| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Song: ‘Give me leave to rail at you’ | | By John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) |
| | | GIVE me leave to rail at you, | |
| I ask nothing but my due; | |
| To call you false, and then to say | |
| You shall not keep my heart a day: | |
| But, alas! against my will, | 5 |
| I must be your captive still. | |
| Ah! be kinder then: for I | |
| Cannot change, and would not die. | |
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| Kindness has resistless charms, | |
| All besides but weakly move, | 10 |
| Fiercest anger it disarms, | |
| And clips the wings of flying love. | |
| Beauty does the heart invade, | |
| Kindness only can persuade; | |
| It gilds the lover’s servile chain, | 15 |
| And makes the slaves grow pleased again. | | | | |
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