Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen

To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green, And sweet as Flora. Take no care

For jewels for your gown or hair:

Fear not; the leaves will strew

Gems in abundance upon you:

Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept;
Come and receive them while the light
Hangs on the dew-locks of the night:
And Titan on the eastern hill

Retires himself or else stands still

Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying:
Few beads1 are best when once we go a-Maying.

Come, my Corinna, come; and, coming, mark
How each field turns a street, each street a park
Made green and trimm'd with trees: see how
Devotion gives each house a bough

Or branch: each porch, each door ere this
An ark, a tabernacle is,

Made up of white thorn neatly interwove;
As if here were those cooler shades of love.
Can such delights be in the street
And open fields and we not see 't?
Come, we'll abroad; and let's obey

The proclamation made for May:

And sin no more, as we have done, by staying;
But, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.

There's not a budding boy or girl this day
But is got up, and gone to bring in May.
A deal of youth, ere this, is come
Back, and with white-thorn laden home.

1 beads, prayers.

Some have despatch'd their cakes and cream

Before that we have left to dream:

And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth,
And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:
Many a green-gown1 has been given

Many a kiss, both odd and even:
Many a glance too has been sent

From out the eye, love's firmament;

Many a jest told of the keys betraying

This night, and locks pick'd, yet we 're not a-Maying.

Come, let us go while we are in our prime;

And take the harmless folly of the time.
We shall grow old apace, and die

Before we know our liberty.

Our life is short, and our days run
As fast away as does the sun;

And, as a vapour or a drop of rain
Once lost, can ne'er be found again,
So when or you or I are made
A fable, song, or fleeting shade,
All love, all liking, all delight

Lies drowned with us in endless night.
Then while time serves, and we are but decaying,
Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.

1green-gown, tumble on the grass.

CVII. A PASTORAL UPON THE BIRTH OF

PRINCE CHARLES.

PRESENTED TO THE KING, AND SET BY MR. NIC. LANIERE.1

Prince Charles, afterwards Charles II., was born May, 1630.
MIRTILLO, AMINTAS, and AMARILLIS.

Amintas.

GOOD-DAY, Mirtillo. Mirt. And to you no less,

And all fair signs lead on our shepherdess.

Amar. With all white luck to you. Mirt. But say,

what news

Stirs in our sheep-walk? Amin. None, save that my ewes, My wethers, lambs, and wanton kids are well,

Smooth, fair and fat! none better I can tell:

Or that this day Menalchas keeps a feast

For his sheep-shearers. Mirt. True, these are the least; But, dear Amintas and sweet Amarillis,

Rest but a while here, by this bank of lilies,

And lend a gentle ear to one report

The country has. Amin. From whence? Amar. From whence? Mirt. The Court.

Three days before the shutting in of May
(With whitest wool be ever crown'd that day!)

To all our joy a sweet-faced child was born,
More tender than the childhood of the morn.

Chor. Pan pipe to him, and bleats of lambs and sheep Let lullaby the pretty prince asleep!

Mirt. And that his birth should be more singular

At noon of day was seen a silver star,2

1 Nic. Laniere, a popular singer and composer at court from 1614 to about 1665.

2 a silver star. Mr. Pollard quotes from Stella Meridiana (1661): "King Charles the First went to St. Paul's Church the 30th day of May, 1630, to give praise for the birth of his son, attended with all his Peers, and a most royal Train, when a bright star appeared at High Noon in the sight of all ".

Bright as the wise men's torch which guided them
To God's sweet babe, when born at Bethlehem;
While golden angels (some have told to me)
Sung out his birth with heavenly minstrelsy.
Amin. O rare! But is 't a trespass if we three
Should wend along his babyship to see?

Mirt. Not so, not so.

Chor. But if it chance to prove

At most a fault, 't is but a fault of love.

Amar. But, dear Mirtillo, I have heard it told
Those learned men brought incense, myrrh and gold
From countries far, with store of spices sweet,
And laid them down for offerings at his feet.
Mirt. 'Tis true, indeed; and each of us will bring
Unto our smiling and our blooming king
A neat, though not so great an offering.

Amar. A garland1 for my gift shall be
Of flowers ne'er suck'd by th' thieving bee;
And all most sweet; yet all less sweet than he.
Amint. And I will bear, along with you,
Leaves dropping down the honey'd dew,

With oaten pipes as sweet as new.

Mirt. And I a sheep-hook will bestow,

To have his little kingship know,

As he is prince, he's shepherd too.

Chor. Come, let's away, and quickly let's be dress'd, And quickly give the swiftest grace is best.

And when before him we have laid our treasures,
We'll bless the babe, then back to country pleasures.

1 a garland... oaten pipes ... a sheep-hook. Similar gifts are given to the infant Jesus by the shepherds and their boys in many of the miracleplays. Cf. Introduction, p. xx.

CVIII. THE HOCK-CART OR HARVEST HOME.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MILDMAY, EARL OF WESTMORELAND.1

OME, sons of summer, by whose toil

COME,

We are the lords of wine and oil;

By whose tough labours and rough hands
We rip up first, then reap our lands;
Crown'd with the ears of corn, now come,
And to the pipe sing harvest home.
Come forth, my lord, and see the cart
Dressed up with all the country art:
See here a maukin2, there a sheet,
As spotless pure as it is sweet:
The horses, mares, and frisking fillies,
Clad all in linen white as lilies.

The harvest swains and wenches bound
For joy, to see the hock-cart crown'd.
About the cart, hear how the rout
Of rural younglings raise the shout;
Pressing before, some coming after,
Those with a shout, and these with laughter.
Some bless the cart, some kiss the sheaves,
Some prank them up with oaken leaves:
Some cross the fill-horse1, some with great

1 Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland: Mildmay Fane, author of a volume of poems called Otia Sacra.

2 maukin, a diminutive of Mary, the doll, or 'kern-baby', which is placed on the last load of corn home. Folk-lorists say that it represents the spirit of fertilization.

3 A hock-cart or hockey-cart is a festival or holiday-cart. 'Hock' is connected etymologically with 'high'. It reappears in the name HockTuesday, given to the second or third Tuesday after Easter.

fill-horse, thill-horse, or shaft-horse.