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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  53. A Praise of His Lady Tottel’s Miscellany ? by John Heywood

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Anonymous. 1557

53. A Praise of His Lady Tottel’s Miscellany ? by John Heywood

GIVE place, you ladies, and begone! 
  Boast not yourselves at all! 
For here at hand approacheth one 
  Whose face will stain you all. 
 
The virtue of her lively looks         5
  Excels the precious stone; 
I wish to have none other books 
  To read or look upon. 
 
In each of her two crystal eyes 
  Smileth a naked boy;  10
It would you all in heart suffice 
  To see that lamp of joy. 
 
I think Nature hath lost the mould 
  Where she her shape did take; 
Or else I doubt if Nature could  15
  So fair a creature make. 
 
She may be well compared 
  Unto the Phoenix kind, 
Whose like was never seen or heard, 
  That any man can find.  20
 
In life she is Diana chaste, 
  In troth Penelopey; 
In word and eke in deed steadfast. 
  —What will you more we say? 
 
If all the world were sought so far,  25
  Who could find such a wight? 
Her beauty twinkleth like a star 
  Within the frosty night. 
 
Her rosial colour comes and goes 
  With such a comely grace,  30
More ruddier, too, than doth the rose, 
  Within her lively face. 
 
At Bacchus’ feast none shall her meet, 
  Ne at no wanton play, 
Nor gazing in an open street,  35
  Nor gadding as a stray. 
 
The modest mirth that she doth use 
  Is mix’d with shamefastness; 
All vice she doth wholly refuse, 
  And hateth idleness.  40
 
O Lord! it is a world to see 
  How virtue can repair, 
And deck in her such honesty, 
  Whom Nature made so fair. 
 
Truly she doth so far exceed  45
  Our women nowadays, 
As doth the jeliflower a weed; 
  And more a thousand ways. 
 
How might I do to get a graff 
  Of this unspotted tree?  50
—For all the rest are plain but chaff, 
  Which seem good corn to be. 
 
This gift alone I shall her give; 
  When death doth what he can, 
Her honest fame shall ever live  55
  Within the mouth of man.