, God helpe the motherlesse.

Amour 17

If euer wonder could report a wonder,
Or tongue of wonder worth could tell a wonder thought,
Or euer ioy expresse what perfect ioy hath taught,
Then wonder, tongue, then ioy, might wel report a wonder.
Could all conceite conclude, which past conceit admireth,
Or could mine eye but ayme her obiects past perfection,
My words might imitate my deerest thoughts direction,
And my soule then obtaine which so my soule desireth.
Were not Inuention stauld, treading Inuentions maze,
Or my swift-winged Muse tyred by too hie flying;
Did not perfection still on her perfection gaze,
Whilst Loue (my Phoenix bird) in her owne flame is dying,
Inuention and my Muse, perfection and her loue,
Should teach the world to know the wonder that I proue.

Amour 18

Some, when in ryme they of their Loues doe tell,
With flames and lightning their exordiums paynt:
Some inuocate the Gods, some spirits of Hell,
And heauen, and earth doe with their woes acquaint.
_Elizia_ is too hie a seate for mee:
I wyll not come in _Stixe_ or _Phlegiton_;
The Muses nice, the Furies cruell be,
I lyke not _Limbo_, nor blacke _Acheron_,
Spightful _Erinnis_ frights mee with her lookes,
My manhood dares not with foule _Ate_ mell:
I quake to looke on _Hecats_ charming bookes,
I styll feare bugbeares in _Apollos_ cell.
I passe not for _Minerua_ nor _Astraea_.
But euer call vpon diuine _Idea_.

Amour 19

If those ten Regions, registred by Fame,
By theyr ten Sibils haue the world controld,
Who prophecied of Christ or ere he came,
And of his blessed birth before fore-told;
That man-god now, of whom they did diuine,
This earth of those sweet Prophets hath bereft,
And since the world to iudgement doth declyne,
Instead of ten, one Sibil to vs left.
Thys pure _Idea_, vertues right Idea,
Shee of whom _Merlin_ long tyme did fore-tell,
Excelling her of _Delphos_ or _Cumaea_,
Whose lyfe doth saue a thousand soules from hell:
That life (I meane) which doth Religion teach,
And by example true repentance preach.

Amour 20

Reading sometyme, my sorrowes to beguile,
I find old Poets hylls and floods admire:
One, he doth wonder monster-breeding _Nyle_,
Another meruailes Sulphure _Aetnas_ fire.
Now broad-brymd _Indus_, then of