;
Loyal, treacherous, manifold.

Present time is fit for play:
Let Love find his mate to-day:
Hark, the birds, how sweet their lay!
Love rules young men wholly;
Love lures maidens solely.
Woe to old folk! sad are they.
Sweetest woman ever seen,
Fairest, dearest, is my queen;
And alas! my chiefest teen.

Let an old man, chill and drear,
Never come thy bosom near;
Oft he sleeps with sorry cheer,
Too cold to delight thee:
Naught could less invite thee.
Youth with youth must mate, my dear.
Blest the union I desire;
Naught I know and naught require,
Better than to be thy squire.

Love flies all the world around:
Love in wanton wiles is wound:
Therefore youth and maid are bound
In Love's fetters duly.
She is joyless truly
Who no lover yet hath found!
All the night in grief and smart
She must languish, wear her heart;
Bitter is that woman's part.

Love is simple, Love is sly;
Love is pale, of ruddy dye:
Love is all things, low and high:
Love is serviceable,
Constant and unstable:
Love obeys Art's empery.
In this closed room Love takes flight,
In the silence of the night,
Love made captive, conquered quite.

The next is singularly, quaintly musical in the original, but for
various reasons I have not been able to adhere exactly to its form. I
imagine that it is the work of the same poet who composed the longer
piece which I shall give immediately after. Both are addressed to
Caecilia; I have used the name Phyllis in my version.

THE INVITATION TO LOVE.

No. 36.

List, my girl, with words I woo;
Lay not wanton hands on you:
Sit before you, in your face
Gazing, ah! and seeking grace:
Fix mine eyes, nor let them rove
From the mark where shafts of love
Their flight wing.
Try, my girl, O try what bliss
Young men render when they kiss!
Youth is alway sturdy, straight;
Old age totters in its gait.
These delights of love we bring
Have the suppleness of spring,
Softness, sweetness, wantoning;
Clasp, my Phyllis, in their ring
Sweeter sweets than poets sing,
Anything and everything!

After daytime's heat from heaven
Dews on thirsty fields are given;
After verdant leaf and stem
Shoots the whi