| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Licia | | Sonnet XI. In Ida Vale three Queens, the Shepherd saw | | Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623) |
| | | IN Ida Vale three Queens, the Shepherd saw; | |
| Queens of esteem, divine, they were all three. | |
| A sight of worth, but I a wonder show: | |
| Their virtues all in one alone to be. | |
| LICIA the Fair surpassing VENUS’s pride, | 5 |
| (The matchless Queen, commander of the gods, | |
| When, drawn with doves, she in her pomp doth ride) | |
| Hath far more beauty and more grace by odds: | |
| JUNO, JOVE’s wife, unmeet to make compare; | |
| I grant a goddess, but not half so mild: | 10 |
| MINERVA wise, a virtue; but not rare. | |
| Yet these are mean, if that my Love but smiled. | |
| She them surpasseth, when their prides are full, | |
| As far as they surpass the meanest trull. | | | | |
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