'Far better had it been, sirs,' replied Silerio, 'that you had not found me, since in me you will find naught save occasions to move you to sadness, for the sadness I endure in my soul time takes care each day to renew, not only with the memory of the past happiness, but with the shadows of the present, which at last will be so indeed, since from my fortune naught else can be hoped for, save feigned happiness and certain fear.'
Silerio's words caused pity in all who knew him, especially in Timbrio, Nisida, and Blanca, who loved him so much, and they would straightway have let themselves be known by him had it not been that it would be deviating from what Thyrsis had bidden them. He made them all sit down on the green grass, and in such a way that the rays of the bright moon should strike the faces of Nisida and Blanca from behind, in order that Silerio might not recognise them. Being then in this fashion, and after Damon had said some words of consolation to Silerio, in order that the time should not be spent wholly in discoursing on things of sadness, and to make a beginning, so that Silerio's sadness might end, he begged him to play his harp, to the sound of which Damon himself sang this sonnet:
DAMON.
If the wild fury of the angry main
Should long time in its ruthlessness endure,
Whoso should to the storm his vessel, poor
And frail, entrust, could little comfort gain.
Bliss doth not always in one state remain,
Nor woe, but each of them doth fly away,
For if bliss were to flee, and woe to stay,
Ere this the world had been confusion plain.
Night follows after day, heat after cold,
After the fruit the flower, and thus we find
Opposites reconciling everywhere.
Meek slavery is changed to lordship bold,
Pain into pleasure, glory into wind,
'For nature is by such transformings fair.'
Damon ceased singing, and straightway beckoned to Timbrio to sing likewise. He, to the sound of Silerio's harp, began a sonnet which he had composed in the time of his love's fervour, which was as well known to Silerio as to Timbrio himself.
TIMBRIO.