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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet XVII. Relent, my dear, yet unkind Cœlia!

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Cœlia

Sonnet XVII. Relent, my dear, yet unkind Cœlia!

William Percy (1575–1648)

RELENT, my dear, yet unkind CŒLIA!

At length, relent, and give my sorrows end!

So shall I keep my long-wished holiday,

And set a trophy on a froward friend!

Nor tributes, nor imposts, nor other duties

Demand I will, as lawful Conqueror!

Duties, tributes, imposts unto thy beauties,

Myself will pay as yieldèd Servitor!

Then quick relent! thyself surrender us!

“Brave Sir, and why,” quoth She, “must I relent?”

“Relent,” cried I, “thyself doth conquer us!”

When eftsoons with my proper instrument

She cut me off, ay me! and answerèd,

“You cannot conquer, and be conquerèd.”