A PRAISE OF HIS LADY Give place, you ladies, and begone! The virtue of her lively looks Excels the precious stone; I wish to have none other books In each of her two crystal eyes It would you all in heart suffice I think Nature hath lost the mould Where she her shape did take; Or else I doubt if Nature could So fair a creature make. She may be well compared Unto the Phoenix kind, Whose like was never seen or heard, That any man can find. 4 8 12 16 20 In life she is Diana chaste, In word and eke in deed steadfast, If all the world were sought so far, Her roseal colour comes and goes More ruddier, too, than doth the rose, At Bacchus' feast none shall her meet, Ne at no wanton play, Nor gazing in an open street, Nor gadding as a stray. The modest mirth that she doth use Is mix'd with shamefastness; All vice she doth wholly refuse, And hateth idleness. O Lord! it is a world to see Whom Nature made so fair. Truly she doth as far exceed 24 28 32 36 40 44 66 'And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus " As doth the jeliflower a weed; How might I do to get a graff -For all the rest are plain but chaff, This gift alone I shall her give; Her honest fame shall ever live 1557. 48 52 56 John Heywood. "AND WILT THOU LEAVE ME THUS " AND wilt thou leave me thus? And wilt thou leave me thus, 12 |