| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Truth Doth Truth Deserve | | By Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | WHO doth desire that chaste his wife should be, | |
| First be he true, for truth doth truth deserve: | |
| Then such be he as she his worth may see, | |
| And one man still credit with her preserve. | |
| Not toying kind, nor causelessly unkind; | 5 |
| Not stirring thoughts, nor yet denying right; | |
| Not spying faults, nor in plain errors blind; | |
| Never hard hand, nor ever reins too light. | |
| As far from want as far from vain expense | |
| (The one doth force, the latter doth entice); | 10 |
| Allow good company, but keep from thence | |
| All filthy mouths that glory in their vice. | |
| This done, thou hast no more, but leave the rest | |
| To virtue, fortune, time and woman’s breast. | | | | |
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