Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3) / Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date Papyras Classics

← Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3) / Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date

Chapter 53

VIII. The Farewell to Love

From Beaumont and Fletcher's play, intitled The Lover's Progress. act iii. sc. 1.

Adieu, fond love, farewell you wanton powers;
I am free again.
Thou dull disease of bloud and idle hours,
Bewitching pain,
Fly to fools, that sigh away their time:
My nobler love to heaven doth climb,
And there behold beauty still young,
That time can ne'er corrupt, nor death destroy,
Immortal sweetness by fair angels sung,
And honoured by eternity and joy:
There lies my love, thither my hopes aspire,
Fond love declines, this heavenly love grows higher.