XVII.

THE SWEET NEGLECT.

This little madrigal (extracted from Ben. Jonson's _Silent Woman_,

## act i. sc. 1, first acted in 1609) is in imitation of a Latin Poem

printed at the end of the Variorum Edit. of Petronius, beginning, _Semper munditias, semper Basilissa, decoras_, &c. See Whalley's _Ben Jonson_, vol. ii. p. 420.

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Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast: Still to be pou'dred, still perfum'd: Lady, it is to be presum'd, Though art's hid causes are not found, 5 All is not sweet, all is not sound.

Give me a looke, give me a face, That makes simplicitie a grace; Robes loosely flowing, haire as free: Such sweet neglect more taketh me, 10 Than all th' adulteries of art, That strike mine eyes, but not my heart.