233 A LOVER'S COMPLAINT. FROM off a hill whose concave womb re-worded A plaintful story from a sistering vale, My spirits to attend this double voice accorded, Ere long espy'd a fickle maid full pale, Upon her head a platted hive of straw, Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, 1 conceited] i. e. fanciful. 2 laundriny] i. e. washing. 8 pelleted] i. e. made into pellets, balls. Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride, Her hair, nor loose, nor ty'd in formal plat, And, true to bondage, would not break from thence, 6 A thousand favours from a maund she drew Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet, Or monarch's hands, that let not bounty fall Of folded schedules had she many a one, 4 levell'd eyes, &c.] An allusion to a piece of ordnance. 5 sheav'd] i. e. straw. 6 maund] i. e. hand basket. Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud; 8 Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy. These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes, "Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!" This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, A reverend man that graz'd his cattle nigh, 12 The swiftest hours, observed as they flew; So slides he down upon his grained bat," sleided] i. e. raw, untwisted. feat] i. e. neatly, curiously. 9'gan Malone's conjecture for "gave." 19 fancy] i. e. enamoured one: fancy occurs several times in this volume in the sense of love. 11 bat] i. e. club. Her grievance with his hearing to divide : "Father," she says, "though in me you behold "The injury of many a blasting hour, "Let it not tell your judgment I am old; "I might as yet have been a spreading flower, "But woe is me! too early I attended "A youthful suit (it was to gain my grace) "Of one by nature's outwards so commended, "That maiden's eyes stuck over all his face : "Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place; "And when in his fair parts she did abide, "She was new lodg'd, and newly deified. "His browny locks did hang in crooked curls; "And every light occasion of the wind "Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls. "What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find: "Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind; "For on his visage was in little drawn, "What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.12 12 sawn] i. e. sown. "Small show of man was yet upon his chin; "His phoenix down began but to appear, “Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin, "Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear; "Yet show'd his visage by that cost most dear; "And nice affections wavering stood in doubt "If best 'twere as it was, or best without. "His qualities were beauteous as his form, "For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free; "Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm "As oft 'twixt May and April is to see, "When winds breathe sweet,unruly though they be, "His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth, "Did livery falseness in a pride of truth. "Well could he ride, and often men would say "And controversy hence a question takes, "But quickly on this side the verdict went; |