"Come, come, you gentle red-breast now,
And prepare for us a tomb,50
Whilst unto cruel Death I bow,
And sing like a swan my doom.
"Why could I ever cruel be
Unto so fair a creature;
Alas! she dy'd for love of me,55
The loveliest she in nature!
"For me she left her home so fair
To wander in this wild grove,
And there with sighs and pensive care
She ended her life for love.60
"O constancy, in her thou'rt lost!
Now let women boast no more;
She's fled unto the Elizian coast,
And with her carry'd the store.
"O break, my heart, with sorrow fill'd,65
Come, swell, you strong tides of grief!
You that my dear love have kill'd,
Come, yield in death to me relief.
"Cruel her sister, was't for me
That to her she was unkind?70
Her husband I will never be,
But with this my love be joyn'd.
"Grim Death shall tye the marriage bands,
Which jealousie shan't divide;
Together shall tye our cold hands,75
Whilst here we lye side by side.
"Witness, ye groves, and chrystal streams,
How faithless I late have been;
But do repent with dying leaves
Of that my ungrateful sin;80
"And wish a thousand times that I
Had been but to her more kind,
And not have let a virgin dye,
Whose equal there's none can find.