Complete Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Read online

But oft the words come forth awry of him that loveth well.

  I know in heat and cold the lover how he shakes;

  In singing how he doth complain; in sleeping how he wakes.

  To languish without ach, sickless for to consume,

  A thousand things for to devise, resolving all in fume. 30

  And though he list to see his lady’s grace full sore;

  Such pleasures as delights his eye, do not his health restore.

  I know to seek the track of my desired foe,

  And fear to find that I do seek. But chiefly this I know,

  That lovers must transform into the thing beloved, 35

  And live, (alas! who could believe?) with sprite from life removed.

  I know in hearty sighs, and laughters of the spleen,

  At once to change my state, my will, and eke my colour clean.

  I know how to deceive myself with others help;

  And how the lion chastised is, by beating of the whelp. 40

  In standing near the fire, I know how that I freeze;

  Far off I burn; in both I waste, and so my life I lese.

  I know how love doth rage upon a yielding mind;

  How small a net may take, and meash a heart of gentle kind:

  Or else with seldom sweet to season heaps of gall; 45

  Revived with a glimpse of grace, old sorrows to let fall.

  The hidden trains I know, and secret snare of love;

  How soon a look will print a thought, that never may remove.

  The slipper state I know, the sudden turns from wealth;

  The doubtful hope, the certain woe, and sure despair of health. 50

  List of poems in chronological order

  List of poems in alphabetical order

  Complaint of a Lover that defied Love, and was by Love after the more tormented

  WHEN Summer took in hand the winter to assail,

  With force of might, and virtue great, his stormy blasts to quail:

  And when he clothed fair the earth about with green,

  And every tree new garmented, that pleasure was to seen:

  Mine heart ‘gan new revive, and changed blood did stir, 5

  Me to withdraw my winter woes, that kept within my dore.

  ‘Abroad,’ quoth my desire, ‘assay to set thy foot;

  Where thou shalt find the savour sweet; for sprung is every root.

  And to thy health, if thou were sick in any case,

  Nothing more good than in the spring the air to feel a space. 10

  There shalt thou hear and see all kinds of birds y-wrought,

  Well tune their voice with warble small, as nature hath them taught.’

  Thus pricked me my lust the sluggish house to leave,

  And for my health I thought it best such counsel to receive.

  So on a morrow forth, unwist of any wight, 15

  I went to prove how well it would my heavy burden light.

  And when I felt the air so pleasant round about,

  Lord! to myself how glad I was that I had gotten out.

  There might I see how Ver had every blossom hent,

  And eke the new betrothed birds, y-coupled how they went; 20

  And in their songs, methought, they thanked Nature much,

  That by her license all that year to love, their hap was such,

  Right as they could devise to choose them feres throughout:

  With much rejoicing to their Lord, thus flew they all about.

  Which when I ‘gan resolve, and in my head conceive, 25

  What pleasant life, what heaps of joy, these little birds receive;

  And saw in what estate I, weary man, was wrought,

  By want of that, they had at will, and I reject at nought;

  Lord! how I gan in wrath unwisely me demean!

  I cursed Love, and him defied; I thought to turn the stream. 30

  But when I well beheld, he had me under awe,

  I asked mercy for my fault, that so transgrest his law:

  Thou blinded God,’ quoth I, ‘forgive me this offence,

  Unwittingly I went about, to malice thy pretence.’

  Wherewith he gave a beck, and thus methought he swore: 35

  ‘Thy sorrow ought suffice to purge thy fault, if it were more.’

  The virtue of which sound mine heart did so revive.

  That I, methought, was made as whole as any man alive.

  But here I may perceive mine error, all and some,

  For that I thought that so it was; yet was it still undone; 40

  And all that was no more but mine expressed mind,

  That fain would have some good relief, of Cupid well assign’d.

  I turned home forthwith, and might perceive it well,

  That he aggrieved was right sore with me for my rebel.

  My harms have ever since increased more and more, 45

  And I remain, without his help, undone for ever more.

  A mirror let me be unto ye lovers all;

  Strive not with love; for if ye do, it will ye thus befall.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  Complaint of a Lover rebuked

  LOVE, that liveth and reigneth in my thought,

  That built his seat within my captive breast;

  Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,

  Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.

