And, certes, mirth it were to see Lo, here thou hast mine eclogues fair, Lo, yonder, Cloddipole, the blithesome swain, LOBBIN CLOUT. See this tobacco-pouch, that's lin'd with hair, CUDDY. Begin thy carols then, thou vaunting slouch! Be thine the oaken staff, or mine the pouch. LOBBIN CLOUT. My Blouzelinda is the blithest lass, Ah, Lobbin Clout! I ween, my plight is guess'd, Than daisy, marigold, or king-cup rare. If swains belie not, thou hast prov'd the smart, LOBBIN CLOUT. 10 CUDDY. 30 40 My brown Buxoma is the featest maid, Ver. 7. To ween, derived from the Saxon, to think, or sometime ago, or formerly. conceive. Ver. 56. Deft, an old word, signifying brisk, or nimble. As once I play'd at blindman's buff, it hapt CUDDY. As at hot-cockles once I laid me down, Quick rose, and read soft mischief in her eye. 10 YOUNG Colin Clout, a lad of peerless meed, Ver. 69. Eftsoons, from eft, an ancient British word, sig. nifying soon. So that eftsoons is a doubling of the word soon; which is, as it were, to say twice soon, or very soon. Ver. 79. Queint has various significations in the ancient English authors. I have used it in this place in the same sense as Chaucer hath done in his Miller's Tale. "As clerkes being full subtle and queint," (by which he means arch, or waggish); and not in that obscene sense wherein he useth it in the line immediately following. Ver. 85. Populus Alcidæ gratissima, vitis Iaccho, Ver. 103-110 were not in the early editions.-N. Ver. 117. Rosemary. Virg. 20 Cicely, the western lass, that tends the kee, 30 "Ah, Colin! canst thou leave thy sweetheart true? What I have done for thee, will Cicely do? 40 "Have I not sat with thee full many a night, When dying embers were our only light, When every creature did in slumbers lie, Besides our cat, my Colin Clout, and I? No troublous thoughts the cat or Colin move, While I alone am kept awake by love. "Remember, Colin! when at last year's wake I bought the costly present for thy sake; Couldst thou spell o'er the posy on thy knife, And with another change thy state of life? If thou forgett'st, I wot, I can repeat, My memory can tell the verse so sweet: As this is grav'd upon this knife of thine, So is thy image on this heart of mine.' But woe is me! such presents luckless prove, For knives, they tell me, always sever love." 90 100 Thus Marian wail'd, her eyes with tears brimful, When Goody Dobbins brought her cow to bull. With apron blue to dry her tears she sought, Then saw the cow wellserv'd, and took a groat. WEDNESDAY; OR, THE DUMPS.* SPARABELLA. THE wailings of a maiden I recite, 50 Such strains ne'er warble in the linnet's throat, "Where'er I gad, I cannot hide my care, My new disasters in my look appear. White as the curd my ruddy cheek is grown, So thin my features, that I'm hardly known. Our neighbors tell me oft, in joking talk, Of ashes, leather, oatmeal, bran, and chalk; Unwittingly of Marian they divine, And wist not that with thoughtful love I pine. Yet Colin Clout, untoward shepherd swain, Walks whistling blithe, while pitiful I plain. "Whilom with thee 'twas Marian's dear delight To moil all day, and merry-make at night. If in the soil you guide the crooked share, Your early breakfast is my constant care; And when with even hand you strow the grain, I fright the thievish rooks from off the plain. In misling days, when I my thresher heard, With nappy beer I to the barn repair'd ; Lost in the music of the whirling flail, To gaze on thee I left the smoking pail : In harvest, when the Sun was mounted high, My leat hern bottle did thy draught supply; Whene'er you mow'd, I follow'd with the rake, And have full oft been sun-burnt for thy sake: When in the welkin gathering showers were seen, I lagg'd the last with Colin on the green; And when at eve returning with thy car, Awaiting heard the jingling bells from far, Straight on the fire the sooty pot I plac'd, To warm thy broth I burnt my hands for haste. When hungry thou stood'st staring, like an oaf, I slic'd the luncheon from the barley-loaf; With crumbled bread I thicken'd well thy mess. Ah, love me more, or love thy pottage less! "Last Friday's eve, when as the Sun was set, I, near yon stile, three sallow gypsies met. Upon my hand they cast a poring look, 60 70 80 Bid me beware, and thrice their heads they shook: Ver. 21. Kee, a west-country word for kine, or cows. * Dumps, or dumbs, made use of to express a fit of the sullens. Some have pretended that it is derived from Dumops, a king of Egypt, that built a pyramid, and died of melancholy. So mopes, after the same manner, is thought to have come from Merops, another Egyptian king, that died of the same distemper. But our English antiquaries have conjectured that dumps, which is a grievous heaviness of spirits, comes from the word dumpling, the heaviest kind of pudding that is eaten in this country, much used in Norfolk, and other counties of England. 