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"Song" by Sir John Suckling

Why so pale and wan, fond lover ?
                  Prithee, why so pale ?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
                  Looking ill prevail ?
                  Prithee, why so pale ?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner ?
                  Prithee, why so mute ?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
                  Saying nothing do 't ?
                  Prithee, why so mute ?

Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move :
                  This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
                  Nothing can make her :
                  The devil take her !

 

Suckling, heir to a great fortune at a young age upon the death of his parents, was known as a gamester and is believed to have invented the game of cribbage.  This poem comes from his first play, Aglaura, which was not a success.  He fled, for political reasons, to Paris, where he died a few months later.  It was a mysterious death, and both poison and suicide remain the possible causes.  

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