260. ‘In tale stella duo belli occhi vidi,’

I saw two eyes beneath such stars,

all filled with chastity and sweetness,

that near those gracious nests of Love,

my heart scorns every other sight.

There is none more appreciated, or equal

to her, in any age, on any foreign shore:

not Helen who with her errant beauty brought

trouble to Greece, the last despair to Troy:

nor Lucretia, the lovely Roman, who pierced

her chaste and disdainful breast with steel:

not Polyxena, Hypsipyle, or Argia.

Her excellence, if I do not err, is Nature’s

great glory, and is my supreme delight,

except she came so late, and swiftly passes.