Like flowers it withers with th' advancing year; Thus on the Fan the breathing figures shine, The Cyprian queen the painted gift receives, And with a grateful bow the synol leaves. To the low world she bends her steepy way, Where Strephon pass'd the solitary day. She found him in a melancholy grove, His down-cast eyes betray'd desponding love; The wounded bark confess'd his slighted flame, And every tree bore false Corinna's name : In a cool shade he lay with folded arms, Curses his fortune, and upbraids her charms; When Venus to his wondering eyes appears, And with these words relieves his amorous cares: "Rise! happy youth, this bright machine surWhose rattling sticks my busy fingers sway; [vey, This present shall thy cruel charmer move, And in her fickle bosom kindle love. "The Fan shall flutter in all female hands, And various fashions learn from various lands. For this shall elephants their ivory shed; And polish'd sticks the waving engine spread : His clouded mail the tortoise shall resign, And round the rivet pearly circles shine. On this shall Indians all their art employ, And with bright colours stain the gaudy toy; Their paint shall here in wildest fancies flow, Their dress,. their customs, their religion, show: So shall the British fair their minds improve, And on the Fan to distant climates rove. Here China's ladies shall their pride display, And silver figures gild their loose array; This boasts her little feet and winking eyes; That tunes the fife, or tinkling cymbal plies: Here cross-legg'd nobles in rich state shall dine; There in bright mail distorted heroes shine. The peeping Fan in modern times shall rise, Through which unseen the female ogle flies; This shall in temples the sly maid conceal, And shelter Love beneath Devotion's veil. Gay France shall make the Fan her artist's care, And with the costly trinket arm the fair. As learned orators, that touch the heart, With various action raise their soothing art, Both head and hand affect the listening throng, And humour each expression of the tongue; So shall each passion by the Fan be seen, From noisy anger to the sullen spleen." While Venus spoke, joy shone in Strephon's eyes; Proud of the gift, he to Corinna flies: But Cupid (who delights in amorous ill, Wounds hearts, and leaves them to a woman's will) With certain aim a golden arrow drew, Which to Leander's panting bosom flew. Leander lov'd, and to the sprightly dame In gentle sighs reveal'd his growing flame: Sweet smiles Corinna to his sighs returns, And for the fop in equal passion burns. Lo, Strephon comes! and, with a suppliant bow, Offers the present, and renews his vow. 66 When she the fate of Niobe beheld, Why has my pride against my heart rebell'd?" She sighing cry'd. Disdain forsook her breast, And Strephon now was thought a worthy guest. GREAT marvel hath it been (and that not unworthily) to diverse worthy wits, that in this our island of Britain, in all rare sciences so greatly abounding, more especially in all kinds of poesy highly flourishing, no poet (though otherwise of notable cunning in roundelays) hath hit on the right simple eclogue after the true ancient guise of Theocritus, before this mine attempt. Other poet travailing in this plain highway of pastoral know I none. Yet, certes, such it behoved a pastoral to be, as Nature in the country affordeth; and the manners also meetly copied from the rustical folk therein. In this also my love to my native country Britain much pricketh me forward, to describe aright the manners of our own honest and laborious ploughmen, in no wise sure more unworthy a British poet's imitation, than those of Sicily or Arcadie; albeit, not ignorant I am, what a rout and rabblement of critical gallimawfry hath been made of late days by certain young men of insipid delicacy, concerning, I wist not what, golden age, and other outrageous conceits, to which they would confine pasWhereof, I avow, I account nought at all, knowing no age so justly to be instiled golden, as this of our sovereign lady queen Anne. toral. This idle trumpery (only fit for schools and school-boys) unto that ancient Doric shepherd Theocritus, or his mates, was never known; he rightly, throughout his fifth Idyll, maketh his louts give foul language, and behold their goats at rut in all simplicity: Ωπόλος ὅκαὶ ἐσορῇ τὰς μηκάδας, οἷα βατεῦνται, Τάκεται ὀφθαλμῶς, ὅτι οὐ τράγος αὐτὸς ἐγέντο. Theoc. Id. i. 87. true