Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Popular music of the olden time > Volume 1

320
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The sheep for woe go bleating,
That they their goddess miss,
And sable ewes,
By their mourning, shew
Her absence, cause of this.
Tl\e nymphs leave off their dancing,
Pan's pipe of joy is cleft,
For great his grief,
He shunneth all relief,
Since she from him is reft.
Come, fatal sisters, leave your spools,"
Leave 'weaving' altogether.
That made this flower to wither.
Let envy, that foul vipress,
Put on a wreath of cypress.
Sing sad dirges altogether.
Diana was chief mourner
At these sad obsequies,
Who with her train
Went tripping o'er the plain.
Singing doleful elegies.
Menalchus and Amintas,
And many shepherds moe,''
With mournful verse.
Did all attend her hearse,
And in sable saddles go.
Flora, the goddess that us'd to beautify
Fair Phillis' lovely bowers
With sweet fragrant flowers.
Now her grave adorned.
And with flowers mourned,
Tears thereon in vain she pours.
Venus alone triumphed
To see this dismal day.
Who did despair
That Phillida the fair
Her laws would ne'er obey.
The blinded boy his arrows
And darts were vainly spent ;
Her heart, alas,
Lnpenetrable was.
And to love would ne'er assent.
At which aflront, Citharea repining,
Caus'd Death with his dart
To pierce her tender heart ;
But her noble spirit
Doth such joys inherit,
' As' from her shall ne'er depart.
HUNTING THE HARE.
" Of prikyng and of hunting for the Hare
AVas al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare."
Chaucer's Description of a Monk.
Hunting has always been so favorite an amusement with the English, that the
great variety of songs upon the subject will excite no surprise. Those I have
printed, of the reign of Henry VHI., relate either to deer or fox-hunting; but
Henry was no less careful of the minor sport, as may be seen by an act of
Parliament (passed anno 14-15 of his reign), entitled "An Act concerning
the Hunting of the Hai'e." It recites that, " For as muche as cure Soveraigne
Lorde the Kinge, and other noblemen -of this realme, before this time hath
used and exercised the game of huntynge the hare,- for their disporte and
pleasure, which game is now decayed and almost utterly dystroied for that
divers parties of this realme, by reason of the trasinge in the snoiv, have killed
and destroied, and dayly do kille and distroy the same hares, by fourteen or six-
teen upon a daye, to the dyspleasure of our Soveraigne Lorde the Kinge and
other noblemen," &c. ; therefore the aot fixes a penalty of six shillings and eight-
pence (a large sum in comparison with the value of the hares in those days) for
every one so killed. Henry seems, also, to have considered the sale of hunting-
■ A spool to wind yarn upon.
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