Thomas Campion. Come, You Pretty False-Ey'd Wanton. (poem, song, air)

Two Bookes of Ayres:
The Second Booke
XVIII.
by Thomas Campion.

Come, you pretty false-ey'd wanton,
Leaue your crafty smiling :
Thinke you to escape me now
With slipp'ry words beguiling ?
No ; you mockt me th'other day ;
When you got loose, you fled away ;
But, since I haue caught you now,
Ile clip your wings for flying :
Smothring kisses fast Ile heape,
And keepe you so from crying.                                    10

Sooner may you count the starres,
And number hayle down pouring,
Tell the Osiers of the Temmes,
Or Goodwins Sands deuouring,
Then the thicke-showr'd kisses here
Which now thy tyred lips must beare.
Such a haruest neuer was,
So rich and full of pleasure,
But 'tis spent as soone as reapt,
    So trustlesse is loues treasure.                                      20

Would it were dumb midnight now,
When all the world lyes sleeping :
Would this place some Desert were,
Which no man hath in keeping.
My desires should then be safe,
And when you cry'd then would I laugh :
But if ought might breed offence,
Loue onely should be blamed :
I would liue your seruant still,
And you my Saint vnnamed.                                         30

Source:
Campion, Thomas. Campion's Works. Percival Vivian, Ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909. 143.

RealAudio sample from the CD by Linell & Rickards
Early Music - Campion: Lute Songs.

Music:
"Come, You Pretty False-Ey'd Wanton" by Campion, Thomas.
Sequenced by Harald Lillmeyer. Used with permission.

to the Works of Thomas Campion

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Created by Anniina Jokinen on April 21, 2000. Last updated January 20, 2007.

A recording of this song is
available in the collections:

Campion: Lute Music

Campion: Elizabethan Songs

Campion: Ayres