“Unseen, unknown, I here alone complain
To rocks, to hills, to meadows, and to SPRING,
Which can no help return to ease my pain,
But back my sorrows the sad Echo brings.
Thus still increasing are my woes to me,
Doubly resounded by that moanful voice,
Which seems to second me in misery,
And answer gives like friend of mine own choice.
Thus only she doth my companion prove,
The others silently do offer ease.
But those that grieve, a grieving note do love;
Pleasures to dying eyes bring but disease:
And such am I, who daily ending live,
Wailing a state which can no comfort give”.
Built 1615 for Mary Sidney Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke
Dismantled 1794 by Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford
A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to LOVE
He may our Prophett, and our Tutor proove,
In whom alone we doe this power finde,
To joine two hearts as in one frame to moove
Two bodies, but one soule to rule the minde
Eyes which must care to one deare
Object binde,Eares to each others speach as if above
All else, they sweete, and learned were; this kind
Content of Lovers witnesseth true love.
It doth inrich the wits, and make you see
That in your selfe which you knew not before,
Forceing you to admire such guifts showld be
Hid from your knowledge, yet in you the store.
Millions of these adorne the throane of
Love,How blest bee they then, who his favours prove?
British School
The National Library of Wales
How bless'd bee they, then, who his favors prove
A life whereof the birth is just desire?
Breeding sweete flame, which harts inuite to move,
In these lov'd eyes which kindle Cupids fire,
And nurse his longings with his thoughts intire,
Fix't on the heat of wishes form'd by Love,
Yet whereas fire destroyes, this doth aspire,
Increase, and foster all delights above.
Love will a Painter make you, such, as you
Shall able be to draw, your onely deare,
More lively, perfect, lasting, and more true
Then rarest Workeman, and to you more neere.
These be the least, then all must needs confesse,
He that shuns Love, doth love himselfe the lesse.
“Then hope, who godly be,
Or come of godly race: Endless your bliss, as never ending he,
His presence Your unchanged place.”
Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke, who was a role model for women as a writer, translator, editor, and Protestant activist!
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