LVII.
[All yee, that greeue to thinke my death so neere]
Here the Authour cheerefully comforting himselfe, rebuketh
all those his frendes, or others whatsoeuer, which pitie his
estate in Loue: and groundeth his inuention, for the moste
part, vpon the old Latine Prouerbe, Consuetudo est altera natura.
Which Prouerbe hee confirmeth by two examples; the
one, of him, that being borne farre North seldome ketcheth
colde; the other of the Negro, which beinge borne vnder a
hote climate, is neuer smoothered with ouermuch heate.
All
yee, that greeue to thinke my death so neere,
Take pitie on your selues, whose thought is blind;
Can there be Day, vnlesse some Light appeare?
Can fire be colde, which yeeldeth heate by kinde?
If Loue were past, my life would soone decay,
Loue bids me hoape, and hoape is all my stay.
And you, that see in what estate I stand,
Now hote, now colde, and yet am liuing still,
Persuade your selues, Loue hath a mightie hand,
And custome frames, what pleaseth best her wil.
A ling'ring vse of Loue hath taught my brest
To harbor strife, and yet to liue in rest.
The man that dwelles farre North, hath seldome harme
With blast of winters wind or nipping frost:
The Negro seldome feeles himselfe too warme
For both experience teacheth & Philosophical reason approoueth, that an Ethyopian may easily in Spaine be smothered with the heat of the countrey though Spaine be more temperate then Ethyopia is.
If he abide within his natiue coast;
So, Loue in me a Second Nature is,
And custome makes me thinke my Woes are Blisse.
