Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Sonnets and Poetical Translations

XXXI. Of this high grace, with bliss conjoined

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

The same SIRENO in MONTEMAYOR holding his mistress’s glass before her; looking upon her, while she viewed herself; thus sang:

OF this high grace, with bliss conjoined,

No further debt on me is laid;

Since that in selfsame metal coined

Sweet lady! you remain well paid.

For if my place give me great pleasure,

Having before me Nature’s treasure;

In face and eyes unmatched being:

You have the same in my hands, seeing

What in your face, mine eyes do measure.

Nor think the match unev’nly made,

That of those beams in you do tarry!

The glass to you, but gives a shade;

To me, mine eyes the true shape carry.

For such a thought most highly prized,

Which ever hath love’s yoke despised,

Better than one captived perceiveth.

Though he the lively form receiveth;

The other sees it but disguised.