Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
IdeaSonnet 24. I hear some say, “This man is not in love!”
Michael Drayton (1563–1631)[First printed in 1602 (No. 27), and in all later editions. ]
I
“Who! can he love? a likely thing!” they say.
“Read but his Verse, and it will easily prove!”
O, judge not rashly, gentle Sir, I pray!
Because I loosely trifle in this sort,
As one that fain his sorrows would beguile:
You now suppose me, all this time, in sport;
And please yourself with this conceit the while.
Ye shallow Censures! sometimes, see ye not,
In greatest perils, some men pleasant be;
Where Fame by death is only to be got,
They resolute! So stands the case with me.
Where other men, in depth of Passion cry;
I laugh at Fortune, as in jest to die!