The Golden Gift That Nature Did Thee Give

The golden gift that Nature did thee give

    To fasten friends and feed them at thy will

    With form and favour, taught me to believe

    How thou art made to show her greatest skill,

    Whose hidden virtues are not so unknown

    But lively dooms might gather at the first:

    Where beauty so her perfect seed hath sown

    Of other graces follow needs there must.

    Now certes, lady, since all this is true,

  That from above thy gifts are thus elect,

  Do not deface them then with fancies new,

  Nor change of minds let not thy mind infect,

  But mercy him, thy friend, that doth thee serve,

  Who seeks alway thine honour to preserve.