Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Elegy I: Down in a bed, and on a bed of down

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

DOWN in a bed, and on a bed of down;

LOVE, She, and I to sleep together lay.

She, like a wanton, kissed me with a frown,

“Sleep, sleep!” she said; but meant to steal away

I could not choose but kiss, but wake, but smile,

To see how She thought us two to beguile.

She feigned a sleep. I waked her with a kiss.

A kiss to me she gave, to make me sleep.

“If I did wrong, sweet Love, my fault was this;

In that I did not you thus waking keep.

Then kiss me, Sweet! that so I sleep may take;

Or let me kiss, to keep you still awake!”

The night drew on, and needs she must be gone.

She wakèd LOVE, and bid him learn to wait.

She sighed, She said, to leave me there alone:

And bid LOVE stay; but practise no deceit.

LOVE wept for grief, and sighing made great moan:

And could not sleep, nor stay, if she were gone.

“Then stay, sweet Love!” A kiss with that I gave.

She could not stay; but gave my kiss again.

A kiss was all that I could get or crave:

And, with a kiss, She bound me to remain.

“A’ LICIA!” still I in my dreams did cry,

“Come, LICIA, come! or else my heart will die.”