Verily, as little pleasance receiveth a homebred taste, from all the fine finical newfangled fooleries of this gay Gothic garniture, wherewith they so nicely bedeck their court clowns, or clown courtiers, (for, which to call them rightly, I wot not) as would a prudent citizen journeying to his country farms, should he find them occupied by people of this motley make, instead of plain downright hearty cleanly folk, such as be now tenants to the burgesses of this realm. Furthermore, it is my purpose, gentle reader, to set before thee, as it were a picture, or rather lively landschape of thy own country, just as thou mightest see it, didest thou take a walk into the fields at the proper season: even as maister Milton hath elegantly set forth the same: As one who long in populous city pent, Thou wilt not find my shepherdesses idly piping on oaten reeds, but milking the kine, tying up the sheaves, or, if the hogs are astray, driving them to the styes. My shepherd gathereth none other nosegays but what are the growth of our own fields; he sleepeth not under myrtle shades, but under a hedge; nor doth he vigilantly defend his flocks from wolves, because there are none, as maister Spenser well observeth: Well is known that since the Saxon king For as much as I have mentioned maister Spenser, soothly I must acknowledge him a bard of sweetest memorial. Yet hath his shepherd's boy at some times raised his rustic reed to rhymes more rumbling than rural. Diverse grave points also hath he handled of churchly matter, and doubts in religion daily arising, to great clerks only appertaining. What liketh me best are his names, indeed right simple and meet for the country, such as Lobbin, Cuddy, Hobbinol, Diggon, and others, some of which I have made bold to borrow. Moreover, as he called his eclogues, the Shepherd's Calendar, and divided the same into twelve months, I have chosen (peradventure not over-rashly) to name mine by the days of the week, omitting Sunday or the Sabbath, ours being supposed to be Christian shepherds, and to be then at church-worship. Yet further of many of mais. ter Spenser's eclogues it may be observed; though months they be called, of the said months therein nothing is specified; wherein I have also esteemed him worthy mine imitation. too much of the present to have been fit for the old, and too much of both to be fit for any time to come. Granted also it is, that in this my language I seem unto myself as a London mason, who calculated his work for a term of years, when he buildeth with old materials upon a ground-rent that is not his own, which soon turns to rubbish and ruins. For this point, no reason can I allege, only deep-learned ensamples having led me thereunto. But here again much comfort ariseth in me, from the hopes, in that I conceive, when these words, in the course of transitory things, shall decay, it may so hap, in meet time, that some lover of simplicity shall arise, who shall have the hardiness to render these mine eclogues into such modern dialect as shall be then understood, to which end, glosses and explications of uncouth pastoral terms are annexed. Gentle reader, turn over the leaf, and entertain thyself with the prospect of thine own country, limned by the painful hand of Lo, I who erst beneath a tree As lads and lasses stood around To hear my boxen hautboy sound, At this, in tears was Cicely seen, For me, when as I heard that Death While thus we stood as in a stound, And wet with tears, like dew, the ground, Full soon by bonfire and by bell We learnt our liege was passing well. A skilful leach (so God him speed) They said, had wrought this blessed deed. That principally, courteous reader, whereof IThis leach Arbuthnot was yelept, would have thee to be advertised, (seeing I depart Who many a night not once had slept; from the vulgar usage) is touching the language But watch'd our gracious sovereign still; of my shepherds; which is, soothly to say, such For who could rest when she was ill? as is neither spoken by the country maiden or the Oh, may'st thou henceforth sweetly sleep! courtly dame; nay, not only such as in the pre-Sheer, swains, oh! sheer your softest sheep, sent times is not uttered, but was never uttered in times past; and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future: it having too much of the country to be fit for the court, too much of the court to be fit for the country; too much o the