you,
lead the flocks to the field, and fold them. Thus will I live quiet,
unknown, and contented."

This news so gladded the heart of Corydon, that he should not be put
out of his farm, that putting off his shepherd's bonnet, he did her
all the reverence that he might. But all this while sate Montanus in a
muse, thinking of the cruelty of his Phoebe, whom he wooed long, but
was in no hope to win. Ganymede, who still had the remembrance of
Rosader in his thoughts, took delight to see the poor shepherd
passionate, laughing at Love, that in all his actions was so
imperious. At last, when she had noted his tears that stole down his
cheeks, and his sighs that broke from the centre of his heart, pitying
his lament, she demanded of Corydon why the young shepherd looked so
sorrowful.

"O sir," quoth he, "the boy is in love."

"Why," quoth Ganymede, "can shepherds love?"

"Aye," quoth Montanus, "and overlove, else shouldst not thou see me so
pensive. Love, I tell thee, is as precious in a shepherd's eye, as in
the looks of a king, and we country swains entertain fancy with as
great delight as the proudest courtier doth affection. Opportunity,
that is the sweetest friend to Venus, harboreth in our cottages, and
loyalty, the chiefest fealty that Cupid requires, is found more among
shepherds than higher degrees. Then, ask not if such silly swains can
love."

"What is the cause then," quoth Ganymede, "that love being so sweet to
thee, thou lookest so sorrowful?"

"Because," quoth Montanus, "the party beloved is froward, and having
courtesy in her looks, holdeth disdain in her tongue's end."

"What hath she, then," quoth Aliena, "in her heart?"

"Desire, I hope madam," quoth he, "or else, my hope lost, despair in
love were death."

As thus they chatted, the sun being ready to set, and they not having
folded their sheep, Corydon requested she would sit there with her
page, till Montanus and he lodged their sheep for that night.

"You shall go," quoth Aliena, "but first I will entreat Montanus to
sing some amorous sonnet, that he made when he hath been deeply
passionate."

"That I will," quoth Montanus, and with that he began thus:

_Montanus's Sonnet_

Phoebe sate,
Sweet she sate,
Sweet sate Phoebe when I saw her;
White her brow,
Coy her eye:
Brow and eye how much you please me!
Words I spent,
Sighs I sent:
Sighs and words could never draw her.
O my love,
Thou