rning's image, or some heavenly wonder, which the precisest may not
dislike: perhaps under that name I have shadowed Discipline. It may be I
mean that kind courtesy which I found at the patroness of these poems.
It may be some college; it may be my conceit, and portend nothing." It
is evident then that the patroness herself is not the real person behind
the poetic title. He therefore dedicates _Licia_ to Lady Molineux, not
because the sonnets themselves are addressed to her, but because he has
received "favours undeserved" at her hands and those of "wise Sir
Richard" for which he "wants means to make recompence," and therefore in
the meantime he begs her to accept this. "If thou like it," he says to
the reader, "take it, and thank the worthy Lady Mollineux, for whose
sake thou hast it; worthy, indeed, and so not only reputed by me in
private affection of thankfulness but so equally to be esteemed by all
that know her. For if I had not received of her ... those unrequitable
favours, I had not thus idly toyed."

A warm admirer of Fletcher has expressed his opinion that _Licia_
"sparkles with brilliants of the first water." A more temperate
judgment is that of another, who says that he "took part without
discredit in the choir of singers who were men of action too." _Licia_
is what a typical sonnet-cycle ought to be, a delicate and almost
intangible thread of story on which are strung the separate
sonnet-pearls. In this case the jewels have a particular finish.
Fletcher has adopted the idea of a series of quatrains, often extending
the number to four, and a concluding couplet, which he seems fond of
utilising to give an epigrammatic finish to the ingenious incident he so
often makes the subject of the sonnet. He is fully in the spirit of the
Italian mode, however, acknowledging in his title page his indebtedness
to poets of other nationalities than his own.

TO LICIA

THE WISE, KIND, VIRTUOUS, AND FAIR

Bright matchless star, the honour of the sky,
From whose clear shine heaven's vault hath all his light,
I send these poems to your graceful eye;
Do you but take them, and they have their right.
I build besides a temple to your name,
Wherein my thoughts shall daily sing your praise;
And will erect an altar for the same,
Which shall your virtues and your honour raise.
But heaven the temple of your honour is,
Whose brasen tops your worthy self made proud;
The ground an