- Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
- Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
- O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,
- And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
- Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
- That have profan’d their scarlet ornaments
- And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine,
- Robb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
- Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov’st those
- Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
- Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows,
- Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
- If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
- By self-example mayst thou be denied!