| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Love’s Fidelity | | By Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) |
| | Translated by Earl of Surrey
SET me whereas the sun doth parch the green, | |
| Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice: | |
| In temperate heat, where he is felt and seen; | |
| In presence prest of people mad or wise; | |
| Set me in high, or yet in low degree; | 5 |
| In longest night, or in the shortest day; | |
| In clearest sky, or where clouds thickest be; | |
| In lusty youth, or when my hairs are grey: | |
| Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell, | |
| In hill or dale, or in the foaming flood; | 10 |
| Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell, | |
| Sick or in health, in evil fame or good, | |
| Hers will I be; and only with this thought | |
| Content myself although my chance be nought. | | | | |
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