The Northampton-shire Lovers.
OR,
No Wealth can compare unto true Love.
Young-men and Maids that delight to hear
How Lovers couple, pray draw near;
And in this Sonnet you may find
A fancy that may please your mind.
Tune of, True Love rew[arded] with Loyalty, or, Lo[ve]s downfal.
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IN summer-time when leaves are green
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and Flora in her rich aray,
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With all sorts of flowers so sweet,
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she had bedeckt the fields so gay.
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I espyed a Young-man and a Maid
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a walking in the coole o'th'day,
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The Young-man he was not afraid,
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but these words unto her did say.
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Man.
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Oh turn to me my own dear heart
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and I my self will turn to thee,
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For thou and I will never part
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whilst life and breath remains in me.
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Thou knowest these long 7 years & more,
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we two together have been in love,
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And I have slacken'd my desires
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only thy passions for to prove.
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But here's my hand, no longer I
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no further trial now will make,
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But love thee till the day I die,
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therefore my Bride I mean to take.
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I have six Horses at my Plow,
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and six more in my Stable stand,
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And here to thee I make a vow
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they all shall be at thy command.
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Besides my grounds they are well stockt,
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for thee to walk in to and fro;
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In truth my dear I do not mock,
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if thou canst love me tell me so.
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Maid.
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Your words good sir are very fair,
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ten times better than I do deserve,
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Yet 'tis good for me to have a care
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lest you from them should quickly swerve
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For youngmens tongues now in these days
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they are so tipt with words so fair,
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A maidens beauty they will praise
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[t]ill they have caught her in a snare.
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But if yonder Tower was full of Gold
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and thou couldst give it unto me,
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Until i'me wed I never would
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lose one dram of my Virginity.
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The second Part, to the same Tune.
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Tho foolish knacks some maids intice
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to yield unto a young-mans will;
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Then leave them in fools Paradice,
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and of repenting they have their fill.
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For hasty marriage ne'r proves good,
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so it behoves me to be coy;
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Although i'me young I understand
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that in my freedome's all my joy.
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So for this time good Sir adieu,
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my mother she for me doth stay;
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And when I hear your heart is true,
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you then shall hear what I will say.
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Till then whatever me betide,
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let wealth or sorrow come to me,
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Until that I am made a Bride,
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I never mean to turn to thee.
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Man.
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But wilt thou be gone my love and joy,
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and leave me in this place alone,
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The cherping birds will cease their notes
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to hear me make my grievous moan.
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The waters which are here so deep
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without a shroud my Grave shall be;
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My body shall the fishes feed,
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if once you do depart from me.
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Therefore as thou'rt a Virgin pure,
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and I think thee to be no less,
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Some comfort now to me procure
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to ease my grief and heaviness.
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Be not a talk to other maids,
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that they behind your back should say,
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She was so peevish and so coy,
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she cast her first true-love away.
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Then turn to me my own dear heart,
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and I my self will turn to thee,
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For thou and I will never part
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whilst life and breath remains in me.
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Maid.
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I would not for ten thousand worlds
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that any friend of mine should say
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I was so peevish and so coy,
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to cast my first true-love away.
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But where he is I cannot tell,
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no, nor yet do I know his name;
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Yet you pretend that you are him,
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with protestations on the same.
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Yet a farther trial I will have
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e're that the true-loves knot I tye;
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Before i'le matc[h] to be a slave,
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i'd rather by this knife to dye.
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Tho some don't look before they leap,
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I will be wary of such things;
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For whilst i'me single I live well,
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but marriage many troubles brings.
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You say you've House, you say you've Land
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yet all that does not please my mind,
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Your looks doth show you dogged are,
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and will not to a wife prove kinn
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Then what will Riches profit me,
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if I have not a quiet life:
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A Lady that lives discontentedly
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she'd better be a Hoggards wife.
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Man.
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I can say no less my only dear,
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these words are true you tell to me:
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When man and wife doth live at strife
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be sure no blessing there can be.
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But a loving man of me thou'lt find
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as any lives beneath the Sun,
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I ever to thee will prove kind,
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ile ne'r think much of what thou'st done.
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My promise I will keep and hold
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so long as life remains in me,
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if thou wants Silver or good Gold
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I strait will give it unto thee.
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Therefore the bargain let us seal
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with a kiss or two that is so sweet.
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And so much then he did prevail
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that lovingly she did him greet.
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Now she no longer doth seem coy,
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and this is all the youngmans Song,
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Now I have gained my love and joy,
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we will be wedded e're be long.
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And what he spoke he did fulfill,
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so far as I can understand,
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They went to church with friends good will
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and strait was married out of hand.
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Thus all young Lovers they may learn
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where ever they do go or come:
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Young men if once a bargain you make,
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be sure that you do strike it home.
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For long delays does ne'r prove good,
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a modest and a civile girl,
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Tho she is poor and thou art rich,
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yet love out-passes Gold or Pearl,
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