Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Elizabethan Miscellanies

From A Handefull of Pleasant Delites: A Proper Sonnet: ‘I smile to see how you devise’ (Anonymous)

[1584.]

(To any pleasant Tune)

I SMILE to see how you devise

New masking nets my eyes to blear;

Yourself you cannot so disguise,

But as you are you must appear.

Your privy winks at board I see,

And how you set your roving mind;

Yourself you cannot hide from me,

Although I wink, I am not blind.

The secret sighs and feigned cheer

That oft doth pain thy careful breast,

To me right plainly doth appear;

I see in whom thy heart doth rest.

And though thou mak’st a feigned vow

That love no more thy heart should nip,

Yet think I know as well as thou

The fickle helm doth guide the ship.

The salamander in the fire

By course of wind doth bathe his limbs;

The floating fish tak’th his desire

In running streams whereas he swims.

So thou in change dost take delight;

Full well I know thy slippery kind;

In vain thou seem’st to dim my sight;

Thy rolling eyes bewray thy mind.

I see him smile that doth possess

Thy love, which once I honoured most;

If he be wise he may well guess

Thy love, soon won, will soon be lost.

And sith thou can no more entice

That he should still love thee alone,

Thy beauty now hath lost her price,

I see thy savoury scent is gone.

Therefore leave off thy wonted play,

But as thou art thou wilt appear;

Unless thou canst devise a way

To dark the sun that shines so clear.

And keep thy friend, that thou hast won;

In truth to him thy love supply;

Lest he at length, as I have done,

Take off thy bells, and let thee fly!