In her beauty I never beheld the like; ✿ From her sway the branches learn sway and swell:
I beg you, an ‘tis not too much of pains, ✿ To call;[[39]] ‘twere boon without parallel.
I give you a soul you will haply take. ✿ To which Union is Heaven, Disunion Hell.
Then he folded the letter and kissing it, gave it to the go-between and said to her, “O nurse, incline thy lady’s heart to me.” “To hear is to obey,” answered she and carried the script to her mistress, who kissed it and laid it on her head, then she opened it and read it and understood it and wrote at the foot of it these couplets:—
O whose heart by our beauty is captive ta’en, ✿ Have patience and all thou shalt haply gain!
When we knew that thy love was a true affect, ✿ And what pained our heart to thy heart gave pain,
We had granted thee wished-for call and more; ✿ But hindered so doing the chamberlain.
When the night grows dark, through our love’s excess ✿ Fire burns our vitals with might and main:
And sleep from our beds is driven afar, ✿ And our bodies are tortured by passion-bane.
“Hide Love!” in Love’s code is the first command; ✿ And from raising his veil thy hand restrain: