Nicholas Breton Quotes (1545-1625)

“The Rooks are reason on both sides,   Which keep the corner-houses still, And warily stand to watch their tides,   By secret art to work their will,     To take sometime a thief unseen     Might mischief mean to King or Queen.”

“The Queen is quaint and quick conceit,   Which makes her walk which way she list, And roots them up that lie in wait   To work her treason, ere she wist;     Her force is such against her foes     That whom she meets she overthrows.”

“The Pawn before the King is peace,   Which he desires to keep at home; Practice, the Queen’s, which doth not cease   Amid the world abroad to roam,     To find and fall upon each foe     Whereas his mistress means to go.Before the Knight is peril placed,   Which he, by skipping, overgoes, And yet that Pawn can work a cast   To overthrow his greatest foes;     The Bishop’s, prudence, prying still     Which way to work his master’s will.The Rooks’ poor Pawns are silly swains,   Which seldom serve, except by hap, And yet those Pawns can lay their trains   To catch a great man in a trap:     So that I see sometime a groom     May not be spared from his room.”

“In time of yore when shepherds dwelt   Upon the mountain rocks, And simple people never felt   The pain of lovers’ mocks; But little birds would carry tales   ’Twixt Susan and her sweeting, And all the dainty nightingales   Did sing at lovers’ meeting: Then might you see what looks did pass   Where shepherds did assemble, And where the life of true love was   When hearts could not dissemble.Then yea and nay was thought an oath   That was not to be doubted, And when it came to faith and troth   We were not to be flouted. Then did they talk of curds and cream,   Of butter, cheese and milk; There was no speech of sunny beam   Nor of the golden silk. Then for a gift a row of pins,   A purse, a pair of knives, Was all the way that love begins;   And so the shepherd wives.But now we have so much ado,   And are so sore aggrievèd, That when we go about to woo   We cannot be believèd; Such choice of jewels, rings and chains,   That may but favour move, And such intolerable pains   Ere one can hit on love; That if I still shall bide this life   ’Twixt love and deadly hate, I will go learn the country life   Or leave the lover’s state.”