Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/119

 NUMBERS

FROM

ELIZABETHAN MISCELLANIES AND SONG-BOOKS

BY UNNAMED OR UNCERTAIN AUTHORS

��6 1 A Praise of His Lady


 * IVE place, you ladies, and begone!

Boast not yourselves at all ' For here at hand appioacheth one Whose face will stain you all.

��The virtue of her lively looks Excels the precious stone;

I wish to have none other books To read or look upon.

In each of her two crystal eyes

Smilcth a naked boy; It would you all in heart suffice

To see that lamp of joy.

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.

�� �