Note 81 — Chapter IX · THE ELIZABETHAN PROSE-WRITERS.

The first of these sentences hardly gives the full absurdity of the Spanish. “La razon de la sinrazon que á mi razon se hace de tal manera mi razon enflaquece, que con razon me quejo de la vuestra fermosura”—i.e., “The cause of the wrong, which is done to my right, so weakens my reason, that with reason I complain of your beauty.” The Spaniard punned on the different meanings of the word razon. Accurate translation does not diminish the likeness to Sidney, who must have known the original.