SONGS OF SHEPHERDS. SONGS of shepherds, rustical roundelays, His lofty genius, may seem to declare, Stars enamoured with pastimes Olympical, And her informed how minded they were, Chaste Diana applauded the motion; And pale Proserpina sate in her place,― The cold and ample earth, leaveth the air; Light young Cupid was horsed upon Pegasus, Mounts a centaur that proudly him bears: Hymen ushers the ladies :-Astræa, That just took hands with Minerva the bold; Juno was stated too high to be mated, But oh she hated not hunting the hare! 1 One copy of the poem gives "Aeminius;" another gives "ingenious." The former word seems to be meaningless, and the latter unmeaning. I substitute, at a guess, "Ismenius," which is one of the known appellations of Phoebus. The various texts of this composition are very inaccurate. Drowned Narcissus, from his metamorphosis That this thousand years was not awake- Deep Melampus and cunning Ichnobates, We shepherds were seated, the whilst we repeated Young Amyntas supposed the gods came to breathe, Was much enragèd with jealous despair: When I thus applauded their hunting the hare : "Stars but shadows were, state were but sorrow,— Of pleasure the treasure is hunting the hare!" Four broad bowls to the Olympical rector That Troy-borne eagle does bring on his knee:1 Jove to Phoebus carouses in nectar, And he to Hermes, and Hermes to me : Wherewith infused, I piped, and I mused In verse unused this sport to declare. Oh that the rouse of Jove round as his sphere may move! 1 The poet seems to have hesitated here between introducing the eagle, or Ganymede, on the scene: and a very jumbled line is the result. ROBIN GOODFELLOW.1 FROM Oberon, in fairy-land, The king of ghosts and shadows there, Am sent to view the night-sports here. Is kept about, In every corner where I go, And merry be, And make good sport with ho ho ho! More swift than lightning can I fly Each thing that's done below the moon. Or ghost shall wag, Or cry, 'ware goblins! where I go, But Robin I Their feats will spy, And send them home with ho ho ho! Whene'er such wanderers I meet, As from their night-sports they trudge home, Through woods, through lakes To play some trick, And frolic it with ho ho ho! Sometimes I meet them like a man, Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound; And to a horse I turn me can, To trip and trot about them round. My back they stride, More swift than wind away I go, I hurry, laughing ho ho ho! When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with junkets fine, Unseen of all the company, I eat their cakes and sip their wine: 1 This poem has sometimes been attributed to Ben Jonson. And to make sport And out the candles I do blow: They shriek "Who's this?". Yet now and then, the maids to please, Their malt up still; I dress their hemp; I spin their tow; If any wake, And would me take, I wend me, laughing ho ho ho! When house or hearth doth sluttish lie, I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw; If out they cry, Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh out ho ho ho! When any need to borrow aught, We lend them what they do require; And, for the use, demand we nought; Our own is all we do desire. If to repay They do delay, Abroad amongst them then I go, And night by night Í them affright, With pinchings, dreams, and ho ho ho! When lazy queans have nought to do, And it disclose To them whom they have wrongèd so: When I have done, I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho ho ho! When men do traps and engines set Their ducks and geese and lambs and sheep; And enter in, And seem a vermin taken so; But, when they there Approach me near, I leap out laughing ho ho ho! By wells and rills and meadows green, We chant our moonlight minstrelsies. Away we fling; And babes new-born steal as we go; We leave instead, And wend us laughing ho ho ho! From hag-bred Merlin's time, have I The hags and goblins, do me know; My feats have told, So Vale, vale; ho ho ho! THE SONG OF THE BEGGAR. I AM a rogue and a stout one, I do excel, 'tis known full well, The Ratter, Tom, and Tinker. Still do I cry, "Good your worship, Bestow one small denire, Sir;" |