The whiles some one did chaunt this louely lay;Ah see, who so faire thing doest faine to see,In springing flowre the image of thy day;Ah see the Virgin Rose, how sweetly sheeDoth first peepe forth wit...
The poet's scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. The Genius survives all else is claimed by death.
Yet gold all is not, that doth gold seem,Nor all good knights, that shake well spear and shield:The worth of all men by their end esteem,And then praise, or due reproach them yield.
Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.
I was promised on a time To have reason for my rhyme From that time unto this season I received nor rhyme nor reason.
It is the mind that maketh good of ill that maketh wretch or happy rich or poor.
I hate the day, because it lendeth lightTo see all things, but not my love to see.
His Lady sad to see his sore constraint, Cried out, Now now Sir knight, shew what ye bee, Add faith unto your force, and be not faint: Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee. That when he hear...
My love is like to ice, and I to fire;How comes it then that this her cold so greatIs not dissolv'd through my so hot desire,But harder grows the more I her entreat?Or how comes it that my exceeding h...
It is the mynd, that maketh good or ill,That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore:For some, that hath abundance at his will,Hath not enough, but wants in greatest store;And other, that hath litle, a...
Wrath, gealosie, griefe, loue do thus expell:Wrath is a fire, and gealosie a weede,Griefe is a flood, and loue a monster fell;The fire of sparkes, the weede of little seede,The flood of drops, the Mon...
O why doe wretched men so much desire,To draw their dayes vnto the vtmost date,And doe not rather wish them soone expire,Knowing the miserie of their estate,And thousand perills which them still awate...
He oft finds med'cine, who his griefe imparts; But double griefs afflict concealing harts, As raging flames who striveth to supresse.
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Faire Ladies, that to loue captiued arre,And chaste desires do nourish in your mind,Let not her fault your sweet affections marre,Ne blot the bounty of all womankind;'Mongst thousands good one wanton...
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,Our love shall live, and later life renew.
They that haue much, feare much to loose thereby,And store of cares doth follow riches store.
After long stormes and tempests sad assay, Which hardly I endured heretofore: in dread of death and daungerous dismay, with which my silly barke was tossed sore: I doe at length descry the ha...
Vaine is the vaunt, and victory unjust, that more to mighty hands, then rightfull cause doth trust.
Not so (quoth he) love most aboundeth there.For all the walls and windows there are writ,All full of love, and love, and love my deare,And all their talke and studie is of it.Ne any there doth brave o...