| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet XVI. Yea, that accursed Deed, before unsealed | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | YEA, that accursed Deed, before unsealed, | |
| Is argument of thy first constancy! | |
| Which if thou hadst to me before revealed; | |
| I had not pleaded in such fervency. | |
| Yet this delights, and makes me triumph much, | 5 |
| That mine Heart, in her body lies imprisoned! | |
| For, ’mongst all bay-crowned conquerors, no such | |
| Can make the slavish captive boast him conquered, | |
| Except PARTHENOPHE; whose fiery gleams | |
| (Like JOVE’s swift lightning raging, which rocks pierceth) | 10 |
| Heating them inly with his sudden beams, | |
| And secret golden mines with melting searseth | |
| Eftsoons with cannon, his dread rage rehearseth; | |
| Yet nought seems scorched, in apparent sight. | |
| So first, She secret burnt; then, did affright! | 15 | | | |
|
|
