"Not so the usage I received
When happy in my father's hall; No faithless husband then me grieved,
No chilling fears did me appal.
"I rose up with the cheerful morn,
No lark more blithe, no flower more gay And like the bird that haunts the thorn,
So merrily sung the livelong day.
"If that my beauty is but small,
Among court ladies all despised, Why didst thou rend it from that hall,
Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized?
"And when you first to me made suit,
How fair I was, you oft would say! And proud of conquest, plucked the fruit,
Then left the blossom to decay.
"Yes! now neglected and despised,
The rose is pale, the lily's dead; But he, that once their charms so prized,
Is sure the cause those charms are fled.
"For know, when sick'ning grief doth prey,
And tender love's repaid with scorn, The sweetest beauty will decay,—
What floweret can endure the storm?
"At court, I'm told, is beauty's throne,
Where every lady's passing rare, That Eastern flowers, that shame the sun,
Are not so glowing, not so fair.
"Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds
Where roses and where lilies vie, To seek a primrose, whose pale shades
Must sicken when those gauds are by?
"'Mong rural beauties I was one,
Among the fields wild flowers are fair; Some country swain might me have won,
And thought my beauty passing rare.
"But, Leicester, (or I much am wrong,)
Or 't is not beauty lures thy vows; Rather ambition's gilded crown
Makes thee forget thy humble spouse.