| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet XI. Why didst thou, then, in such disfigured guise | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | WHY didst thou, then, in such disfigured guise, | |
| Figure the portrait of mine overthrow? | |
| Why, man-like, didst thou mean to tyrannize? | |
| No man, but woman would have sinnèd so! | |
| Why, then, inhuman, and my secret foe! | 5 |
| Didst thou betray me? yet would be a woman! | |
| From my chief wealth, outweaving me this woe, | |
| Leaving thy love in pawn, till time did come on | |
| When that thy trustless bonds were to be tried! | |
| And when, through thy default, I thee did summon | 10 |
| Into the Court of Steadfast Love, then cried, | |
| “As it was promised, here stands his Heart’s bail! | |
| And if in bonds to thee, my love be tied; | |
| Then by those bonds, take Forfeit of the Sale!” | | | | |
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