Myself from Love’s employ, or be
Accounted mad; but eloquently
Discoursed you of a love beside
The love I’m bound to, which you chide
So sharply. That’s a love, meseems,
So pure as men but meet in dreams,
Where all is fair, and nought is wrong.
I humbly beg thee to prolong
Thy wise discourse, and you may deem
Me fool if I give not extreme4960
Attent thereto, and hear you out,
For you will teach me thus past doubt
The various forms of love, and show
The loves my spirit fain would know.”
Reason.
Various forms of love
“Good friend, no wiser than a daw
Art thou, who scarce above a straw
Esteem’st my sage discourse; yet fain
Thou seem’st to be that I amain
Should further speak of love. Good will
Have I to teach thee, hoping still,4970
Though doubtful if ’tis worth the while.
Love doth the soul of man beguile
In many ways, besides that blind,
Tormenting madness of the mind
’Neath which thou sufferest: God permit
That thou mayst free thy heart from it.
One precious kind of love men know
As friendship, where two spirits grow
