by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Now have I learn'd with much ado at last
Language: English
Now have I learn'd with much ado at last By true disdain to kill desire; This was the mark at which I shot so fast, Unto this height I did aspire: Proud Love, now do thy worst and spare not, For thee and all thy shafts I care not. What hast thou left wherewith to move my mind, What life to quicken dead desire? I count thy words and oaths as light as wind, I feel no heat in all thy fire: Go, change thy bow and get a stronger, Go, break thy shafts and buy thee longer. In vain thou bait’st thy hook with beauty’s blaze, In vain thy wanton eyes allure; These are but toys for them that love to gaze, I know what harm thy looks procure: Some strange conceit must be devised, Or thou and all thy skill despised.
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. by A. H. Bullen, London, John C. Nimmo, 1887, page 84.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
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), "Now have I learn'd with much ado at last", published 1608, from the collection Ultimum Vale, or the Third Booke of Ayres [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-25
Line count: 18
Word count: 143