32

MONTANUS' FIRST SONNET

495Alas! How wander I amidst these woods
Whereas no day-bright shine doth find access,
But where the melancholy fleeting floods,
Dark as the night, my night of woes express.
Disarmed of reason, spoiled of nature's goods,
Without redress to salve my heaviness
I walk, whilst thought, too cruel to my harms,
With endless grief my heedless judgment charms.496My silent tongue assailed by secret fear,
My traitorous eyes imprisoned in their joy,
My fatal peace devoured in feign{`e}d cheer,
My heart enforced to harbor in annoy,
My reason robbed of power by yielding ear,
My fond opinions slave to every toy--
O Love! thou guide in my uncertain way,
Woe to thy bow, thy fire, the cause of my decay!497 Et florida pungunt.

498When the King had read this sonnet, he highly commended the device of the shepherd, that could so wittily wrap his passions in a shadow and so covertly conceal that which bred his chiefest discontent, affirming that as the least shrubs have their tops, the smallest hairs their shadows, so the meanest swains had their fancies and in their kind were as chary of love as a King. Whetted on with this device, he took the second and read it. The effects were these: