Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/108

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NUMBERS

FROM

ELIZABETHAN MISCELLANIES & SONG-BOOKS

BY UNNAMED OR UNCERTAIN AUTHORS


53. A Praise of His Lady

Tottel's Miscellany, 1557

Give place, you ladies, and begone!
  Boast not yourselves at all!
For here at hand approacheth one
  Whose face will stain you all.

The virtue of her lively looks
  Excels the precious stone;
I wish to have none other books
  To read or look upon.

In each of her two crystal eyes
  Smileth a naked boy;
It would you all in heart suffice
  To see that lamp of joy.

I think Nature hath lost the mould
  Where she her shape did take;
Or else I doubt if Nature could
  So fair a creature make.

She may be well compared
  Unto the Phœnix kind,
Whose like was never seen or heard,
  That any man can find.