| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Fidessa | | Sonnet LVII. Three playfellows (such Three were never seen | | Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602) |
| | | THREE playfellows (such Three were never seen | |
| In VENUS’s Court!) upon a summer’s day, | |
| Met altogether on a pleasant green, | |
| Intending at some pretty game to play. | |
| They DIAN, CUPID, and FIDESSA were. | 5 |
| Their wager, Beauty, bow, and Cruelty; | |
| The conqueress the stakes away did bear, | |
| Whose fortune then was it to win all three? | |
| FIDESSA! which doth these, as weapons use, | |
| To make the greatest heart, her will obey: | 10 |
| And yet the most obedient to refuse | |
| As having power, poor lovers to betray. | |
| With these, She wounds, She heals, gives life and death: | |
| More power hath none, that lives by mortal breath! | | | | |
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