'Cause her fortune seems too high,
Shall I play the fool and die?
She that bears a noble mind
If not outward helps she find,

Thinks what with them he would do
Who without them dares her woo;
And unless that mind I see,
What care I though great she be?

Great or good, or kind or fair,
I will ne'er the more despair;

20

If she love me, this believe,

35

I will die ere she shall grieve;

If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,

What care I for whom she be?

XLVIII.

40

G. Wither.

MELANCHOLY.

HENCE, all you vain delights,
As short as are the nights

Wherein you spend your folly :
There's nought in this life sweet
If man were wise to see't,
But only melancholy,

O sweetest Melancholy!

Welcome, folded arms, and fixéd eyes,
A sigh that piercing mortifies,

CXXXII.

5

Are warmly housed save bats and owls!
A midnight bell, a parting groan!
These are the sounds we feed upon;

15

Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley;
Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.

J. Fletcher.

XLIX.

THE FORSAKEN BRIDE.

O WALY waly up the bank,

And waly waly down the brae,

And waly waly yon burn-side

Where I and my Love wont to gae!
I leant my back unto an aik,

I thought it was a trusty tree;

But first it bow'd, and syne it brak,
Sae my true Love did lichtly me.

O waly waly, but love be bonny
A little time while it is new;
But when 'tis auld, it waxeth cauld
And fades awa' like morning dew.
O wherefore should I busk my head?

CXXXIII.

5

10

My Love was clad in black velvét,
And I mysell in cramasie.

But had 1 wist, before I kist,

That love had been sae ill to win;

I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd
And pinn'd it with a siller pin.
And, O! if my young babe were born,

And set upon the nurse's knee,

And I mysell were dead and gane,

And the green grass growing over me!

35

40

Curst be the heart that thought the thought,
And curst the hand that fired the shot,
When in my arms burd Helen dropt,
And died to succour me!

O think na but my heart was sair

5

When my Love dropt down and spak nae mair: 10
I laid her down wi' meikle care