FROM FAREWELL TO FOLLY.* DESCRIPTION OF THE LADY MÆSIA.† HE ER stature and her shape were passing tall, Diana like, when 'longst the lawns she goes; A stately pace, like Juno when she braved The Queen of love, 'fore Paris in the vale; A front beset with love and majesty; A face like lovely Venus when she blushed A seely shepherd should be beauty's judge; A lip sweet ruby-red graced with delight; Her eyes two sparkling stars in winter night, When chilling frost doth clear the azured sky; Her hairs in tresses twined with threads of silk, Hung waving down like Phœbus in his prime; Her breasts as white as those two snowy swans That draw to Paphos Cupid's smiling dame; A foot like Thetis when she tripped the sands To steal Neptunus' favour with her steps; In fine, a piece despite of beauty framed, To see what Nature's cunning could afford. SW SONG. WEET are the thoughts that savour of content; Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent; The poor estate scorns fortune's angry frown: Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss, Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss. * Greene's Farewell to Folly. Sent to Courtiers and Scholars as a precedent to wean them from the vain delights that draw youth on to repentance. Sero sed serio. Robert Greene, Utriusque Academiæ in Artibus Magister. 1591. † A condensed version of the lines on Silvestro's Lady. See ante, p. 31. The homely house that harbours quiet rest; HE LINES TRANSLATED FROM GUAZZO. E that appalled with lust would sail in haste to There to be taught in Lais' school to seek for a mistress, purpose; Rage embraced, but reason quite thrust out as an exile; Pleasure a pain, rest turned to be care, and mirth as a madness; Fiery minds inflamed with a look enraged as Alecto; Quaint in array, sighs fetched from far, and tears, many, feigned; Pensive, sore deep plunged in pain, not a place but his heart whole; Days in grief and nights consumed to think on a goddess; Broken sleeps, sweet dreams, but short fro the night to the morning; Venus dashed, his mistress' face as bright as Apollo; Helena stained, the golden ball wrong-given by the shepherd; Hairs of gold, eyes twinkling stars, her lips to be rubies; Teeth of pearl, her breasts like snow, her cheeks to be roses; Sugar candy she is, as I guess, fro the waist to the kneestead; Nought is amiss, no fault were found if soul were amended; All were bliss if such fond lust led not to repentance. FROM DANTE. MONSTER seated in the midst of men, A Which, daily fed, is never satiate; A hollow gulf of vile ingratitude, Which for his food vouchsafes not pay of thanks, The misty vapour that obscures the light, FROM THE GROAT'S WORTH OF WIT.* LAMILIA'S SONG. FIE, fie, on blind fancy, When Love learned first the A B C of delight, He led not lovers in dark winding ways; * Greene's Groat's Worth of Wit, bought with a million of repentance Describing the folly of youth, the falsehood of make-shift flatterers. the misery of the negligent, and mischiefs of deceiving courtesans : He plainly willed to love, or flatly answered no, It hinders youth's joy; To count love a toy. For since he learned to use the poet's pen, He learned likewise with smoothing words to feign, It hinders youth's joy; Fair virgins, learn by me VERSES AGAINST ENTICING COURTESANS. WHAT meant the poets in invective verse To sing Medea's shame, and Scylla's pride, Who chain blind youths in trammels of their hair, published at his dying request, and newly corrected, and of many errors purged. Felicem fuisse infaustum. 1592. H VERSES. DE ECEIVING world, that with alluring toys Hast made my life the subject of thy scorn, And scornest now to lend thy fading joys T'outlength my life, whom friends have left forlorn; And never see thy slights, which few men shun Oft have I sung of love and of his fire; But now I find that poet was advised, What thoughts of love, what motion of delight, Witness my want, the murderer of my wit: O that a year were granted me to live, Time loosely spent will not again be won; * These verses derive additional pathos from the circumstance of having been written in Greene's last illness. The preceding piece, and that which follows, also have reference to his own life. |