Albe Time-whitened beard of man be like the book he bears[[461]] ✿ When to his Lord he must return, I’d rather ’twere not white.
And yet goodlier is the saying of another:—
A guest hath stolen on my head and honour may he lack! ✿ The sword a milder deed hath done that dared these locks to hack.
Avaunt, O Whiteness,[[462]] wherein naught of brightness gladdens sight ✿ Thou ’rt blacker in the eyes of me than very blackest black!
As for the other, he is a model of wantonness and scurrilousness and a blackener of the face of hoariness; his dye acteth the foulest of lies: and the tongue of his case reciteth these lines[[463]]:—
Quoth she to me, “I see thou dy’st thy hoariness;” and I, “I do but hide it from thy sight, O thou mine ear and eye!”
She laughed out mockingly and said, “A wonder ’tis indeed! Thou so aboundest in deceit that even thy hair’s a lie.”
And how excellent is the saying of the poet:—
O thou who dyest hoariness with black, ✿ That youth wi’ thee abide, at least in show;
Look ye, my lot was dyèd black whilome ✿ And (take my word!) none other hue ’twill grow.