If I freely can discover <br />What would please me in my lover, <br /> I would have her fair and witty, <br /> Savouring more of court than city; <br /> A little proud, but full of pity; <br /> Light and humourous in her toying; <br /> Oft building hopes, and soon destroying; <br /> Long, but sweet in the enjoying, <br />Neither too easy, nor too hard: <br />All extremes I would have barred. <br /> <br />She should be allowed her passions, <br />So they were but used as fashions; <br /> Sometimes froward, and then frowning, <br /> Sometimes sickish, and then swowning, <br /> Every fit with change still crowning. <br /> Purely jealous I would have her; <br /> Then only constant when I crave her, <br /> ’Tis a virtue should not save her. <br />Thus, nor her delicates would cloy me, <br />Neither her peevishness annoy me.<br /><br />Ben Jonson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/his-supposed-mistress/
