LIII.
[Where tender Loue had laide him downe to sleepe]
The two first partes of this Sonnet, are an imitation of certaine
Greeke verses of Theocritus; which verses as they are translated
by many good Poets of later dayes, so moste aptlye and
plainely by C. Vrcinus Velius in his Epigrammes; hee beginneth
thus,
Nuper apis furem pupugit violenter Amorem
Ipsum ex alueolis clam mella fauosque legentem,
Cui summos manuum digitos confixit, at ille
Indoluit, læsæ tumuerunt vulnere palmæ:
Planxit humum, & saltu trepidans pulsauit, & ipsi
Ostendens Ueneri, casum narrauit acerbum, &c.
Where
tender Loue had laide him downe to sleepe,
A little Bee so stong his fingers end,
That burning ache enforced him to weepe
And call for
Phebus Sonne to stand his frend,
To whome he cride, I muse so small a thing
Can pricke thus deepe with suche a little Sting.
Why so, sweet Boy, quoth Venus sitting by?
Thy selfe is yong, thy arrowes are but small
And yet thy shotte makes hardest harts to cry:
To Phebus Sunne she turned therewithall,
And prayde him shew his skill to cure the sore,
Whose like her Boy had neuer felt before.
Then he with Herbes recured soone the wound,
Which being done, he threw the Herbes away,
Whose force, through touching Loue, in selfe same ground,
By haplesse hap did breede my hartes decay:
For there they fell, where long my hart had li'ne
To waite for Loue, and what he should assigne.
