dedicated his "slender work" _Fidessa_ to William Essex of Lamebourne
in Berkshire. He adds an address to the Gentlemen of the Inns of
Court, whom he begs to "censure mildly as protectors of a poor
stranger" and "judge the best as encouragers of a young beginner." Of
the poet little further is known. From the sonnets themselves we learn
that Fidessa was "of high regard," the child of a beautiful mother and
of a renowned father; she sprang in fact from the same root with the
poet himself, who writes "Gent." after his name on the title-page. She
had been kind to him in sickness and had "yielded to each look of his
a sweet reply." After giving these slight hints, he pushes forth from
the moorings of realism and sets sail on the ocean of the sonneteer's
fancy, meeting the usual adventures. His sonnets, while showing
versatility and ingenuity, lack spontaneous feeling and have serious
defects in form; yet these defects are in part offset by their
conversational ease and dramatic vividness.




TO FIDESSA


I

_Fertur Fortunam Fortuna favere ferenti_


Fidessa fair, long live a happy maiden!
Blest from thy cradle by a worthy mother,
High-thoughted like to her, with bounty laden,