Full Lyrics
1. If care do cause men cry,
Why do not I complain?
If each man do bewail his woe,
Why show I not my pain?
2. Since that amongst them all,
I dare well say is none.
So far from weal, so full of woe,
Or hath more cause to moan.
3. For all things having life,
Sometime hath quiet rest;
The bearing ass, the drawing ox,
And every other beast;
4. The peasant and the post,
That serve at all assays;
The shipboy and the galleyslave,
Have time to take their ease;
5. Save I, alas! whom care
Of force doth so constrain
To wail the day, and wake the night,
Continually in pain.
6. From pensiveness to plaint,
From plaint to bitter tears,
From tears to painful plaint again,
And thus my life it wears.
7. No thing under the sun
That I can hear or see,
But moveth me for to bewail
My cruel destiny.
8. For where men do rejoice,
Since that I cannot so,
I take no pleasure in that place,
It doubleth but my woe.
9. And when I hear the sound
Of song or instrument,
Methink each tune there doleful is,
And helps me to lament.
10. And if I see some have
Their most desired sight,
‘Alas!’ think I, ‘each man hath weal,
Save I, most woeful wight.’