  She, that me taught to love, and suffer pain; 5

  My doubtful hope, and eke my hot desire

  With shamefaced cloak to shadow and restrain,

  Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire.

  And coward Love then to the heart apace

  Taketh his flight; whereas he lurks, and plains 10

  His purpose lost, and dare not shew his face.

  For my Lord’s guilt thus faultless bide I pains.

  Yet from my Lord shall not my foot remove:

  Sweet is his death, that takes his end by love.

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  Complaint of the Lover disdained

  IN Cyprus springs, whereas Dame Venus dwelt,

  A well so hot, that whoso tastes the same,

  Were he of stone, as thawed ice should melt,

  And kindled find his breast with fixed flame;

  Whose moist poison dissolved hath my hate. 5

  This creeping fire my cold limbs so opprest,

  That in the heart that harbour’d freedom, late:

  Endless despair long thraldom hath imprest.

  Another so cold in frozen ice is found,

  Whose chilling venom of repugnant kind, 10

  The fervent heat doth quench of Cupid’s wound,

  And with the spot of change infects the mind;

  Whereof my dear hath tasted to my pain:

  My service thus is grown into disdain.

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  Description and Praise of his Love Geraldine

  FROM Tuscane came my Lady’s worthy race;

  Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.

  The western isle whose pleasant shore doth face

  Wild Camber’s cliffs, did give her lively heat.

  Foster’d she was with milk of Irish breast: 5

  Her sire an Earl; her dame of Prince’s blood.

  From tender years, in Britain doth she rest,

  With Kinges child; where she tasteth costly food.

  Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyen:

  Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight. 10

  Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine;

  And Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight.

  Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above;

  Happy is he that can obtain her love!

  List of poems in chronological order

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  The Frailty and Hurtfulness of Beauty

  BRITTLE beauty, that Nature made so frail,

  Whereof the gift is small, and short is the season;

  Flowering to-day, to-morrow apt to fail;

  Tickle treasure, abhorred of reason:

  Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail; 5

  Costly in keeping, past not worth two peason;

  Slipper in sliding, as is an eel’s tail;

  Hard to obtain, once gotten, not geason:

  Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail;

  False and untrue, enticed oft to treason; 10

  Enemy to youth, that most may I bewail;

  Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison,

  Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken;

  To-day ready ripe, to-morrow all to shaken.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  A Complaint by Night of the Lover not beloved

  ALAS! so all things now do hold their peace!

  Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing;

  The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,

  The nightès car the stars about doth bring.

  Calm is the sea; the waves work less and less: 5

  So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,

  Bringing before my face the great increase

  Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,

  In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.

  For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring; 10

  But by and by, the cause of my disease

  Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting,

  When that I think what grief it is again,

  To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  How each thing, save the Lover in Spring, reviveth to Pleasure

  WHEN Windsor walls sustain’d my wearied arm;

  My hand my chin, to ease my restless head;

  The pleasant plot revested green with warm;

  The blossom’d boughs, with lusty Ver y-spread;

  The flower’d meads, the wedded birds so late 5

  Mine eyes discover; and to my mind resort

  The jolly woes, the hateless, short debate,

  The rakehell life, that ‘longs to love’s disport.

  Wherewith, alas! the heavy charge of care

  Heap’d in my breast breaks forth, against my will 10

  In smoky sighs, that overcast the air.

  My vapour’d eyes such dreary tears distil,

  The tender spring which quicken where they fall;

  And I half bend to throw me down withal.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  A Vow to love faithfully, howsoever he be rewarded

  SET me whereas the sun doth parch the green,

  Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice;

  In temperate heat, where he is felt and seen;

  In presence prest of people, mad, or wise;

  Set me in high, or yet in low degree; 5

  In longest night, or in the shortest day;

  In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be;

  In lusty youth, or when my hairs are gray:

  Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell,

  In hill, or dale, or in the foaming flood; 10

  Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell,

  Sick, or in health, in evil fame or good,

  Her’s will I be; and only with this thought

  Content myself, although my chance be nought.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  Complaint that his Lady, after she knew his Love, kept her Face always hidden from him

  I NEVER saw my Lady lay apart

  Her cornet black, in cold nor yet in heat,

  Sith first she knew my grief was grown so great;

  Which other fancies driveth from my heart,

  That to myself I do the thought reserve, 5

  The which unwares did wound my woful breast;

  But on her face mine eyes might never rest.

