Ah! thy rigorous disdain And my merit, poor and low, So affright me that 'tis plain, Though I love thee, this I know, Yet I dare not tell my pain; Ever open I espy The gate to my agony, And that life doth slow depart, For thou heedest not the heart _Where faith lives and hope is dead_. Never doth my fancy frame Such a frenzied, foolish, thought As to think that I could claim Any bliss that I have sought By my faith and heart aflame; Thou canst know with certainty My surrendered soul doth try, Shepherdess, to love thee true, For 'tis there that thou wilt view _Where faith lives and hope is dead_. Erastro became silent, and straightway the absent Crisio, to the sound of the same instruments, began to sing in this fashion: CRISIO. If the loyal heart despair Of achieving happiness, Whoso faints in the career Of the loving passion's stress, What shall he as guerdon bear? I know not that any may Win delight and pleasure gay In the sudden rush of Love, If the greatest joys but prove _'Tis no faith that doth not stay_. This undoubted truth we know That in battle and in love He that proud and bold is, though Conqueror he at first may prove, Sinks at last beneath the blow; And the wise man knows to-day That the victory ever lay 'Midst the strife in constancy, And he knows, whate'er it be _'Tis no faith that doth not stay_. Whoso seeks in love to gain Nothing save his happiness, In his fickle thought and vain, Faith that shall withstand all stress Cannot for one hour remain; I myself these words would say, If my faith should not display Constancy amidst the storm Of ill, as when hope is warm: _'Tis no faith that doth not stay_. Madness of a lover new, His impetuous hastening, Sighs and sadness, these, 'tis true, Are but fleeting clouds of spring, In a moment lost to view: 'Tis not love he doth display, Greed and folly lead astray, For he loves, yet loveth not, No man loves who dieth not, _'Tis no faith that doth not stay_. All approved of the order the shepherds were keeping in their songs, and with desire they were waiting for Thyrsis or Damon to begin; but at once Damon satisfied them, for, as Crisio finished, to the sound of his own rebeck, he sang thus: DAMON.