THE HUMOR OF LOVE SONG I PRITHEE send me back my heart, For if from yours you will not part, Yet now I think on't, let it lie, To find it were in vain, For thou hast a thief in either eye Why should two hearts in one breast lie, O love, where is thy sympathy, But love is such a mystery, I cannot find it out: For when I think I'm best resolved, I then am most in doubt. Then farewell care, and farewell woe! For I'll believe I have her heart, As much as she hath mine. John Suckling [1609-1642] TO CHLOE JEALOUS DEAR Chloe, how blubbered is that pretty face! Thy cheek all on fire, and thy hair all uncurled: Prithee quit this caprice; and (as old Falstaff says), Let us e'en talk a little like folks of this world. How canst thou presume, thou hast leave to destroy The beauties, which Venus but lent to thy keeping? Those looks were designed to inspire love and joy: More ordinary eyes may serve people for weeping. To be vexed at a trifle or two that I writ, Your judgment at once, and my passion you wrong: You take that for fact, which will scarce be found wit: Od's life! must one swear to the truth of a song? What I speak, my fair Chloe, and what I write, shows The difference there is betwixt nature and art: I court others in verse; but I love thee in prose: And they have my whimsies; but thou hast my heart. The god of us verse-men (you know, Child) the sun, So when I am wearied with wandering all day; Then finish, dear Chloe, this pastoral war; For thou art a girl as much brighter than her, Matthew Prior [1664-1721] A HUE AND CRY AFTER FAIR AMORET FAIR Amoret is gone astray Pursue and seek her, every lover; Coquette and coy at once her air, Both studied, though both seem neglected; Careless she is, with artful care, Affecting to seem unaffected. Jack and Joan With skill her eyes dart every glance, Yet change so soon you'd ne'er suspect them, She likes herself, yet others hates For that which in herself she prizes; She is the thing that she despises. 737 William Congreve [1770-1729] SONG WHEN thy beauty appears In its graces and airs All bright as an angel new-dropped from the sky, So strangely you dazzle my eye! But when without art Your kind thoughts you impart, When your love runs in blushes through every vein; There's a passion and pride In our sex (she replied), And thus, might I gratify both, I would do! Still an angel appear to each lover beside, But still be a woman to you. Thomas Parnell [1679-1718] JACK AND JOAN JACK and Joan they think no ill, Devoutly on the holy day: Skip and trip it on the green, And help to choose the Summer Queen; Lash out, at a country feast, Well can they judge of nappy ale, And turn the crabs till they be soft. Tib is all the father's joy, And little Tom the mother's boy. All their pleasure is content; And care, to pay their yearly rent. Joan can call by name her cows, And deck her windows with green boughs; Now, you courtly dames and knights, Though your tongues dissemble deep, Securer lives the silly swain. Thomas Campion [ ? -1619] PHILLIS AND CORYDON PHILLIS kept sheep along the western plains, Sally in Our Alley A bonny lass, quaint in her country 'tire, He little knew to paint a tale of love, Shepherds can fancy, but they cannot say: The shepherd blushed when Phillis questioned so, My thoughts are trapped within thy lovely locks; "Can shepherds love?" said Phillis to the swain. Said Phillis. This not Corydon denied, 739 That lust had lies; "But love," quoth he, "says truth: Thy shepherd loves, then, Phillis, what ensu'th?" Phillis was won, she blushed and hung her head; The swain stepped to, and cheered her with a kiss: Robert Greene [1560?-1592] SALLY IN OUR ALLEY Of all the girls that are so smart She is the darling of my heart, |