Love! what tyrannic laws must they obey
Who bow beneath thy uncontrolled sway 
Or how unjust will that harsh empire prove
 Forbids to hope and yet commands to love!
Must all are to thy hell condemn'd sustain 
A double torture of despair and pain?
Is't not enough vainly to hope and woo,
That thou shouldst thus deny that vain hope too ?
It were some [joy]1, Ixion-like, to fold
The empty air, or feed on thoughts [as]2 cold; 
But if thou to my passion this deny,
Thou may'st be starv'd to death as well as I;
For how can thy pale sickly flame burn clear
When death and [cold]3 despair inhabit here? Then let thy dim heat warm, or else expire:
Dissolve this frost, or let that quench the tire.
Thus let me not desire, or else possess!
Neither, or both, are equal happiness.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Gamble: "hope"
² Gamble: "that's"
³ Gamble: "old"

Confirmed with Thomas Stanley: his original lyrics, complete, in their collated readings of 1647, 1651, 1657 by Thomas Stanley, edited by Louise Imogen Guiney, J R Tutin, Hull 1907. Page 30.

Text Authorship:

• by Thomas Stanley (1625 - 1678), "Expostulation with Love, in despair" [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 John Gamble (d. 1687), no title, published 1657 [ voice and bass continuo ], from Ayres and dialogues, no. 10, Confirmed with Ayres and dialogues (to be sung to the theorbo-lute or bass-viol) by John Gamble. Printed by W. Godbid for Humphry Mosley at the Princes-Arms In St. Paul's Church-yard, London 1657.
      Score: IMSLP [external link]  [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-11-30
Line count: 17
Word count: 147