Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/123

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The Rape of Lucrece.
111
The homely villain cursies to her low,
And blushing on her with a stedfast eye
Receives the scroll without or yea or no,
And forth with bashful innocence doth flie:
But they whose guilt within their bosomes lie,
Imagine every eye beholds their blame;
For Lucrece thought he blush'd to see her shame:

When silly Groome (God wot) it was defect
Of spirit, life, and bold audacity,
Such harmlesse creatures have a true respect
To talk in deeds, while others sawcily
Promise more speed, but do it leasurely.
Even so this pattern of the worne out age,
Pawn'd honest lookes, but layd no words to gage.

His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
That two red fires in both their faces blazed,
She thought he blusht, as knowing Tarquins lust,
And blushing with him, wistly on him gazed,
Her earnest eye did make him more amazed:
The more saw the blood his cheeks replenish,
The more she thought he spied in her some blemish.

But long she thinks till he return again,
And yet the duteous vassal scarce is gone,
The weary time she cannot entertain,
For now 'tis stale to sigh, to weepe, to grone,
So woe hath wearied woe, mone tyred mone,

That