Слике страница
PDF
ePub

"I am the king, and the king indeed :
Let me thy matter understand."
Then the poor man fell down on his knees.
'I am your tenant on your own good land;
"And there is a lawyer dwells me by,

A fault in my lease, God wot, he hath found;
And all is for felling of five ash-trees,

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,
Without I would give him of my farm-ground,
And stand to his good courtesy.

"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 have a boy at home, but thirteen year old,
Will read it as fale gast as young1 by the way,"

"I can never get these knots loose," then said our king?
He gave it a gentleman stood him hard by.
"That's a proud horse," then said the poor man,
"That will not carry his own proventy.

"And ye paid me five shillings rent, as I do ye,
I would not be too proud to loose a knot:
But give it me again, and I'll loose it for ye,
So that in my rent you'll bate me a groat.'

An old man took this lease in his hand,
And the king's majesty stood so.

[ocr errors]

"I'll warrant thee, poor man, and thy ground,
If thou had fallen five ashes moe.'

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."

[ocr errors]

Alas to-day!" then said the poor man.

"Now hold your tongue, and trouble not me.
"He that troubles me this day with this matter
Cares neither for your warrants, you, nor me."
"I'll make thee attachment, fool," he says,
"That all that sees it shall take thy part.
Until he have paid thee a hundred pound,
Thou'st tie him to a tree that he cannot start."

"I thank you, sir," said the poor man then.
"About this matter as you have been willing,
And seemed to do the best you can,

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,
But thou must go so far from here?"

"There could no neighbours have agreed thee and me,
Nor half so well have pleased my heart.
Until thou have paid me a hundred pound,

I'll tie thee to a tree, thou cannot start.'

[ocr errors]

When the hundred pound was counted,
To receive it the poor man was most willing:
And for the pains in the law he had taken
He would not give him again one shilling.

God send all lawyers thus well served-
Then may poor farmers live in ease!
God bless and save our noble king,

And send us all to live in peace!

SONGS OF SHEPHERDS.

SONGS of shepherds, rustical roundelays,
Framed on fancies, whistled on reeds,
Songs to solace young nymphs upon holidays,
Are too unworthy for wonderful deeds.
Phoebus Ismenius,1 or wingèd Cyllenius

His lofty genius, may seem to declare,
In verse better coined and voice more refined,
How stars divined once hunted the hare.

Stars enamoured with pastimes Olympical,
Stars and planets that beautiful shone,
Would no longer that earthly men only shall
Swim in pleasures, and they but look on.
Round about horned Lucina they swarmed;
And her informed how minded they were,
Each god and goddess, to take human bodies,
As lords and ladies, to follow the hare.

Chaste Diana applauded the motion;

And pale Proserpina sate in her place,—
Lights the welkin, and governs the ocean,
Whilst she conducted her nephews in chase.
And, by her example, her father, to trample

The cold and ample earth, leaveth the air;
Neptune, the water,-the wine, Liber Pater,-
And Mars, the slaughter,-to follow the hare.

Light young Cupid was horsed upon Pegasus,
Borrowed of Muses with kisses and prayers:
Strong Alcides, upon cloudy Caucasus,

Mounts a centaur that proudly him bears:
Postilion of the sky, light-heeled Mercury
Makes his courser fly fleet as the air:
Yellow Apollo the kennel doth follow,
With whoop and hallo after the hare.

Hymen ushers the ladies :-Astræa,

That just took hands with Minerva the bold;
Ceres the brown with the bright Cytherea,
Thetis the wanton, Bellona the old,
Shamefaced Aurora with subtle Pandora,
And May with Flora, did company bear.

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
Raised with Echo, new manhood did take:
Snoring Somnus upstarted in Cimmeris-

That this thousand years was not awake-
To see clubfooted old Mulciber booted,

And Pan promoted on Chiron's mare.
Proud Faunus pouted, proud Æolus shouted,
And Momus flouted, but followed the hare.

Deep Melampus and cunning Ichnobates,
Nappy and Tigre and Harpy, the skies
Rends with roaring; whilst hunter-like Hercules
Sounds the plentiful horn to their cries.
Till-with varieties to solace their pieties—
The weary Deities reposed them where

We shepherds were seated, the whilst we repeated
What we conceited of their hunting the hare.

Young Amyntas supposed the gods came to breathe,
After some battle, themselves on the ground.
Thyrsis thought the stars came to dwell here beneath,
And that hereafter the world would go round.
Corydon aged, with Phillis engagèd,

Was much enragèd with jealous despair:
But fury vaded, and he was persuaded,

When I thus applauded their hunting the hare:

"Stars but shadows were, state were but sorrow,—
That no motion, nor that no delight:
Joys are jovial, delight is the marrow
Of life, and action the apple of light.
Pleasure depends upon no other ends,
But freely lends to each virtue a share:
Only is measure the jewel of treasure:

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!
Health to all that love hunting the hare!

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,
Mad Robin I, at his command,

Am sent to view the night-sports here.
What revel rout

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,
And in a minute's space descry

Each thing that's done below the moon.
There's not a hag

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,
With counterfeiting voice I greet,
And call them on with me to roam:
Through woods, through lakes;
Through bogs, through brakes;
Or else, unseen, with them I go,
All in the nick,

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.
But, if to ride

My back they stride,

More swift than wind away I go,
O'er hedge and lands,
Through pools and ponds,

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.

« ПретходнаНастави »