. Old love stories retold. Sir Philip Sidney & Lady Devereux If that any thought in meCan tast comfort but of thee,Let me, fed with hellish anguish,Joylesse, hopelesse, endlesse languish . . If to secret of my hart,I do any wish impart,Where thou art not foremost placed,Be both wish and I defaced. If more may be sayd, I say,All my blisse in thee I lay;If thou love, my love content all love, all faith is meant thee. Trust me, while I thee deny,In my selfe the smart I try;Tyran honour doth thus use thee,Stellas selfe might not refuse thee Therefore, deere, this no more move,Least, thoug
. Old love stories retold. Sir Philip Sidney & Lady Devereux If that any thought in meCan tast comfort but of thee,Let me, fed with hellish anguish,Joylesse, hopelesse, endlesse languish . . If to secret of my hart,I do any wish impart,Where thou art not foremost placed,Be both wish and I defaced. If more may be sayd, I say,All my blisse in thee I lay;If thou love, my love content all love, all faith is meant thee. Trust me, while I thee deny,In my selfe the smart I try;Tyran honour doth thus use thee,Stellas selfe might not refuse thee Therefore, deere, this no more move,Least, though I leave not thy love,Which too deep in me is framed,I should blush when thou are named. Did a loving woman ever deny her lover inwords of more heavenly tenderness and purity,and did ever a lover interpret such a denial withso fine a touch ? The whole poem seems to havea prophetic accent of Lovelaces famous cry ahundred years later: I could not love thee, dear, so much,Loved I not honour more. [61]. Old Love Stories RetoldBut, mirror of chivalry and soul ofhonour as Sidney was, it seems to havetaken him some time to accept the lessonStella thus taught; and, indeed, it mightwell seem that the true honour was on theside of his honourable love rather than onthe side of a dishonourable , when at last we find him biddinghis noble farewell to the love that wasthe very life of his pure heart, the termsof his farewell do not indicate that heabandoned that love from any sense ofits dishonour in that worldly sense ofwhich Stella had reminded him, but be-cause — as some saint might abandonthe world for the service of God, or assome patriot might sacrifice his domesticties to the service of his country — hehad determined to abandon earthly lovealtogether. Stella could not, would not,be his, and as time proved her deter-mination to be irrevocable, Sidney, inspite of all his ardent worship for her,could but at length come home to his I J
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlegallie, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
