From "Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas,” by Thomas HEYWOOD, 1607. Pack, clouds, away, and welcome day, With night we banish sorrow ; To give my love good-morrow. Notes from the lark I'll borrow; To give my love good-morrow. Wake from thy nest, robin redbreast; Sing, birds, in every furrow; Give my fair love good-morrow. Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow; Sing my fair love good-morrow. I PRITHEE SEND ME BACK MY HEART. Sir John SUCKLING, born 1613, died 1641. my heart, Why, then, shouldst thou have mine? To find it were in vain ; Would steal it back again. And yet not lodge together ? If thus our breasts thou sever? I cannot find it out; Then I am most in doubt. I will no longer pine ; As much as she has mine. THE DEW NO MORE SHALL WEEP. RICHARD CRASHAW, born about 1615, died 1652. The primrose's pale cheek to deck; Nuzzled in the lily's neck: Steals from the amber-weeping tree, As the drops distill'd from thee: Sorrow's best jewels be in these When sorrow would be seen In her bright majesty- Then is she dress'd by none but thce: Not in the evening's eyes, When they red with weeping are Sits Sorrow with a face so fair : I NEVER YET COULD SEE THAT FACE. ABRAHAM COWLEY, born 1618, died 1637. I NEVER yet could see that face Which had no dart for me ; From fifteen years to fifty's space, They all victorious be. Colour or shape, good limbs or faes, Goodness or wit, in all I find; In motion or in speech a grace ; If all fail, yet ’tis womankind. If tall, the name of proper stays ; If fair, she's pleasant as the light; If low, her prettiness does please ; If black, what lover loves not night? The fat, like plenty, fills my heart; The lean, with love makes me too so; If straight, her body's Cupid's dart; To me, if crooked, 'tis his bow. Thus with unwearied wings I flee Through all Love's garden and his fields; No weed but honey to me yields. This song is an abridgment of a poem in Cowley's “ Mistress," from which several incongruous stanzas and parts of anzas have been judiciously omitted by the music composer. The glory of your ladies be But metaphors of things, Each common object brings. Lilies their whiteness stain : What fool is he that shadow seeks, And may the substance gain ? Let it be one that's kind; lined. AH, HOW SWEET! JOHN DRYDEN, born 1631, died 1701. young desire ! And what pleasing pains we prove When we first approach love's fire : gay is Sighs which are from lovers blown Do but gently heave the heart; E’en the tears they shed alone Cure, like trickling balm, their smart: in death. Treat them like a parting friend ; Nor the golden gifts refuse Which in youth sincere they send : For each year their price is more, And they less simple than before. Love, like spring-tides full and high, Swells in every youthful vein ; But each tide does less supply, Till they quite shrink in again. If a flow in age appear, 'Tis but rain, and runs not clear. |