| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Silvia | | By William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | From “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Act IV. Scene 2 |
|
WHO is Silvia? What is she, | |
| That all our swains commend her? | |
| Holy, fair, and wise is she; | |
| The heaven such grace did lend her | |
| That she might admirèd be. | 5 |
| |
| Is she kind as she is fair? | |
| For beauty lives with kindness: | |
| Love doth to her eyes repair, | |
| To help him of his blindness; | |
| And, being help’d, inhabits there. | 10 |
| |
| Then to Silvia let us sing, | |
| That Silvia is excelling; | |
| She excels each mortal thing | |
| Upon the dull earth dwelling: | |
| To her let us garlands bring. | 15 | | |
|
|
|
