If the loyal heart despair
Of achieving happiness,
Whoso faints in the career
Of the loving passion's stress,
What shall he as guerdon bear?
I know not that any may
Win delight and pleasure gay
In the sudden rush of Love,
If the greatest joys but prove
'Tis no faith that doth not stay.
This undoubted truth we know
That in battle and in love
He that proud and bold is, though
Conqueror he at first may prove,
Sinks at last beneath the blow;
And the wise man knows to-day
That the victory ever lay
'Midst the strife in constancy,
And he knows, whate'er it be
'Tis no faith that doth not stay.
Whoso seeks in love to gain
Nothing save his happiness,
In his fickle thought and vain,
Faith that shall withstand all stress
Cannot for one hour remain;
I myself these words would say,
If my faith should not display
Constancy amidst the storm
Of ill, as when hope is warm:
'Tis no faith that doth not stay.
Madness of a lover new,
His impetuous hastening,
Sighs and sadness, these, 'tis true,
Are but fleeting clouds of spring,
In a moment lost to view:
'Tis not love he doth display,
Greed and folly lead astray,
For he loves, yet loveth not,
No man loves who dieth not,
'Tis no faith that doth not stay.
All approved of the order the shepherds were keeping in their songs, and with desire they were waiting for Thyrsis or Damon to begin; but at once Damon satisfied them, for, as Crisio finished, to the sound of his own rebeck, he sang thus:
DAMON.
Thankless Amaryllis fair,
Who shall make thee tender prove,
If the faith of my true love
And the anguish of my care
Do thee but to hardness move?
Maiden, 'tis to thee well known
That the love which is in me
Leads to this extremity:
Save my faith in God alone
Naught is faith but faith in thee.
But although I go so high
In love for a mortal thing,
Such bliss to my woe doth cling
That the soul I raise thereby
To the land whence it doth spring;
Thus this truth I know full well
That my love remains in me
In life, in death, ceaselessly,
And, if faith in love doth dwell,
Naught is faith but faith in thee.