Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Charms. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

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William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Charms

By Thomas Campion (1567–1620)


THRICE 1 toss these oaken ashes in the air,
Thrice sit thou mute in this enchanted chair,
Then thrice-three times tie up this true love’s knot,
And murmur soft, “She will or she will not.”

Go, burn these poisonous weeds in yon blue fire,	5
These screech-owl’s feathers and this prickling briar,
This cypress gathered at a dead man’s grave,
That all my fears and cares an end may have.

Then come, you Fairies! dance with me a round!
Melt her hard heart with your melodious sound!	10
In vain are all the charms I can devise:
She hath an art to break them with her eyes.

Note 1. From Campion’s Third Book of Airs, 1617. This poem was included in the 1633 ed. of Joshua Sylvester’s Works, among the “Remains never till now imprinted.” Sylvester has not a shadow of a claim to it. There is a copy of it in Harleian MS. 6910, fol. 150, where it is correctly assigned to Campion. The MS. is given in form of a sonnet. (Bullen.) Dr. Grosart in his ed. of Sylvester’s Works (Chertsey Worthies) claims it positively for his author. [back]

CONTENTS · GLOSSARY · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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