| |
| SHALL I, wasting in despair, | |
| Die because a woman’s fair? | |
| Or my cheeks make pale 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? | |
| |
| Shall my foolish heart be pined | |
| ’Cause I see a woman kind; | 10 |
| Or a well disposéd 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 virtue move | |
| Me to perish for her love? | |
| Or her merit’s value known | |
| Make me quite forget my own? | 20 |
| Be she with that goodness blest | |
| Which may gain her name of Best; | |
| If she seem not so 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 | |
| Who without them dare to woo: | 30 |
| And unless that mind I see, | |
| What care I tho’ great she be? | |
| |
| Great or good, or kind or fair, | |
| I will ne’er the more despair; | |
| If she loves 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 |
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