Poem by Francis Beaumont

The Author to the Reader

I sing the fortune of a luckless pair,
Whose spotless souls now in one body be;
For beauty still is Prodromus to care,
Crost by the sad stars of nativity:
And of the strange enchantment of a well,
Given by the Gods, my sportive muse doth write,
Which sweet-lipp'd Ovid long ago did tell,
Wherein who bathes, straight turns Hermaphrodite:
 I hope my poem is so lively writ,
 That thou wilt turn half-mad with reading it.

1. The Examination of His Mistress's Perfections
2. On the Marriage of a Beauteous Young Gentlewoman with an Ancient Man
3. Upon the Silent Woman
4. Ad Comitissam Rutlandiæ
5. To My Friend Mr. John Fletcher, upon His Faithful Sheperdess

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