[The Sonnets numbered II to VIII in this Decade are by Sidney, and were printed among the Certaine Sonets in the 1598 edition of the Arcadia.]
IX
Woe to mine eyes, the organs of mine ill;
Hate to my heart, for not concealing joy;
A double curse upon my tongue be still,
Whose babbling lost what else I might enjoy!
When first mine eyes did with thy beauty joy,
They to my heart thy wondrous virtues told;
Who, fearing lest thy beams should him destroy,
Whate'er he knew, did to my tongue unfold.
My tell-tale tongue, in talking over bold,
What they in private council did declare,
To thee, in plain and public terms unrolled;
And so by that made thee more coyer far.
What in thy praise he spoke, that didst thou trust;
And yet my sorrows thou dost hold unjust.
X
Of an Athenian young man have I read,
Who on blind fortune's picture doated so,
That when he could not buy it to his bed,
On it he gazing died for very woe.
My fortune's picture art thou, flinty dame,
That settest golden apples to my sight;
But wilt by no means let me taste the same.
To drown in sight of land is double spite.
Of fortune as thou learn'dst to be unkind,
So learn to be unconstant to disdain.
The wittiest women are to sport inclined.
Honour is pride, and pride is nought but pain.
Let others boast of choosing for the best;
'Tis substances not names must make us blest.
THE FOURTH DECADE
I
Of the end and death of his love