whatsoever thou art that
standest attentive to my tale, that the ruddiest rose in all
Damasco, the whitest lilies in the creeks of Danuby, might not if
they had united their native colours, but have bashed at the
vermilion stain, flourish'd upon the pure crystal of my face: the
Marguerites of the western Indies, counted more bright and rich
than that which Cleopatra quaffed to Anthony, the coral highest
in his pride upon the Afric shores, might well be graced to
resemble my teeth and lips, but never honoured to overreach my
pureness. Remaining thus the mirror of the world, and nature's
strangest miracle, there arrived in our Court a Thracian knight,
of personage tall, proportioned in most exquisite form, his face
but too fair for his qualities, for he was a brave and a resolute
soldier. This cavalier coming amongst divers others to see the
royalty of the state of Lydia, no sooner had a glance of my
beauty, but he set down his staff, resolving either to perish in
so sweet a labyrinth, or in time happily to stumble out with
Theseus. He had not stayed long in my father's court, but he
shewed such knightly deeds of chivalry amongst the nobility,
lightened with the extraordinary sparks of a courageous mind,
that not only he was liked and loved of all the chief peers of
the realms, but the report of his valour coming to my father's
ears, he was highly honoured of him, and placed in short time as
General of his warlike forces by land. Resting in this estimation
with the king, preferment was no means to quiet his mind, for
love had wounded so deep, as honour by no means might remedy,
that as the elephants can hardly be haled from the sight of the
waste, or the roe buck from gazing at red cloth, so there was no
object that could so much allure the wavering eyes of this
Thracian called Acestes, as the surpassing beauty of the Princess
Lydia, yea, so deeply he doted, that as the Chameleon gorgeth
herself with gazing into the air, so he fed his fancy with
staring on the heavenly face of his Goddess, so long dallying in
the flame, that he scorched his wings and in time consumed his
whole body. Being thus passionate, having none so familiar as he
durst make his confidant he fell thus to debate with himself."

* * * * *

"On