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From “A Ballad upon a Wedding”
* * * * * THE MAID, and thereby hangs a tale, | |
| For such a maid no Whitsun-ale | |
| Could ever yet produce: | |
| No grape that ’s kindly ripe could be | |
| So round, so plump, so soft as she, | 5 |
| Nor half so full of juice. | |
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| Her finger was so small, the ring | |
| Would not stay on which they did bring,— | |
| It was too wide a peck; | |
| And, to say truth,—for out it must,— | 10 |
| It looked like the great collar—just— | |
| About our young colt’s neck. | |
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| Her feet beneath her petticoat, | |
| Like little mice, stole in and out, | |
| As if they feared the light; | 15 |
| But O, she dances such a way! | |
| No sun upon an Easter-day | |
| Is half so fine a sight. * * * * * | |
| Her cheeks so rare a white was on, | |
| No daisy makes comparison; | 20 |
| Who sees them is undone; | |
| For streaks of red were mingled there, | |
| Such as are on a Kath’rine pear, | |
| The side that ’s next the sun. | |
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| Her lips were red; and one was thin, | 25 |
| Compared to that was next her chin. | |
| Some bee had stung it newly; | |
| But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face, | |
| I durst no more upon them gaze, | |
| Than on the sun in July. | 30 |
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| Her mouth so small, when she does speak, | |
| Thou ’dst swear her teeth her words did break, | |
| That they might passage get; | |
| But she so handled still the matter, | |
| They came as good as ours, or better, | 35 |
| And are not spent a whit. * * * * * | |
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