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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Venetian Song (from Volpone)

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

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Venetian Song (from Volpone)

[From Volpone; or, The Fox (acted 1605), Act I. Sc. 6.]

COME, my Celia, let us prove,

While we can, the sports of love.

Time will not be ours for ever;

He, at length, our good will sever;

Spend not then his gifts in vain:

Suns that set may rise again;

But if once we lose this light,

’Tis with us perpetual night.

Why should we defer our joys?

Fame and rumour are but toys.

Cannot we delude the eyes

Of a few poor household spies?

Or his easier ears beguile,

Thus removèd by our wile?

’Tis no sin love’s fruits to steal;

But the sweet thefts to reveal,

To be taken, to be seen,—

These have crimes accounted been.