UPON A CUPBOARD OF VENICE-GLASSES
SENT FOR A NEW YEAR’S GIFT TO A CHOICE LADY
Madame,
If on this New Year’s gift you cast your eye,
You plainly may therein at once descry
A twofold quality; for there will appear
A brittle substance, but the Object clear.
So in the donor, Madame, you may see
These qualities inherent for to be;
His pow’r which brittle little is, Helas,
His mind sincere, and pure as any glass.
The old philosopher did wish there were
A window in his heart of chrystal clear,
Through which his friends might the more clearly see
His inward passions, and integrity.
I wish the like, for there you sure would rest
Of my clear mind, and motions of my breast.
But if it question’d be to what intent
With Venice-glasses I do you present,
I answer, that I could no gift perceive
So fit for me to give, you to receive:
For those rare Graces that in you excel,
And you that hold them, one may parallel
Unto a Venice-glass, which as ’tis clear,
And can admit no poyson to come near,
So virtue dwells in you, nor can endure
That vice should harbour in a breast so pure.
JAMES HOWELL.