All the sovereign, matchless grace Of that beauty from afar, Which to Heaven doth us raise, Tongue of man could not but mar,-- Let the tongue of Heaven praise, Saying,--and 'tis not in vain-- That the soul which doth contain Such a being for its pride, More than aught on earth beside Should the lovely veil attain. From the sun she took her hair, From the peaceful Heaven her brow, Of her eyes the light so fair From a radiant star which now Shineth not when they are there; From the cochineal and the snow, Boldly and with might, I trow, Did she steal their lovely hue, For to thy fair cheek is due The perfections that they show. Teeth and lips of ivory And of coral, whence a spring Issues, rich in fantasy, Full of wisest reasoning, And celestial harmony; But of marble stubbornest She hath made her lovely breast, Yet in truth we see that earth Is made better by her worth, E'en as Heaven itself is blest. 'With these and other things that I then sang, all were so charmed with me, and especially Nisida's parents, that they offered me all I might need, and asked me to let no day go by without visiting them; and so, without my purpose being discovered or imagined, I came to achieve my first design, which was to expedite my entrance into the house of Nisida, who enjoyed extremely my bright ways. But now that the lapse of many days, and my frequent converse and the great friendship all that household showed me, had removed some shadows from the excessive fear I felt at disclosing my intent to Nisida, I determined to see how far went the fortune of Timbrio, whose only hope for it lay in my solicitude. But woe is me! I was then more ready to ask a salve for my wound than health for another's; for Nisida's grace, beauty, discretion, and modesty had so wrought in my soul that it was placed in no less an extreme of grief and love than that of hapless Timbrio. To your discreet imagination I leave it to picture what a heart could feel in which there fought, on the one hand, the laws of friendship, and, on the other, the inviolable laws of Cupid; for, if those obliged it not to go beyond what they and reason asked of it, these constrained it to set store by what was due to its happiness. These attacks and struggles afflicted me in such wise that, without procuring another's health I began to have fears for my own, and to grow so weak and pale that I caused general compassion in all that saw me, and those who