| |
| YOU that are she, and you that’s double she, | |
| In her dead face half of yourself shall see. | |
| She was the other part, for so they do | |
| Which build them friendships, become one of two; | |
| So two, that but themselves no third can fit | 5 |
| —Which were to be so, when they were not yet | |
| Twins, though their birth Cusco and Musco take— | |
| As divers stars one constellation make, | |
| Pair’d like two eyes have equal motion, so | |
| Both but one means to see, one way to go. | 10 |
| Had you died first, a carcase she had been, | |
| And we your rich tomb in her face had seen; | |
| She like the soul is gone, and you here stay, | |
| Not a live friend, but th’ other half of clay. | |
| And since you act that part—as men say, ‘Here | 15 |
| Lies such a prince,’ when but one part is there, | |
| And do all honour and devotion due | |
| Unto the whole—so we all reverence you; | |
| For such a friendship who would not adore | |
| In you, who are all what both were before, | 20 |
| Not all, as if some perished by this, | |
| But so, as all in you contracted is. | |
| As of this all, though many parts decay, | |
| The pure which elemented them shall stay; | |
| And though diffused, and spread in infinite, | 25 |
| Shall re-collect, and in one All unite; | |
| So, madam, as her soul to heaven is fled, | |
| Her flesh rests in the earth, as in the bed; | |
| Her virtues do, as to their proper sphere, | |
| Return to dwell with you, of whom they were. | 30 |
| As perfect motions are all circular, | |
| So they to you, their sea, whence less streams are. | |
| She was all spices, you all metals; so | |
| In you two we did both rich Indies know. | |
| And as no fire nor rust can spend or waste | 35 |
| One dram of gold, but what was first shall last; | |
| Though it be forced in water, earth, salt, air, | |
| Expansed in infinite, none will impair; | |
| So to yourself you may additions take, | |
| But nothing can you less, or changèd make. | 40 |
| Seek not in seeking new to seem to doubt, | |
| That you can match her, or not be without; | |
| But let some faithful book in her room be, | |
| Yet but of Judith no such book as she. | |
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