The Arte of English Poesie, page 199 by George Puttenham
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then another, & is a figure of great both efficacie & ornament, as he that declaring the great calamitie of an infortunate prince, said thus:
_He lost besides his children and his wife,
His realme, ronowne, liege, libertie and life._
By which it appeareth that to any noble Prince the losse of his estate ought not to be so greeuous, as of his honour, nor any of them both like to the lacke of his libertie, but that life is the dearest detriment of any other. We call this figure by the Greeke originall the Auancer or figure of encrease because every word that is spoken is one of more weight then another. And as we lamented the crueltie of an inexorable and unfaithfull mistresse.
_If by the lawes of love it be a falt,
The faithfull friend, in absence to forget:
But if it be (once do thy heart but halt,)
A secret sinne: what forfet is so great:
As by despute in view of every eye,
The solemne vowes oft sworne with teares so salt,
As holy Leagues fast seald with hand and hart:
For to repeale and breake so wilfully?
But now (alas) without all iust desart,
My lot is for my troth and much goodwill,
To reape disdaine, hatred and rude refuse,
Or if ye would worke me some greater ill:
And of myne earned ioyes to feele no part,
What els is this (o cruell) but to vse,
Thy murdring knife to guiltlesse bloud to spill._
Where ye see how she is charged first with a fault, then with a secret sinne, afterward with a foule forfet, last of all with a most cruel & bloudy deede. And thus againe in a certaine lovers complaint made to the like effect.
_They say it is a ruth to see thy lover neede,
But you can see me weepe, but you can see me bleede:
And neuer shrinke nor shame, ne shed no teare at all,
You make my wounds your selfe, and fill them up with gall: Yea you can see me sound, and faint for want of breath,
And gaspe and grone for life, and struggle still with death, What can you now do