The remainder of the passage has all that voluptuous pathos, and languid brilliancy of fancy, in which this writer excelled:

‘The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay;

Ah! see, whoso fayre thing dost thou fain to see,

In springing flower the image of thy day!

Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she

Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,

That fairer seems the less ye see her may!

Lo! see soon after, how more bold and free

Her bared bosom she doth broad display;

Lo! see soon after, how she fades and falls away!