"Shall I like a hermit dwell On a rock or in a cell? Calling home the smallest part That is missing of my heart, To bestow it where I may Meet a rival every day? If she undervalues me What care I how fair she be."
_Popular Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 315.]
Shall I, wasting in dispaire, Dye because a woman's faire? Or make pale my cheeks with care, 'Cause another's rosie are? Be shee fairer then the day, 5 Or the flowery meads in may; If she be not so to me,[403] What care I how faire shee be?
Shall my foolish heart be pin'd, 'Cause I see a woman kind? 10 Or a well-disposed nature Joyned with a lovely feature? Be she meeker, kinder, than The turtle-dove or pelican: If shee be not so to me, 15 What care I how kind shee be?
Shall a woman's virtues move Me to perish for her love? Or, her well-deservings knowne, Make me quite forget mine owne? 20 Be shee with that goodnesse blest, Which may merit name of Best; If she be not such to me,[404] What care I how good she be?
Cause her fortune seems too high,[405] 25 Shall I play the foole and dye?[405] Those that beare a noble minde,[405] Where they want of riches find,[405] Think what with them they would doe,[405] That without them dare to woe;[405] 30 And, unlesse that minde I see,[405] What care I how great she be?[405]
Great or good, or kind or faire, I will ne'er the more dispaire: If she love me, this beleeve; 35 I will die ere she shall grieve. If she slight me when I wooe, I can scorn and let her goe: If shee be not fit for me, What care I for whom she be? 40
[403] [Ver. 7. if shee thinke not well of mee, MS.]
[405] [V. 25-32. this stanza is not in the MS.]
Such is the title given in the editor's folio MS.[406] to this excellent old ballad, which, in the common printed copies, is inscribed, _Eneas, wandering Prince of Troy_. It is here given from that MS. collated with two different printed copies, both in black-letter, in the Pepys Collection.
The reader will smile to observe with what natural and affecting simplicity, our ancient ballad-maker has engrafted a Gothic conclusion on the classic story of Virgil, from whom, however, it is probable he had it not. Nor can it be denied, but he has dealt out his poetical justice with a more impartial hand, than that celebrated poet.