Go tell her through your chirping bills To her is only known my love, Go tune your voices' harmony, Strain loud and sweet, that every note Oh, fly, make haste! see, see she falls Sing round about her rosy bed, WHAT PLEASURE HAVE GREAT PRINCES. From BYRD's "Songs and Sonnets of Sadness and Pietie," 1588. WHAT pleasure have great princes More dainty to their choice, And fortune's fate not fearing, Sing sweet in summer morning? Their dealings, plain and rightful, They never know how spiteful On favourite presumptuous, Whose pride is vain and sumptuous. All day their flocks each tendeth ; For lawyers and their pleading, Where conscience judgeth plainly, Oh, happy who thus liveth, WELCOME, WELCOME, DO I SING. WILLIAM BROWNE, born 1590, died 1645. From a MS. copy of his Poems in the Lansdowne collection, WELCOME, Welcome, do I sing, Love, that to the voice is near, Welcome, welcome, then I sing, &c. Love, that looks still on your eyes, Shall not want the summer's sun. Welcome, welcome, then I sing, &c. Love, that still may see your cheeks, Other lilies, other roses. Welcome, welcome, then I sing, &c. Love, to whom your soft lip yields, Never, never shall be missing. Love that question would renew, And a brief of that behold. Welcome, welcome, then I sing, &c. We are indebted to Browne for having preserved in his "Shepherd's Pipe" a curious poem by Occleve. Mr. Wharton conceives his works to "have been well known to Milton," and refers to Britannia's Pastorals" for the same assemblage of circumstances in a morning landscape as were brought together more than thirty years afterwards by Milton in a passage of "L'Allegro," and which has been supposed to serve as the repository of imagery on that subject for all succeeding poets."-ELLIS. The spring, clad all in gladness, And to the bagpipe's sound Fie, then, why sit we musing, Say, dainty nymphs, and speak, An old English melody Sheridan used for the finale of "The Duenna.” THE SHEPHERD'S HOLIDAY. JAMES SHIRLEY, born 1596, died 1666. WOODMEN, shepherds, come away, With your heaven-aspiring airs While valleys with your echoes ring. Nymphs that dwell within these groves, Crown your golden air with roses; As you pass, Joy crowns our bowers; Philomel, As they at Thracian lyre did once; This is the shepherd's holiday. * A game popular in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and peculiar to the month of May. THE PRAISE OF A COUNTRYMAN'S LIFE. JOHN CHALKHILL. From Walton's "Angler," 1653. Он, the sweet contentment High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie lee; Possesseth all my mind: Then care away, and wend along with me ; For courts are full of flattery, High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie, lee ; And both are full of pride: Then care away, and wend along with me. But, oh! the honest countryman High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie, lee; His horses and his cart: Then care away, and wend along with me. Our clothing is good sheep-skins, High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie, lee; That doth prolong our lives: Then care away, and wend along with me. The ploughman, though he labour hard, High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie, lee; Does pass his time away: Then care away, and wend along with me. To recompense our tillage The heavens afford us showers, High trolollie, lollie, lol; high trolollie, lee; |