7 Let his crook be with hyacinths bound,
So Phyllis the trophy despise;
Let his forehead with laurels be crown'd,
So they shine not in Phyllis's eyes.
The language that flows from the heart,
Is a stranger to Paridel's tongue:
Yet may she beware of his art,
Or sure I must envy the song.
1 Ye Shepherds! give ear to my lay,
And take no more heed of my sheep;
They have nothing to do but to stray;
I have nothing to do but to weep.
Yet do not my folly reprove;
She was fair-and my passion begun;
She smiled-and I could not but love:
She is faithless-and I am undone.
2 Perhaps I was void of all thought;
Perhaps it was plain to foresee,
That a nymph so complete would be sought
By a swain more engaging than me.
Ah! love every hope can inspire;
It banishes wisdom the while;
And the lip of the nymph we admire
Seems for ever adorn'd with a smile.
3 She is faithless, and I am undone :
Ye that witness the woes I endure,
Let reason instruct you to shun
What it cannot instruct you to cure.
Beware how you loiter in vain
Amid nymphs of a higher degree;
It is not for me to explain
How fair and how fickle they be.
4 Alas! from the day that we met,
What hope of an end to my woes?
When I cannot endure to forget
The glance that undid my repose.
Yet time may diminish the pain:
The flower, and the shrub, and the tree,
Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,
In time may have comfort for me.
5 The sweets of a dew-sprinkled rose,
The sound of a murmuring stream,
The peace which from solitude flows,
Henceforth shall be Corydon's theme.
High transports are shown to the sight,
But we're not to find them our own.
Fate never bestow'd such delight
As I with my Phyllis had known.
6 O ye woods! spread your branches apace, To your deepest recesses I fly;
I would hide with the beasts of the chase;
I would vanish from every eye.
Yet my reed shall resound through the grove
With the same sad complaint it begun ;
How she smiled, and I could not but love;
Was faithless, and I am undone !
A BALLAD, ALLUDING TO A STORY RECORDED OF HER WHEN
SHE WAS PRISONER AT WOODSTOCK, 1554.
1 Will you hear how once repining
Great Eliza captive lay?
Each ambitious thought resigning,
Foe to riches, pomp, and sway.
2 While the nymphs and swains delighted
Tript around in all their pride,
Envying joys by others slighted,
Thus the royal maiden cried :
3"Bred on plains, or born in valleys,
Who would bid those scenes adieu ?
Stranger to the arts of malice,
Who would ever courts pursue ?
4 "Malice never taught to treasure,
Censure never taught to bear;
Love is all the shepherd's pleasure ;
Love is all the damsel's care.
5"How can they of humble station
Vainly blame the powers above?
Or accuse the dispensation
Which allows them all to love?
6 "Love, like air, is widely given ;
Power nor chance can these restrain;
Truest, noblest gifts of Heaven!
Only purest on the plain!
7 "Peers can no such charms discover,
All in stars and garters drest,
As on Sundays does the lover
With his nosegay on his breast.
8 "Pinks and roses in profusion,
Said to fade when Chloe's near;
Fops may use the same allusion,
But the shepherd is sincere.
9 "Hark to yonder milkmaid singing
Cheerily o'er the brimming pail,
Cowslips all around are springing,
Sweetly paint the golden vale.
10 "Never yet did courtly maiden
Move so sprightly, look so fair;
Never breast with jewels laden
Pour a song so void of care.
11 "Would indulgent Heaven had granted
Me some rural damsel's part!
All the empire I had wanted
Then had been my shepherd's heart.
12 "Then, with him, o'er hills and mountains,
Free from fetters, might I rove,
Fearless taste the crystal fountains,
Peaceful sleep beneath the grove.
13 "Rustics had been more forgiving,
Partial to my virgin bloom;
None had envied me when living;
None had triumph'd o'er my tomb."
Nerine Galatea! thymo mihi dulcior Hyblæ!
Candidior cygnis! hedera formosior alba!
1 The western sky was purpled o'er
With every pleasing ray;
And flocks reviving felt no more
The sultry heats of day;
2 When from an hazel's artless bower
Soft warbled Strephon's tongue;
He blest the scene, he blest the hour,
While Nancy's praise he sung.
3 "Let fops with fickle falsehood range
The paths of wanton love,
While weeping maids lament their change,
And sadden every grove:
4 "But endless blessings crown the day
I saw fair Esham's dale!
And every blessing find its way
To Nancy of the Vale.
5 ""Twas from Avona's banks the maid
Diffused her lovely beams,
And every shining glance display'd
The Naiad of the streams.
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