An ANSWER
TO THE
Despairing LOVER:
OR,
The Serving-man's sorrowful Lamentation for the Death of his Love, who rashly kill'd her-
self on the Thirtieth of May, 1698, with a Pistol-Bullet, near Towne, in Oxfordshire. Tune of,
The Ruined Virgin. Licens'd and Enter'd according to Order.
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WHat dismal tydings do I hear,
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The sad destruction of my Dear;
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She's gone, and I am left behind
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To weep, and can no comfort find,
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She set her love upon me so,
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That it has prov'd her overthrow;
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And now her death; I do lament
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In bitter tears of discontent.
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Why did I leave her in despair!
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Why did I cause her grief and care!
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Alas, alas, I am to blame,
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How shall I answer for the same?
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No tongue is able to express,
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The grief of heart and heaviness,
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Which lies upon my Spirits here,
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Alas, my grief is too severe.
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What protestation did I make,
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That I would not my Dear forsake;
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Yet ne'rtheless from her I stay'd,
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And this has her dear life betray'd?
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Alas! alas! My true Love Joan,
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She's gone and I am left alone,
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To tell the woful tragedy,
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The product of her jealousie.
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Upon the thirtieth Day of May,
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It seems a loaded Pistol lay,
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Before her at a time of grief;
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She shot herself to find relief:
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She reasoned with herself a while,
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In hopes thereby to reconcile
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Her passion, but, alas! in vain,
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For in a minuite she was slain.
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The bullet pierc'd her bleeding heart,
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Death seiz'd her strait in e'ry part;
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While in her wreaking gore she lay;
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It was a sad and dismal day.
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Wou'd I that minute had been there,
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And heard her words of sad despair;
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I would have staid her cruel hand,
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As she with grief did weeping stand.
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But oh, these wishes are in vain,
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She's gone, she's gone, my Dear is slain,
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And in the silent grave she lies,
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While I remain with weeping eyes.
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Oh! Why did cruel Fortune lay,
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That loaded Pistol in her way,
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To give the oppertunity,
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To such despairing Souls as she?
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When e're I lie me down to rest,
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I am so much with grief opprest,
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That there I startle in my sleep,
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And wake, I can't forbear to weep.
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You loyal Lovers far and near,
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That shall this sad relation hear,
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Be not so rashly drawn aside,
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Lete Rason be your rule and guide.
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