PHILOPARTHEN. "What is the cause ALCILIA is displeased?"
LOVE. "Because she wants that which should most content her."
PHILOPARATHEN. "O did I know it, soon should she be eased!"
LOVE. "Perhaps, thou dost! and that doth most torment her."
PHILOPARTHEN. "Yet, let her ask! what she desires to have."
LOVE. "Guess, by thyself! For maidens must not crave!"
XVIII.
My Love, by chance, her tender finger pricked;
As, in the dark, I strivèd for a kiss:
Whose blood, I seeing, offered to have licked,
But half in anger, she refusèd this.
O that she knew the difference of the smart
'Twixt her pricked finger, and my piercèd heart!
XIX.
PHILOPARTHEN. "I pray thee, tell! What makes my heart to tremble,
When, on a sudden, I, ALCILIA spy?"
LOVE. "Because thy heart cannot thy joy dissemble!
Thy life and death are both lodged in her eye."
PHILOPARTHEN. "Dost thou not her, with self-same passion strike?"
LOVE. "O, no! Her heart and thine are not alike."
XX.
Such are thy parts of body and of mind;
That if I should not love thee as I do,
I should too much degenerate from Kind,
And think the world would blame my weakness too.
For he, whom such perfections cannot move,
Is either senseless, or not born to love.
XXI.
ALCILIA'S eyes have set my heart on fire,
The pleasing object that my pain doth feed:
Yet still to see those eyes I do desire,
As if my help should from my hurt proceed.
Happy were I, might there in her be found
A will to heal, as there was power to wound.
XXII.
Unwise was he, that painted LOVE a boy;
Who, for his strength, a giant should have been.
It's strange a child should work so great annoy;
Yet howsoever strange, too truly seen.
"But what is he? that dares at LOVE repine;
Whose works are wonders, and himself divine!"
XXIII.
My fair ALCILIA! gladly would I know it,
If ever Loving Passion pierced thy heart?
O, no! For, then, thy kindness soon would show it!
And of my pains, thyself wouldst bear some part.
Full little knoweth he that hath not proved,
What hell it is to love, and not be loved.
XXIV.
LOVE! Art thou blind? Nay, thou canst see too well!
And they are blind that so report of thee!
That thou dost see, myself by proof can tell;
(A hapless proof thereof is made by me);
For sure I am, hadst thou not had thy sight,
Thou never couldst have hit my heart so right.
XXV.
Long have I languished, and endured much smart
Since hapless I, the Cruel Fair did love;
And lodged her in the centre of my heart.
Who, there abiding, Reason should her move.
Though of my pains she no compassion take;
Yet to respect me, for her own sweet sake.
XXVI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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