[Love not me for comely grace]1,
For my pleasing eye [or]2 face,
Nor for any outward part,
[No, nor for my]3 constant heart:
  For [these]4 may [fail]5 or turn to ill,
   So [thou]6 and I shall sever:
Keep, therefore, a true [woman's]7 eye,
And love me still but know not why;
  So [hast thou]8 the same reason still
   To [doat upon]9 me ever!

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Baxter: "Love me not for comely grace"
² Baxter: "or my pleasing"
³ Baxter: "Nor for a"
⁴ Head, Wilbye: "those"
⁵ Wilbye: "fade"
⁶ Baxter: "you"
⁷ Baxter: "lover's"
⁸ Baxter: "you have"
⁹ Baxter: "dote on"

Text Authorship:

• by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [author's text checked 1 time 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 Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "Love me not for comely grace" [ voice and guitar or SATB chorus ], from Three madrigals, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927), "Love me not for comely grace", 1972-3 [ high voice and piano ], from A Miscellany of Love Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael (Dewar) Head (1900 - 1976), "Love not me for comely grace", 1921, published 1921 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Love me not for comely grace " [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Love not me", 1865 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Love not me for comely grace", op. 380 (1953) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "Love not me for comely grace", published 1892 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joel Weiss , "Love not me", 1998 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Wilbye (1574 - 1638), "Love me not for comely grace", published 1609 [ vocal quartet ], from Second Set of Madrigals, madrigal [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 63