| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Laura—Part III. | | Conclusion: Timantes, when he saw he could not paint | | Robert Tofte (1561–1620) |
| | | TIMANTES, when he saw he could not paint | |
| With lively colours, to his lasting fame, | |
| Such works he took in hand; and found too faint | |
| His cunning: seeking for to hide the same, | |
| He over them a subtil Shadow drew; | 5 |
| So that his faults, or none, or few, could view. | |
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| So, Lady, I finding my wit too weak, | |
| With current terms, your beauty forth to blaze; | |
| And that to arrive, too blunt is my conceit, | |
| Unto the height of your surmounting praise: | 10 |
| With silence forcèd am, against my will, | |
| To shadow my defect, the want of skill. | |
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| Yet do I hope, the Shadow you’ll not scorn: | |
| Since Princes, in their stately arbours green, | |
| Account of shade, as trees which fruit adorn; | 15 |
| Because from heat they welcome shelters been. | |
| The Shadow shields, ’gainst sun, your beauty fair; | |
| Which else his scorching heat would much impair. | |
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| Then though a Shadow without fruit I be; | |
| And scarce yield leaves to cover this my bark: | 20 |
| Accept these leaves, thy Beauty’s Shade, of me! | |
| Where wealth doth ebb, goodwill doth flow from heart. | |
| Deign me, for all my love, but Shadow thine! | |
| Thy Substance ’s too too high for fortune mine. R. T. | | | | |
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