Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6
General
Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6
Ballads, English; Songs, English
Cease lovely _Strephon_, cease to charm;
Useless, alas! is all this Art;
It's needless you should strongly arm,
To take a too, too willing Heart:
I hid my weakness all I could,
And chid my pratling tell-tale Eyes,
For fear the easie Conquest should
Take from the value of the Prize.
But oh! th' unruly Passion grew
So fast, it could not be conceal'd,
And soon, alas! I found to you
I must without Conditions yield,
Tho' you have thus surpriz'd my Heart,
Yet use it kindly, for you know,
It's not a gallant Victor's part
To insult o'er a vanquish'd Foe.
_A_ SONG.
_Set by Mr._ DAMASENE.
[Music]
You happy Youths, whose Hearts are free
From Love's Imperial Chain,
Henceforth be warn'd and taught by me,
And taught by me to avoid inchanting Pain,
Fatal the Wolves to trembling Flocks,
Sharp Winds to Blossoms prove:
To careless Seamen, hidden Rocks;
To human quiet Love.
Fly the Fair-Sex, if Bliss you prize,
The Snake's beneath the Flow'r:
Whoever gaz'd on Beauties Eyes,
That tasted Quiet more?
The Kind with restless Jealousie,
The Cruel fill with Care;
With baser Falshood those betray,
These kill us with Despair.
_A_ SONG. _Set by Dr._ STAGGINS.
[Music]
When first _Amyntas_ charm'd my Heart,
The heedless Sheep began to stray;
The Wolves soon stole the greatest part,
And all will now be made a Prey:
Ah! let not Love your Thoughts possess,
'Tis fatal to a Shepherdess;
The dangerous Passion you must shun,
Or else like me, be quite undone.
A SONG.
_Set by Mr._ RICHARD CROONE.
[Music]
How happy and free is the resolute Swain,
That denies to submit to the Yoak of the Fair;
Free from Excesses of Pleasure and Pain,
Neither dazl'd with Hope, nor deprest with Despair.
He's safe from Disturbance, and calmly enjoys
All the Pleasures of Love, without Clamour and Noise.
Poor Shepherds in vain their Affections reveal,
To a Nymph that is peevish, proud sullen and coy;
Vainly do Virgins their Passions conceal,
For they boil in their Grief, 'till themselves they destroy,
And thus the poor Darling lies under a Curse:
To be check'd in the Womb, or o'erlaid by the Nurse.
_A_ SONG.
_Sung by Mrs._ Cross _in the_ Mock-Astrologer, _Set by Mr._ RAMONDON.
[Music]
Why so pale and wan fond Lover?
Prithee, prithee, Prithee why so pale:
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking Ill, looking ill prevail?
Why so dull and mute young Sinner?
Prithee, prithee why so mute;
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
Saying nothing, nothing do't?
Quit, quit for shame, this will not move,
This cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot take her;
If of her self she will not love,
Nothing can, nothing can make her,
The Devil, the Devil, the Devil, the Devil take her.
_A_ SONG _occasioned by a Lady's wearing a Patch upon a becoming place
on her Face. Set by Mr._ John Weldon.
[Music]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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