  Yet since she knew I did her love and serve,

  Her golden tresses clad alway with black,

  Her smiling looks that hid thus evermore, 10

  And that restrains which I desire so sore.

  So doth this cornet govern me alack!

  In summer, sun, in winter’s breath, a frost;

  Whereby the light of her fair looks I lost.

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  Request to his Love to join Bounty with Beauty

  THE GOLDEN gift that Nature did thee give,

  To fasten friends and feed them at thy will,

  With form and favour, taught me to believe,

  How thou art made to shew her greatest skill.

  Whose hidden virtues are not so unknown, 5

  But lively dooms might gather at the first

  Where beauty so her perfect seed hath sown,

  Of other graces follow needs there must.

  Now certes, Garret, since all this is true,

  That from above thy gifts are thus elect, 10

  Do not deface them then with fancies new;

  Nor change of minds, let not the mind infect:

  But mercy him thy friend that doth thee serve;

  Who seeks alway thine honour to preserve.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  Prisoned in Windsor, he recounteth his Pleasure there passed

  SO cruel prison how could betide, alas,

  As proud Windsor, where I in lust and joy,

  With a Kinges son, my childish years did pass,

  In greater feast than Priam’s sons of Troy.

  Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour. 5

  The large green courts, where we were wont to hove,

  With eyes cast up into the Maiden’s tower,

  And easy sighs, such as folk draw in love.

  The stately seats, the ladies bright of hue.

  The dances short, long tales of great delight; 10

  With words and looks, that tigers could but rue;

  Where each of us did plead the other’s right.

  The palme-play, where, despoiled for the game,

  With dazed eyes oft we by gleams of love

  Have miss’d the ball, and got sight of our dame, 15

  To bait her eyes, which kept the leads above.

  The gravel’d ground, with sleeves tied on the helm,

  On foaming horse, with swords and friendly hearts;

  With chere, as though one should another whelm,

  Where we have fought, and chased oft with darts. 20

  With silver drops the mead yet spread for ruth,

  In active games of nimbleness and strength,

  Where we did strain, trained with swarms of youth,

  Our tender limbs, that yet shot up in length.

  The secret groves, which oft we made resound 25

  Of pleasant plaint, and of our ladies’ praise;

  Recording oft what grace each one had found,

  What hope of speed, what dread of long delays.

  The wild forest, the clothed holts with green;

  With reins availed, and swift y-breathed horse, 30

  With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between,

  Where we did chase the fearful hart of force.

  The void vales eke, that harbour’d us each night:

  Wherewith, alas! reviveth in my breast

  The sweet accord, such sleeps as yet delight; 35

  The pleasant dreams, the quiet bed of rest;

  The secret thoughts, imparted with such trust;

  The wanton talk, the diver
s change of play;

  The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just,

  Wherewith we past the winter night away. 40

  And with this thought the blood forsakes the face;

  The tears berain my cheeks of deadly hue:

  The which, as soon as sobbing sighs, alas!

  Up-supped have, thus I my plaint renew:

  ‘O place of bliss! renewer of my woes! 45

  Give me account, where is my noble fere?

  Whom in thy walls thou dost each night enclose;

  To other lief; but unto me most dear.’

  Echo, alas! that doth my sorrow rue,

  Returns thereto a hollow sound of plaint. 50

  Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,

  In prison pine, with bondage and restraint:

  And with remembrance of the greater grief,

  To banish the less, I find my chief relief.

  List of poems in chronological order

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  The Lover comforteth himself with the Worthiness of his Love

  WHEN raging love with extreme pain

  Most cruelly distrains my heart;

  When that my tears, as floods of rain,

  Bear witness of my woful smart;

  When sighs have wasted so my breath 5

  That I lie at the point of death:

  I call to mind the navy great

  That the Greeks brought to Troy town:

  And how the boisterous winds did beat

  Their ships, and rent their sails adown; 10

  Till Agamemnon’s daughter’s blood

  Appeas’d the Gods that them withstood.

  And how that in those ten years war

  Full many a bloody deed was done;

  And many a lord that came full far, 15

  There caught his bane, alas! too soon;

  And many a good knight overrun,

  Before the Greeks had Helen won.