Yet those perfections most imperfect bee,
If there bee wantinge vertuous modestye;
Vertue's aspect would haue the sweetest grace
If wee could see as wee conceaue her face:
Vertue guids witte, with well-affected will,
Which if witte want, it proues a dangerous ill:
Vertue gaines wealth with her good gouerment,
If not, sh'is rich, because shee is content.[247]
A MAID'S HYMNE IN PRAISE OF VIRGINITY.
Sacred virginity, vnconquered Queene!
Whose kingdome never hath invaded beene;
Of whose sweete rosy crowne noe hand hath power
Once but to touch, much lesse to plucke a flower:
Gainst whome proud Love—which on the world doth raigne,—
With armies of his passions fights in vaine;
In whome gray Winter neuer doth appeare,
To whome greene Springtide lasteth all the yeare.
O fresh immortall baye, vntroubled well,
Or violett, which vntoucht doest sweetest smell;
Faire vine, which without prop[248] doest safely stand,
Pure gold, new coynd, which neuer past a hand.
O temperance, in the supreame degree
And hiyest pitch that vertue's winges can flee:
O more then humane spirit, of Angells' kind:
O white, unspotted garment of the mind,
Which first cloathed man, before hee was forlorne;
And wherein God Himselfe chose to bee borne.
Within my soule, O heavenly vertue rest,
Untill my soule with heaven it selfe bee blest.[249]
PART OF AN ELEGIE IN PRAISE OF MARRIAGE.
When the first man from Paradise was driven,
Hee did from thence his onely comfort beare:
Hee still enioyes his wife, which God had giuen,
Though hee from other joyes deuorcèd were.