76526526"But if thou yield, I rest thy secret friend;

527527The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;

528528A little harm done to a great good end

529529For lawful policy remains enacted.

530530The poisonous simple sometime is compacted

531531In a pure compound; being so applied,

532532His venom in effect is purified."

77533533"Then, for thy husband and thy children's sake,

534534Tender my suit; bequeath not to their lot

535535The shame that from them no device can take,

536536The blemish that will never be forgot,

537537Worse than a slavish wipe or birth-hour's blot;

538538For marks descried in men's nativity

539539Are nature's faults, not their own infamy."

78540540Here with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye

541541He rouseth up himself and makes a pause,

542542While she, the picture of pure piety,

543543Like a white hind under the gripe's sharp claws,

544544Pleads, in a wilderness where are no laws,

545545To the rough beast that knows no gentle right,

546546Nor aught obeys but his foul appetite.

79547547But when a black-faced cloud the world doth threat,

548548In his dim mist th' aspiring mountains hiding,

549549From earth's dark womb, some gentle gust doth get,

550550Which blow these pitchy vapors from their biding,

551551Hind'ring their present fall by this dividing;

552552So his unhallowed haste her words delays,

553553And moody Pluto winks while Orpheus plays.

80554554Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,

555555While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth;

556556Her sad behavior feeds his vulture folly,

557557A swallowing gulf that even in plenty wanteth.

558558His ear her prayers admits, but his heart granteth

559559No penetrable entrance to her plaining;

560560Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining.