And I will make thee beds of roses,
And+ a thousand fragrant poesies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Imbroydered all with leaves of mirtle.
A gowne made of the finest wooll,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Faire lined slipperst for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold:
A belt of straw and iuie buds,
With corall clasps and amber studs.
And if these pleasures may thee moue,
Come § live with me and be my loue.||
The Shepheard swaines shall dance and sing
For thy delights Teach May-morning;
If these delights thy mind may moue,
Then liue with me and be my loue.
*There will I, E. & P. "there" a thousand.
Then, E. & P.
+ Slippers lined choicely, E. & P. & W.
Here Isaak Walton adds this stanza :-
Thy silver dishes for thy meat,
As precious as the Gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be,
Prepar'd each day for thee and me.
THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE SHEPHERD.
FROM" ENGLAND'S HELICON," 1600.
If all the world and loue were young,
And truth in every Shepheards tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me moue
To live with thee and be thy loue.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold+
The riuers rage and rockes grow cold,
And Philomellt becometh dombe
The rest complaines of cares to come.
The flowers doe fade and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yeelds
A hony tongue a heart of gall,
Is fancies spring, but sorrowes fall.
Thy gownes, thy shooes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle and thy posies,
Soone break, soone wither, soone forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw, and iuie buds,
Thy corall clasps, and amber studs,
All these in me no meanes can moue
To come to thee, and be thy loue. ||
* If that, P. + But time drives flocks from field to fold, W. & P. + Then, W. And age, W. And all complain, P. Here Isaak Walton adds this verse:
What should we talk of dainties then,
Of better meat than's fit for men?
These are but vain: that's only good
Which God hath blest, and sent for food.
But could youth last, and love still breede,
Had joyes no date, had* age no mede,
Then those delights my mind might moue,
To live with thee and be thy loue.
The idea of Herrick's beautiful Song " To the Virgins to make much of Time," the Editor has stated is taken from Spenser. Since then he has found that the hint may have been just as likely taken from the following passage in Tasso's Jerusalem, thus translated by Fairfax.
The joyous birds, hid under green-wood shade,
Sung merry notes on every branch and bough,
The wind, that in the leaves and waters play'd,
With murmurs sweet now sung, and whistled now :
Ceased the birds, the wind loud answer made,
And while they sung, it rumbled soft and low;
Thus, were it hap or cunning, chance or art,
The wind in this strange music bore it's part.
A wondrous bird with party coloured plumes,' sung this love lay:
The gentle budding rose, quoth she, behold,
That first scant peeping forth with virgin beams,
Half ope, half shut, her beauties doth unfold
In it's fair leaves, and, less seen, fairer seems,
And after spreads them forth more broad and bold,
Then languisheth, and dies in last extremes;
Nor seems the same, that decked bed and bow'r
Of many a lady late, and paramour.
So, in the passing of a day, doth pass
The bud and blossom of the life of man,
Nor ere doth flourish more; but, like the grass
Cut down, becometh wither'd, pale, and wan :
Oh, gather then the rose, while time thou hast;
Short is the day, done when it scant began ;
Gather the rose of love, while yet thou mayst
Loving be lov'd, embracing be embrac'd.
She ceas'd; and as approving all she spoke,
The choir of birds their heavenly tunes renew,
B. xvI. verses 12 to 16.
Spenser is well known to have translated and transferred into his Faerie Queene many of Tasso's most beautiful passages; the following lines from the Bower of Bliss, Fairfax had before him when he rendered the quotation just given :
The ioyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull shade,
Their notes unto the voice attempred sweete;
Th' angelicall soft trembling voyces made
To th' instruments divine respondence meet;
The silver-sounding instruments did meet
With the base murmure of the waters fall;
The waters fall with difference discreet,
Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
The gentle warbling wind low answered to all.
Here, where this delightful music was heard, the 'fair witch Acrasia,' was solacing herself with a new lover,—she engaged in "wanton joys,”
The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay
'Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,
In springing flowre the image of thy day!
Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly shee
Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestee,
That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may!
Lo! see soone after how more bold and free
Her bared bosome she doth broad display;
Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away.
So passeth, in the passing of a day,
Of mortall life, the leafe, the bud, the flowre;
Ne more doth flourish after first decay,
That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre
Of many a lady, and many a paramoure!
Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime,
For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre :
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time,
Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equall crime.
He ceast; and then gan all the quire of birdes
Their diverse notes t' attune unto his lay, &c. &c.
Faerie Queene, B. 2, Can. XII. ver. 71 to 76.
Spensers Faerie Queene was printed only a few years previous to the Tasso of Fairfax.
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