by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
If women could be fair and never fond
Language: English
If women could be fair and never fond, Or that their beauty might continue still, I would not marvel though they made men bond By service long to purchase their goodwill: But when I see how frail these creatures are, I laugh that men forget themselves so far. To mark what choice they make and how they change, How, leaving best, the worst they choose out still; And how, like haggards wild, about they range, And scorning reason follow after will! Who would not shake such buzzards from the fist And let them fly (fair fools!) which way they list? Yet for our sport we fawn and flatter both, To pass the time when nothing else can please: And train them on to yield by subtle oath The sweet content that gives such humour ease: And then we say, when we their follies try, “To play with fools, O, what a fool was I!”
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Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. by A. H. Bullen, London, John C. Nimmo, 1887, pages 52-53.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. by A. H. Bullen, London, John C. Nimmo, 1887, pages 52-53.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by William Byrd (1542?3? - 1623), "If women could be fair and never fond", published 1588, from Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-24
Line count: 18
Word count: 154