MENAPHON'S ROUNDELAY.

WHEN tender ewes,* brought home with evening sun, Wend to their folds,

And to their holds

The shepherds trudge when light of day is done,
Upon a tree

The eagle, Jove's fair bird, did perch;
There resteth he:

A little fly his harbour then did search,
And did presume, though others laugh'd thereat,
To perch whereas the princely eagle sat.

The eagle frown'd, and shook his † royal wings,
And charg'd the fly

From thence to hie:

Afraid, in haste, the little creature flings,
Yet seeks again,

Fearful, to perk him by the eagle's side:
With moody vein,

The speedy post of Ganymede replied,
Vassal, avaunt, or with my wings you die;
I'st fit an eagle seat him with a fly?

The fly crav'd pity, still the eagle frown'd:
The silly fly,
Ready to die,

Disgrac'd, displac'd, fell grovelling to the ground :
The eagle saw,

And with a royal mind said to the fly,

Be not in awe,

I scorn by me the meanest creature die;
Then seat thee here: the joyful fly up flings,
And sate safe shadow'd with the eagle's wings.

*When tender ewes, &c.] The beginning of this roundelay bears some resemblance to the opening of Gray's Elegy. this] The 4to. of 1589 "her."

DORON'S DESCRIPTION OF SAMELA.

LIKE to Diana in her summer weed,
Girt with a crimson robe of brightest die,

Goes fair Samela;

Whiter than be the flocks that straggling feed, When wash'd by Arethusa faint they lie,

Is fair Samela;

As fair Aurora in her morning grey,
Deck'd with the ruddy glister of her love,
Is fair Samela;

Like lovely Thetis on a calmed day,

Whenas her brightness Neptune's fancy move,
Shines fair Samela;

Her tresses gold, her eyes like glassy streams,
Her teeth are pearl, the breasts are ivory
Of fair Samela;

Her cheeks, like rose and lily yield forth gleams,
Her brows' bright arches fram'd of ebony;

Thus fair Samela

Passeth fair Venus in her bravest hue,

And Juno in the shew of majesty,

For she's Samela:

Pallas in wit, all three, if you well view,
For beauty, wit, and matchless dignity
Yield to Samela.

DORON'S JIG.

THROUGH the shrubs as I 'gan* crack For my lambs, little ones,

'Mongst many pretty ones,

Nymphs I mean, whose hair was black As the crow;

Like the snow

Her face and brows shin'd, I ween;
I saw a little one,

A bonny pretty one,

As bright, buxsom, and as sheen,
As was she

On her knee

That lull'd the god whose arrow + warms Such merry little ones,

Such fair-fac'd pretty ones,

As dally in love's chiefest harms :

Such was mine,

Whose grey eyne

Made me love. I 'gan to woo
This sweet little one,

This bonny pretty one;

I woo'd hard a day or two,

Till she bade

Be not sad,

Woo no more, I am thine own,
Thy dearest little one,

Thy truest pretty one:

Thus was faith and firm love shown,

As behoves
Shepherds' loves.

MELICERTUS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS MISTRESS.

TUNE on, my pipe, the praises of my love,
And midst thy oaten harmony recount

How fair she is that makes thy music mount,
And every string of thy heart's harp to move.

Shall I compare her form unto the sphere,

Whence sun-bright Venus vaunts her silver shine? Ah, more than that by just compare is thine, Whose crystal looks the cloudy heavens do clear!

How oft have I descending Titan seen

His burning locks couch in the sea-queen's lap, And beauteous Thetis his red body wrap In watery robes, as he her lord had been!

Whenas my nymph, impatient of the night,

Bade bright Arcturus* with his train give place, Whiles she led forth the day with her fair face, And lent each star a more than Delian light.

Not Jove or Nature, should they both agree
To make a woman of the firmament
Of his mix'd purity could not invent
A sky-born form so beautiful as she.

* Arcturus] Both 4tos. "Atræus."

MELICERTUS' MADRIGAL.

WHAT are my sheep without their wonted food?
What is my life except I gain my love?
My sheep consume and faint for want of blood,
My life is lost unless I grace approve :
No flower that sapless thrives,

No turtle without pheere.

*

The day without the sun doth lour for woe,
Then woe mine eyes, unless they beauty see;
My sun Samela's eyes, by whom I know
Wherein delight consists, where pleasures be:
Nought more the heart revives
Than to embrace his dear.

The stars from earthly humours gain their light,
Our humours by their light possess their power;
Samela's eyes, fed by my weeping sight,
Infuse my pain or joys by smile or lour:
So wends the source of love;

It feeds, it fails, it ends.

Kind looks, clear to your joy behold her eyes,
Admire her heart, desire to taste her kisses;
In them the heaven of joy and solace lies,
Without them every hope his succour misses:
O how I love to prove

*

Whereto this solace tends!

pheere] See note* vol. i.

p. 111.

+ Infuse] The 4to. of 1589 Insues," that of 1616 "Infudes."