1.
If care do cause men cry,
why do not I complain?
If each man do bewail his woe,
why show I not my pain?
2.
Since that amongst them all,
I dare well say is none.
So far from weal, so full of woe,
or hath more cause to moan.
3.
For all things having life,
sometime hath quiet rest;
The bearing ass, the drawing ox
and everȳ* other beast;
4.
The peasant and the post,
that sėrve at all assays;
The ship boy and the galley slave,
hāve time to take their ease;
5.
Save I, alas! whom care
of force doth so constrain
To wail the day, and wake the night,
continuallȳ in pain.
6.
From pensiveness to plaint,
from plaint to bitter te᷍ars,
From te᷍ars to painful plaint again,
and thus my life it wears.
7.
No thing under the sun
that I can he᷍ar or see,
But moveth me for to bewail
my cruel destinȳ.
8.
For where men do rejoice,
since that I cannot so,
I take no pleas̱ure in that place,
it doubleth but my woe.
9.
And when I he᷍ar the sound
of song or instrument,
Methink each tune there doleful is,
and helps me to lament.
10.
And if I see some hāve
their most desi͞rèd sight,
‘Alas!’ think I, ‘each man hath weal,
save I, most woeful wight.’
11.
Then as the stricken deer
withdraws himself alone,
So do I seek some secret place,
where I may make my moan.
12.
There do my flowing eyes
show forth my melting heart,
So that the streams of those two wells
right well declare my smart.
13.
And in those cares so cold,
I force myself a he͝at
(As sick men in their shaking fits
procure themselves to sweat).
14.
With thoughts, that for the time
do much appease my pain,
But yet they cause a farther fe᷍ar,
and breed my woe again.
15.
Methink within my thought
I see right plain appe᷍ar
My he᷍art’s delight, my sorrow’s leech,
mine earthlȳ goddess hêre,
16.
With everȳ sundrȳ grace
that I have seen her hāve,
Thus I within my woeful breast
her picṯure paint and grave.
17.
And in my thought I roll
her beauti͞es to and fro;
Her laughing cheer, her lovelȳ look,
my heart that piercèd so,
18.
Her strangeness when I sued
her sėrvant for to be,
And what she sa͞id, and how she smiled,
when that she pitied me.
19.
Then comes a sudden fe᷍ar
that riveth all my rest,
Lest absence cause forgetfulness
to sink within her breast.
20.
For when I think how far
this earth doth us divide,
Alas! meseems love throws me down;
I feel how that I slide.
21.
But then I think again,
why should I thus mistrust;
So sweet a wight, so sad and wise,
that is so true and just?
22.
‘For loath she was to love,
and wavering is she not;
The farther off the more desi͞red.’
thus lovers tie their knot.
23.
So in despair and hope
plunged am I both up and down,
As is the ship with wīnd and wave,
when Neptune list to frown.
24.
But as the waterȳ show’rs
delay the raging wīnd,
So doth good hope clean put away
despair out of my mind;
25.
And bids me for to sėrve
and suffer patientlȳ:
For what wot I the after weal
that fortune wills to me.
26.
For those that care do know,
and tȧsted have of trouble,
When passèd is their woeful pain,
each joy shall seem them double.
27.
And bitter sends she now
to make me tȧste the better
The pleasant sweet, when that it comes,
to make it seem the sweeter.
28.
And so detėrmine I
to sėrve until my brе͟ath;
Yea, rather die a thousand times
than ōnce to false my faith.
29.
And if my feeble corpse,
through weight of woeful smart,
Do fail or faint, my will it is
that still she keep my heart.
30.
And when this carcass hêre
to earth shall be refėrred,
I do bequeath my we᷍aried ghost
to sėrve her afterward.
* For an explanation of the marks added to the letters, see Linguistic notes: English.