63636Perchance his boast of Lucrece' sov'reignty
3737Suggested this proud issue of a king,
3838For by our ears our hearts oft tainted be.
3939Perchance that envy of so rich a thing,
4040Braving compare, disdainfully did sting
4141His high-pitched thoughts, that meaner men should vaunt
4242That golden hap which their superiors want.
74343But some untimely thought did instigate
4444His all too timeless speed, if none of those.
4545His honor, his affairs, his friends, his state,
4646Neglected all, with swift intent he goes
4747To quench the coal which in his liver glows.
4848O rash false heat, wrapped in repentant cold,
4949Thy hasty spring still blasts and ne'er grows old.
85050When at Collatium this false lord arrived,
5151Well was he welcomed by the Roman dame,
5252Within whose face beauty and virtue strived
5353Which of them both should underprop her fame.
5454When virtue bragged, beauty would blush for shame;
5555When beauty boasted blushes, in despite
5656Virtue would stain that o'er with silver white.
95757But beauty, in that white entitulèd
5858From Venus' doves, doth challenge that fair field;
5959Then virtue claims from beauty beauty's red,
6060Which virtue gave the golden age to gild
6161Their silver cheeks, and called it then their shield,
6262Teaching them thus to use it in the fight:
6363When shame assailed, the red should fence the white.
106464This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen,
6565Argued by beauty's red and virtue's white;
6666Of either's color was the other queen,
6767Proving from world's minority their right;
6868Yet their ambition makes them still to fight,
6969The sovereignty of either being so great
7070That oft they interchange each other's seat.