As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune’s dearest spite
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more
Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis’d,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,
That I in thy abundance am suffic’d
And by a part of all thy glory live:
Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee,
This wish I have; then ten times happy me.
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