| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXXXV. Venomous tongue tipp’d with vile adders’ sting | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | VENOMOUS tongue tipp’d with vile adders’ sting, | |
| Of that self kind with which the Furies fell | |
| Their snaky heads do comb, from which a spring | |
| Of poisoned words and spiteful speeches well; | |
| Let all the plagues, and horrid pains, of hell | 5 |
| Upon thee fall for thine accursed hire | |
| That with false forged lies, which thou didst tell, | |
| In my true love did stir up coals of ire, | |
| The sparks whereof let kindle thine own fire, | |
| And, catching hold on thine own wicked head, | 10 |
| Consume thee quite, that didst with guile conspire | |
| In my sweet peace such breaches to have bred! | |
| Shame be thy meed, and mischief thy reward, | |
| Due to thy self, that it for me prepared! | | | | |
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