A Warning

Victorious beauty! though your eyes
     Are able to subdue an host
     And therefore are unlike to boast
The taking of a little prize,
Do not a single heart despise.

It came alone, but yet so arm’d
     With former love I durst have sworn
     That when a privy coat was worn
With characters of beauty charm’d
Thereby it might have ‘scaped unharmed.

But neither steel nor stony breast
     Are proof against those looks of thine;
     Nor can a beauty less divine
Of any heart be long possessed
When thou pretend’st an interest.

Thy conquest in regard of me,
     Alas! is small; but in respect
     Of her that did my love protect,
Were it divulged, deserves to be
Recorded for a victory.

And such a one—as some that view
     Her lovely face perhaps may say—
     Though you have stolen my heart away,
If all your servants prove not true,
May steal a heart or two from you.