Classic Poem

So having said, Aglaura him bespake:
"Colin, well worthy were those goodly favours
Bestowed on thee, that so of them dost make,
And them requitest with thy thankful labours.
But of great Cynthia's goodness and high grace
Finish the story which thou hast begun.'
"More eath' (quoth he) "it is in such a case
How to begin, than know how to have done.
For every gift and every goodly meed,
Which she on me bestowed, demands a day;
And every day, in which she did a deed,
Demands a year it duly to display.
Her words were like a stream of honey fleeting,
The which doth softly trickle from the hive,
Able to melt the hearer's heart unwitting,
And eke to make the dead again alive.
Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes,
Which load the branches of the fruitful vine,
Offering to fall into each mouth that gapes,
And fill the same with store of timely wine.
Her looks were like beams of the morning sun,
Forth looking through the windows of the east,
When first the fleecy cattle have begun
Upon the pearled grass to make their feast.
Her thoughts are like the fume of frankincense,
Which from a golden censer forth doth rise;
And throwing forth sweet odours mounts fro thence
In rolling globes up to the vaulted skies.
There she beholds with high aspiring thought
The cradle of her own creation,
Amongst the seats of Angels heavenly wrought,
Much like an angel in all form and fashion.
"Colin' (said Cuddy then) "thou hast forgot
Thyself, meseems, too much, to mount so high:
Such lofty flight base shepherd seemeth not,
From flocks and fields, to angels and to sky.'
"True' (answered he), "but her great excellence
Lifts me above the measure of my might;
That being filled with furious insolence,
I feel myself like one yrapt in spright.
For when I think of her, as oft I ought,
Then want I words to speak it fitly forth;
And when I speak of her what I have thought,
I cannot think according to her worth.
Yet will I think or her, yet will I speak,
So long as life my limbs doth hold together,
And when as death these vital bands shall break,
Her name recorded I will leave for ever.
Her name in every tree I will endoss,
That as the trees do grow, her name may grow;
And in the ground each where will it engross,
And fill with stones, that all men may it know.
The speaking woods and murmuring waters' fall
Her name I'll teach in knowen terms to frame;
And eke my lambs, when for their dams they call,
I'll teach to call for Cynthia by name.
And long while after I am dead and rotten,
Amongst the shepherds' daughters dancing round,
My lays made of her shall not be forgotten,
But sung by them with flowery garlands crowned.
And ye, who so ye be, that shall survive,
When as ye hear her memory renewed,
Be witness of her bounty here alive,
Which she to Colin her poor shepherd shewed.'
Much was the whole assembly of those herds
Moved at his speech, so feelingly he spake;
And stood awhile astonished at his words,
'Till Thesylis at last their silence brake,
Saying, "Why Colin, since thou found'st such grace
With Cynthia and all her noble crew,
Why didst thou ever leave that happy place,
In which such wealth might unto thee accrue,
And back returned'st to this barren soil,
Where cold and care and penury do dwell,
Here to keep sheep, with hunger and with toil?
Most wretched he, that is and cannot tell.'
"Happy indeed' (said Colin) "I him hold,
That may that blessed presence still enjoy,
Of fortune and of envy uncomptrolled,
Which still are wont most happy states t'annoy:
But I, by that which little while I proved,
Some part of those enormities did see,
The which in court continually hoved,
And followed those which happy seemed to be.
Therefore I silly man, whose former days
Had in rude fields been altogether spent,
Durst not adventure such unkownen ways,
Nor trust the guile of fortune's blandishment,
But rather chose back to my sheep to turn,
Whose utmost hardness I before had tried,
Than, having learned repentance late, to mourn
Amongst those wretches which I there descried.'
"Shepherd' (said Thestylis), "it seems of spite
Thou speakest thus 'gainst their felicity,
Which thou enviest, rather than of right,
That aught in them blameworthy thou dost spy.'
"Cause have I none' (quoth he) "of cankered will
To quite them ill, that me demeaned so well:
But self-regard of private good or ill
Moves me of each, so as I found, to tell,
And eke to warn young shepherds' wandering wit,
Which, through report of that life's painted bliss,
Abandon quiet home, to seek for it,
And leave their lambs to loss, misled amiss.
For sooth to say, it is no sort of life,
For shepherd fit to lead in that same place,
Where each one seeks with malice and with strife,
To thrust down other into foul disgrace,
Himself to raise: and he doth soonest rise
That best can handle his deceitful wit,
In subtle shifts, and finest sleights devise,
Either by slandering his well-deemed name,
Through leasings lewd, and feigned forgery:
Or else by breeding him some blot of blame,
By creeping close into his secrecy;
To which him needs a guileful hollow heart,
Masked with fair dissembling courtesy,
A filed tongue furnished with terms of art,
Not art of school, but courtiers' schoolery.
For arts of school have there small countenance,
Counted but toys to busy idle brains,
And there professors find small maintenance,
But to be instruments of others' gains.
Ne is there place for any gentle wit,
Unless to please itself it can apply:
But shouldered is, or out of door quite shit,
As base, or blunt, unmeet for melody.
For each man's worth is measured by his weed,
As harts by horns, or asses by their ears:
Yet asses been not all whose ears exceed,
Nor yet all harts, that horns the highest bears.
For highest looks have not the highest mind,
Nor haughty words most full of highest thoughts:
But are like bladders blowen up with wind,
That being pricked do vanish into noughts.
Even such is all their vaunted vanity,
Nought else but smoke, that fumeth soon away;
Such is their glory that in simple eye
Seem greatest, when their garments are most gay.
So they themselves for praise of fools do sell,
And all their wealth for painting on a wall;
With price whereof, they buy a golden bell,
And purchase highest rooms in bower and hall:
Whiles single truth and simple honesty
Do wander up and down despised of all;
Their plain attire such glorious gallantry
Disdains so much, that none them in doth call.