language of old times to be fit for the present, To swell his couch; for, well I ween, My boxen hautboy, sweet of sound, So forth I far'd to court with speed, There saw I ladies all a-row, But Lansdowne, fresh as flower of May, And blooming Hyde, with eyes so rare; There many a worthy wight I've seen, There saw I St. John, sweet of mien, Full stedfast both to church and queen; With whose fair name I'll deck my strain; St. John, right courteous to the swain. For thus he told me on a day, "Trim are thy sonnets. gentle Gay; And, certes, mirth it were to see Thy joyous madrigals twice three, With preface meet, and notes profound, Imprinted fair, and well ye-bound." All suddenly then home I sped, And did ev'n as my lord had said. Lo, here thou hast mine cclogues fair, But let not these detain thine ear. Let not th' affairs of states and kings Wait, while our Bouzybeus sings. Rather than verse of simple swain Should stay the trade of France or Spain; Or, for the plaint of parson's maid, Yon emperor's packets be delay'd; In sooth, I swear by holy Paul, I'll burn book, preface, notes, and all. MONDAY; OR, THE SQUABBLE. LOBBIN CLOUT, CUDDY, CLODDIPOLE. LOBBIN CLOUT. THY younglings, Cuddy, are but just awake, No thrustles shrill the bramble-bush forsake, Ver. 3. Welkin, the same as welken, an old Saxon word, signifying a cloud; by poetical licence it is frequently taken for the element, or sky, as may appear by this verse in the Dream of Chaucer Ne in all the welkin was no cloud. -Sheen, or shine, an old word for shining, or bright. Ver. 5. Scant, used in the ancient British authors for scarce. Ver. 6. Rear, an expression in several counties of England, for early in the morning Ver. 7. To ween, derived from the Saxon, to think, or conceive. Ver. 25. Erst, a contraction of ere this; it signifies sometime ago, or formerly. Fair is the gillifiower, of gardens sweet, CUDDY. My brown Buxoma is the featest maid, LOBBIN CLOUT. Sweet is my toil when Blouzelind is near; CUDDY. As with Buxoma once 1 work'd at hay, LOBBIN CLOUT. As Blouzelinda, in a gamesome mood, CUDDY. As my Buxoma, in a morning fair, LOBBIN CLOUT. Forbear, contending louts, give o'er your strains! Leek to the Welch, to Dutchmen butter's dear, An oaken staff each merits for his pains. Oats for their feasts the Scottish shepherds grind, Ver. 56. Deft, an old word, signifying brisk, or nimble. Ver. 69. Eftsoons, from eft, an ancient British word, signifying soon. So that eftsoons is a doubling of the word soon: which is, as it were, to say twice soon, or very soon. Ver. 79. Queint has various significations in the ancient English authors. I have used it in this place in the same sense as Chaucer hath done in his Miller's Tale. "As clerkes being full subtle and queint," (by which he means arch, or waggish); and not in that obscene sense wherein he useth it in the line immediately following. Ver. 85. Populus Alcidæ gratissima, vitis laccho, Formosa myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phœbo, Virg. But see the sun-beams bright to labour warn, TUESDAY; OR, THE DITTY, MARIAN. 120 10 When in the ring the rustic routs he threw, 20 [shorn; 30 What I have done for thee, will Cicely do? "Where'er I gad, I cannot hide my care, 40 And wist not that with thoughtful love I pine. 60 70 With crumbled bread I thicken'd well thy mess. "Last Friday's eve, when as the Sun was set, "Remember, Colin, when at last year's wake As this is grav'd upon this knife of thine, 90 100 Thus Marian wail'd, her eyes with tears brimful, When Goody Dobbins brought her cow to bull. With apron blue to dry her tears she sought, Then saw the cow well serv'd, and took a groat. WEDNESDAY; OR, THE DUMPS'. SPARABELLA. THE wailings of a maiden I recite, Dumps, or dumbs, made use of to express a fit of the sullens Some have pretended that it is derived from Dumops, a king of Egypt, that built a pyramid, and died of melancholy. So mopes, after the same manner, is thought to have come from Merops, another Egyptian king, that died of the same distemper. But our English antiquaries have conjectured that dumps, which is a grievous heaviness of spirits, comes from the word dumplin, the heaviest kind of pudding that is eaten in this country, much used in Norfolk, and other counties of England. Ver. 5. Immemor herbarum quos est mirata juvenca Certantes, quorum stupefactæ carmine lynces, Et mutata suos requiêrunt flumina cursus. Virg. |