Love
Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new,
Good pennyworths,—but money cannot move:
I keep a fair but for the Fair to view,—
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true,
The heart is true.
Great gifts are guiles and look for gifts again,
My trifles come as treasures from my mind;
It is a precious jewel to be plain;
Sometimes in shell the orient'st pearls we find:
Of others take a sheaf, of me a grain!
Of me a grain!
Within this pack pins, points, laces, and gloves,
And divers toys fitting a country fair,
But my heart, wherein duty serves and loves,
Turtles and twins, court's brood, a heavenly pair—
Happy the heart that thinks of no removes!
Of no removes!
Codex Note
From John Dowland's Second Book of Songs or Airs, 1600.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/37/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/37/.
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