| |
| SHALL 1 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 think not well of me, | |
| What care I how fair she be? | |
| |
| Shall my silly heart be pined | |
| ’Cause I see a woman kind? | 10 |
| Or a well disposèd nature | |
| Joinèd 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-deservings known | |
| Make me quite forget my own? | 20 |
| Be she with that goodness blest | |
| Which may merit 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? | |
| She that bears a noble mind, | |
| If not outward helps she find, | |
| Thinks what with them he would do | |
| Who without them dares her woo; | 30 |
| And unless that mind I see, | |
| What care I how 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 |
