| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | An Elegy of a Woman’s Heart | | By Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639) |
| | | O FAITHLESS 1 World! and thy more faithless part, | |
| A Woman’s Heart! | |
| The true Shop of Variety! where sits | |
| Nothing but fits | |
| And fevers of Desire, and pangs of Love; | 5 |
| Which toys remove! | |
| Why was She born to please! or I, to trust | |
| Words writ in dust! | |
| Suff’ring her eyes to govern my despair; | |
| My pain, for air! | 10 |
| And fruit of time rewarded with untruth, | |
| The food of Youth! | |
| Untrue She was: yet I believed her eyes, | |
| (Instructed spies!) | |
| Till I was taught, that Love was but a School | 15 |
| To breed a Fool! | |
| Or sought She more, by triumphs of denial, | |
| To make a trial, | |
| How far her smiles commanded my weakness! | |
| Yield, and confess! | 20 |
| Excuse no more thy folly! but, for cure, | |
| Blush, and endure | |
| As well thy shame, as Passions that were vain! | |
| And think, ’tis gain | |
| To know,—That Love, lodged in a Woman’s Breast, | 25 |
| Is but a guest! | |
| | | Note 1. From Reliquiæ Wottonianæ; also printed in Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody, 1602. [back] | | |
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