Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Diella

Sonnet XXXVI. Long did I wish, before I could attain

Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601)

LONG did I wish, before I could attain

the looked-for sight, I so desired to see;

Too soon, at last I saw what bred my bane,

and ever since hath sore tormented me.

I saw Herself, whom had I never seen,

my wealth of bliss had not been turned to bale.

Greedy regard of Her, my heart’s sole queen,

hath changed my summer’s sun to winter’s hail.

How oft have I, since that first fatal hour,

beheld her all-fair shape with begging eye,

Till She, unkind, hath killed me with a lower,

and bade my humble-suing looks look by.

O pity me, fair Love! and highest fame

Shall blazèd be, in honour of thy name.