Lady that in the prime of earliest youth,
Wisely hath shun'd the broad way and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen,
That labour up the Hill of heav'nly Truth,
The better part with Mary and with Ruth,
Chosen thou hast, and they that overween,
And at thy growing vertues fret their spleen,
No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth.
Thy care is fixt and zealously
To fill thy odorous Lamp with deeds of light,
And Hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be
Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastfull
Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,
Hast gain'd thy entrance,
Virgin wise and pure.(line 7:
And at thy growing virtues...):
In the Manuscript it was at first,"And at thy blooming virtue or prospering."(line 8: ---- but pity and ruth):
Here Ruth and ruth are made to rime to each other, and it may perhaps offend the niceness of modern ears that the same word should rime to itself though in different senses: but our old poets were not so very delicate, and the reader may see parallel instances in Spenser's Faery Queen.
B.
I.
Cant. 6.
St. 39. and B. 7.
Cant. 6.
St. 38.'~ Th.
Newton,
Milton's Works, 2nd edition, 1753.
