Love and Wit

by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

My meaning is to work what wonders love hath wrought,
Wherewith I muse, why men of wit have love so dearly bought.
For love is worse than hate, and eke more harm hath done;
Record I take of those that rede of Paris, Priam’s son.
It seemed the god of sleep had mazed so much his wits,
When he refused wit for love, which cometh but by fits.
But why accuse I him, whom th’ earth hath covered long?
There be of his posterity alive, I do him wrong.
Whom I might well condemn, to be a cruel judge
Unto myself, who hath the crime in others that I grudge.