Virtue
is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best, in a body that
is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of
presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful
persons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were rather busy, not to
err, than in labor to produce excellency. And therefore they prove accomplished,
but not of great spirit; and study rather behavior, than virtue. But this holds
not always: for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Belle of France,
Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia,
were all high and great spirits; and yet the most beautiful men of their times.
In beauty, that of favor, is more than that of color; and that of decent and
gracious motion, more than that of favor. That is the best part of beauty, which
a picture cannot express; no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no
excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot
tell whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler; whereof the one,
would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best
parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think,
would please nobody, but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter
may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity
(as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by rule. A man
shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a
good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of
beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons in years
seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be
comely but by pardon, and considering the youth, as to make up the comeliness.
Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for
the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of
countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine,
and vices blush.