| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XLIX. Fair cruel! why are ye so fierce and cruel? | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | FAIR cruel! why are ye so fierce and cruel? | |
| Is it because your eyes have power to kill? | |
| Then know that mercy is the Mighty’s jewel: | |
| And greater glory think, to save than spill. | |
| But if it be your pleasure, and proud will, | 5 |
| To shew the power of your imperious eyes; | |
| Then not on him that never thought you ill, | |
| But bend your force against your enemies: | |
| Let them feel th’ utmost of your cruelties; | |
| And kill with looks, as cockatrices do: | 10 |
| But him, that at your footstool humbled lies, | |
| With merciful regard give mercy to. | |
| Such mercy shall you make admir’d to be; | |
| So shall you live, by giving life to me. | | | | |
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