ay both
see their persons, and note their passions; and then where the blame
is, there let it rest. But this I am sure," quoth Corydon, "if all
maidens were of her mind, the world would grow to a mad pass; for
there would be great store of wooing and little wedding, many words
and little worship, much folly and no faith."

At this sad sentence of Corydon, so solemnly brought forth, Aliena
smiled, and because it waxed late, she and her page went to bed, both
of them having fleas in their ears to keep them awake; Ganymede for
the hurt of her Rosader, and Aliena for the affection she bore to
Saladyne. In this discontented humor they passed away the time, till
falling on sleep, their senses at rest, Love left them to their quiet
slumbers, which were not long. For as soon as Phoebus rose from his
Aurora, and began to mount him in the sky, summoning plough-swains to
their handy labor, Aliena arose, and going to the couch where Ganymede
lay, awakened her page, and said the morning was far spent, the dew
small, and time called them away to their folds.

"Ah, ah!" quoth Ganymede, "is the wind in that door? then in faith I
perceive that there is no diamond so hard but will yield to the file,
no cedar so strong but the wind will shake, nor any mind so chaste but
love will change. Well, Aliena, must Saladyne be the man, and will it
be a match? Trust me, he is fair and valiant, the son of a worthy
knight, whom if he imitate in perfection, as he represents him in
proportion, he is worthy of no less than Aliena. But he is an exile:
what then? I hope my mistress respects the virtues not the wealth, and
measures the qualities not the substance. Those dames that are like
Danae, that like love in no shape but in a shower of gold, I wish them
husbands with much wealth and little wit, that the want of the one may
blemish the abundance of the other. It should, my Aliena, stain the
honor of a shepherd's life to set the end of passions upon pelf.
Love's eyes looks not so low as gold; there is no fees to be paid in
Cupid's courts; and in elder time, as Corydon hath told me, the
shepherds' love-gifts were apples and chestnuts, and then their
desires were loyal, and their thoughts constant. But now

Quaerenda pecunia primum, post nummos virtus.

And the time is grown to that which Horace in his Satires wrote on:

omnis enim res
Virtus fama decus divina humanaque pulchris
Divitiis parent: quas qui co