Poem by Nicholas Breton

A Quarrel with Love

Oh that I could write a story
  Of love's dealing with affection!
How he makes the spirit sorry
  That is touch'd with his infection.

But he doth so closely wind him,
  In the plaits of will ill-pleased,
That the heart can never find him
  Till it be too much diseased.

'Tis a subtle kind or spirit
  Of a venom-kind of nature,
That can, like a coney-ferret,
  Creep unawares upon a creature.

Never eye that can behold it,
  Though it worketh first by seeing;
Nor conceit that can unfold it,
  Though in thoughts be all its being.

Oh! it maketh old men witty,
  Young men wanton, women idle,
While that patience weeps, for pity
  Reason bite not nature's bridle.

What it is, in conjecture;
  Seeking much, but nothing finding;
Like to fancy's architecture
  With illusions reason blinding.

Yet, can beauty so retain it,
  In the profit of her service,
That she closely can maintain it
  For her servant chief on office?

In her eye she chiefly breeds it;
  In her cheeks she chiefly hides it;
In her servant's faith she feeds it,
  While his only heart abides it.

1. A Sweet Pastoral
2. A Sweet Contention between Love, his Mistress, and Beauty
3. Aglaia
4. A Pastoral of Phyllis and Corydon
5. An Odd Conceit

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