Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/53

The fair dame Idleness Her flesh as tender chicken’s was;
Her blond locks bright as bowl of brass;
Radiant her brow; of arching due
Her eyebrows; and well spaced the two;540
Neither too small, nor yet too great
Her nose, but straight and delicate.
No falcon, I would boldly swear,
Hath eyes that could with hers compare.
Her breath was sweet as breeze, thyme fed;
Her cheeks, commingled white and red;
Her mouth a rosebud, and her chin
Well rounded, with sweet cleft therein.
Her tower-like neck, of measure meet.
The purest lily well might beat550
For fairness, free of spot or wem.
’Twixt this and far Jerusalem
I trow were found none other such,
So fair to sight, so soft to touch.
Her bosom would outshine the snow
New-fallen, ere it soil doth show;
And all her body formed and knit
So well, as nought might equal it.
Much doubt I, if since Time had birth,
A fairer dame hath trod dull earth.560

A chaplet on her brow was set
Of orfreys; never maiden yet
More lovesome looked, and though my days
I spent to sing her beauty’s praise,
’Twere done but insufficiently.
A graceful silken robe wore she.
And on her head a garland bare
Of roses, which the orfreys fair