1.
By force I am fixèd my fancy to write,
Ingratitude willeth me not to refrain;
Then blame me not, ladies, although I indite
What light o’ love now amongst you doth reign.
Your traces in places with outward allurements
Doth move my endeavour to be the more plain;
Your nicings and ticings with sundry procurements
To publish your light o’ love doth me constrain.
2.
Deceit is not dainty, it comes at each dish,
Fraud goes a-fishing with friendly looks.
Through friendship is spoilèd, the silly poor fish
That hover and shower upon your false hooks.
With bait you lay wait to catch here and there,
Which causeth poor fishes their freedom to lose;
Then lout ye and flout ye, whereby doth appear
Your light o’ love, ladies, still cloakèd with glose.
3.
With Diana, so chaste, you seem to compare,
When Helen’s you be and hang on her train;
Methinks faithful Thisbies, be now very rare,
Not one Cleopatra I doubt doth remain;
You wink and you twink, till Cupid have caught,
And forceth through flames your lovers to sue;
Your light o’ love, ladies, too dear they have bought,
When nothing will move you, their causes to rue.
4.
I speak not for spite, ne do I disdain
Your beauty, fair ladies, in any respect;
But one’s ingratitude doth me constrain,
As child hurt with fire, the same to neglect;
For proving in loving, I find by good trial,
When beauty had brought me unto her beck;
She staying, not waying, but made a denial,
And showing her light o’ love, gave me the check.
5.
Thus fraud for frendship did lodge in her breast,
Such are most women that when they espy,
Their lovers inflamèd with sorrows oppressed,
They stand then with Cupid against their reply.
They taunt and they vaunt, they smile when they vow,
How Cupid had caught them under his traine,
But warnèd, discernèd, the proof is most true,
That light o’ love, ladies, amongst you doth reign.
6.
It seems by your doings that Cressid doth school ye,
Penelope’s virtues are clean out of thought;
Methinks, by your constantness Helen doth rule ye,
Which both Greece and Troy to ruin hath brought;
No doubt to tell out your manifold drifts
Would show you as constant as is the sea sand;
To trust, so unjust, that all is but shifts,
With light o’ love bearing your lovers in hand.
7.
If Argus were living, whose eyes were in number
The peacock’s plume paintèd, as writers reply,
Yet women by wiles full sore would him cumber,
For all his quick eyes, their drifts to espy;
Such feats with deceits they daily frequent
To conquer men’s minds, their humours to feed,
That boldly I may give arbitrament
Of this your light o’ love, ladies, indeed.
8.
Ye men that are subject to Cupid his stroke,
And therein seemeth to have your delight:
Think when you see bait, there’s hidden a hook,
Which sure will bane you if that you do bite;
Suche wiles and suche guiles by women are wrought
That half their mischiefs men cannot prevent,
When they are most pleasant unto your thought,
Then nothing but light o’ love is their intent.
9.
Consider that poison doth lurk oftentime
In shape of sugar to put some to pain;
And fair words paintèd, as dames can define,
The old proverb saith, doth make some fools fain;
Be wise and precise, take warning by me,
Trust not the crocodile, lest you do rue;
To women’s fair words do never agree;
For all is but light o’ love, this is most true.
10.
Annexes so dainty, example may be,
Whose light o’ love causèd young Iphis his woe;
His true love was trièd by death, as you see,
Her light o’ love forcèd the knight thereunto;
For shame then refrain, you ladies, therefore
The clouds they do vanish and light doth appear;
You cannot dissemble nor hide it no more,
Your love is but light o’ love, this is most clear.
11.
For Troilus trièd the same over well
In loving his lady, as fame doth report;
And likewise Menander, as stories doth tell,
Who swam the salt seas to his love to resort;
So true that I rue, such lovers should lose
Their labour in seeking their ladies unkind;
Whose love they did prove, as the proverb now goes,
Even very light o’ love lodge in their mind.
12.
I touch no such ladies, as true love embrace,
But such as to light o’ love daily apply;
And none will be grievèd in this kind of case,
Save such as are minded true love to deny;
Yet friendly and kindly I shew you my mind,
Fair ladies, I wish you to use it no more,
But say what you list, thus I have defined
That light o’ love, ladies, you ought to abhore.
13.
To trust women’s words, in any respect,
The danger by me right well it is seen;
And love and his laws, who would not neglect,
The trial whereof most perilous been;
Pretending the ending if I have offended,
I crave of you ladies an answer again;
Amend, and what’s said shall soon be amended
In case that your light o’ love no longer do reign.