Part 1 — A PROPOSAL OF LOVE
Reading edition
(Given to her in our early acquaintance)
“Oh! if I thought it could be in a woman (As, if it can, I will presume in you) To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love, To keep her constancy in plight and youth, Outliving beauties outward with a mind That doth renew swifter than blood decays: Or that persuasion could but thus convince me, That my integrity and truth to you Might be confronted with the match and weight Of such a winnowed purity in love— How were I then uplifted! But, alas, I am as true as truth’s simplicity, And simpler than the infancy of truth.” TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.