Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/73

 His high pitcht thoughts, that meaner men should vaunt
 That golden hap which their superiors want.

But some untimely thought did instigate
His all too timeless speed, if none of those;
His honor, his affairs, his friends, his state,
Neglected all, with swift intent he goes,
To quench the coal which in his liver grows.
O rash false heat, wrapt in repentant cold,
Thy hasty spring still blasts and ne're grows old.

2.Tarquin welcomed by Lucrece.When at Colatia this false Lord arrived,
Well was he welcom'd by the Roman dame,
Within whose face beauty and vertue strived,
Which of them both should underprop her fame,
When vertue brag'd, beauty would blush for shame,
When beauty boasted blushes, in despight
Vertue would stain that o're with silver white.

But beauty in that white intituled,
From Venus doves doth challenge that fair field,
Then vertue claims from beauty beauties red,
Which vertue gave the golden age to gild
Their silver cheeks, and call'd it then their shield,
Teaching them thus to use it in the fight,
When shame assail'd, the red should fence the white.

This Herauldry in Lucrece Face was seen,
Argued by beauties red and vertues white,
Of eithers colour was the other Queen;

Proving