Edmund Spenser on Courtship

“Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is in suing long to bide: To loose good dayes, that might be better spent; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.”

“Bring therefore all the forces that ye may, And lay incessant battery to her heart; Playnts, prayers, vowes, truth, sorrow, and dismay; Those engins can the proudest love convert: And, if those fayle, fall down and dy before her; So dying live, and living do adore her.”