| |
| MAD paper, stay, and grudge not here to burn | |
| With all those sons whom my brain 1 did create; | |
| At least lie hid with me, till thou return | |
| To rags again, which is thy native state. | |
| |
| What though thou have enough unworthiness | 5 |
| To come unto great place as others do; | |
| That’s much—emboldens, 2 pulls, thrusts, I confess; | |
| But ’tis not all; thou shouldst be wicked too. | |
| |
| And that thou canst not learn, or not of me, | |
| Yet thou wilt go; go, since thou goest to her, | 10 |
| Who lacks but faults to be a prince, for she | |
| Truth, whom they dare not pardon, dares prefer. | |
| |
| But when thou comest to that perplexing eye, | |
| Which equally claims love and reverence, | |
| Thou wilt not long dispute it, thou wilt die; | 15 |
| And, having little now, have then no sense. | |
| |
| Yet when her warm redeeming hand—which is | |
| A miracle, and made such to work more— | |
| Doth touch thee, sapless leaf, thou grow’st by this | |
| Her creature, glorified more than before. | 20 |
| |
| Then as a mother which delights to hear | |
| Her early child misspeak half-uttered words, | |
| Or because majesty doth never fear | |
| Ill or bold speech, she audience affords. | |
| |
| And then, cold speechless wretch, thou diest again, | 25 |
| And wisely; what discourse is left for thee? | |
| From speech of ill, and her, thou must abstain; | |
| And is there any good which is not she? | |
| |
| Yet may’st thou praise her servants, though not her; | |
| And wit, and virtue, and honour her attend; | 30 |
| And since they’re but her clothes, thou shalt not err, | |
| If thou her shape, and beauty, and grace commend. | |
| |
| Who knows thy destiny? when thou hast done, | |
| Perchance her cabinet may harbour thee, | |
| Whither all noble ambitious wits do run, | 35 |
| A nest almost as full of good as she. | |
| |
| When thou art there, if any, whom we know, | |
| Were saved before, and did that heaven partake; | |
| When she revolves his papers, mark what show | |
| Of favour, she, alone, to them doth make. | 40 |
| |
| Mark if, to get them, she o’erskip the rest; | |
| Mark if she read them twice, or kiss the name; | |
| Mark if she do the same that they protest; | |
| Mark if she mark whether 3 her woman came. | |
| |
| Mark if slight things be objected, and o’erblown; | 45 |
| Mark if her oaths against him be not still | |
| Reserved, and that she grieves 4 she’s not her own, | |
| And chides the doctrine that denies freewill. | |
| |
| I bid thee not do this to be my spy, | |
| Nor to make myself her familiar; | 50 |
| But so much I do love her choice, that I | |
| Would fain love him that shall be loved of her. | |
