And, mark, what object did present itself!
Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,

A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back: about his neck
A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but suddenly
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush: under which bush's shade
A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,

Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch,
When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis
The royal disposition of that beast,

To prey on nothing, that doth seem as dead:
This seen, Orlando did approach the man,
And found it was his brother.

95

10-iv. 3.

Natural graces, that extinguish art.

21-v. 3.

96

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's" ear:
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

97

Her stature, as wand-like straight;

As silver-voiced; her eyes as jewel-like,

And cased as richly: in pace another Juno;

35-i. 5.

Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them

Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under,
Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss;

33-v. 1.

Without the bed her other fair hand was,
On the green coverlet: whose perfect white
Shew'd like an April daisy on the grass,
With pearly sweat, resembling dew of night.
Her eyes like marigolds, had sheath'd their light;
And, canopied in darkness, sweetly lay,
Till they might open to adorn the day.

99

Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud:
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture
Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.

100

Her sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.

101

That whiter skin of her's than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster.

102

Poems.

shewn,

8-v. 2.

9-i. I.

37-v. 2.

You seem to me as Dian in her orb;

As chaste as is the bud, ere it be blown.

103

She looks as clear

6-iv. 1.

As morning roses newly wash'd with dew. 12-ii. 1.

104

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass, that's broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
And as good lost, is seld or never found,
As faded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead, lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once, for ever's lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.

Poems.

105

The fringed curtains of thine eye.

106

I saw sweet beauty in her face,

Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

1-i. 2.

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.
I saw her coral lips to move,

And with her breath she did perfume the air:
Sacred and sweet, was all I saw in her.

107

I have not seen

So likely an ambassador of love:

A day in April never came so sweet,

To shew how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

108

If she be made of white and red,
Her faults will ne'er be known;
For blushing cheeks by faults are bred,
And fears by pale-white shewn:
Then, if she fear, or be to blame,
By this you shall not know,

For still her cheeks possess the same,
Which native she doth owe.P

109

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

12-i. 1.

9-ii. 9.

8-i. 2.

Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought;

111

My beauty, though but mean,

Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's1 tongues.

112

Thou tell'st me, there is murder in mine eye: 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable,

8-ii. 1.

That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things,
Who shut their coward gates on atomies,
Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!

113

Move these eyes ?

10-iii. 5.

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider; and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs : But her eyes,-
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnish'd.
9-iii. 2.

114

Fairest lady

What! are men mad? hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones'
Upon the number'd beach? and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
'Twixt fair and foul?

115

He hath achieved a maid,

That paragons description, and wild fame;

9 Chapman, is market-man.

31-i. 7.

The pebbles on the sea shore are so much of the same size and shape, that twinn'd may mean as like as twins.

One, that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in the essential vesture of creation,

Does bear all excellency."

116

The noble sister of Publicola,

The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle,

37-ii. 1.

That's curded by the frost from purest snow,

And hangs on Dian's temple.

117

I take thy hand; this hand,

28-v. 3.

As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow,
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.

118

13-iv. 3.

'Tis beauty truly blent," whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on:
Lady, you are the cruel'st she alive,

If you will lead these graces to the grave,
And leave the world no copy.

119

O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence;
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.

4-i. 5.

4-i. 1.

120

Thou dost look

Like Patience, gazing on kings' graves, and smiling Extremity out of act.

33-v. 1.

"Does bear all excellency." This is the reading of the quarto. In the folio it is, "Do's tyre the ingenieur." Mr. Steevens remarks, that "the reading of the quarto is so flat and unpoetical, when compared with that sense which seems meant to have been given in the folio, that I heartily wish some emendation could be hit on, which might entitle it to a place in the text." The following is suggested, Attires the engineer, that is, adorns the general. "The woman is the glory of the man."---1 Cor. xi. 7. "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."---Prov. xii. 4. Achilles is called "a rare engineer."

The sieve used to separate flour from bran is called a bolting cloth. Blended, mixed together.

u

By her beauty and patient meekness disarming Calamity, and preventing her from using her uplifted sword. Extremity, for the utmost of human suffering.