See also the two next stanzas, and particularly that divine one
beginning
Her armes small, her back both straight and soft, &c.
Compare this with the following speech of Troilus to Cressida in the
play.
O, that I thought it could be in a woman;
And if it can, I will presume in you,
To feed for aye her lamp and flame of love,
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Out-living beauties outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays.
Or, that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! But alas,
I am as true as Truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of Truth.
These passages may not seem very characteristic at first sight,
though we think they are so. We will give two, that cannot be
mistaken. Patroclus says to Achilles;
--Rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid
Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold,
And like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,
Be shook to air.
Troilus, addressing the God of Day on the approach of the morning
that parts him from Cressida, says with much scorn:
What! proffer'st thou thy light here for to sell?
Go, sell it them that smalle seles grave.
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