I care not for these ladies,
That must be wooed and prayed:
Give me kind Amarillis,
The wanton countrymaid.
Nature Art disdaineth,
Her beauty is her own.
Her when we court and kiss,
She cries, Forsooth, let go!
But when we come where comfort is,
She never will say No.
If I love Amarillis,
She gives me fruit and flowers:
But if we love these ladies,
We must give golden showers.
Give them gold, that sell love,
Give me the nut-brown lass,
Who, when we court and kiss,
She cries, Forsooth, let go:
But when we come where comfort is,
She never will say No.
These ladies must have pillows,
And beds by strangers wrought;
Give me a bower of willows,
Of moss and leaves unbought,
And fresh Amarillis,
With milk and honey fed;
Who, when we court and kiss,
She cries, Forsooth, let go:
But when we come where comfort is,
She never will say No!
LOVE ME OR NOT Love me or not, love her I must or die; All my desire, all my delight should be Could I enchant, and that it lawful were,
Leave me or not, follow her needs must I.
O that her grace would my wished comforts give!
How rich in her, how happy I should live!
Her to enjoy, her to unite to me;
Envy should cease, her would I love alone;
Who loves by looks is seldom true to one.
Her would I charm softly that none should hear;
But love enforced rarely yields firm content:
So would I love that neither should repent