The Affectionate Shepherd | Page 6

complayning.
Humillity in misery is reliev'd,
But Pride in neede of no man is
regarded;
Pitty and Mercy weepe to see him griev'd,
That in
distresse had them so well rewarded;
But Pride is scornd, contemnd,
disdaind, derided,
Whilst Humblenes of all things is provided.
Oh then be humble, gentle, meeke, and milde,
So shalt thou be of
every mouth commended;
Be not disdainfull, cruell, proud, sweet
childe,
So shalt thou be of no man much condemned:
Care not for
them that vertue doo despise;
Vertue is loathde of fooles, lovde of the
wise.

O faire boy, trust not to thy beauties wings,
They cannot carry thee
above the sunne:
Beauty and wealth are transitory things,
For all
must ende that ever was begunne.
But Fame and Vertue never shall
decay,
For Fame is toombles, Vertue lives for aye.
The snow is white, and yet the pepper 's blacke,
The one is bought,
the other is contemned:
Pibbles we have, but store of jeat we lacke,

So white comparde to blacke is much condemned.
We doo not praise
the swanne because shees white,
But for she doth in musique much
delite.
And yet the silver-noted nightingale,
Though she be not so white, is
more esteemed;
Sturgion is dun of hew, white is the whale,
Yet for
the daintier dish the first is deemed:
What thing is whiter than the
milke-bred lilly?
That knowes it not for naught, what man so silly?
Yea, what more noysomer unto the smell
Than lillies are? What's
sweeter then the sage?
Yet for pure white the lilly beares the bell,

Till it be faded through decaying age.
House-doves are white, and
oozels blacke-birds bee,
Yet what a difference in the taste we see?
Compare the cow and calfe with ewe and lambe,
Rough hayrie hydes
with softest downy fell;
Hecfar and bull with weather and with
ramme,
And you shall see how far they doo excell;
White kine with
blacke, blacke coney-skins with gray,
Kine nesh and strong, skins
deare and cheape alway.
The whitest silver is not alwaies best,
Lead, tynne, and pewter are of
base esteeme;
The yellow burnisht gold that comes from th' East,

And West, of late invented, may beseeme
The worlds ritch treasury,
or Mydas eye;
The ritch mans god, poore mans felicitie.
Bugle and jeat with snow and alablaster
I will compare; white
dammasin with blacke;
Bullas and wheaton plumbs, to a good taster


The ripe red cherries have the sweetest smacke:
When they be
greene and young, th' are sowre and naught; But being ripe, with
eagernes th' are baught.
Compare the wyld cat to the brownish beaver,
Running for life, with
hounds pursued sore,
When huntsmen of her pretious stones bereave
her,
Which with her teeth sh' had bitten off before;
Restoratives and
costly curious felts
Are made of them, and rich imbroydred belts.
To what use serves a peece of crimbling chalke?
The agget stone is
white, yet good for nothing:
Fie, fie, I am asham'd to heare thee talke,

Be not so much of thine owne image doating:
So faire Narcissus
lost his love and life;
Beautie is often with itselfe at strife.
Right diamonds are of a russet hieu,
The brightsome carbuncles are
red to see too;
The saphyre stone is of a watchet blue,
To this thou
canst not chuse but soone agree to:
Pearles are not white but gray,
rubies are red:
In praise of blacke what can be better sed?
For if we doo consider of each mortall thing
That flyes in welkin, or
in water swims,
How everie thing increaseth with the spring,
And
how the blacker still the brighter dims:
We cannot chuse, but needs
we must confesse,
Sable excels milk-white in more or lesse.
As for example, in the christall cleare
Of a sweete streame, or
pleasant running river,
Where thousand formes of fishes will appeare,

Whose names to thee I cannot now deliver;
The blacker still the
brighter have disgrac'd,
For pleasant profit and delicious taste.
Salmon and trout are of a ruddie colour,
Whiting and dare is of a
milk-white hiew;
Nature by them perhaps is made the fuller,
Little
they nowrish, be they old or new:
Carp, loach, tench, eeles, though
black and bred in mud, Delight the tooth with taste, and breed good
blud.

Innumerable be the kindes, if I could name them,
But I a shepheard
and no fisher am:
Little it skils whether I praise or blame them,
I
onely meddle with my ew and lamb:
Yet this I say that blacke the
better is,
In birds, beasts, frute, stones, flowres, herbs, mettals, fish.
And last of all, in blacke there doth appeare
Such qualities as not in
yvorie;
Black cannot blush for shame, looke pale for feare,

Scorning to weare another livorie.
Blacke is the badge of sober
modestie,
The wonted weare of ancient gravetie.
The learned sisters sute themselves in blacke,
Learning abandons
white and lighter hues;
Pleasure and pride light colours never lacke,

But true religion doth such toyes refuse:
Vertue and gravity are
sisters growne,
Since blacke by both, and both by blacke are knowne.
White is the colour of each paltry miller,
White is the ensigne of each
common woman;
White is white vertues for blacke vyces piller,

White makes proud fooles inferiour unto no man:
White is the white
of