| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Laura—Part I. | | XII. The beauty, that in Paradise doth grow | | Robert Tofte (1561–1620) |
| | | THE BEAUTY, that in Paradise doth grow, | |
| Lively appears in my sweet goddess’s Face; | |
| From whence, as from a crystal river, flow | |
| Favour divine and comeliness of grace. | |
| But in her dainty, yet too cruel, Breast, | 5 |
| More cruelty and hardness doth abound; | |
| Than doth in painful Purgatory rest. | |
| So that, at once, She’s fair, and cruel, found: | |
| When in her Face and Breast, ah, grief to tell! | |
| Bright Heaven she shows; and crafty, hides dark Hell. | 10 | | | |
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