JAMES SHIRLEY. (1596-1667.) XC. PAN'S HOLIDAY. From The School of Compliments, acted about 1625 and published in 1631. WOODMEN, shepherds, come away, This is Pan's great holiday; Throw off cares; With your heaven-aspiring airs Help us to sing, While valleys with your echoes ring. Nymphs that dwell within these groves, Crown your golden hair with roses; Foot like fairies on the grass. Joy crown our bowers! Philomel, As they at Thracian lyre did once; This is the shepherds' holiday. PHINEAS FLETCHER. (1582-1648?.) XCI. STELLA AND MIRA. This From The Prize, the seventh of the Piscatory Eclogues (1633). variation upon the ordinary pastoral theme was doubtless due to the influence of Sannazaro, but Fletcher's fishermen haunt the Thames and the Cam, not the sea. He wrote also a piscatory drama, Sicelides, which was acted at King's College in 1614, and published in 1631. His poems have been edited by Dr. Grosart in the Fuller Worthies Library. Daphnis. IRA, thine eyes are those twin-heavenly powers MIRA, Which to the widow'd Earth new offspring bring; No marvel, then, if still thy face so flowers, And cheeks with beauteous blossoms freshly spring: So is thy face a never-fading May; So is thine eye a never-falling day. Thomalin. Stella, thine eyes are those twin-brothers fair, Which tempests slake, and promise quiet seas; No marvel, then, if thy brown shady hair Like night portend sweet rest and gentle ease: Thus is thine eye an ever-calming light; Daphnis. If sleepy poppies yield to lilies white, If black to snowy lambs, if night to day, Stella must yield to Mira's shining ray. Thomalin. Who white-thorn equals with the violet? What workman rest compares with painful light? Who wears the glaring glass, and scorns the jet? Day yield to her that is both day and night. In night the fishers thrive, the workmen play; Love loves the night; night's lovers' holiday. Daphnis. Fly then the seas, fly far the dangerous shore: With fairer hair, and doubly fairer eye, Thomalin. Stella, avoid both Phoebus' ear and eye: His music he will scorn, if thee he hear: Thee, Daphne, if thy face by chance he spy, Daphne, now fairer changed, he'll rashly swear; And, viewing thee, will later rise and fall; Or, viewing thee, will never rise at all. XCII. THE SHEPHERD'S LIFE. From The Purple Island (1633), canto xii. This is an allegorical poem in the manner of The Faerie Queene. THRICE, O, thrice happy shepherd's life and state! His cottage low, and safely humble gate Shuts out proud Fortune with her scorns and fawns: No feared treason breaks his quiet sleep: Singing all day, his flocks he learns to keep, Himself as innocent as are his simple sheep. No Serian worms he knows, that with their thread No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright; Instead of music, and base flattering tongues, Which wait to first salute my lord's uprise, Or song, or dance, unto the rural Muses; His certain life, that never can deceive him, Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content; The smooth-leaved beeches in the field receive him With coolest shades, till noon-tide rage is spent; His life is neither tost in boisterous seas Of troublous world, nor lost in slothful ease; Pleased and full blest he lives, when he his God can please. His bed of wool yields safe and quiet sleeps, While by his side his faithful spouse hath place; His little son into his bosom creeps, The lively picture of his father's face; Never his humble house or state torment him; Less he could like, if less his God had sent him; And when he dies, green turfs, with grassy tomb, content him. THOMAS NABBES. (fl. 1638.) XCIII. THE MILKMAID. From Tottenham Court (1638). Mr. Bullen has included Nabbes in his series of Old Plays. WHAT a dainty life the milkmaid leads, When over the flowery meads She dabbles in the dew And sings to her cow, And feels not the pain Of love or disdain! She sleeps in the night, though she toils in the day, BEN JONSON. XCIV. THE SHEPHERD'S HOLYDAY. The opening song of Pan's Anniversary, or The Shepherd's Holyday, a masque shown before King James I. in 1625. It was first published in the 1641 folio of Jonson's Works. First Nymph. THUS, thus begin the yearly rites Are due to Pan on these bright nights; His morn now riseth and invites To sports, to dances, and delights: Second Nymph. Strew, strew the glad and smiling ground With every flower, yet not confound; |