Chapter I: SPEAK, fair LICIA, what my torments be;

But then my speech too partial do I find:
For hardly words can with those thoughts agree:
Those thoughts that swarm in such a troubled mind.
Then do I vow my tongue shall never speak,
Nor tell my grief that in my heart doth lie:
But, cannon-like, I, then surcharged, do break.
And so my silence worse than speech I try.
Thus speech, or none, they both do breed my care:
I live dismayed and kill my heart with grief.
In all respects my case alike doth fare.
To him that wants; and dares not ask relief.
Then you, fair LICIA, Sovereign of my heart,
Read to yourself my anguish and my smart!

SONNET XXXVII.

SWEET, I protest, and seal it with an oath,
I never saw that so my thoughts did please:
And yet content, displeased I see them wroth
To love so much, and cannot have their ease.
I told my thoughts, "My Sovereign made a pause:
Disposed to grant, but willing to delay."
They then repined, for that they knew no cause;
And swore they wished She flatly would say "Nay."
Thus hath my love, my thoughts with treason filled;
And 'gainst my Sovereign taught them to repine:
So thus my treason, all my thoughts hath killed;
And made fair LICIA say, She is not mine.
But thoughts too rash, my heart doth now repent:
And, as you please, they swear they are content.

SONNET XXXVIII.

FAIR matchless Nymph, respect but what I crave?
My thoughts are true, and honour is my love.
I fainting die, whom yet a smile might save.
You gave the wound, and can the hurt remove.
Those eyes, like stars that twinkle in the night;
And cheeks, like rubies pale in lilies dyed;
Those ebon [_ivory_] hands that darting have such might:
That in my soul, my love and life divide.
Accept the Passions of a man possesst!
Let love be loved, and grant me leave to live!
Disperse those clouds that darkened have my rest;
And let your heaven, a sun-like smile but give!
Then shall I praise that heaven for such a sun;
That saved my life, when as my grief begun.

SONNET XXXIX.

MY grief began, fair Saint, when first I saw
Love, in those eyes, sit ruling with disdain;
Whose sweet commands did keep a world in awe:
And caused them serve, your favour to obtain.
I stood as one enchanted with a frown;
Yet smiled to see all creatures serve those eyes:
Where each with sighs paid tribute to that crown;
And thought them gracèd by your dumb replies.
But I, ambitious, could not be content
Till that my service, more than sighs made known;
And for that end, my heart to you I sent,
To say and swear that, Fair! it is your own.
Then greater graces, LICIA, do impart!
Not dumb replies, unto a speaking heart.

SONNET XL.

_A Sonnet made upon the Two Twins, daughters of the
Lady MOLLINEUX; both passing like, and exceeding[ly] fair._

POETS did feign that heavens a VENUS had;
Matchless herself, and CUPID was her son.
Men sued to these, and of their smiles were glad;
By whom so many famous were undone.
Now CUPID mourns that he hath lost his might,
And that these Two so comely are to see;
And VENUS frowns, because they have her right:
Yet both so like that both shall blameless be.
With heaven's Two Twins for godhead these may strive;
And rule a World with least part of a frown:
Fairer than these Two Twins are not alive;
Both conquering Queens, and both deserve a Crown.
My thoughts presage, which time to come shall try,
That thousands conquered, for their love shall die.

SONNET XLI.

IF, aged CHARON, when my life shall end,
I pass thy ferry and my waftage pay,
Thy oars shall fail thy boat, and mast shall rend;
And through the deep shall be a dry footway.
For why? My heart with sighs doth breathe such flame
That air and water both incensèd be:
The boundless ocean from whose mouth they came
(For from my heat not heaven itself is free!).
Then since to me my loss can be no gain;
Avoid thy harm, and fly what I foretell!
Make thou my Love with me for to be slain;
That I with her, and both with thee, may dwell.
Thy fact thus, CHARON, both of us shall bless:
Thou save thy boat, and I my Love possess.

SONNET XLII.

FOR if alone thou think to waft my Love,
Her cold is such as can the sea command;
And frozen ice shall let [_hinder_] thy boat to move.
Nor can thy forces row it from the land.
But if thou, friendly, both at once shall take;
Thyself mayest rest! For why? My sighs will blow.
Our cold and heat so sweet a thaw shall make
As that thy boat, without thy help, shall row.
Then will I sit and glut me on those eyes
Wherewith my life, my eyes could never fill.
Thus from thy boat that comfort shall arise,
The want whereof my life and hope did kill.
Together placed, so thou her scorn shalt cross:
Where if we part, thy boat must suffer loss.

SONNET XLIII.

ARE those two stars, her eyes, my life's light, gone?
By which my soul was freeèd from all dark:
And am I left distressed to live alone,
Where none my tears and mournful tale shall mark?
Ah, Sun! why shine thy looks, thy looks like gold;
When, horseman brave, thou risest in the East?
Ah, CYNTHIA pale, to whom my griefs I told!
Why do you both rejoice both man and beast?
And I alone, alone that dark possess
By LICIA's absence, brighter than the Sun:
Whose smiling light did ease my sad distress,
And broke the clouds when tears like rain begun.
Heavens grant that light, and so me waking keep:
Or shut my eyes, and rock me fast asleep!

SONNET XLIV.

CRUEL fair Love! I justly do complain
Of too much rigour, and thy heart unkind;
That, for mine eyes, thou hast my body slain:
And would not grant that I should favour find.
I looked, fair Love! and you my Love looked fair.
I sighed for love, and you for sport did smile.
Your smiles were such as did perfume the air;
And this perfumèd, did my heart beguile.
Thus I confess the fault was in mine eyes,
Begun with sighs, and endèd with a flame.
I, for your love, did all the world despise;
And in these Poems honoured have your name.
Then let your love so with my fault dispense,
That all my parts feel not mine eyes' offence.

SONNET XLV.

THERE shone a Comet, and it was full West.
My thought presagèd what it did portend:
I found it threatened, to my heart unrest;
And might, in time, my joys and comfort end.
I further sought, and found it was a Sun;
Which day, nor night, did never use to set.
It constant stood, when heavens did restless run;
And did their virtues and their forces let.
The World did muse, and wonder what it meant:
A Sun to shine, and in the West to rise.
To search the truth, I strength and spirits spent.
At length I found it was my LICIA's eyes.
Now, never after, soul shall live in dark.
That hath the hap, this western Sun to mark.

SONNET XLVI.

IF he be dead in whom no heart remains,
Or lifeless be in whom no life is found;
If he do pine, that never comfort gains;
And be distressed that hath his deadly wound:
Then must I die, whose heart elsewhere is clad;
And lifeless pass the greedy worms to feed:
Then must I pine, that never comfort had;
And be distressed, whose wound with tears doth bleed.
Which if I do, why do I not wax cold?
Why rest I not like one that wants a heart?
Why move I still like him that life doth hold;
And sense enjoy both of my joy and smart?
Like NIOBE Queen, which, made a stone, did weep:
LICIA my heart, dead and alive, doth keep.

SONNET XLVII.

LIKE MEMNON's rock, touched with the rising sun,
Which yields a sound, and echoes forth a voice:
But when it's drowned in western seas is dumb;
And drowsy-like, leaves off to make a noise.
So I, my Love, enlightened with your shine,
A Poet's skill within my soul I shroud;
Not rude, like that which finer wits decline;
But such as Muses, to the best allowed.
But when your figure and your shape is gone;
I speechless am, like as I was before:
Or if I write, my verse is filled with moan;
And blurred with tears, by falling in such store.
Then muse not, LICIA, if my Muse be slack:
For when I wrote, I did thy beauty lack.

SONNET XLVIII.