Canto secundo: What fair pomp have I spied of glittering Ladies

Anonymous

WHAT fair pomp have I spied of glittering Ladies;

With locks sparkled abroad, and rosy coronet

On their ivory brows, trackt to the dainty thighs

With robes like Amazons, blue as violet,

With gold aiglets adorned, some in a changeable

Pale; with spangs wavering taught to be movable.

Then those Knights that afar off with dolorous viewing,

Cast their eyes hitherward: lo, in an agony

All unbraced, cry aloud, their heavy state rueing:

Moist cheeks with blubbering, painted as ebony

Black; their feltred hair torn with wrathful hand:

And whiles astonied, stark in a maze they stand.

But hark! what merry sound! what sudden harmony!

Look! look near the grove! where the Ladies do tread

With their Knights the measures weighed by the melody.

Wantons! whose traversing make men enamoured;

Now they fain an honour, now by the slender waist

He must her aloft, and seal a kiss in haste.

Straight down under a shadow for weariness they lie

With pleasant dalliance, hand knit with arm in arm;

Now close, now set aloof, they gaze with an equal eye,

Changing kisses alike; straight with a false alarm,

Mocking kisses alike, pout with a lovely lip.

Thus drowned with jollities, their merry days do slip.

But stay! now I discern they go on a pilgrimage

Towards LOVE’s holy land, fair Paphos or Cyprus.

Such devotion is meet for a blithesome age;

With sweet youth, it agrees well to be amorous.

Let old angry fathers lurk in an hermitage:

Come, we’ll associate this jolly pilgrimage!