Now, oh now. Went to a performance by Plaine and Easie last night.

Now, oh, now I needs must part,

Parting tho' I absent mourn;

Abscence can no joy impart;

Joy once fled cannot return.

While I live I needs must love;

Love lives not when hope is gone,

Now at last despair doth prove:

Love divided loveth none.

Dear when I am from thee gone,

Gone are all my joys at once!

I love thee and thee alone,

In whose love I joyed once.

And altho' your sight I leave,

Sight wherein my joys do lie,

Till that death do sense bereave,

Never shall affection die.

Dear, if I do not return,

Love and I shall die together,

For my abscence never mourn

Whom you might have joyed ever.

To the tune, The Frog Gaillard, by John Dowland, from his first book of songs, 1597 (excerpts).


What a dismal fellow. I especially like the invocation of guilt in the last line  "Whom you might have joyed ever" if only you hadn't been horrible enough to chuck me out.