T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
I Care Not for These Ladies
By Thomas Campion (15671620)(From a Book of Ayres, 1601) I CARE not for these ladies, | |
That must be wooed and prayed: | |
Give me kind Amarillis, | |
The wanton country maid. | |
Nature art disdaineth, | 5 |
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!” | 10 |
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, | 15 |
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!” | 20 |
These ladies must have pillows, | |
And beds by strangers wrought; | |
Give me a bower of willows, | |
Of moss and leaves unbought, | |
And fresh Amarillis, | 25 |
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!” | 30 |