University of Virginia Library

So feble is the threde

Complaint of the absence of his loue.

So feble is the threde, that doth the burden stay,
Of my poore life: in heauy plight, that falleth in decay:
That, but it haue elswhere some ayde or some succours:
The running spindle of my fate anone shall end his course.
For since thunhappy hower, that dyd me to depart,
From my swete weale: one onely hope hath stayed my life, apart:
Which doth perswade such wordes vnto my sored minde:
Maintain thy self, O wofull wight, some better luck to finde.
For though thou be depriued from thy desired sight:
Who can thee tell, if thy returne be for thy more delight?

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I4v

Or, who can tell, thy losse if thou mayst once recouer?
Some pleasant hower thy wo may wrappe: & thee defend, & couer.
Thus in this trust as yet it hath my life sustained:
But now (alas) I see it faint: and I, by trust, am trayned.
The tyme doth flete, and I se how the howers, do bend
So fast: that I haue scant the space to mark my commyng end.
Westward the sonne from out the East scant shewes his light:
When in the West he hides him strayt, within the dark of nyght.
And comes as fast, where he began, his path awry.
From Fast to West, from West to East so doth his iourney ly.
The life so short, so fraile, that mortall men liue here:
So great a weight, so heauy charge the bodies, that we bere:
That, when I think vpon the distaunce, and the space:
That doth so farre deuide me from my dere desired face:
I know not, how tattain the winges, that I require,
To lift me vp: that I might flie, to folow my desyre.
Thus of that hope, that doth my life somethyng sustayne,
Alas: I feare, and partly fele: full litle doth remain.
Eche place doth bring me griefe: where I do not behold
Those liuely eyes: which of my thoughts wer wont [the] keys to hold
Those thoughtes were pleasa[n]t swete: whilst I enioyed that grace:
My pleasure past, my present pain, when I might well embrace.
And, for because my want should more my wo encrease:
In watch, and slepe, both day, and night, my will doth neuer cease
That thing to wish: wherof since I did leese the sight:
Was neuer thing that mought in ought my woful hart delight,
Thunesy lyfe, I lead, doth teach me for to mete
The floodes, the seas, the land, the hylles: that doth the[m] entermete
Twene me, and those shene lightes: that wonted for to clere
My darked panges of cloudy thoughts, as bright as Pheb[es] spere,
It teacheth me, also, what was my pleasant state:
The more to fele, by such record, how that my wealth doth bate.
If such record (alas) prouoke thenflamed mynde:
Which sprong that day, that I did leaue the best of me behynde:
If loue forget himself, by length of absence, let:
Who doth me guyde (O wofull wretch) vnto this bayted net?
Where doth encrease my care: much better wer for me,
As dumme, as stone, all thyng forgot, still absent for to be.
Alas: the clere cristall, the bright transplendant glasse
Doth not bewray the colours hidde, which vnderneth it hase:
As doth thaccumbred sprite the thoughtfull throwes discouer,
Of feares delite, of feruent loue: that in our hartes we couer.
Out by these eyes, it sheweth that euermore delight.

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K1r

In plaint, and teares to seke redresse: and eke both day and night.
These kindes of pleasures most wherein men so reioyce,
To me they do redubble still of stormy sighes the voyce.
For, I am one of them, whom playnt doth well content:
It sits me well: myne absent wealth me semes for to lament:
And with my teares, tassay to charge myne eies twayn:
Lyke as my hart aboue the brink is fraughted full of payn.
And forbecause, therto, of those fair eyes to treate
Do me prouoke: I wyll returne, my plaint thus to repeate.
For, there is nothing els, that toucheth me so within:
Where they rule all: and I alone nought but the case, or skin.
Wherefore, I shall returne to them, as well, or spring:
From whom descendes my mortall wo, aboue all other thing.
So shall myne eyes in pain accompany my hart:
That were the guides, that did it lead of loue to fele the smart.
The crisped golde, that doth surmount Apollos pride:
The liuely streames of pleasant starres that vnder it doth glyde:
Wherein the beames of loue doe styll encrease theyr heate:
Which yet so farre touch me so nere, in colde to make me sweate.
The wyse and pleasant talk, so rare, orels

[_]

or els

alone:
That gaue to me the curteis gift, that erst had neuer none:
Be farre from me, alas: and euery other thyng
I might forbeare with better wyll: then this that dyd me bryng,
With pleasant worde and chere, redresse of lingred pain:
And wonted oft in kindled will to vertue me to trayn.
Thus, am I forst to heare, and harken after newes.
My comfort scant my large desire in doutfull trust renewes.
And yet with more delite to mone my wofull case:
I must complain those handes, those armes: [that] firmely do embrace
Me from my self: and rule the sterne of my poore lyfe:
The swete disdaines, the pleasant wrathes, and eke [the] louely strife:
That wonted well to tune in temper iust, and mete,
The rage: that oft dyd make me erre, by furour vndiscrete.
All this is hydde me fro, with sharp, and ragged hylles:
At others will, my long abode my depe dispaire fullfils.
And if my hope sometime ryse vp, by some redresse:
It stumbleth straite, for feble faint: my feare hath such excesse.
Such is the sort of hope: the lesse for more desyre:
And yet I trust ere that I dye to see that I require:
The restyng place of loue: where vertue dwelles and growes
There I desire, my wery life, somtime, may take repose.
My song: thou shalt attain to finde that pleasant place:

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K1v

Where she doth lyue, by who[m] I liue: may chance, to haue this grace
When she hath red, and sene the grief, wherin I serue:
Betwene her brestes she shall thee put: there, shall she thee reserue
Then, tell her, that I cumme: she shall me shortly see:
And if for waighte the body fayle, the soule shall to her flee.