66391"How like a jade he stood tied to the tree,

392Servilely mastered with a leathern rein;

393But when he saw his love, his youth's fair fee,

394He held such petty bondage in disdain,

395 Throwing the base thong from his bending crest,

396 Enfranchising his mouth, his back, his breast.

67397"Who sees his true-love in her naked bed,

398Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white;

399But when his glutton eye so full hath fed,

400His other agents aim at like delight?

401 Who is so faint that dares not be so bold

402 To touch the fire, the weather being cold?

68403"Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;

404And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee,

405To take advantage on presented joy.

406Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach thee.

407 O, learn to love; the lesson is but plain,

408 And once made perfect, never lost again."

69409"I know not love," quoth he, "nor will not know it,

410Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it.

411'Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it.

412My love to love is love but to disgrace it;

413 For I have heard it is a life in death,

414 That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.

70415"Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinished?

416Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth?

417If springing things be any jot diminished,

418They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth.

419 The colt that's backed and burdened being young

420 Loseth his pride and never waxeth strong.