| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Licia | | Sonnet XXXVII. Sweet, I protest, and seal it with an oath | | Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623) |
| | | SWEET, I protest, and seal it with an oath, | |
| I never saw that so my thoughts did please: | |
| And yet content, displeased I see them wroth | |
| To love so much, and cannot have their ease. | |
| I told my thoughts, “My Sovereign made a pause: | 5 |
| Disposed to grant, but willing to delay.” | |
| They then repined, for that they knew no cause; | |
| And swore they wished She flatly would say “Nay.” | |
| Thus hath my love, my thoughts with treason filled; | |
| And ’gainst my Sovereign taught them to repine: | 10 |
| So thus my treason, all my thoughts hath killed; | |
| And made fair LICIA say, She is not mine. | |
| But thoughts too rash, my heart doth now repent: | |
| And, as you please, they swear they are content. | | | | |
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