William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
Dispraise of Love and Lovers FolliesFrancis Davison (1575?1619?)
I
Live they that list for me;
And he that gains the most thereby,
A fool at least shall be.
But he that feels the sorest fits,
’Scapes with no less than loss of wits:
Unhappy life they gain,
Which love do entertain.
By lying dreams in night,
Each frown a deadly wound doth give,
Each smile a false delight.
If ’t hap their lady pleasant seem,
It is for others’ love they deem;
If void she seem of joy,
Disdain doth make her coy.
Such is the life they lead,
Blown here and there with every wind,
Like flowers in the mead;
Now war, now peace, now war again,
Desire, despair, delight, disdain:
Though dead, in midst of life,
In peace, and yet at strife.