30 "Come Night, as dark as pitch, surround my head, From Sparabella Bumkinet is fled; The ribbon that his valorous cudgel won, Last Sunday happier Clumsilis put on. Sure if he'd eyes (but Love, they say, has none) I whilom by that ribbon had been known. Ah, well-a-day! I'm shent with baneful smart, For with the ribbon he bestow'd his heart. "My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, "Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.' "Sooner shall cats disport in waters clear, And speckled mack'rel graze the meadows fair; Sooner shall screech-owls bask in sunny day, And the slow ass on trees, like squirrels, play; 70 Sooner shall snails on insect pinions rove; Than I forget my shepherd's wonted love. 80 My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, "Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.' "Ah! didst thou know what proffers I withstood, When late I met the squire in yonder wood! To me he sped, regardless of his game, While all my cheek was glowing red with shame; My lip he kiss'd, and prais'd my healthful look, Then from his purse of silk a guinea took, Into my hand he forc'd the tempting gold, While I with modest struggling broke his hold. He swore that Dick, in livery strip'd with lace, Should wed me soon, to keep me from disgrace; But I nor footman priz'd, nor golden fee; For what is lace or gold, compar'd to thee? "My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.' Farewell, ye woods, ye meads, ye streams that flow; 100 50 A sudden death shall rid me of my woe. "I've often seen my visage in yon lake, Nor are my features of the homeliest make : Though Clumsilis may boast a whiter dye, Yet the black sloe turns in my rolling eye; And fairest blossoms drop with every blast, But the brown beauty will like hollies last. Her wan complexion's like the wither'd leek, While Katharine pears adorn my ruddy cheek. Yet she, alas! the witless lout hath won, And by her gain poor Sparabell's undone ! Let hares and hounds in coupling straps unite, The clucking hen make friendship with the kite; Let the fox simply wear the nuptial noose, 61 And join in wedlock with the waddling goose; For love hath brought a stranger thing to pass, The fairest shepherd weds the foulest lass. My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, "Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.' "Ye lasses, cease your burthen, cease to moan. And, by my case forewarn'd, go mind your own." Ver. 67. Ante leves ergo pascentur in æthere cervi, Et freta destituent nudos in littore piscesQuàm nostro illius labatur pectore vultus. Virg. Ver. 89. To ken. Scire. Chaucer, to ken, and kende; notus A. S. cunnam. Goth. kunnam. Germanis keanen. Danis kiende. Islandis kunna. Belgis kennen. This word is of general use, but not very common, though not unknown to the vulgar. Ken, for prospicere, is well known, and used to discover by the eye. Ray, F. R. S. Nunc scio quid sit amor, &c. Virg. -vivite sylvæ: Præceps aërii speculâ de montis in undas Deferar. Virg. HOBNELIA, seated in a dreary vale, In pensive mood rehears'd her piteous tale; Her piteous tale the winds in sighs bemoan, And pining echo answers groan for groan. "I rue the day, a rueful day, I trow, The woful day, a day indeed of woe! When Lubberkin to town his cattle drove, A maiden fine bedight he hapt to love; The maiden fine bedight his love retains, And for the village he forsakes the plains. Return, my Lubberkin, these ditties hear; Spells will I try, and spells shall ease my care. With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' With my sharp heel I three times mark the And turn me thrice around, around, around.' Oh, may this wondrous omen lucky prove! 50 With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' "Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame, And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name; This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd, That in a flame of brightest color blaz'd. 10 As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow; For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow. 20 With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' 30 "At eve last Midsummer no sleep I sought, But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought; I scatter'd round the seed on every side, And three times in a trembling accent cried, This hermp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, Who shall my true-love be, the crop shall mow.' I straight look'd back, and, if my eyes speak truth, With his keen scythe behind me came the youth. With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' 66 68 As peascods once I pluck'd, I chanc'd to see One that was closely fill'd with three times three: Which, when I cropp'd, I safely home convey'd, And o'er the door the spell in secret laid; My wheel I turn'd, and sung a ballad new, While from the spindle I the fleeces drew; The latch mov'd up, when, who should first come in, But, in his proper person-Lubberkin. I broke my yarn, surpris'd the sight to see; Sure sign that he would break his word with me. 80 With my sharp heel I three times mark the And turn me thrice around, around, around.' With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' "I pare this pippin round and round again, 40 Than what the paring makes upon the green. "Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind Their paramours with mutual chirpings find; I early rose, just at the break of day, Before the Sun had chas'd the stars away; A-field I went, amid the morning dew, To milk my kine (for so should huswives do); Thee first I spied; and the first swain we see, In spite of Fortune, shall our true-love be. See, Lubberkin, each bird his partner take; And canst thou then thy sweetheart dear forsake? Ver. 8. Dight, or bedight, from the Saxon word dightan,| which signifies to set in order. Ver. 21. Doff and don, contracted from the words do off and do on. 90 With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.' |