Sir Philip Sidney. "Good brother Philip, I have borne thee long." Sonnet 83 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney.

Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet LXXXIII

Good brother Philip, I have borne thee long;
I was content you should in favour creep,
While craftily you seemed your cut to keep,
As though that soft fair hand did you great wrong:
I bare, with envy, yet I bare, your song,
When in her neck you did love ditties peep;
Nay, more fool I !  oft suffered you to sleep
In lilies' nest, where Love's self lies along.
What, doth high place ambitious thoughts augment?
Is sauciness reward of courtesy?
Cannot such grace your silly self content,
But you must needs with those lips billing be,
    And through those lips drink nectar from that tongue?
    Leave that, Sir Phip, lest off your neck be wrung !

Source:
A Sixteenth Century Anthology. Arthur Symons, Ed.
London: Blackie & Son, Ltd., 1905. 154.

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