“Woe never wants, where every cause is caught, and rash Occasion makes unquiet life.”

“Vaine is the vaunt, and victory unjust, that more to mighty hands, then rightfull cause doth trust.”

“O but," quoth she, "great griefe will not be tould, And can more easily be thought, then said." "Right so"; quoth he, "but he, that never would, Could never: will to might gives greatest aid." "But grief," quoth she, "does great grow displaid, If then it find not helpe, and breedes despaire." "Despaire breedes not," quoth he, "where faith is staid." "No faith so fast," quoth she, "but flesh does paire.""Flesh may empaire," quoth he, "but reason can repaire.”

“For love is a celestial harmonyOf likely hearts compos'd of stars' concent,Which join together in sweet sympathy,To work each other's joy and true content,Which they have harbour'd since their first descentOut of their heavenly bowers, where they did seeAnd know each other here belov'd to be.”

“Aye me, how many perils do enfoldThe righteous man, to make him daily fall?Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold,And steadfast truth acquite him out of all.”

“So furiously each other did assayle, As if their soules they would attonce haue rent Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent; That all the ground with purple bloud was sprent, And all their armours staynd with bloudie gore, Yet scarcely once to breath would they relent, So mortall was their malice and so sore,Become of fayned friendship which they vow'd afore.”

“One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the StrandOne day I wrote her name upon the strand,But came the waves and washèd it away:Again I wrote it with a second hand,But came the tide and made my pains his prey.Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assayA mortal thing so to immortalise;For I myself shall like to this decay,And eke my name be wipèd out likewise.Not so (quod I); let baser things deviseTo die in dust, but you shall live by fame;My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,And in the heavens write your glorious name:Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue,Our love shall live, and later life renew.”