Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
I. To Miss Kelly, the ActressCharles Lamb (17751834)
Y
That stoop their pride and female honor down
To please that many-headed beast, The Town,
And vend their lavish smiles and tricks for gain;
By fortune thrown amid the actor’s train,
You keep your native dignity of thought;
The plaudits that attend you come unsought,
As tributes due unto your natural vein.
Your tears have passion in them, and a grace
Of genuine freshness, which our hearts avow;
Your smiles are winds whose ways we cannot trace,
That vanish and return we know not how,—
And please the better from a pensive face,
A thoughtful eye, and a reflecting brow.