, now ready to be eat':

Enraged upon a sudden; throws away
His hard-got food, and thus began to say:

"O cruel stars, stepmothers of my good!

and you, you ruthless Fates! what mean you thus So greedily to thirst for my heart's blood? why joy you so, in ununiting us?

Great Powers, infuse some pity in her heart,

That thus hath, causeless, caused in me this smart!"

230 THE LOVE OF DOM DIEGO AND GYNEURA.[R. L[inche?!

"I ne'er was wont to use such cookery,

to drudge and toil when peasants take their pleasure; My noble birth scorns base-born slavery,

this easeless life hath neither end nor measure. Thou great SoSIPOLIS, look upon my state! Be of these ne'er-heard griefs compassionate!"

"I feel my long-thought life begin to melt
as doth the snow 'gainst midday heat of sun!
Fair Love! thy rigour I have too much felt!
O, at the last, with cruelty have done!
If tears, thy stony heart could mollify;
My brinish springs should flow eternally!"

"Sweet Love, behold those pale cheeks washed in woe! that so my tears may as a mirror be; Thine own fair shadow lively for to show

and portrait forth thy angel-huèd beauty. NARCISSUS-like then, shouldst thou my face kiss, More honey sweet than VENUS gave ADONIS.”

"Fear not, GYNEURA! fair NARCISSUS' hap,

thy neck, thy breast, thy hand is lily-white, They all are lilies ta'en from FLORA's lap :

ne'er be thou changed, unless to Love, from Spite! O that thou wert but then transformèd so,

My summer's bliss would change my winter's woe."

"If thou didst know, in what a loathsome place,
I spend my days, sad and disconsolate,
What foggy Stygian mists hang o'er my face,

thou wouldst exile this thy conceived hate. This hemisphere is dark; for Sol him shrouds ! My sighs do so conglomerate the clouds."

R. Linche? THE LOVE OF DOM DIEGO AND GYNEURA. 231

1596.

"I told thee, I, thou Cruel too severe !

when Hate first 'gan to rise, how I was guiltless! Thine ears were deaf, thou wouldst not hearken ere! thy heart was hardened, rocky, pitiless!

O had mine eyes been blind, when first they viewed thee!" Would God I had been tongueless, when I sued thee!"

"But thou wast then as ready to receive

as I to crave. O great inconstancy! O'twas that fatal hour did so bereave

my blissful soul of all tranquility!

Thou then didst burn in love, now freeze in hate,
Yet, pity me! sweet Mercy ne'er comes late!"

"Look, as the crazen tops of armless trees,

or latest downfall of some agèd buildings, Do tell thee of the North wind's boisterous furies, and how that EOLUS lately hath been stirring: So in my thin-cheeked face, thou well mayst see The furious storm of thy black cruelty!"

"But thou inexorable art, ne'er to be won!
though lions, bears, and tigers have been tamed;
Thy wood-born rigour never will be done

which thinks for this, thou ever shalt be famed.
True, so thou shalt ! but famed in infamy
Is worse than living in obscurity."

"If thou didst know, how grievous 'tis to me to live in this unhabited abode,

Where none, but Sorrow, keeps me company:

I know thou wouldst thy heart's hate then unload! O, I did ne'er deserve this misery!

For to deny the truth were heresy."

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232 THE LOVE OF DOM DIEGO AND GYNEURA.[R. Linche?]

"I tell thee, Love! when secret-tonguèd night
puts on her misty sable-coloured veil,

My wrangling Woes within themselves do fight!

they murder Hope! which makes their Captain wail; And wailing so, can never take his rest,

That keeps such unruled soldiers in his breast."

"So when the clear night's-faults-disclosing day
peeps forth her purple head, from out the East;
These Woes, my soldiers, cry out for their pay:
and if denied, they stab me with unrest!
My tears are pay; but all my tears are dried,
Therefore I must, their fatal blows abide."

In these laments, did Dom DIEGO live

long time; till, at the last, by powerful Fate, A wandering huntsman, ignorance did drive

unto the place whence he returned but late: Who viewing well the print of human steps, Directly followed them, and for joy leaps.

At last, he came unto DIEGO's cave

in which he saw a savage man, he thought, Who much did look like the Danubian slave,

such deep-worn furrows in his face were wrought. DIEGO, much abashed at this sight,

Came running forth, him in his arms to plight.

For glad he was, God knows! to see a man,

who, wretch! in two years' space, did ne'er see any.
Such gladness, joy, such mirth, such triumph can
not be set down: suppose them, to be many!
But see, long had they not conferred together;
But, happy time! each one did know the other.

1596.

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