With every virtue, wheresoe'er it move,

And howsoever; as I am at feud

With sin and vice, though with a throne endued;

And, in this name, am given out dangerous
By arts and practice of the vicious,

Such as suspect themselves, and think it fit,
For their own cap'tal crimes, t' indict my wit;
I that have suffered this, and, though forsook
Of fortune, have not altered yet my look,
Or so myself abandoned; as because
Men are not just, or keep no holy laws
Of nature and society, I should faint;

but as

much

Or fear to draw true lines, 'cause others paint:
I, madam, am become your praiser; where,
If it may stand with your soft blush to hear
Yourself but told unto yourself, and see
In my charàcter what your features be,
You will not from this paper slightly pass;
No lady but at some time loves her glass.
And this shall be no false one,
Removed, as you from need to have it such.
Look then, and see yourself - I will not say
Your beauty, for you see that every day;
And so do many more: all which can call
It perfect, proper, pure, and natural,
Not taken up o' the doctors, but, as well
As I, can say and see it doth excel;
That asks but to be censured by the eyes,

And in those outward forms all fools are wise.

Nor that your beauty wanted not a dower,
Do I reflect. Some alderman has power,
Or cozening farmer of the customs, so
T'advance his doubtful issue, and o'erflow
A prince's fortune: these are gifts of chance,
And raise not virtue; they may vice enhance.
My mirror is more subtle, clear, refined,
And takes and gives the beauties of the mind,
Though it reject not those of fortune, such
As blood and match. Wherein, how more than
much

Are you engaged to your happy fate

For such a lot! that mixed you with a state
Of so great title, birth, but virtue most,
Without which all the rest were sounds, or lost.
'Tis only that can time and chance defeat:
For he that once is good, is ever great.
Wherewith then, madam, can you better pay
This blessing of your stars than by that way
Of virtue, which you tread? What if alone?
Without companions? 'tis safe to have none.
In single paths dangers with ease are watched;
Contagion in the press is soonest catched.
This makes, that wisely you decline your life
Far from the maze of custom, error, strife,
And keep an even and unaltered gait,
Not looking by, or back, like those that wait
Times and occasions to start forth, and seem,
Which though the turning world may dis-
esteem,

Because that studies spectacles and shows,
And after varied as fresh objects goes,

Giddy with change, and therefore cannot see
Right the right way, yet must your comfort be
Your conscience; and not wonder if none asks
For truth's complexion, where they all wear
masks.

Let who will follow fashions and attires,

Maintain their liegers forth for foreign wires, Melt down their husbands' land, to pour away On the close groom and page, on new year's day,"

And almost all days after while they live; They find it both so witty and safe to give. Let 'em on powders, oils, and paintings spend, Till that no usurer nor his bawds dare lend Them or their officers; and no man know Whether it be a face they wear or no.

Let 'em waste body and state; and, after all, When their own parasites laugh at their fall, May they have nothing left whereof they can Boast, but how oft they have gone wrong to

man,

And call it their brave sin: for such there be

27 Alluding to the custom of presenting costly gifts on New Year's Day, a custom which reached its height in Queen Elizabeth's time. It was connected with the giving of gifts as fees, which was brought to an end, in law at least and courts of justice, by Bacon's disgrace. The relation of patients to physicians in the matter of fees in England shows the remains of the custom.

That do sin only for the infamy,

And never think how vice doth every hour
Eat on her clients, and some one devour.

You, madam, young have learned to shun these shelves,

Whereon the most of mankind wreck themselves,
And, keeping a just course, have early put
Into your harbor, and all passage shut
'Gainst storms or pirates that might charge your

peace;

For which you worthy are the glad increase

Of

your blest womb,28 made fruitful from above To pay your lord the pledges of chaste love, And raise a noble stem, to give the fame To Clifton's blood that is denied their name. Grow, grow, fair tree! and as thy branches shoot, Hear what the muses sing about thy root, By me, their priest (if they can aught divine) Before the moons have filled their triple trine, To crown the burthen which you go withal, It shall a ripe and timely issue fall, T'expect the honors of great Aubigny, And greater rites yet writ in mystery, But which the fates forbid me to reveal: Only thus much out of a ravished zeal Unto your name, and goodness of your life,

sons.

28 Lady Aubigny had seven children, of whom four were Three of her sons were killed in battle, and the fourth survived till 1655. B. "If this was the first child," says Gifford, "the Epistle was written in 1608."

They speak; since you are truly that rare wife
Other great wives may blush at, when they see
What your tried manners are, what theirs should
be;

How you love one, and him you should, how still
You are depending on his word and will;
Not fashioned for the court, or strangers' eyes,
But to please him, who is the dearer prize
Unto himself, by being so dear to you.

This makes, that your affections still be new,
And that your souls conspire, as they were gone
Each into other, and had now made one.
Live that one still! and as long years do pass,
Madam, be bold to use this truest glass;
Wherein your form you still the same shall find,
Because nor it can change, nor such a mind.

XIV. ODE

TO SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY, 29 ON HIS BIRTHDAY.

Now that the hearth is crowned with smiling fire, And some do drink, and some do dance,

Some ring,

Some sing,

And all do strive t' advance

The gladness higher;

Wherefore should I

Stand silent by,

29 Eldest son of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, and nephew of Sir Philip Sidney.-B. An ode to be placed among Jonson's earlier pieces, since Sidney died about the same time with Prince Henry.