LYRICKS OF CAMOENS.
I.
Em quanto quis Fortuna que tivesse
(General Proposition or Proëmium of Rhythmas, Petrarch, I. 1).
While Fortune willèd that for me be dight
Some grateful Esperance of some glad Content,
The gust of loving Thought a longing lent
To pen its pleasures and its pains to write:
But Love, in terror lest my Writ indite
Lere for the judgment he hath never shent,
So with his darkling pains my Genius blent
That mote I never tell his tale of sleight.
O ye, whom Love's obligeance may subjèct
To Wills so divers ! when you read thereof
Bound in one Booklet cases so diverse;
(Which all be truthful, facts without defect)
Learn that according as you have the Love,
So shall you have the Lore, of this my verse.
