“A good leg will fall, a straight back will stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curled pate will grow bald, a fair face will wither, a full eye will wax hollow. But a good heart...is the sun and moon...for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps its course truly.”

“And while thoulivest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain anduncoined constancy; for he perforce must do theeright, because he hath not the gift to woo in otherplaces: for these fellows of infinite tongue, thatcan rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they doalways reason themselves out again. What! aspeaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. Agood leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; ablack beard will turn white; a curled pate will growbald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will waxhollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and themoon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for itshines bright and never changes, but keeps hiscourse truly. If thou would have such a one, takeme; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love?speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee”

“in black ink my love may still shine bright.”

“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with griefThat thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . . .”

“For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.”

“Shine out fair sun, till I have bought a glass,That I may see my shadow as I pass.”

“Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly;A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud;A brittle that's broken presently;A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.And as goods lost are seld or never found,As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,As flowers dead lie withered on the ground,As broken glass no cement can redress;So beauty blemished once, for ever lost,In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.”