And dread the time that is to be.”

Gloss

“Dame Fortune once upon a day To me was bountiful and kind; But all things change; she changed her mind, And what she gave she took away. O Fortune, long I’ve sued to thee; The gifts thou gavest me restore, For, trust me, I would ask no more, Could ‘was’ become an ‘is’ for me.

No other prize I seek to gain, No triumph, glory, or success, Only the long-lost happiness, The memory whereof is pain. One taste, methinks, of bygone bliss The heart-consuming fire might stay; And, so it come without delay, Then would I ask no more than this.