TO THE SPRING.

[1599.]

I.

EARTH now is green, and heaven is blue,

Lively Spring, which makes all new,

Folly Spring doth enter;

Sweet young sunbeams do subdue
Angry, aged Winter.

II.

Blafts are mild, and seas are calm,
Every meadow flows with balm,
The Earth wears all her riches:

Harmonious birds fing such a psalm
As ear and heart bewitches.

III.

Reserve, sweet Spring, this nymph of ours,

Eternal garlands of thy.flowers,

Green garlands, never wasting;

In her shall laft our State's fair spring,
Now and forever flourishing,

As long as heaven is lafting.

SIR JOHN DAVIES.

THE COY MAIDEN'S CONSENT.

[1599.]

I.

O STAY, sweet love, see here the place of sporting, These gentle flowers smile sweetly to invite us; And chirping birds are hither-wards resorting, Warbling sweet notes only to delight us.

Then ftay, dear love, for though thou run from me, Run ne'er so faft, yet I will follow thee.

II.

I thought, my love, that I should overtake you;
Sweet heart, fit down under this fhadowed tree,
And I will promise never to forsake you,
So you will grant to me a lover's fee.
Whereat he smiled, and kindly to me said,
I never meant to live and die a maid.

FARMER'S ENGLISH MADRIGALS.

THE FLIGHT OF PHILLIS.

[1599.]

FAIR Phillis I saw fitting all alone,

Feeding her flock near to the mountain fide; The shepherds knew not whither she was gone, But after her her lover, Amyntas, hied.

He wandered up and down whilst she was missing : When he found her, then they fell a-kissing.

FARMER'S ENGLISH MADRIGALS.

DAMELUS' SONG TO HIS DIAPHENIA.

[1600.]

I.

DIAPHENIA, like the daffadowndilly,
White as the sun, fair as the lily,
Heigh ho, how I do love thee!

I do love thee as my lambs

Are beloved of their dams;

How bleft were I if thou wouldst prove me!

II.

Diaphenia, like the spreading roses,
That in thy sweets all sweets encloses,

Fair sweet, how I do love thee!

I do love thee as each flower

Loves the sun's life-giving power;

For dead, thy breath to life might move me.

III.

Diaphenia, like to all things bleed,
When all thy praises are exprejed,
Dear joy, how I do love thee!

As the birds do love the Spring,
Or the bees their careful king;

Then in requite, sweet virgin, love me!

HENRY CONSTABLE.

THE NYMPHS,

MEETING THEIR MAY QUEEN, ENTERTAIN HER WITH THIS

DITTY.
[1600.]

I.

WITH fragrant flowers we strew the way,

And make this our chief holy-day.

For though this clime were blest of yore,

Yet was it never proud before.

O beauteous queen of second Troy,
Accept of our unfeigned joy.

II.

Now th' air is sweeter than sweet balm,
And satyrs dance about the palm;
Now Earth with verdure newly dight
Gives perfect signs of her delight.

O beauteous queen of second Troy,
Accept of our unfeigned joy.

III.

Now birds record new harmony,
And trees do whistle melody;

Now every thing that Nature breeds,
Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds.
O beauteous queen of second Troy,
Accept of our unfeigned joy.

THOMAS WATSON.

FALSE DORUS.

[1600.]

IN dew of roses fleeping

Her lovely cheeks, Lycoris sat weeping:
Ah, Dorus false! thou haft my heart bereft me,
And now, unkind, haft left me.
Hear, alas! O hear me!

Ay me! ay me!

Cannot my beauty move thee?

Pity, then, pity me,

Because I love thee.

Ay me! thou scorn'ft the more I pray thee,
And this thou dost to say me.

Ah, do, then, do, kill me and vaunt thee;

Yet my ghoft ftill shall haunt thee.

MORLEY'S MADRIGALS.

INVOCATION TO NIGHT.

[1600.]

I.

COME, you heavy states of night,
Do my father's spirit right.
Soundings baleful let me borrow,
Burthening my song with sorrow.
Come, sorrow, come; her eyes that fings
By thee are turned into springs.