Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Robert Greene (1558–1592)

Orpheus’ Song: ‘He that did sing the motions of the stars’

HE that did sing the motions of the stars,

Pale-coloured Phœbe’s borrowing of her light,

Aspects of planets oft opposed in jars,

Of Hesper, henchman to the day and night;

Sings now of love, as taught by proof to sing,

Women are false, and love a bitter thing.

I loved Eurydice, the brightest lass,

More fond to like so fair a nymph as she;

In Thessaly so bright none ever was,

But fair and constant hardly may agree:

False-hearted wife to him that loved thee well,

To leave thy love, and choose the prince of hell!

Theseus did help, and I in haste did hie

To Pluto, for the lass I lovèd so:

The god made grant, and who so glad as I?

I tuned my harp, and she and I ’gan go;

Glad that my love was left to me alone,

I lookèd back, Eurydice was gone:

She slipped aside, back to her latest love,

Unkind, she wronged her first and truest feere!

Thus women’s loves delight, as trial proves

By false Eurydice I loved so dear,

To change and fleet, and every way to shrink,

To take in love, and lose it with a wink.