II. What crimson gown, with drops of blood ywrought

Robert Tofte (1561–1620)

WHAT crimson gown, with drops of blood ywrought,

Which LAURA wears, a token is most true,

How that of blood desirous is her thought:

And that ’tis so, I best can tell to you.

My wrongèd heart too well doth find the same;

Who, thousand times, not once, hath wrongèd been

By her: and, now, to aggravate my pain,

(More cruel in desire for to be seen),

By outward habit [dress] covets She to show

What, inward, in her mind She hides below.