“In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
In either's aptness, as it best deceives,
To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows:
| Stanza 1 | FROM off a hill whose concave womb reworded |
| Stanza 2 | Upon her head a platted hive of straw, |
| Stanza 3 | Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, |
| Stanza 4 | Sometimes her levelled eyes their carriage ride, |
| Stanza 5 | Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat, |
| Stanza 6 | A thousand favours from a maund she drew |
| Stanza 7 | Of folded schedules had she many a one, |
| Stanza 8 | These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes, |
| Stanza 9 | A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh — |
| Stanza 10 | So slides he down upon his grained bat, |
| Stanza 11 | “Father,” she says, “though in me you behold |
| Stanza 12 | “But, woe is me! too early I attended |
| Stanza 13 | “His browny locks did hang in crooked curls; |
| Stanza 14 | “Small show of man was yet upon his chin; |
| Stanza 15 | “His qualities were beauteous as his form, |
| Stanza 16 | “Well could he ride, and often men would say |
| Stanza 17 | “But quickly on this side the verdict went: |
| Stanza 18 | “So on the tip of his subduing tongue |
| Stanza 19 | “That he did in the general bosom reign |
| Stanza 20 | “Many there were that did his picture get, |
| Stanza 21 | “So many have, that never touched his hand, |
| Stanza 22 | “Yet did I not, as some my equals did, |
| Stanza 23 | “But, ah, who ever shunned by precedent |
| Stanza 24 | “Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood, |
| Stanza 25 | “For further I could say ‘ This man's untrue,’ |
| Stanza 26 | “And long upon these terms I held my city, |
| Stanza 27 | “All my offences that abroad you see |
| Stanza 28 | “Among the many that mine eyes have seen, |
| Stanza 29 | “Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me, |
| Stanza 30 | “And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, |
| Stanza 31 | “The diamond, — why, 'twas beautiful and hard, |
| Stanza 32 | “Lo, all these trophies of affections hot, |
| Stanza 33 | “O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand, |
| Stanza 34 | “Lo, this device was sent me from a nun, |
| Stanza 35 | “But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave |
| Stanza 36 | “O, pardon me, in that my boast is true: |
| Stanza 37 | “How mighty then you are, O, hear me tell! |
| Stanza 38 | “My parts had power to charm a sacred nun, |
| Stanza 39 | “When thou impressest, what are precepts worth |
| Stanza 40 | “Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, |
| Stanza 41 | “This said, his watery eyes he did dismount, |
| Stanza 42 | “O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies |
| Stanza 43 | “For, lo, his passion, but an art of craft, |
| Stanza 44 | “In him a plenitude of subtle matter, |
| Stanza 45 | “That not a heart which in his level came |
| Stanza 46 | “Thus merely with the garment of a Grace |
| Stanza 47 | “O, that infected moisture of his eye, |