101701701O deeper sin than bottomless conceit

702702Can comprehend in still imagination!

703703Drunken desire must vomit his receipt

704704Ere he can see his own abomination.

705705While Lust is in his pride, no exclamation

706706Can curb his heat or rein his rash desire,

707707Till, like a jade, self-will himself doth tire.

102708708And then with lank and lean discolored cheek,

709709With heavy eye, knit-brow, and strengthless pace,

710710Feeble desire, all recreant, poor, and meek,

711711Like to a bankrupt beggar wails his case.

712712The flesh being proud, desire doth fight with grace;

713713For there it revels; and when that decays,

714714The guilty rebel for remission prays.

103715715So fares it with this faultful lord of Rome,

716716Who this accomplishment so hotly chased,

717717For now against himself he sounds this doom,

718718That through the length of times he stands disgraced.

719719Besides, his soul's fair temple is defaced,

720720To whose weak ruins muster troops of cares

721721To ask the spotted princess how she fares.

104722722She says her subjects with foul insurrection

723723Have battered down her consecrated wall

724724And, by their mortal fault, brought in subjection

725725Her immortality, and made her thrall

726726To living death and pain perpetual,

727727Which in her prescience she controllèd still,

728728But her foresight could not forestall their will.

105729729Ev'n in this thought through the dark night he stealeth,

730730A captive victor that hath lost in gain,

731731Bearing away the wound that nothing healeth,

732732The scar that will, despite of cure, remain,

733733Leaving his spoil perplexed in greater pain.

734734She bears the load of lust he left behind,

735735And he the burden of a guilty mind.