| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet LXXII. My Mistress’ beauty matched with the Graces’ | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | MY Mistress’ beauty matched with the Graces’ | |
| ’Twixt PHŒB’ and JUNO should be judgèd there: | |
| Where She, with mask, had veiled the lovely places; | |
| And Graces, in like sort, i-maskèd were. | |
| But when their lovely beauties were disclosed; | 5 |
| “This Nymph,” quoth JUNO, “all the Graces passeth! | |
| For beauteous favours, in her face disposed, | |
| Love’s goddess, in love’s graces she surpasseth!” | |
| “She doth not pass the Graces!” PHŒBE said, | |
| “Though in her cheeks the Graces richly sit; | 10 |
| For they be subjects to her beauty made. | |
| The glory for this fair Nymph is most fit! | |
| There, in her cheeks, the Graces blush for shame! | |
| That in her cheeks to strive, the subjects came.” | | | | |
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