 | The plays & poems of Robert Greene |  |
241
X
VERSES WRITTEN VNDER THE PROTRAITVRE OF VENVS.
When Nature forged the faire vnhappy mould,
Wherein proud beauty tooke her matchlesse shape:
She ouer-slipt her cunning and her skill,
And aym'd to faire, but drew beyond the marke;
For thinking to haue made a heauenly blisse,
For wanton gods to dally with in heauen,
And to haue fram'd a precious iem for men,
To solace all their dumpish thoughts with glee,
Shee wrought a plague, a poyson, and a hell
For gods, for men; thus no way wrought she well.
Venus was faire, faire was the queene of loue,
Fairer then Pallas, or the wife of Ioue:
Yet did the Gigglets beauty greeue the Smith,
For that she brau'd the Creeple with a horne.
Mars said, her beauty was the starre of heauen,
Yet did her beauty staine him with disgrace:
Paris for faire, gaue her the golden ball;
And bought his, and his fathers ruine so:
Thus nature making what should farre excell,
Lent gods, and men, a poison and a hell.
| The plays & poems of Robert Greene | |