Page:An English Garner Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Volume 1 1877).pdf/268

And every one did make exceeding moan,
With inward anguish and great grief opprest;
And every one did weep and wail and moan,
And means devised to show his sorrow best.
That from that hour since first on grassy green,
Shepherds kept sheep; was not like mourning seen.

But first his sister that CLORINDA hight,
The gentlest shepherdess that lives this day;
And most resembling both in shape and sprite,
Her brother dear, began this doleful lay.
Which lest I mar the sweetness of the verse,
In sort as she it sung, I will rehearse.

"Aye me! to whom shall I, my case complain,
That may compassion my impatient grief?
Or where shall I unfold my inward pain
That my enriven heart may find relief?
Shall I unto the heavenly powers it show,
Or unto earthly men that dwell below?"

"To heavens! Ah, they, alas, the authors were
And workers of my unremèdied woe;
For they foresee what to us happens here,
And they foresaw, yet suffered this be so.
  From them comes good, from them comes also ill;
  That which they made, who can them warn to spill?"