¶ Cardenia the Nimph, to her false Shep-
heard Faustus. +Printed in Yong, Diana (1598), p. 325. Cardenia tells Syrenus how ‘A little while after that the bitter newes of his vniust change [Faustus had left Cardenia for Diana] came to my knowledge, being mad with the extreme passion of loue, I wrote him this letter &c Sonnet’. Author: Bartholomew Yong. Structure (May/Ringler): 60: 6×10 a8b6aa8b6c8d6cc8d6
F Austus, if thou wilt reade from me These few and simple lines, By them most clearely thou shalt see, How little should accounted be (5) Thy faignedfeigned, false, deceitful words and signes. For noting well thy deedes vnkinde, Shepheard, thou must not scan: That euer it came to my minde, To praise thy faith like to the winde, (10) Or for a constant man.
For this in thee shall so be found, As smoake blowne in the aire: +See Psalms, lxviii.2: ‘Like as the smoke vanisheth, [so] wilt thou cause [them] to vanish away: and like as waxe melteth in the fire, [so] will the vngodly perish at the presence of the Lorde,’ The Bishops’ Bible. Or like Quick-siluer turning round, Or as a house built on the ground (15) Of sands that doe impaire. To firmenesse thou art contrarie, +See Matthew, vii.24-7: ‘Therefore, whosoeuer heareth of me these sayings, and doeth the same, I will liken him vnto a wise man, which built his house vpon a rocke… And every one that heareth of mee these sayings, and doth them not, shal be likened vnto a foolish man, which built his house vpon the sand…’, The Bishops’ Bible .
