English Songs and Ballads | Page 6

good-morrow
Notes
from them all I'll borrow.
Wake from thy nest, robin red-breast!
Sing, birds, in every furrow!

And from each bill let music shrill
Give my fair Love good-morrow!

Blackbird and thrush in every bush,
Stare, linnet, and cocksparrow,

You pretty elves, among yourselves
Sing my fair Love
good-morrow!
To give my Love good-morrow!
Sing, birds, in
every furrow!
_BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER_
SLEEP
COME, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving
Lock me in delight
awhile;
Let some pleasing dreams beguile
All my fancies; that from

thence
I may feel an influence
All my powers of care bereaving!
Though but a shadow, but a sliding,
Let me know some little joy!

We that suffer long annoy
Are contented with a thought
Through an
idle fancy wrought:
O let my joys have some abiding!
SONG TO PAN
ALL ye woods, and trees, and bowers,
All ye virtues and ye powers

That inhabit in the lakes,
In the pleasant springs or brakes,
Move
your feet
To our sound,
Whilst we greet,
All this ground,
With
his honour and his name
That defends our flocks from blame.
He is great and he is just,
He is ever good, and must
Thus be
honoured. Daffodillies,
Roses, pinks, and loved lilies,
Let us fling,

Whilst we sing,
Ever holy,
Ever holy,
Ever honoured, ever
young!
Thus great Pan is ever sung.
ASPATIA'S SONG
LAY a garland on my hearse
Of the dismal yew;
Maidens, willow
branches bear;
Say, I died true.
My love was false, but I was firm
From my hour of birth.
Upon my
buried body lie
Lightly, gentle earth!
_JOHN FLETCHER_
BEAUTY CLEAR AND FAIR
BEAUTY clear and fair,
Where the air
Rather like a perfume
dwells;
Where the violet and the rose
Their blue veins and blush
disclose,
And come to honour nothing else:
Where to live near
And planted there
Is to live, and still live new;


Where to gain a favour is
More than light, perpetual bliss--
Make

me live by serving you!
Dear, again back recall
To this light,
A stranger to himself and all!

Both the wonder and the story
Shall be yours, and eke the glory;

I am your servant, and your thrall.
LET THE BELLS RING, AND LET THE BOYS SING
LET the bells ring, and let the boys sing,
The young lasses skip and
play;
Let the cups go round, till round goes the ground,
Our learned
old vicar will stay.
Let the pig turn merrily, merrily, ah
And let the fat goose swim;
For
verily, verily, verily, oh!
Our vicar this day shall be trim.
The stewed cock shall crow, cock-a-loodle-loo,
A loud cock-a-loodle
shall he crow;
The duck and the drake shall swim in a lake
Of
onions and claret below.
Our wives shall be neat, to bring in our meat
To thee our most noble
adviser;
Our pains shall be great, and bottles shall sweat,
And we
ourselves will be wiser.
We'll labour and smirk, we'll kiss and we'll drink,
And tithes shall
come thicker and thicker;
We'll fall to our plough, and have children
enow,
And thou shalt be learned old vicar.
WEEP NO MORE
WEEP no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that's gone:

Violets pluck'd, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.

Trim thy locks, look cheerfully;
Fate's hid ends eyes cannot see.

Joys as winged dreams fly fast,
Why should sadness longer last?

Grief is but a wound to woe;
Gentlest fair, mourn, mourn no moe.
PAN

SING his praises that doth keep
Our flocks from harm,
Pan, the
father of our sheep;
And arm in arm
Tread we softly in a round,

Whilst the hollow neighbouring ground
Fills the music with her
sound.
Pan, O great god Pan, to thee
Thus do we sing!
Thou who keep'st us
chaste and free
As the young spring:
Ever be thy honour spoke,

From that place the morn is broke,
To that place day doth unyoke!
GOD LYAEUS
GOD LYAEUS, ever young,
Ever honour'd, ever sung,
Stain'd with
blood of lusty grapes,
In a thousand lusty shapes
Dance upon the
mazer's brim,
In the crimson liquor swim;
From thy plenteous hand
divine
Let a river run with wine:
God of youth, let this day here

Enter neither care nor fear.
A BATTLE-SONG
ARM, arm, arm, arm! the scouts are all come in;
Keep your ranks
close, and now your honours win.
Behold from yonder hill the foe
appears;
Bows, bills, glaives, arrows, shields, and spears!
Like a
dark wood he comes, or tempest pouring;
O view the wings of horse
the meadows scouring!
The vanguard marches bravely. Hark, the
drums!
Dub, dub!
They meet, they meet, and now the battle comes:
See how the arrows
fly
That darken all the sky!
Hark how the trumpets sound!
Hark
how the hills rebound--
Tara, tara, tara, tara, tara!
Hark how the horses charge! in, boys! boys, in!
The battle totters;
now the wounds begin:
O how they cry!
O how they die!
Room
for the valiant Memnon, armed with thunder!
See how he breaks the
ranks asunder!
They fly! they fly! Eumenes has the chase,
And
brave Polybius makes good his place:
To the plains, to the woods,


To the rocks, to the floods,
They fly for succour. Follow, follow,
follow!
Hark how the soldiers hollow!
Hey, hey!
Brave Diodes is dead,
And all his soldiers fled;
The battle 's won,
and lost,
That many a life hath cost.
_ANONYMOUS_
MY LADY GREENSLEEVES
ALAS! my love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;

And I have loved you so long,
Delighting