| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Rondeau | | By Charles Cotton (1630–1687) |
| | | THOU fool! if madness be so rife | |
| That, spite of wit, thou’lt have a wife, | |
| I’ll tell thee what thou must expect,— | |
| After the honey-moon neglect | |
| All the sad days of thy whole life! | 5 |
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| To that a world of woe and strife, | |
| Which of is marriage the effect; | |
| And thou thy own woe’s architect, | |
| Thou fool! | |
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| Thou’lt nothing find but disrespect, | 10 |
| Ill words i’ th’ scolding dialect, | |
| For she’ll all tabor be or fife. | |
| Then prithee go and whet thy knife, | |
| And from this fate thyself protect, | |
| Thou fool! | 15 | | | |
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