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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  186. Simplex Munditiis

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

Ben Jonson. 1573–1637

186. Simplex Munditiis

STILL to be neat, still to be drest, 
As you were going to a feast; 
Still to be powder’d, still perfumed: 
Lady, it is to be presumed, 
Though art’s hid causes are not found,         5
All is not sweet, all is not sound. 
 
Give me a look, give me a face 
That makes simplicity a grace; 
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free: 
Such sweet neglect more taketh me  10
Than all th’ adulteries of art; 
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.