Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

Sir John Suckling (1609–1642)

Song: ‘I prithee send me back my heart’

I PRITHEE send me back my heart,

Since I cannot have thine:

For if from yours you will not part,

Why then shouldst thou have mine?

Yet now I think on ’t, let it lie,

To find it were in vain,

For th’ hast a thief in either eye

Would steal it back again.

Why should two hearts in one breast lie

And yet not lodge together?

O love, where is thy sympathy,

If thus our breasts thou sever?

But love is such a mystery,

I cannot find it out:

For when I think I ’m best resolv’d,

I then am in most doubt.

Then farewell care, and farewell woe,

I will no longer pine:

For I ’ll believe I have her heart,

As much as she hath mine.