| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Zepheria | | Canzon 36. But if, with error and unjust suspect | | Anonymous |
| | | BUT if, with error and unjust suspect, | |
| Thou shalt the burden of my grievance aggravate! | |
| Laying unto my charge thy love’s neglect | |
| (A load which patience cannot tolerate!) | |
| First, to be ATLAS to my own Desire, | 5 |
| Then, to depress me with unkind construction; | |
| While to mine own griefs may I scarce respire: | |
| This is to heap Ossa on Pelion! | |
| O would the reach yet of unequal censure | |
| Might here but date his partiality; | 10 |
| Mistrust (who ne’er is ripe, till worst be thought on) | |
| Hath my crime racked, yet to more high extensure. | |
| And now ’tis drawn to flat Apostasy | |
| (So straight beset; best, I lay hold on pardon!) | |
| Why then, sith better i’st a penitentiary | 15 |
| To save, than to expose to shame’s confusion. | |
| Thy face being veiled, this penance I award, | |
| “Clad in white sheet, thou stand in Paul’s Churchyard!” | | | | |
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