| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The First Decade
Sonnet X. Heralds at arms do three perfections quote | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | HERALDS at arms do three perfections quote, | |
| To wit, most fair, most rich, most glittering; | |
| So, when those three concur within one thing, | |
| Needs must that thing, of honour, be a note. | |
| Lately, I did behold a rich fair coat, | 5 |
| Which wishèd Fortune to mine eyes did bring. | |
| A Lordly coat, yet worthy of a King, | |
| In which one might all these perfections note. | |
| A field of lilies, roses “proper” bare; | |
| Two stars “in chief”; the “crest” was waves of gold. | 10 |
| How glittering ’twas, might by the stars appear; | |
| The lilies made it fair for to behold. | |
| And RICH it was, as by the gold appeareth: | |
| But happy he that in his arms it weareth! | | | | |
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