Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
DianaThe Fourth Decade. Sonnet I. Needs must I leave, and yet needs must I love!
Henry Constable (15621613)N
In vain my wit doth tell in verse my woe:
Despair in me, disdain in thee, doth show
How by my wit I do my folly prove.
All this; my heart from love can never move.
Love is not in my heart. No, Lady! No,
My heart is love itself. Till I forego
My heart, I never can my love remove.
How can I then leave love? I do intend
Not to crave grace, but yet to wish it still;
Not to praise thee, but Beauty to commend:
And so, by Beauty’s praise, praise thee I will!
For as my heart is Love, love not in me:
So Beauty thou, beauty is not in thee!