I
_Complaint of his lady's sickness_
Uncivil sickness, hast thou no regard,
But dost presume my dearest to molest,
And without leave dar'st enter in that breast
Whereto sweet love approach yet never dared?
Spare thou her health, which my life hath not spared;
Too bitter such revenge of my unrest!
Although with wrongs my thought she hath opprest,
My wrongs seek not revenge, they crave reward
Cease, sickness, cease in her then to remain;
And come and welcome, harbour thou in me
Whom love long since hath taught to suffer in!
So she which hath so oft my pain increased,
O God, that I might so revengèd be,
By my poor pain might have her pain released!
[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_.]