Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | Madrigal 20. My Love, alas, is sick! Fie, envious Sickness! | Barnabe Barnes (1569?1609) |
| MY LOVE, alas, is sick! Fie, envious Sickness! | |
That, at her breast (where rest all joys and ease), | |
Thou shouldst take such despite, her to displease, | |
In whom, all virtues health hath quickness! | |
Thou durst not come in living likeness! | 5 |
For hadst thou come, thou couldst not her disease! | |
Her beauty would not let thee press! | |
Sweet graces, which continually attend her, | |
At her short breath, breathe short! and sigh so deep! | |
Which Sicknesss sharp furies might appease: | 10 |
Both Loves and Graces strive to mend her. | |
O never let me rest; but sigh and weep! | |
Never but weep and sigh! Sick is my Love; | |
And I love-sick! Yet physic may befriend her! | |
But what shall my disease remove? | 15 | | |
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