"The cause of thine unhappy day "By love was first begun. "For thou went'st' first by suit to seek "A tiger to make tame; "That sets not by thy love a leek, "But makes thy grief her game. "As easy it were for to convert "Whom thou so fain would'st frame. "Corin he liveth careless, "He leaps among the leaves ; "He eats the fruits of thy redress.2 "Thou reap'st, he takes the sheaves. "My beasts, awhile your food refrain, "And hark your herdman's sound! "Whom spiteful Love, alas! hath slain, "Through-girt3 with many a wound. "O happy be ye, beastes wild, 1 So ed. I.-Ed. 1567, 2 Labour. "wenest." Pierced-through. "I see that ye be not beguil'd "The hart he feedeth by the hind, "But, welaway! that Nature wrought “Thee, Phillida, so fair; "For I may say that I have bought Thy beauty all too dear! 66 "What reason is that cruelty "With beauty should have part? "Or else that such great tyranny "Should dwell in woman's heart? "O, Cupid, grant this my request, "Of Corin that is careless "That she may crave her fee, 1 Mates. 2 So ed. 1567.-Ed. I. " is it." "As I have done in great distress "That lov'd her faithfully. "But since that I shall die her slave, "Her slave and eke her thrall, "Write you, my friends, upon my grave "This chance that is befall. "HERE LIETH UNHAPPY HARPALUS, "BY CRUEL LOVE NOW SLAIN, "WHOM PHILLIDA UNJUSTLY THUS "HATH MURDER'D WITH DISDAIN." |