by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620)
Beauty is but a painted hell
Language: English
Beauty is but a painted hell :
Aye me, aye me,
Shee wounds them that admire it,
Shee kils them that desire it.
Giue her pride but fuell,
No fire is more cruell.
Pittie from eu'ry heart is fled :
Aye me, aye me,
Since false desire could borrow
Teares of dissembled sorrow,
Constant vowes turn truthlesse,
Loue cruele, Beauty ruthlesse.
Sorrow can laugh, and Fury sing :
Aye me, aye me,
My rauing griefes discouer
I liu'd too true a louer :
The first step to madnesse
Is the excesse of sadnesse.
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620) [author's text checked 1 time 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 Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "Beauty is but a painted hell", published 1617, from the collection The Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres - The Fourth Booke, no. 6. [text verified 1 time]
- by Dirk Hol , "Beauty is but a painted hell", 1988, from Four songs on poems by Thomas Campion, no. 2. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-11-16
Line count: 18
Word count: 89