Love

Shoot, false Love! I care not

by Anonymous (Elizabethan songs) c. 1588–1630

From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)

Love

Shoot, false Love! I care not;
Spend thy shafts and spare not!
Fa la la!
I fear not, I, thy might,
And less I weigh thy spite;
All naked I unarm me,—
If thou canst, now shoot and harm me!
So lightly I esteem thee
As now a child I dream thee.
Fa la la la!

Long thy bow did fear me,
While thy pomp did blear me;
Fa la la!
But now I do perceive
Thy art is to deceive;
And every simple lover
All thy falsehood can discover.
Then weep, Love! and be sorry,
For thou hast lost thy glory.
Fa la la la!

✦ ✦ ✦

From Thomas Morley's First Book of Ballets to Five Voices, 1595.

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Shoot, false Love! I care not.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/115/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Shoot, false Love! I care not.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/115/.

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