Sonnet XLV. Mine eye bewrays the secrets of my heart

Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)

MINE eye bewrays the secrets of my heart,

My heart unfolds his grief before her face:

Her face (bewitching pleasure of my smart!)

Deigns not one look of mercy and of grace.

My guilty eye of murder and of treason,

(Friendly conspirator of my decay,

Dumb eloquence, the lover’s strongest reason!)

Doth weep itself for anger quite away;

And chooseth rather not to be, than be

Disloyal, by too well discharging duty:

And being out, joys it no more can see

The sugared charms of all deceiving Beauty,

But (for the other greedily doth eye it),

I pray you, tell me, What do I get by it?