Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/74

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62
The Rape of Lucrece.
Proving from worlds minority their right,
Yet their ambition makes them still to fight:
The sov'reignty of either being so great,
That oft they interchange each other's seat.

Their silent war of Lillies and of Roses,
Which Tarquin view'd in her fair faces field,
In their pure ranks his traitor eye encloses;
Where least between them both it should be kill'd,
The coward captive vanquished doth yield
To those two armies that would let him goe,
Rather than triumph in so false a foe.

Now thinks he that her husband shallow tongue,
The niggard Prodigal that prais'd her so,
In that high task hath done her beauty wrong,
Which far exceeds his barren skill to show:
Therefore that praise which Colatine doth owe,
Inchanted Tarquin answers with surmise,
In silent wonder of still-gazing eyes.

This earthly Saint adored by this Devil,
Little suspecteth the false worshipper;
"For thoughts unstain'd do seldom dream on evil,
"Birds never lim'd no secret bushes fear;
So guiltless she securely gives good chear,
And reverend welcome to her princely guest,
Whose inward ill no outward harm exprest.

For that he coloured with his high estate,
Hiding base sin in pleats of Majesty;

That