| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Madrigal 2. Might not this be for man’s more certainty | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | MIGHT not this be for man’s more certainty, | |
| By Nature’s laws enactit, | |
| That those which do true meaning falsify, | |
| Making such bargains as were precontractit, | |
| Should forfeit freelege of love’s tenancy | 5 |
| To th’ plaintiff grieved, if he exact it. | |
| Think on my love, thy faith! yet hast thou cracked it. | |
| Nor Nature, Reason, Love, nor Faith can make thee | |
| To pity me! My prisoned heart to pity, | |
| Sighs, no fit incense, nor my plaints can wake thee! | 10 |
| Thy nose, from savour, and thine ears, from sound | |
| Stopped and obdurate, nought could shake thee! | |
| Think on, when thou such pleasure found | |
| To read my lines! and reading, termed them witty! | |
| Whiles lines, for love; and brains, for beauty witless; | 15 |
| I for Thee, fever scorched; yet Thou still fitless! | | | | |
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