by Abraham Cowley (1618 - 1667)
If ever I more riches did desire
Language: English
If ever I more riches did desire Than cleanliness and quiet do require, If e'er Ambition did my fancy cheat, With any wish so mean as to be great, Continue, Heav'n, still from me to remove The humble blessings of that life I love. Upon the slipp'ry tops of human state, The gilded pinnacles of fate, Let others proudly stand, and for awhile The giddy danger to beguile, With joy and with disdain look down on all, Till their heads turn, and down they fall. Me, O ye Gods, on earth, or else so near, That I no fall to earth may fear, And, O ye gods, at a good distance seat From the long ruins of the great. Here wrap'd in the arms of Quiet le me lie; Quiet, companion of Obscurity. Here let my life with as much silence slide As time, that measures it, does glide. Nor let the breath of Infamy or Fame From town to town echo about my name, Nor let my homely death embroider'd be With scutcheon or with elegy: An old plebeian let me die. Alas, all then are such as well as I. To him, alas, to him, I fear, The face of Death will terrible appear, Who in his life flatt'ring his senseless pride By being known to all the world beside, Does not himself, when he is dying, know, Nor what he is, nor whither he's to go.
Authorship:
- by Abraham Cowley (1618 - 1667) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Henry Purcell (1658/9 - 1695), "If ever I more riches did desire", Z. 544, symphony song [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Athony Burton
This text was added to the website: 2009-07-15
Line count: 32
Word count: 239