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PHILLIDA AND CORYDON.*

In the merrie moneth of Maye,
In a morne by break of daye,
With a troope of damsells playing,
Forth I yode forsooth a maying;

Where anon by a wood side,
Where as May was in his pride,
I espied all alone
Phillida and Corydon.

Much adoe there was, God wot;
He wold love, and she wold not.
She sayde never man was trewe;
He sayes none was false to you.

He sayde hee had lovde her longe :
She sayes love should have no wronge.
Corydon wold kisse her then :

She sayes maids must kisse no men,

Tyll they doe for good and all.
When she made the shepperde call
All the heavens to wytnes truthe,
Never lov'd a truer youthe.

Then with many a prettie othe,

Yea, and naye, and faithe and trothe;

Such as seelie shepperdes use

When they will not love abuse;

"The Honorable Entertainement given to the Queenes Majestie (Queen Elizabeth) in Progresse at Elvetham, in Hampshire, by the R. H. the Earle of Hertford, 1591:

"The thirde daies Entertainement.

"On Wednesday morning, about 9 o'clock, as her Majestie opened a casement of her gallerie window, ther were three excellent musitians, who, being disguised in auncient country attire, did greete her with a pleasant song of Corydon and Phillida, made in three parts, of purpose. The song, as well for the worth of the dittie, as the aptnesse of the note thereto applied, it pleased her Highnesse after it had been once sung, to command it againe, and highly to grace it with her cheerefull acceptaunce and commendation."

Love that had bene long deluded
Was with kisses swete concluded;
And Phillida with garlands gaye
Was made the ladye of the Maye.

N. BRETON

SHEARING TIME.

FROM THE FLEECE."

If verdant elder spreads

Her silver flowers; if humble daisies yield
To yellow crowfoot and luxuriant grass,
Gay shearing-time approaches. First, howe'er,
Drive to the double fold, upon the brim
Of a clear river; gently drive the flock,

And plunge them one by one into the flood.
Plunged in the flood, not long the struggler sinks,
With his white flakes, that glisten through the tide;
The sturdy rustic, in the middle wave
Awaits to seize him rising; one arm bears

His lifted head above the limpid stream,

While the full, clammy fleece the other laves
Around, laborious with repeated toil,

And then resigns him to the sunny bank,

Where, bleating loud, he shakes his dripping locks.

Now to the other hemisphere, my muse!
A new world found, extend thy daring wing.
Be thou the first of the harmonious nine
From high Parnassus, the unwearied toils
Of industry and valor, in that world
Triumphant, to reward with tuneful song.

Happy the voyage o'er the Atlantic brine,
By active Raleigh made, and great the joy
When he discern'd, above the foaming surge,
A rising coast, for future colonies,

Opening her bays, and figuring her capes,
E'en from the northern tropic to the pole.
No land gives more employment for the loom,
Or kindlier feeds the indigent; no land
With more variety of wealth rewards
The hand of labor: thither, from the wrongs
Of lawless rule, the free-born spirit flies;

[graphic]

H

Thither affliction, thither poverty,
And arts and sciences; thrice happy clime,
Which Britain makes th' asylum of mankind.
But joy superior far his bosom warms,

Who views those shores in every culture dressed;
With habitations gay, and numerous towns
On hill and valley; and his countrymen
Formed into various states, powerful and rich,
In regions far remote; who from our looms
Take largely for themselves, and for those tribes
Of Indians, ancient tenants of the land,
In amity conjoin'd, of civil life

The comforts taught, and various new desires
Which kindle arts, and occupy the poor,
And spread Britannia's flocks o'er every dale.
Ye, who the shuttle cast along the loom,
The silkworm's thread inweaving with the fleece,
Pray for the culture of the Georgian track,
Nor slight the green savannas and the plains
Of Carolina, where thick woods arise

Of mulberries, and in whose watered fields
Upsprings the verdant blade of thirsty rice.
Where are the happy regions which afford
More implements of commerce and of wealth?
Fertile Virginia, like a vigorous bough,
Which overshades some crystal river, spreads
Her wealthy cultivations wide around,
And, more than many a spacious realm, rewards
The fleecy shuttle: to her growing marts
The Iroquese, Cheroquese, and Oubaches come,
And quit their feathery ornaments uncouth
For woolly garments; and the cheers of life-
The cheers, but not the vices, learn to taste.
Blush, Europeans! whom the circling cup
Of luxury intoxicates; ye routs,

Who, for your crimes, have fled your native land;
And ye voluptuous idle, who in vain

Seek easy habitations, void of care:

The sons of Nature with astonishment

And detestation mark your evil deeds,

And view, no longer aw'd, your nerveless arms, Unfit to cultivate Ohio's banks.

See the bold emigrants of Acadie

And Massachuset, happy in those arts
That join the politics of trade and war,

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