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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  Now Fie on Dreams

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Now Fie on Dreams

Anonymous
 
(From The Percy Folio Manuscript, 1620–50)

NOW fye on dreams and fond delights
  That occupy the mind!
’Tis worser for to dream by nights
  Than occupy by kind!
For if Cupid thy heart doth strike        5
  With lead or golden flight,
O then, O then, O then, in dreams
  Thy thoughts strange things do write!
 
Methought it was my Chance to Clip
  The Creature I loved best,        10
And all along the fields to trip,
  To move some sport or jest,
And then and then, my [suit] I ’gan to plead
  Unto that fairest maid;
But she, but she, would nought believe,        15
  Which made me sore afraid.
 
But yet by prayer and earnest suit
  I moved her at the Last;
Yet could I not enjoy the fruit
  That hath so pleasing taste.        20
But when, but when, that motion I betrayed;
  She still this answer said,
“O no! O no! O no! I will die
  Ere I loose my maiden-head!”
 
Yet did she give me leave touch        25
  Her foot, her leg, her knee;
A little further was not much,
  The way I went was free.
“O fye! O fye! you are to blame!” she said,
  Thus to undo a maid;        30
But yet, but yet, the time is so meet,
  (That I am not afraid).
 
Not Jove himself more jovial was
  When he bright Diana won;
Nor Hercules, that all men did pass,        35
  When he with distaff spun,
Than I, than I, all fears when I had past,
  And scaled the fort at Last,
And on, and on, and on the same
  My signs of victory placed.        40
 
But when Aurora, goddess bright,
  Appeared from the east,
And Morpheus, that drowsy wight,
  Withdrawn him to his rest;
O then, O then, my joys were altered clean!        45
  Which makes me still Complain;
For I awaked, for I awaked, for I awaked; and I fo[und]
  All this was but a dream!