I saw a flie within a beade Of amber cleanly buried.

The Lilly in a Christal

You have beheld a smiling Rose

When Virgins hands have drawn
O’r it a Cobweb-Lawne:

And here, you see, this Lilly shows,

Tomb’d in a Christal stone,

More faire in this transparent case,

Then when it grew alone;
And had but single grace.

You see how Creame but naked is;

Nor daunces in the eye
Without a Strawberrie:

Or some fine tincture, like to this,

Which draws the sight thereto,

More by that wantoning with it;

Then when the paler hieu
No mixture did admit.

You see how Amber through the streams

More gently stroaks the sight,
With some conceal’d delight;

Then when he darts his radiant beams

Into the boundless aire:

Where either too much light his worth

Doth all at once impaire,
Or set it little forth.

Put Purple Grapes, or Cherries in-

To Glasse, and they will send
More beauty to commend

Them, from that cleane and sbutile skin,

Then if they naked stood,

And had no other pride at all,

But their own flesh and blood,
And tinctures natural.

Thus Lillie, Rose, Grape, Cherry, Creame

And Straw-berry do stir
More love, when they transfer

A weak, a soft, a broken beame;

Then if they sho’d discover

At fulltheir proper excellence;

Without some Scean cast over,
To juggle with the sense.

Thus let this Christal’d Lillie be

A Rule, how far to teach,
Your nakednesse must reach:

And that, no further, then we see

Those glaring colours laid

By Arts wise hand, but to this end

They sho’d obey a shade;
Lest they too far extend.

So though y’are white as Swan, or Snow,

And have the power to move
A world of men to love:

Yet, when your Lawns & Silks shal flow;

And that white cloud divide

Into a doubtful Twi-light; then,

Then will your hidden Pride
Raise greater fires in men.