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| WHY choose she black; was it that in whiteness | |
| She did Leda equal? whose brightness | |
| Must suffer loss to put a beauty on, | |
| Which hath no grace but from proportion. | |
| It is but colour, which to lose is gain, | 5 |
| For she in black doth the Æthiopian stain. | |
| Being the form that beautifies the creature, | |
| Her rareness not in colour is, but feature. | |
| Black on her receives so strong a grace | |
| It seems the fittest beauty for the face. | 10 |
| Colour is not, but in estimation, | |
| Fair or foul, as it is styled by fashion. | |
| Kings wearing sackcloth it doth royal make; | |
| So black[nes]s from her face doth beauty take. | |
| It not in colour but in her inheres, | 15 |
| For what she is is fair, not what she wears. | |
| The Moor shall envy her, as much, or more, | |
| As did the ladies of our court before. | |
| The sun shall mourn that he had westward been, | |
| To seek his love, whilst she i’ th’ north was seen. | 20 |
| Her blackness lends like lustre to her eyes, | |
| As in the night pale Phoebe glorifies. | |
| Hell, sin, and vice their attributes shall lose | |
| Of black; for it wan and pale whiteness choose, | |
| As like themselves, common, and most in use. | 25 |
| Sad of that colour is the late abuse. | |
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