Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury. 1875.

William Shakespeare

XIX. “When in the chronicle of wasted time”

WHEN in the chronicle of wasted time

I see descriptions of the fairest wights,

And beauty making beautiful old rhyme

In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights;

Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best

Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,

I see their antique pen would have exprest

Ev’n such a beauty as you master now.

So all their praises are but prophecies

Of this our time, all, you prefiguring;

And for they look’d but with divining eyes,

They had not skill enough your worth to sing:

For we, which now behold these present days,

Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.