Sonnet XLVIII. Innocent paper; whom too cruel hand

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

INNOCENT paper; whom too cruel hand

Did make the matter to avenge her ire:

And, ere she could thy cause well understand,

Did sacrifice unto the greedy fire.

Well worthy thou to have found better hire,

Than so bad end for heretics ordained;

Yet heresy nor treason didst conspire,

But plead thy master’s cause, unjustly pained.

Whom she, all careless of his grief, constrained

To utter forth the anguish of his heart:

And would not hear, when he to her complained

The piteous passion of his dying smart.

Yet live for ever, though against her will,

And speak her good, though she requite it ill.