"I am the king, and the king indeed : A fault in my lease, God wot, he hath found; To build me a house in my own good ground. "I bade him let me and my ground alone, And cease himself, if that he was willing, And pick no vantage out of my lease; He seemed a good fellow, I would give him forty shilling. "Forty shilling nor forty pound Would not agree this lawyer and me, "I said, nay, by fay, that would I not do, For wife and children would make mad wark; And he would let me and my ground alone, He seemed a good fellow, I would give him five mark." "But hast thou thy lease e'en thee upon, Or canst thou show to me thy deed?" He pulled it forth of his bosom, And says: "Here, my liege, if you can read. ̈` "What if I cannot ?" then says our king: "Good fellow, to me what hast thou to say?" "I can never get these knots loose," then said our king? "And ye paid me five shillings rent, as I do ye, An old man took this lease in his hand, "I'll warrant thee, poor man, and thy ground, 1 The meaning of "as fale gast as young" is unknown to me: I suspect a misprint-or rather a miswriting in the MS. printed from. "Will read it as fast as going by the way" would seem to be a natural expression; equivalent to "will read it as fast as he can run." Alas to-day!" then said the poor man. "Now hold your tongue, and trouble not me. "I thank you, sir," said the poor man then. 66 With all my heart I'll give you a shilling." A plague on thy knave's heart!" then said our king: "This money on my skin lies so cold!" He flang it into the king's bosom, Because in his hand he would it not hold. The king called his treasurer; Says: "Count me down a hundred pound— Since he hath spent money by the way To bring him home to his own good ground.” When the hundred pound was counted, To receive it the poor man was willing. "If I had thought you had had so much silver and gold, You should not have had my good shilling." The lawyer came to welcome him When he came home upon a Sunday. "Where have you been, neighbour?" he says: "Methinks you have been long away." "I have been at the king,' "the poor man said.— "And what the devil didst thou do there? Could not our neighbours have agreed us, "There could no neighbours have agreed thee and me, I'll tie thee to a tree, thou cannot start.' When the hundred pound was counted, God send all lawyers thus well served- And send us all to live in peace! SONGS OF SHEPHERDS. SONGS of shepherds, rustical roundelays, His lofty genius, may seem to declare, Stars enamoured with pastimes Olympical, Chaste Diana applauded the motion; And pale Proserpina sate in her place,— The cold and ample earth, leaveth the air; Light young Cupid was horsed upon Pegasus, Mounts a centaur that proudly him bears: Hymen ushers the ladies :-Astræa, That just took hands with Minerva the bold; Juno was stated too high to be mated, But oh she hated not hunting the hare! 1 One copy of the poem gives "Aeminius; another gives "ingenious." The former word seems to be meaningless, and the latter unmeaning. I substitute, at a guess, "Ismenius," which is one of the known appellations of Phoebus. The various texts of this composition are very inaccurate. Drowned Narcissus, from his metamorphosis That this thousand years was not awake- And Pan promoted on Chiron's mare. Deep Melampus and cunning Ichnobates, We shepherds were seated, the whilst we repeated Young Amyntas supposed the gods came to breathe, Was much enragèd with jealous despair: When I thus applauded their hunting the hare: "Stars but shadows were, state were but sorrow,— Of pleasure the treasure is hunting the hare!" Four broad bowls to the Olympical rector That Troy-borne eagle does bring on his knee:1 Jove to Phoebus carouses in nectar, And he to Hermes, and Hermes to me : Wherewith infused, I piped, and I mused In verse unused this sport to declare. Oh that the rouse of Jove round as his sphere may move! 1 The poet seems to have hesitated here between introducing the eagle, or Ganymede, on the scene; and a very jumbled line is the result. ROBIN GOODFELLOW.1 FROM Oberon, in fairy-land, The king of ghosts and shadows there, Am sent to view the night-sports here. Is kept about, In every corner where I go, I will o'ersee, And merry be, And make good sport with ho ho ho! More swift than lightning can I fly About this airy welkin soon, Each thing that's done below the moon. Or ghost shall wag, Or cry, 'ware goblins! where I go, But Robin I Their feats will spy, And send them home with ho ho ho! Whene'er such wanderers I meet, As from their night-sports they trudge home, To play some trick, And frolic it with ho ho ho! Sometimes I meet them like a man, Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound; And to a horse Ì turn me can, To trip and trot about them round. My back they stride, More swift than wind away I go, I hurry, laughing ho ho ho! When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with junkets fine, Unseen of all the company, I eat their cakes and sip their wine: 1 This poem has sometimes been attributed to Ben Jonson. |