1All you that have indulgent parents been,

2And have your children in perfection seen

3Of youth and beauty: lend one tear to me,

4And trust me, I will do as much for thee,

5Unless my own grief do exhaust my store;

6Then will I sigh till I

suspire2

no more.

7Twice hath the Earth thrown

Chloris’s3

mantle by,

8Embroidered o’er with

curious4

tapestry,

9And twice hath seemed to mourn unto our sight,

10Like Jews or Chinesses in

snowy white5

,

11Since

she6

laid down her milky limbs on earth,

12Which, dying, gave her

virgin7

soul new birth.

13Yet still my heart is overwhelmed with grief,

14And tears (alas) gives sorrow no relief.

15Twice hath sad

Philomele8

left off to sing

16Her

mortifying9

sonnets to the spring.

17Twice at the

sylvan10

choristers’ desire

18She hath lent her music to complete their choir,

19Since all devouring Death on

her11

took seizure,

20And

Tellus’s12

womb

involved13

so rich a treasure.

21Yet still my heart is overwhelmed with grief,

22And time, nor tears, will give my woes relief.

23Twelve times hath

Phoebe14

, hornéd, seemed to fight,

24

As often filled them with her brother’s light15

,

25Since

she16

did close her sparkling diamond eyes;

26Yet my sad heart, for her still

pining17

, dies.

27Through the

twelve houses18

hath the illustrious sun

28With

splendency19

his annual journey run.

29Twice hath his fiery, furious horses hurled

30His blazing chariot to the lower world,

31Showing his luster to the wond’ring eyes

32Of our (now so well known)

antipodes20

,

33Since the

brack21

of her spotless virgin

story22

,

34Which now her soul doth end in endless glory.

35Yet my afflicted, sad, forsaken soul

36For her in tears and ashes still doth

roll23

.

37O could a fever spot her snowy skin,

38Whose virgin soul was scarcely soiled with sin?

39Ay me, it did! So have I sometimes seen

40Fair maidens sit encircled on a green,

41White lilies spread when they were making

poses24

,

42Upon them scatter leaves of

damask roses25

,

43E’en so, the spots upon her fair skin shows

44

Like lily leaves sprinkled with damask rose26

,

45Or, as a stately

hart27

to death pursued

46By ravening hounds,

his28

eyes with tears bedewed,

47An arrow sticking in his trembling breast,

48His lost condition

to the life29

expressed,

49So trips he o’er the lawns on trodden snow,

50And from his side his guiltless blood doth flow.

51So did the spots upon her fair skin show

52Like drops of blood upon unsullied snow.

53But what a heart had I, when I did stand

54Holding her forehead with my trembling hand.

55My heart to heaven with her bright spirit flies

56Whilst she (ah me!) closed up her lovely eyes.

57Her soul being seated in her place of birth,

58I turned a

Niobe30

as she turned earth.