LOVE IS A TIME’S FOOL
In his 116th Sonnet composed in 1608-09, Shakespeare
said: “Love ‘s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending
sickle’s compass come and it alters not
with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” In
his eyes, love is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.
Given below, however, is
a 16thcentury anonymous ballad
that contradicts Shakespeare’s view and hints at “Love Is A Time’s Fool”
because it does alter when it alteration finds. The full ballad reads as follows:
“As ye came from the holy land
Of Walsinghame,
Met you not with my true love
By the way as you came?
How should I know your true love,
That have met many a one
As I came from the holy land,
That have come, that have gone?
She is neither white nor brown,
But as the heavens fair;
There is none hath her form divine
In the earth or the air.
Such a one did I meet, good sir,
Such an angelic face
Who like a nymph, like
a queen did appear
In her gait, in her grace.
She hath left me here alone
All alone, as unknown,
Who sometime did me lead with herself
And me loved as her own.
What’s the cause that she leaves you alone
And a new way doth take,
That sometime did love you as her own,
And her joy did you make?
I have loved her all my youth,
But now am old, as you see:
Love likes not the falling fruit,
Nor the withered tree.
Know that Love is a careless child,
And forgets promise
past:
He is blind, he is deaf when he list,
And in faith never fast.
His desire is a dureless content,
And trustless joy;
He is won with a world of despair
And is lost with a toy.
Of womenkind such indeed is the love
Or the word love abused,
Under which many childish desires
And conceits are excused.
But true love is a durable fire,
In the mind ever burning,
Never sick, never dead, never cold,
From itself never turning.”
It is the
dialogue form adopted in this ballad which answers key questions. For example: when
the lover is asked :”What’s the cause that she leaves you alone and a new way
doth take.” He answers: “I have loved her all my youth, but now am old, as you
see: Love likes not the falling fruit, nor the withered tree. “ Recall in this
context the words in Shakespeare’s
sonnet: “Love is not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his
bending sickle’s compass come.” The writer tells the questioner to “know that
Love is a careless child, and forgets promise past: He is blind, he is deaf
when he list, And in faith never fast . His desire is a dureless content, and a
trustless joy; he is won with a world of despair, and is lost with a toy. “
Then he exposes the nature
of disloyalty in women: “Of womenkind such indeed is the love, or word love
abused, under which many childish desires and conceits are excused.”
It is obvious that the marriage between the ballad writer and his
angelic ladylove was not based on true love. He was loved when he was young, and thrown to the winds when he became old .
Look at his words : ”Love likes not the falling fruit, nor the withered tree.”
Quite surprisingly, the ballad ends with
almost the same definition of true love , which we find in Shakespeare’s sonnet.
But true love is a durable fire,
In the mind ever burning,
Never sick, never dead, never cold,
From itself never turning. “
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