"Why," quoth Ganymede, "can shepherds love?"
"Aye," quoth Montanus, "and overlove, else shouldst not thou see me so pensive. Love, I tell thee, is as precious in a shepherd's eye, as in the looks of a king, and we country swains entertain fancy with as great delight as the proudest courtier doth affection. Opportunity, that is the sweetest friend to Venus, harboreth in our cottages, and loyalty, the chiefest fealty that Cupid requires, is found more among shepherds than higher degrees. Then, ask not if such silly swains can love."
"What is the cause then," quoth Ganymede, "that love being so sweet to thee, thou lookest so sorrowful?"
"Because," quoth Montanus, "the party beloved is froward, and having courtesy in her looks, holdeth disdain in her tongue's end."
"What hath she, then," quoth Aliena, "in her heart?"
"Desire, I hope madam," quoth he, "or else, my hope lost, despair in love were death."
As thus they chatted, the sun being ready to set, and they not having folded their sheep, Corydon requested she would sit there with her page, till Montanus and he lodged their sheep for that night.
"You shall go," quoth Aliena, "but first I will entreat Montanus to sing some amorous sonnet, that he made when he hath been deeply passionate."
"That I will," quoth Montanus, and with that he began thus:
Montanus's Sonnet