| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Indifferent | | By Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) |
| | | NEVER more will I protest | |
| To love a woman but in jest: | |
| For as they cannot be true, | |
| So to give each man his due, | |
| When the wooing fit is past, | 5 |
| Their affection cannot last. | |
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| Therefore if I chance to meet | |
| With a mistress fair and sweet, | |
| She my service shall obtain, | |
| Loving her for love again: | 10 |
| Thus much liberty I crave | |
| Not to be a constant slave. | |
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| But when we have tried each other, | |
| If she better like another, | |
| Let her quickly change for me; | 15 |
| Then to change am I as free. | |
| He or she that loves too long | |
| Sell their freedom for a song. | | | | |
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