Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

III. To His Lady upon Her Playing on the Virginals

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

HOW oft when thou, my music, music play’st

Upon that blesséd wood, whose motion sounds

With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st

The wiry concord that my ear confounds,

Do I envỳ those jacks, that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,

Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,

At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand!

To be so tickled they would change their state

And situation with those dancing chips,

O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,

Making dead wood more blest than living lips:

Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,

Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.