Nor Menalcas whom they call,

The alderleefest swain of all;

Seeming him was his wife,

Both in line and in life:

Fair she was, as fair might be,

Like the roses on the tree;

Buxom, blithe, and young, I ween,
Beautious, like a Summer's Queen,

For her cheeks were ruddy hued,

As if lillies were imbrued,

With drops of blood to make thee white, Please the eye with more delight;

Love did lie within her eyes,

In ambush for some wanton prize,

A leefer lass than this had been,

Coridon had never seen.

Nor was Phillis, that fair May,

Half so gaudy or so gay:

She wore a chaplet on her head,
Her cassock was of scarlet red,

Long and large as straight as bent,
Her middle was both small and gent.
A neck as white as whales' bone,
Compast with a lace of stone;
Fine she was, and fair she was,

Brighter than the brightest glass:

Such a Shepherd's wife as she,

Was not more in Thessaly.

PHILADOR seeing this couple sitting thus lovingly, noted the concord of country amity, and began to conjecture with himself what a sweet kind of life those men use, who were by their birth too low for dignity, and by their fortunes too simple for envy: well, he thought to fall in prattle with them, had not the Shepherd taken his pipe in hand and began to play, and his wife to sing out this Roundelay:

the shepherd's wife's song.

From the same.

AH! what is Love? It is a pretty thing,
As sweet unto a Shepherd as a King,

And sweeter too:

For Kings have cares that wait upon a crown,

And cares can make the sweetest love to frown:

Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,
What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

His flocks are folded; he comes home at night, As merry as a king in his delight,

And merrier too:

For Kings bethink them what the state require,
Where Shepherds careless carol by the fire;
Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,
What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

He kisseth first, then sits as blithe to eat

His cream and curd, as doth the King his meat; And blither too:

For Kings have often fears when they sup,

Where Shepherds dread no poison in their cup. Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,

What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

To bed he goes, as wanton then I ween,

As is a King in dalliance with a Queen;
More wanton too:

For Kings have many griefs affects to move,

Where Shepherds have no greater grief than Love:

Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,
What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

Upon his couch of straw he sleeps as sound,
As doth the King upon his beds of down,
More sounder too:

For cares cause Kings full oft their sleep to spill,
Where weary Shepherds lie and snort their fill:
Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,
What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

Thus with his wife he spends the year as blithe,
As doth the King at every tide or syth;
And blither too:

For Kings have wars and broils to take in hand,
When Shepherds laugh, and love upon the land;
Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires gain,

What Lady would not love a Shepherd swain?

HEXAMETRA ALEXIS IN LAUDEM ROSAMUNDE.

From the same.

OFT have I heard my life, Coridon, report on a love-day, When bonny maids do meet with the swains in the valley

by Tempe,

How bright-ey'd his Phillis was, how lovely they glanced, When fro' th' Aarches Ebon black, flew looks as a lightning, That set a fire with piercing flames even hearts adamantine, Face rose-hu'd, cherry-red, with a silver taint like a lilly. Venus' pride might abate, might abash with a blush to behold her:

Phoebus wires compar'd to her hairs unworthy the praising. Juno's state, and Pallas' wit disgrac'd with the Graces, That grac'd her, whom poor Coridon did choose for a love-mate:

Ah! but had Coridon now seen the star that Alexis

Likes and loves so dear, that he melts to sighs when he sees her!

Did Coridon but see those eyes, those amorous eye-lids,
From whence fly holy flames of death or life in a moment.
Ah! did he see that face, those hairs that Venus, Apollo
'Basht to behold, and both disgrac'd, did grieve that a

creature