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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)

Front Matter
I.  Fidessa fair! long live a happy maiden!
II.  How can that piercing crystal-painted eye
III.  Venus, and young Adonis sitting by her
IV.  Did you sometimes three German brethren see
V.  Arraigned, poor captive at the Bar I stand
VI.  Unhappy sentence! Worst of worst of pains
VII.  Oft have mine Eyes, the Agents of mine Heart
VIII.  Grief-urging Guest! great cause have I to plain me
IX.  My spotless love, that never yet was tainted
X.  Clip not, sweet Love, the wings of my Desire
XI.  Winged with sad woes, why doth fair Zephyr blow
XII.  O if my heavenly sighs must prove annoy
XIII.  Compare me to the child that plays with fire!
XIV.  When silent sleep had closèd up mine eyes
XV.  Care-charmer Sleep! Sweet ease in restless misery!
XVI.  For I have lovèd long, I crave reward!
XVII.  Sweet stroke! (so might I thrive as I must praise)
XVIII.  O, She must love my sorrows to assuage
XIX.  My pain paints out my love in doleful Verse
XX.  Great is the joy that no tongue can express!
XXI.  He that will Cæsar be, or else not be
XXII.  It was of love, ungentle gentle boy!
XXIII.  Fly to her heart! Hover about her heart!
XXIV.  Striving is past! Ah, I must sink and drown
XXV.  Compare me to Pygmalion with his Image ’sotted!
XXVI.  The silly bird that hastes unto the net
XXVII.  Poor worm, poor silly worm, alas, poor beast!
XXVIII.  Well may my soul, immortal and divine
XXIX.  Earth! take this earth wherein my spirits languish!
XXX.  Weep now no more, mine eyes; but be you drowned
XXXI.  Tongue, never cease to sing Fidessa’s praise!
XXXII.  Sore sick of late, Nature her due would have
XXXIII.  He that would fain Fidessa’s image see
XXXIV.  Fie, Pleasure! fie! Thou cloy’st me with delight
XXXV.  I have not spent the April of my time
XXXVI.  O let my heart, my body, and my tongue
XXXVII.  Fair is my love that feeds among the lilies
XXXVIII.  Was never eye did see my Mistress’s face
XXXIX.  My Lady’s hair is threads of beaten gold
XL.  Injurious Fates! to rob me of my bliss
XLI.  The prison I am in is thy fair face!
XLII.  When never-speaking silence proves a wonder
XLIII.  Tell me of love, Sweet Love, who is thy sire?
XLIV.  No choice of change can ever change my mind!
XLV.  Mine eye bewrays the secrets of my heart
XLVI.  So soon as peeping Lucifer, Aurora’s star
XLVII.  I see, I hear, I feel, I know, I rue
XLVIII.  “Murder! O murder!” I can cry no longer
XLIX.  My cruel fortunes, clouded with a frown
L.  When I the hooks of pleasure first devoured
LI.  Work! work apace, you blessed Sisters three!
LII.  It is some comfort to the wrongèd man
LIII.  I was a King of sweet Content at least
LIV.  If great Apollo offered as a dower
LV.  O, no, I dare not! O, I may not speak!
LVI.  Is Trust betrayed? Doth Kindness grow unkind?
LVII.  Three playfellows (such Three were never seen
LVIII.  O Beauty! Siren! kept with Circe’s rod!
LIX.  Do I, unto a cruel tiger play
LX.  O let me sigh, weep, wail, and cry no more
LXI.  Fidessa’s worth in time begetteth praise
LXII.  Most true that I must fair Fidessa love