Sir John Suckling (1609-1642). Love and Debt. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Love and Debt

By Sir John Suckling (1609–1642)


THIS one request I make to Him
That sits the clouds above:
That I were freely out of debt,
As I am out of love.

Then for to dance, to drink, and sing,	5
I should be very willing;
I should not owe one lass a kiss
Nor ne’er knave a shilling.

’Tis only being in love, or debt,
That breaks us of our rest,	10
And he that is quite out of both
Of all the world is blest.

He sees the golden age, wherein
All things were free and common;
He eats, he drinks, he takes his rest—	15
And fears nor man nor woman.