Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
FidessaSonnet XLIV. No choice of change can ever change my mind!
Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)N
Choiceless my choice, the choicest choice alive:
Wonder of women, were She not unkind:
The pitiless of pity to deprive.
Yet She, the kindest creature of her kind,
Accuseth me of self-ingratitude:
And well She may! Sith, by good proof I find
Myself had died, had She not helpful stood.
For when my sickness had the upper hand,
And death began to show his awful face;
She took great pains, my pains for to withstand;
And eased my heart that was in heavy case.
But cruel now, she scorneth what it craveth:
Unkind in kindness, murdering while she saveth!