O beauteous hand!
that dost my heart subdue,
And in a little space my life
confine;
Hand where their skill and
utmost efforts join
Nature and Heaven, their plastic
powers to show!
Sweet fingers, seeming pearls
of orient hue,
To my wounds only cruel, fingers
fine!
Love, who towards me kindness
doth design,
For once permits ye naked
to our view.
Thou glove most dear, most
elegant and white,
Encasing ivory tinted with
the rose;
More precious covering ne’er
met mortal sight.
Would I such portion of thy
veil had gain’d!
O fleeting gifts which fortune’s
hand bestows!
’Tis justice to restore
what theft alone obtain’d.
NOTT.
O beauteous hand!
which robb’st me of my heart,
And holdest all my life in
little space;
Hand! which their utmost effort
and best art
Nature and Heaven alike have
join’d to grace;
O sister pearls of orient
hue, ye fine
And fairy fingers! to my wounds
alone
Cruel and cold, does Love
awhile incline
In my behalf, that naked ye
are shown?
O glove! most snowy, delicate,
and dear,
Which spotless ivory and fresh
roses set,
Where can on earth a sweeter
spoil be met,
Unless her fair veil thus
reward us here?
Inconstancy of human things!
the theft
Late won and dearly prized
too soon from me is reft!
MACGREGOR.
SONNET CLXVII.
Non pur quell’ una bella ignuda mano.
HE RETURNS THE GLOVE, BEWAILING THE EFFECT OF HER BEAUTY.
Not of one dear
hand only I complain,
Which hides it, to my loss,
again from view,
But its fair fellow and her
soft arms too
Are prompt my meek and passive
heart to pain.
Love spreads a thousand toils,
nor one in vain,
Amid the many charms, bright,
pure, and new,
That so her high and heavenly
part endue,
No style can equal it, no
mind attain.
That starry forehead and those
tranquil eyes,
The fair angelic mouth, where
pearl and rose
Contrast each other, whence
rich music flows,
These fill the gazer with
a fond surprise,
The fine head, the bright
tresses which defied
The sun to match them in his
noonday pride.
MACGREGOR.
SONNET CLXVIII.
Mia ventura ed Amor m’ avean si adorno.
HE REGRETS HAVING RETURNED HER GLOVE.
Me Love and Fortune
then supremely bless’d!
Her glove which gold and silken
broidery bore!
I seem’d to reach of
utmost bliss the crest,
Musing within myself on her
who wore.
Ne’er on that day I
think, of days the best,
Which made me rich, then beggar’d
as before,
But rage and sorrow fill mine