Canzon 7. More fair, but yet more cruel I thee deem

Anonymous

MORE fair, but yet more cruel I thee deem

(Though by how much the more thou beauteous art,

So much of pity shouldst thou more esteem!);

Fairer than PHŒBE, yet a harder heart.

Her when ACTÆON viewed with privy eye,

She doomed him but a death (a death he owed!),

While he pursued, before his dogs did fly.

Here was the worst of ill (good Queen!) she shewed.

But when, a start, mine eye had thee espied

Though at discovert, yet stand I sentenced

Not to one death, to which I would have hied:

For since, unarmed, and to eye unfenced,

Thy PHŒBE-fairer parts were mine eyes’ prospective.

O grief! unto myself, disgraced I live!