LADY JANE GREY.
On seeing a picture representing her engaged in the study of Plato.
So early wise! Beauty hath been to thee
No traitor-friend, to steal the key
Of knowledge from thy mind,
Making thee gorgeous to the eye,
Flaunting and flushed with vanity,
Yet inly blind.
Hark! the hunting-bugle sounds,
Thy father's park is gay,
Stately nobles cheer the hounds,
Soft hands the coursers sway,
Haste to the sport, away! away!
Youth, and mirth, and love are there,
Lingerest thou, fairest of the fair,
In thy lone chamber to explore
Ancient Plato's classic lore?
Old Roger Ascham's gaze
Is fix'd on thee with fond amaze;
Doubtless the sage doth marvel deep,
That for philosophy divine
A lady could decline
The pleasure 'mid yon pageant-train to sweep,
The glory o'er some five-barr'd gate to leap,
And in the toil of reading Greek
Which many a student flies,
Find more entrancing rhetoric
Than Fashion's page supplies.
