Far, far am I from finding any place
For change within my firm and loving mind,
For sooner life doth in my anguish find
Its end draw nigh, than confidence decays.
For, if amidst Love's conflict wavereth
The love-sick breast, no sweet nor peaceful home
To win from the same Love it meriteth.
Though Scylla threaten and Charybdis foam,
My breast the while, exultant in its faith,
Braveth the sea, and claims from Love its doom.
Timbrio's sonnet seemed good to the shepherds, and no less the grace with which he had sung it; and it was such that they begged him to repeat something else. But he excused himself by telling his friend Silerio to answer for him in that affair, as he had always done in others more dangerous. Silerio could not fail to do what his friend bade him, and so, in the joy of seeing himself in such a happy state, he sang what follows to the sound of that same flute of Orfenio's:
SILERIO.
To Heaven I give my thanks, since I have passed
Safe through the perils of this doubtful sea,
And to this haven of tranquillity,
Although I knew not whither, I am cast.
Now let the sails of care be furled at last,
Let the poor gaping ship repairèd be,
Let each fulfil the vows which erstwhile he
With stricken face made to the angry blast.
I kiss the earth, and Heaven I adore,
My fortune fair and joyous I embrace,
Happy I call my fatal destiny.
Now I my hapless neck rejoicing place
In the new peerless gentle chain once more,
With purpose new and loving constancy.
Silerio ended, and begged Nisida to be kind enough to gladden those fields with her song, and she, looking at her beloved Timbrio, with her eyes asked leave of him to fulfil what Silerio was asking of her, and as he gave it her with a look too, she, without waiting further, with much charm and grace, when the sound of Orfenio's flute ceased, to that of Orompo's pipe sang this sonnet: