A Dialogue Betwixt Cordanus And Amoret

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Title:     A Dialogue Betwixt Cordanus And Amoret
Author: Richard Lovelace [More Titles by Lovelace]

[a Dialogue Betwixt Cordanus and Amoret, On a Lost Heart]

Cord.
Distressed pilgrim, whose dark clouded eyes
Speak thee a martyr to love's cruelties,
Whither away?

Amor.
What pitying voice I hear,
Calls back my flying steps?

Cord.
Pr'ythee, draw near.

Amor.
I shall but say, kind swain, what doth become
Of a lost heart, ere to Elysium
It wounded walks?

Cord.
First, it does freely flye
Into the pleasures of a lover's eye;
But, once condemn'd to scorn, it fetter'd lies,
An ever-bowing slave to tyrannies.

Amor.
I pity its sad fate, since its offence
Was but for love. Can<1> tears recall it thence?

Cord.
O no, such tears, as do for pity call,
She proudly scorns, and glories at their fall.

Amor.
Since neither sighs nor tears, kind shepherd, tell,
Will not a kiss prevail?

Cord.
Thou may'st as well
Court Eccho with a kiss.

Amor.
Can no art move
A sacred violence to make her love?

Cord.
O no! 'tis only Destiny or<59.2> Fate
Fashions our wills either to love or hate.

Amor.
Then, captive heart, since that no humane spell
Hath power to graspe thee his, farewell.

Cord.<3>
Farewell.

Cho.
Lost hearts, like lambs drove from their folds by fears,
May back return by chance, but not<59.4> by tears.]<5>

 

Notes:

<1> So Cotgrave. Lawes, and after him Singer, read CAN'T.

<2> So Cotgrave. Lawes and Singer read AND.

<3> Omitted by Lawes and Singer: I follow Cotgrave.

<4> So Cotgrave. Lawes printed NE'ER.

<5> This is taken from AYRES AND DIALOGUES FOR ONE, TWO, AND THREE VOYCES, By Henry Lawes, 1653-5-8, where it is set to music for two trebles by H. L. It was not included in the posthumous collection of Lovelace's poems. This dialogue is also found in WITS INTERPRETER, by J. Cotgrave, 1662, 8vo,
page 203 (first printed in 1655), and a few improved readings
have been adopted from that text.

[The end]
Richard Lovelace's poem: Dialogue Betwixt Cordanus And Amoret

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