Maxioms by Ben Jonson
Sweet meat must have sour sauce.
Sweet meat must have sour sauce.
This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had read more
This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature, to outdo the life:
Oh, could he but have drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face, the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass;
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast,
Still to read more
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast,
Still to be powder'd, all perfum'd.
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.
And so to tread
As if the wind, not she, did walk;
Nor prest a flower, nor read more
And so to tread
As if the wind, not she, did walk;
Nor prest a flower, nor bow'd a stalk.