Still to Be Neat
Ben Jonson
Still to be neat, still to be dressed,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powdered, still perfumed:
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound. Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free:
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
--From The Silent Woman
Robert Herrick called Jonson "Saint Ben," helped himself to parts of this marvelous song from one of Jonson's plays. The "sweet" and "neglect" are used also in Herrick's "Deilght in Disorder" and "taketh" (was ever a mot more juste?) also graces Herrick's "Upon Julia's Clothes"