| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Elegy VIII. “Cease, Sorrow! Cease, O cease thy rage a little! | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | “CEASE, Sorrow! Cease, O cease thy rage a little! | |
| Ah, Little Ease! O, grant some little ease! | |
| O Fortune, ever constant, never brittle! | |
| For as thou ’gan, so dost thou still displease. | |
| Ah, ceaseless Sorrow! take a truce with me! | 5 |
| Remorseless tyrants, sometimes, will take peace | |
| Upon conditions; and I’ll take of thee | |
| Conditions; so thou wilt, thy fury cease! | |
| And dear conditions! for to forfeit life, | |
| So thou wilt end thy plagues, and vex no more!” | 10 |
| But, out alas! he will not cease his strife! | |
| Lest he should lose his privilege before! | |
| For were I dead, my Sorrow’s rule were nought, | |
| And, whiles I live, he, like a tyrant rageth! | |
| “Ah, rage, fierce Tyrant! for this grief is wrought | 15 |
| By Love, thy counsel; which my mind engageth | |
| To thy fierce thraldom, while he spoils mine heart!” | |
| So be my mind and heart imprisoned fast | |
| To two fierce Tyrants, which this empire part. | |
| “O milder Goddess! Shall this, for ever, last? | 20 |
| If that I have these bitter plagues deserved; | |
| Yet let Repentance (which my soul doth melt) | |
| Obtain some favour, if you be not swerved | |
| From laws of mercy!” Know what plagues I felt! | |
| Yea, but I doubt enchantment in my breast! | 25 |
| For never man, so much aggrieved as I, | |
| Could live with ceaseless Sorrow’s weight opprest, | |
| But twenty thousand times, perforce, should die! | |
| And with eyes, She did bewitch mine heart; | |
| Which lets it live, but feel an endless smart. | 30 | | | |
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