I joyed; but straight thus watered was my wine.
"That love she did, but loved a love not blind;
Which would not let me, whom she loved, decline
From nobler course, fit for my birth and mind:
And therefore by her love's authority,
Willed me, these tempests of vain love to fly;
And anchor fast myself on Virtue's shore."
To which may be added that impassioned avowal of her fondness for
him, in verses which expressed so truly the real state of her heart that
NEWMAN suppressed them in his Quartos of 1591, probably as touching
too near her personal and family life.
Then she spake, her speech was such,
As not ears, but heart did touch;
While such wise she love denied,
As yet love she signified.
"ASTROPHEL," said she, "my love!
Cease in these effects to prove.
Now be still! yet still believe me,
Thy grief more than death would grieve me."
"If that any thought in me,
Can taste comfort but of thee;
Let me feed with hellish anguish,
Joyless, hopeless, endless languish."
"If those eyes you praisèd, be
Half so dear as you to me;
Let me home return, stark blinded
Of those eyes; and blinder minded!"
"If to secret of my heart,
I do any wish impart;
Where thou art not foremost placed:
Be both wish and I defaced!"
