Simplex Munditiis

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Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powdr’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.


Also known in some anthologies as Clerimont's Song, being recited by the character of that name from Jonson's comedy, Epicoene, or the Silent Woman, first performed in 1609. The Latin title derives from one of the odes (Odes I, 5) of Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), and could be rendered in English as "Artless Elegance"; although one scholar has stated that the phrase is "untranslatable".

by Ben Johnson.