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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.