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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

What if I sped
Language: English 
What if I sped where I least expected, 
what shall I saye? Shall I lye?
What if I mist where most affected, what shall I do, shall I dye?
No, no one, Ile have at all,
Tis as my game doth fall,
If I keepe my meaning close,
I may hit how ere it goes,
For time & I
Do meane to try
What hope doth lye in youth, falala.
The minds that doubt
Are in & out,
& women flout at truth: falala.

She whome above the skies I renowned, she whome I loved, shee,
Can she leave all in leathe drowned, can she be coy to me?
Her passions are but cold,
She stands and doth beholde,
She retaines her lookes estrangde,
As if in heaven and earth were changde.
I speake, she heares,
I touch, she feares,
Herein appeares her wit, falala:
I catch, she flies,
I hold, she cries,
And still denies, and yet falala.

May not a wanton looke like a woman, tell me the reason why?
And if a blindE man chance of birdes nest, must bhe be pratling? Fye.
What mortall strength can keepe,
That's got as in sleepe:
The felony is his
Tha brags of a stoln kis:
For when we met,
Both in a net,
That Vulcan set, were hid, falala:
And so god wot
We did it not,
Or else forgot we did. Falala.

Text 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 Robert Jones (fl. 1597-1615), "What if I sped", published 1605, from the collection Ultimum Vale, or the Third Booke of Ayres [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Linda Godry

This text was added to the website: 2008-11-09
Line count: 37
Word count: 234

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