Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
George Wither. 15881667237. The Lover’s Resolution
SHALL I, wasting in despair, | |
Die because a woman ‘s fair? | |
Or make pale my cheeks with care | |
‘Cause another’s rosy are? | |
Be she fairer than the day, | 5 |
Or the flow’ry meads in May, | |
If she think not well of me, | |
What care I how fair she be? | |
Shall my silly heart be pined | |
‘Cause I see a woman kind? | 10 |
Or a well disposèd nature | |
Joinèd with a lovely feature? | |
Be she meeker, kinder, than | |
Turtle-dove or pelican, | |
If she be not so to me, | 15 |
What care I how kind she be? | |
Shall a woman’s virtues move | |
Me to perish for her love? | |
Or her well-deservings known | |
Make me quite forget my own? | 20 |
Be she with that goodness blest | |
Which may merit name of Best, | |
If she be not such to me, | |
What care I how good she be? | |
‘Cause her fortune seems too high, | 25 |
Shall I play the fool and die? | |
She that bears a noble mind, | |
If not outward helps she find, | |
Thinks what with them he would do | |
That without them dares her woo; | 30 |
And unless that mind I see, | |
What care I how great she be? | |
Great, or good, or kind, or fair, | |
I will ne’er the more despair; | |
If she love me, this believe, | 35 |
I will die ere she shall grieve; | |
If she slight me when I woo, | |
I can scorn and let her go; | |
For if she be not for me, | |
What care I for whom she be? | 40 |