maid,
  Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
  And be not of my holy vows afraid.
  That's to ye sworn to none was ever said;
  For feasts of love I have been called unto,
  Till now did ne'er invite nor never woo.

  '"All my offences that abroad you see
  Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
  Love made them not; with acture they may be,
  Where neither party is nor true nor kind.
  They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
  And so much less of shame in me remains
  By how much of me their reproach contains.

  '"Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
  Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
  Or my affection put to th' smallest teen,
  Or any of my leisures ever charmed.
  Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
  Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
  And reigned commanding in his monarchy.

  '"Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
  Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood;
  Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
  Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
  In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood-
  Effects of terror and dear modesty,
  Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

  '"And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
  With twisted metal amorously empleached,
  I have receiv'd from many a several fair,
  Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched,
  With the annexions of fair gems enriched,
  And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify
  Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

  '"The diamond? why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
  Whereto his invised properties did tend;
  The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard
  Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
  The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
  With objects manifold; each several stone,
  With wit well blazoned, smiled, or made some moan.

  '"Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
  Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
  Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,
  But yield them up where I myself must render-
  That is, to you, my origin and ender;
  For these, of force, must your oblations be,
  Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

  '"O then advance of yours that phraseless hand
  Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
  Take all these similes to your own command,
  Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
  What me your minister for you obeys
  Works under you; and to your audit comes
  Their distract parcels in combined sums.

  '"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
  Or sister sanctified, of holiest note,
  Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
  Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
  For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
  But kept cold distance, and did thence remove
  To spend her living in eternal love.

  '"But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave
  The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives,
  Playing the place which did no form receive,
  Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves!
  She that her fame so to herself contrives,
  The scars of battle scapeth by the flight,
  And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

  '"O pardon me in that my boast is true!
  The accident which brought me to her eye
  Upon the moment did her force subdue,
  And now she would the caged cloister fly.
  Religious love