Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
DiellaSonnet VI. Mirror of Beauty! Natures fairest Child!
Richard Linche (fl. 15961601)M
Empress of Love! my heart’s high-prizèd jewel!
Learn of the Dove, to love and to be mild!
be not to him that honours thee, so cruel!
But as the Asp, deaf, angry, nothing meek;
thou will not listen to my doleful plaint!
Nor once wilt look on my discoloured cheek!
which wanting blood, causeth me oft to faint.
Then, silent will I be! if that will please thee:
yet so, as in my stead, each plain, each hill
Shall echo forth my grief! and thereby ease me;
for I myself, of speaking have my fill.
If plains and hills be silent in my pain;
My death shall speak! and tell what I sustain!