Song of Jealousie, from Love Triumphant. Songs from the Plays. John Dryden. 1913. The Poems of John Dryden

John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913.

Songs from the Plays

Song of Jealousie, from Love Triumphant


1 WHAT State of Life can be so blest
As Love, that warms a Lover’s Breast?
Two Souls in one, the same desire
To grant the Bliss, and to require!
But if in Heav’n a Hell we find,	5
’Tis all from thee,
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie,
Thou Tyrant of the Mind!

2 All other ills, tho sharp they prove,	10
Serve to refine, and perfect Love:
In absence, or unkind disdain,
Sweet Hope relieves the Lover’s pain:
But ah, no Cure but Death we find
To set us free	15
From Jealousie:
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie,
Thou Tyrant of the Mind.

3 False in thy Glass all Objects are,	20
Some set too near, and some too far:
Thou art the Fire of endless Night
The Fire that burns, and gives no Light.
All Torments of the Damn’d we find
In only thee	25
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie
Thou Tyrant of the Mind!