om to our purpose, this yong Courtier, taken
and chayned in the bands of loue, settred and clogged wyth the
Beauty and good grace of that Countrey wench, forethought the
meanes how he myght inioy the thynge after which hee hoped. To
loue hir he deemed it vnworthy of his degre: And yet he knew hir
to be sutch (by report of many) as had a very good Wit, tongue
at wyll, and which is more esteemed, a Paragon and mirror of
chaste life and modesty. Which tormented this amorous Mounsier
beyond measure, and yet chaunged not his affection, assuring
himselfe that at length he should attayne th' end of his
desires, and glut that his vnsatiable hunger, which pressed him
from day to day to gather the soote and sauorous frute which
Louers so egerly sue for at maydens handes of semblable age, who
then was betweene XVI. and XVII. yeares. This Louer dyd to
vnderstand to hys companions his griefe and frensie, who sory
for the same, assayed by all meanes, to make him forget it,
telling hym that it was unseemely for a Gentleman of his
accompt, to make himselfe a fable to the people, which woulde
come to passe if they knew how vndiscretely hee had placed hys
loue: and that there were a number of fayre and honest
gentlewomen more to whom besides conuenably and with greater
contentation he might addresse the same. But he which mutch
lesse saw, than blind loue himselfe that was his guid, and he
that was more bare of reason and aduice than the Poets fayne
Cupido to be naked of apparell, would not harken to the good
counsel, which his companions gaue him, but rather sayd that it
was lost time for them to vse sutch spech, for he had rather dy,
and indure all the mocks and scoffs of the world, than lose the
most delicate pray (in his mynde,) that could chaunce into the
hands of man, adding moreouer, that the homelynesse and rudenes
of the country, had not so mutch anoyed his new beloued, but she
deserued for hir beauty to be compared with the greatest Minion
and finest attyred gentlewoman of the Citty: For this mayden had
but the ornament and mynionnesse which nature had enlarged,
where other artificially force by trumperies, to vsurpe that
which the heauens deny them. "Touching her vertue let that passe
in silence, sithens that she" (quod he sighinge) "is to chast
and vertuous for one whom I would choose to daly withal: My
desire is not to make hir a Lucrece, or some of those auncient
Matrones, which in elder yeres builded the temple of woman's