Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Parthenophil and Parthenophe

Sonnet XIX. Imperious Jove, with sweet lipped Mercury

Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609)

IMPERIOUS JOVE, with sweet lipped MERCURY;

Learned MINERVA; PHŒBUS, God of Light;

Vein-swelling BACCHUS; VENUS, Queen of Beauty;

With light-foot PHŒBE, Lamp of silent Night:

These have, with divers deities beside,

Borrowed the shapes of many a mortal creature;

But fair PARTHENOPHE, graced with the pride

Of each of these, sweet Queen of lovely feature!

As though she were, with pearl of all their skill,

By heaven’s chief nature garnished. She knits

In wrath, JOVE’s forehead; with sweet noting quill,

She matcheth MERCURY, MINERVA’s wits;

In goldy locks, bright TITAN; BACCHUS sits

In her hands conduit pipes; sweet VENUS’ face;

DIANA’s leg, the Tyrian buskins grace.