Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Laura—Part I

XXX. Unto thy favour (which when Nature formed

Robert Tofte (1561–1620)

UNTO thy favour (which when Nature formed,

She went beyond herself with cunning hand),

I may compare what is, in world, adorned

With beauty most; and with most grace doth stand.

But every mortal whiteness, ne’er so white,

The ivory white of thy white hand exceeds:

So that my soul, which doth fair whiteness like,

Rests on fair whiteness, and on whiteness feeds.

For this is thought, and hoped of from thee:

White as thy hands, so white thy faith shall be.