| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Song: Farewell, ungrateful traitor! | | By John Dryden (16311700) |
| | | FAREWELL, 1 ungrateful traitor! | |
| Farewell, my perjured swain | |
| Let never injured creature | |
| Believe a man again. | |
| The pleasure of possessing | 5 |
| Surpasses all expressing, | |
| But tis too short a blessing, | |
| And love too long a pain. | |
| |
| Tis easy to deceive us, | |
| In pity of your pain; | 10 |
| But when we love, you leave us | |
| To rail at you in vain. | |
| Before we have descried it, | |
| There is no bliss beside it, | |
| But she, that once has tried it, | 15 |
| Will never love again. | |
| |
| The passion you pretended, | |
| Was only to obtain; | |
| But when the charm is ended, | |
| The charmer you disdain. | 20 |
| Your love by ours we measure, | |
| Till we have lost our treasure; | |
| But dying is a pleasure | |
| When living is a pain. | |
|
|
|