University of Virginia Library

28 CALM AFTER STORM

If care do cause men cry, why do not I complaine?
If eche man do bewaile his wo, why shew I not my paine?
Since that amongest them all, I dare well say, is none
So farre from weale, so full of wo, or hath more cause to mone.
For all thyngs hauing live sometime haue quiet rest,
The bering asse, the drawing oxe, and euery other beast.
The peasant and the post, that serue at al assayes,
The shyp boy and the galley slaue, haue time to take their ease,
Saue I, alas! whom care of force doth so constraine
To waile the day and wake the night continually in paine
From pensiuenes to plaint, from plaint to bitter teares,
From teares to painful plaint againe; and thus my life it wears.
No thing vnder the sunne that I can here or se,
But moueth me for to bewaile my cruell destenie.
For wher men do reioyce, since that I can not so,
I take no pleasure in that place, it doubleth but my woe.
And when I heare the sound of song or instrument,
Me thinke eche tune there dolefull is and helpes me to lament.
And if I se some haue their most desired sight,
Alas! think I, eche man hath weal saue I, most wofull wight.
Then, as the striken dere withdrawes him selfe alone,
So do I seke some secrete place where I may make my mone.
There do my flowing eyes shew forth my melting hart,
So yat the stremes of those two welles right wel declare my smart.
And in those cares so colde I force my selfe a heate,
As sick men in their shaking fittes procure them self to sweate;
With thoughtes that for the time do much appease my paine.
But yet they cause a ferther fere and brede my woe agayne:
Me thinke within my thought I se right plaine appere,
My hartes delight, my sorowes leche, mine earthly goddesse here,
With euery sondry grace that I haue sene her haue;
Thus I within my wofull brest her picture paint and graue.
And in my thought I roll her bewties to and fro,
Her laughing chere, her louely looke, my hart that perced so;
Her strangenes when I sued her seruant for to be;
And what she sayd, and how she smiled, when that she pitied me.
Then comes a sodaine feare that riueth all my rest
Lest absence cause forgetfulness to sink within her brest.
For when I thinke how far this earth doth vs deuide,
Alas! me semes loue throwes me downe; I fele how that I slide.
But then, I thinke againe, why should I thus mistrust
So swete a wight, so sad and wise, that is so true and iust;
For loth she was to loue, and wauering is she not.
The farther of, the more desirde; thus louers tie their knot.
So in dispaire and hope plonged am I both vp an doune,
As is the ship with wind and waue when Neptune list to froune.
But as the watry showers delaye the raging winde,
So doth good hope clene put away dispayre out of my minde,
And biddes me for to serue and suffer pacientlie,
For what, wot I, the after weale that fortune willes to me.
For those that care do knowe and tasted haue of trouble,
When passed is their woful paine, eche ioy shall seme them double;
And bitter sendes she now, to make me tast the better
The plesant swete, when that it comes, to make it seme the sweter.
And so determine I to serue vntill my brethe;
Ye, rather dye a thousand times then once to false my feithe.
And if my feble corps through weight of wofull smart
Do fayle or faint, my will it is that still she kepe my hart.
And when thys carcas here to earth shalbe refarde,
I do bequeth my weried ghost to serue her afterwarde.