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Poetry · Poem

Simplex Munditiis

Ben JonsonEnglish RenaissancePoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
STILL to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powder’d, 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 th’ adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

The speaker distrusts a lady kept perpetually dressed, powdered and perfumed, and asks instead for loose robes and free hair, since studied art strikes the eyes but not the heart.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.