| |
From “Fair Virtue”
SHALL I, wasting in despair, | |
| Die, because a woman ’s Fair? | |
| Or make pale my cheeks with care, | |
| ’Cause another’s rosy are? | |
| Be She fairer than the Day, | 5 |
| Or the flowery meads in May! | |
| If She be not so to me, | |
| What care I, how Fair She be? | |
| |
| Should my heart be grieved or pined, | |
| ’Cause I see a woman Kind? | 10 |
| Or a well disposèd nature | |
| Joined with a lovely feature? | |
| Be She meeker, kinder than | |
| Turtle dove, or pelican! | |
| If She be not so to me, | 15 |
| What care I, how Kind She be? | |
| |
| Shall a woman’s virtues move | |
| Me to perish for her love? | |
| Or her well deserving known | |
| Make me quite forget mine own? | 20 |
| Be She with that Goodness blest | |
| Which may gain her, name of Best! | |
| If She be not such to me, | |
| What care I, how Good She be? | |
| |
| ’Cause her fortune seems too high, | 25 |
| Shall I play the fool, and die? | |
| Those that bear a noble mind, | |
| Where they want of riches find, | |
| Think “What with them they would do!” | |
| That, without them, dare to woo! | 30 |
| And unless that mind I see, | |
| What care I, though Great She be? | |
| |
| Great, or Good, or Kind, or Fair, | |
| I will ne’er the more despair! | |
| If She love me (this believe!) | 35 |
| I will die ere She shall grieve! | |
| If She slight me, when I woo; | |
| I can scorn, and let her go! | |
| For if She be not for me! | |
| What care I, for whom She be? | 40 |
| |
