31.

32.

Song of the May

'ISTER, awake! close not your eyes!

SISTE

The day her light discloses,

And the bright morning doth arise
Out of her bed of roses.

See the clear sun, the world's bright eye,

In at our window peeping.
Lo, how he blusheth to espy

Us idle wenches sleeping!

Therefore awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the Park a-Maying!

SEE

My Fair A-Field

EE where my Love a-Maying goes
With sweet dame Flora sporting!

She most alone with nightingales
In woods delights consorting.

Turn again, my dearest!

The pleasant'st air's in meadows;
Else by the rivers let us breathe,

And kiss amongst the willows.

Anon.

Anon.

33.

Is

The Merry Month of May

S not thilke the merry month of May,
When love-lads masken in fresh array?
How falls it, then, we no merrier been,
Ylike as others, girt in gaudy green?
Our blanket liveries been all too sad

For thilke same season, when all is yclad

With pleasaunce; the ground with grass, the woods
With green leaves, the bushes with blossoming buds.
Young folk now flocken in everywhere

To gather May buskets and smelling brere;
And home they hasten the postes to dight,
And all the kirk-pillars ere day-light,
With hawthorne buds and sweet eglantine,
And garlands of roses and sops-in-wine.

E. Spenser

34.

May-Song

O, THE month of May, the merry month of May,

So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!

O, and then did I unto my true love say,

Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.

Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale,

The sweetest singer in all the forest choir,

Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale: Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a brier.

But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo !
See where she sitteth; come away, my joy:

Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo
Should sing where my Peggy and I kiss and toy.

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say,

Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.

T. Dekker

35.

Love's Emblems

NOW the lusty spring is seen;

Golden yellow, gaudy blue,

Daintily invite the view:

Everywhere on every green

Roses blushing as they blow,
And enticing men to pull,
Lilies whiter than the snow,
Woodbines of sweet honey full:

All love's emblems, and all cry,
"Ladies, if not plucked, we die."

Yet the lusty spring hath stay'd;
Blushing red and purest white
Daintily to love invite

Every woman, every maid:

Cherries kissing as they grow,
And inviting men to taste,
Apples even ripe below,
Winding gently to the waist:
All love's emblems, and all cry,
"Ladies, if not plucked, we die."

J. Fletcher

36.

Now

A Round

W that the Spring hath filled our veins
With kind and active fire,

And made green liv'ries for the plains,
And every grove a choir:

Sing we a song of merry glee,

And Bacchus fill the bowl:

1. Then here's to thee; 2. And thou to me
And every thirsty soul.

Nor Care, nor Sorrow e'er paid. debt,

Nor never shall do mine;

I have no cradle going yet,
Not I, by this good wine.

No wife at home to send for me
No hogs are in my ground,

No suit in law to pay a fee,

- Then round, old Jockey, round!

37.

All

Shear sheep that have them, cry we still,

But see that no man 'scape

To drink of the sherry,

That makes us so merry,
And plump as the lusty grape.

W. Browne

Ralph, the May-Lord

LONDON, to thee I do present

The merry month of May;

Let each true subject be content
To hear me what I say:
For from the top of conduit-head,
As plainly may appear,

I will both tell my name to you,
And wherefore I came here.
My name is Ralph, by due descent,
Though not ignoble I,

Yet far inferior to the flock

Of gracious grocery;

And by the common counsel of

My fellows in the Strand,

With gilded staff and crossèd scarf,
The May-lord here I stand.

Rejoice, oh, English hearts, rejoice!
Rejoice, oh, lovers dear!

Rejoice, oh, city, town, and country,
Rejoice eke every shire!