Let Folly Praise That Fancy Loves

Representative Text

1 Let folly praise that fancy loves;
I praise and love that child
whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word,
whose hand no deed defiled.
I praise him most, I love him best;
all praise and love are his.
While him I love, in him I live,
and cannot live amiss.

2 Love's sweetest mark, laud's highest theme,
our most desired light.
To love him life, to leave him death,
to live in him delight.
He mine by gift, I his by debt,
thus each to other due:
first friend he was, best friend he is;
all times will find him true.

3 Though young, yet wise, though small, yet strong,
though man, yet God he is;
as wise he knows, as strong he can,
as God he loves to bless.
His knowledge rules, his strength defends,
his love doth cherish all;
his birth our joy, his life our light,
his death our end of thrall.

Source: Common Praise (1998) #152

Author: Robert Southwell

Southwell, Robert, was b. at Horsham St. Faith, Norfolk, about 1561, educated at Paris and at Rome, and entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, Oct. 17, 1578. He spent part of his noviciate at Tournai in Belgium, but returned to Rome and completed his studies there. After being ordained priest in 1584, he returned to England in 1586. He was arrested in 1592 on the charge of high treason, committed to the Tower of London, formally tried at Westminster, Feb. 21, 1594-5, and executed the next day at Tyburn. His Poetical Works were collected in 1856 by W. B. Turnbull, and re-edited in 1872 more completely and more carefully by Dr. A. B. Grosart, from the Add. manuscript 10422 in the British Museum, from a manuscript, perhaps autograph, at Stonyh… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Let folly praise that fancy loves
Title: Let Folly Praise That Fancy Loves
Author: Robert Southwell
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

NOEL (Sullivan)

The tune NOEL (also used at 185) is also known as EARDISLEY or GERARD. Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b Lambeth, London. England. 1842; d. Westminster, London, 1900) adapted this traditional English melody (probably one of the variants of the folk song "Dives and Lazarus"), added phrases of his own to rec…

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A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools #32

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Common Praise (1998) #152

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