RPO -- Ben Jonson : Epicoene, or the Silent Woman: Still to be neat, still to be drest

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

Epicoene, or the Silent Woman: Still to be neat, still to be drest

1Still to be neat, still to be drest,

2As you were going to a feast;

3Still to be powder'd, still perfum'd:

4Lady, it is to be presum'd,

5Though art's hid causes are not found,

6All is not sweet, all is not sound.

7Give me a look, give me a face,

8That makes simplicity a grace;

9Robes loosely flowing, hair as free:

10Such sweet neglect more taketh me

11Than all th' adulteries of art;

12They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

Notes

1] Also one of Jonson's best comedies, Epicoene was first produced in 1609 but published only in the Jonson Folio of 1616. The Song is modelled on a Latin lyric, Simplex Munditiis perhaps written by Jean Bonnefons, a contemporary. Especially with the second stanza, cf. Herrick's A Sweet Disorder.
Still: always.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Ben Jonson, The workes of Benjamin Jonson (London: Will Stansby, 1616). STC 14751.
First publication date: 1609
Publication date note: Epicoene
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.154.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/3

Form: Short Couplets

Other poems by Ben Jonson