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| I grant thou wert not married to my Muse, | 1 |
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| And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook |
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| The dedicated words which writers use |
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| Of their fair subject, blessing every book. |
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| Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, | 5 |
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| Finding thy worth a limit past my praise; |
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| And therefore art enforced to seek anew |
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| Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. |
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| And do so, love; yet when they have devis'd, |
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| What strained touches rhetoric can lend, | 10 |
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| Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathiz'd |
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| In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend; |
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 And their gross painting might be better us'd |
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| Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus'd. |
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