University of Virginia Library

[Of thee deare Dame, three lessons would I learne]

Of thee deare Dame, three lessons would I learne:
What reason first persuades the foolish Fly
(As soone as shee a candle can discerne)
To play with flame, till shee bee burnt thereby?
Or what may move the Mouse to byte the bayte
Which strikes the trappe, that stops hir hungry breth?
What calles the bird, where snares of deepe deceit
Are closely coucht to draw hir to hir death?
Consider well, what is the cause of this,
And though percase thou wilt not so confesse,
Yet deepe desire, to gayne a heavenly blisse,
May drowne the minde in dole and darke distresse:
Oft is it seene (whereat my hart may bleede)
Fooles play so long till they be caught in deede.
And then
It is a heaven to see them hop and skip,
And seeke all shiftes to shake their shackles off:
It is a world, to see them hang the lip,
Who (earst) at love, were wont to skorne and skoff.
But as the Mouse, once caught in crafty trap,
May bounce and beate against the boorden wall,
Till shee have brought hir head in such mishap,
That downe to death hir fainting lymbes must fall:
And as the Flie once singed in the flame,
Cannot commaund her wings to wave away:
But by the heele, shee hangeth in the same
Till cruell death hir hasty journey stay:
So they that seeke to breake the linkes of love
Strive with the streame, and this by paine I prove.
For when
I first beheld that heavenly hewe of thine,
Thy stately stature, and thy comly grace,
I must confesse these dazled eies of mine
Did wincke for feare, when I first viewd thy face:
But bold desire did open them againe,
And bad mee looke till I had lookt to long,
I pitied them that did procure my paine,
And lov'd the lookes that wrought me all the wrong:
And as the byrd once caught (but woorks hir woe)
That strives to leave the limed twigges behind:
Even so the more I strave to parte thee fro,
The greater grief did growe within my minde:
Remedilesse then must I yeeld to thee,
And crave no more, thy servaunt but to bee.