1    Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe;
2    Say that you love me not, but say not so
3    In bitterness. The common executioner,
4    Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard,
5    Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
6    But first begs pardon: will you sterner be
7    Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?

8    I would not be thy executioner:
9    I fly thee, for I would not injure thee.
10   Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye:
11   'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable,
12   That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things,
13   Who shut their coward gates on atomies,
14   Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!
15   Now I do frown on thee with all my heart;
16   And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee:
17   Now counterfeit to swoon; why now fall down;
18   Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,
19   Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers!
20   Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee:
21   Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
22   Some scar of it; lean but upon a rush,
23   The cicatrice and capable impressure
24   Thy palm some moment keeps; but now mine eyes,
25   Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not,
26   Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes
27   That can do hurt.

28   O dear Phebe,
29   If ever,--as that ever may be near,--
30   You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,
31   Then shall you know the wounds invisible
32   That love's keen arrows make.

33   But till that time
34   Come not thou near me: and when that time comes,
35   Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not;
36   As till that time I shall not pity thee.

37   And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
38   That you insult, exult, and all at once,
39   Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty,--
40   As, by my faith, I see no more in you
41   Than without candle may go dark to bed--
42   Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
43   Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?
44   I see no more in you than in the ordinary
45   Of nature's sale-work. 'Od's my little life,
46   I think she means to tangle my eyes too!
47   No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it:
48   'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
49   Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
50   That can entame my spirits to your worship.
51   You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
52   Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain?
53   You are a thousand times a properer man
54   Than she a woman: 'tis such fools as you
55   That makes the world full of ill-favour'd children:
56   'Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her;
57   And out of you she sees herself more proper
58   Than any of her lineaments can show her.
59   But, mistress, know yourself: down on your knees,
60   And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love:
61   For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
62   Sell when you can: you are not for all markets:
63   Cry the man mercy; love him; take his offer:
64   Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.
65   So take her to thee, shepherd: fare you well.

66   Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together:
67   I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.

68   He's fallen in love with your foulness and she'll
69   fall in love with my anger. If it be so, as fast as
70   she answers thee with frowning looks, I'll sauce her
71   with bitter words. Why look you so upon me?

72   For no ill will I bear you.

73   I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
74   For I am falser than vows made in wine:
75   Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,
76   'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by.
77   Will you go, sister? Shepherd, ply her hard.
78   Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better,
79   And be not proud: though all the world could see,
80   None could be so abused in sight as he.
81   Come, to our flock.

82   Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,
83   'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'

84   Sweet Phebe,--

85   Ha, what say'st thou, Silvius?

86   Sweet Phebe, pity me.

87   Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.

88   Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:
89   If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
90   By giving love your sorrow and my grief
91   Were both extermined.

92   Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly?

93   I would have you.

94   Why, that were covetousness.
95   Silvius, the time was that I hated thee,
96   And yet it is not that I bear thee love;
97   But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
98   Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
99   I will endure, and I'll employ thee too:
100  But do not look for further recompense
101  Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd.

102  So holy and so perfect is my love,
103  And I in such a poverty of grace,
104  That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
105  To glean the broken ears after the man
106  That the main harvest reaps: loose now and then
107  A scatter'd smile, and that I'll live upon.

108  Know'st now the youth that spoke to me erewhile?

109  Not very well, but I have met him oft;
110  And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds
111  That the old carlot once was master of.

112  Think not I love him, though I ask for him:
113  'Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well;
114  But what care I for words? yet words do well
115  When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
116  It is a pretty youth: not very pretty:
117  But, sure, he's proud, and yet his pride becomes him:
118  He'll make a proper man: the best thing in him
119  Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
120  Did make offence his eye did heal it up.
121  He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall:
122  His leg is but so so; and yet 'tis well:
123  There was a pretty redness in his lip,
124  A little riper and more lusty red
125  Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference
126  Between the constant red and mingled damask.
127  There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him
128  In parcels as I did, would have gone near
129  To fall in love with him; but, for my part,
130  I love him not nor hate him not; and yet
131  I have more cause to hate him than to love him:
132  For what had he to do to chide at me?
133  He said mine eyes were black and my hair black:
134  And, now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me:
135  I marvel why I answer'd not again:
136  But that's all one; omittance is no quittance.
137  I'll write to him a very taunting letter,
138  And thou shalt bear it: wilt thou, Silvius?

139  Phebe, with all my heart.

140  I'll write it straight;
141  The matter's in my head and in my heart:
142  I will be bitter with him and passing short.
143  Go with me, Silvius.