Page:The Yellow Book - 01.djvu/266

246 Slighted love easily passes from rejection into rebellion, and we shall see that such was the case with Tansillo. The following sonnet denotes an intermediate stage, when resignation is almost renunciation, but has not yet become revolt:—

This, however, is not a point at which continuance is possible, the mind must go either backward or forward. The lover for a time persuades himself that he has broken his mistress's yoke, and that his infatuation is entirely a thing of the past. But the poet, like the lady, protests too much:—

If Lore was miser of my liberty,
 * Lo, Scorn is bounteous and benevolent,
 * Such scope permitting, that, my fetter rent,

Not lengthened by my hand, I wander free. Rh