Volume 5 — A SONG.
Reading edition
Set by Mr. Richard Croone.
[Listen]
HOW happy and free is the resolute Swain, That denies to submit to the Yoak of the Fair; Free from Excesses of Pleasure and Pain, Neither dazl’d with Hope, nor deprest with Despair. He’s safe from Disturbance, and calmly enjoys All the Pleasures of Love, without Clamour and Noise. Poor Shepherds in vain their Affections reveal, To a Nymph that is peevish, proud sullen and coy; Vainly do Virgins their Passions conceal, For they boil in their Grief, ’till themselves they destroy, And thus the poor Darling lies under a Curse: To be check’d in the Womb, or o’erlaid by the Nurse.