Act I, Scene 18

Sonnet to sundry notes of music

• Shakespeare. My flocks feed not,
  My ewes breed not,
  My rams speed not,
  All is amiss:
  Love's denying, 250
  Faith's defying,
  Heart's renying,
  Causer of this.
  All my merry jigs are quite forgot,
  All my lady's love is lost, God wot: 255
  Where her faith was firmly fix'd in love,
  There a nay is placed without remove.
  One silly cross
  Wrought all my loss;
  O frowning Fortune, cursed, fickle dame! 260
  For now I see
  Inconstancy
  More in women than in men remain.
  In black mourn I,
  All fears scorn I, 265
  Love hath forlorn me,
  Living in thrall:
  Heart is bleeding,
  All help needing,
  O cruel speeding, 270
  Fraughted with gall.
  My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal;
  My wether's bell rings doleful knell;
  My curtail dog, that wont to have play'd
  Plays not at all, but seems afraid; 275
  My sighs so deep
  Procure to weep,
  In howling wise, to see my doleful plight.
  How sighs resound
  Through heartless ground, 280
  Like a thousand vanquish'd men in bloody fight!
  Clear wells spring not,
  Sweet birds sing not,
  Green plants bring not
  Forth their dye; 285
  Herds stand weeping,
  Flocks all sleeping,
  Nymphs back peeping
  Fearfully:
  All our pleasure known to us poor swains, 290
  All our merry meetings on the plains,
  All our evening sport from us is fled,
  All our love is lost, for Love is dead
  Farewell, sweet lass,
  Thy like ne'er was 295
  For a sweet content, the cause of all my moan:
  Poor Corydon
  Must live alone;
  Other help for him I see that there is none.