I

Persever ever and have never done, You weeping accent of my weary song! O do not you eternal passions shun, But be you true and everlasting long! Say that she doth requite you with disdain; Yet fortified with hope, endure your fortune; Though cruel now she will be kind again; Such haps as those, such loves as yours importune. Though she protests the faithfullest severity Inexecrable beauty is inflicting, Kindness in time will pity your sincerity, Though now it be your fortune's interdicting. For some can say, whose loves have known like passion, "Women are kind by kind, and coy for fashion."