| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Fidessa | | Sonnet VI. Unhappy sentence! Worst of worst of pains | | Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602) |
| | | UNHAPPY sentence! Worst of worst of pains, | |
| To be in darksome silence, out of ken, | |
| Banished from all that bliss the world contains, | |
| And thrust from out the companies of men. | |
| Unhappy sentence! Worse than worst of deaths, | 5 |
| Never to see FIDESSA’s lovely face! | |
| O better were I lose ten thousand breaths, | |
| Than ever live in such unseen disgrace! | |
| Unhappy sentence! Worse than pains of hell, | |
| To live in self-tormenting griefs alone; | 10 |
| Having my heart, my prison and my cell, | |
| And there consumed, without relief to moan! | |
| If that the sentence so unhappy be, | |
| Then what am I, that gave the same to me? | | | | |
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