JAMES WEDDERBURN.

(1500?-1565?)

GO, HEART.

A Scots lyrist, author of Ane Compendious Buike of Godly and Spiritual Songs, 1597 (edition of circa 1549 no longer extant). In Dalyell's Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, Edinburgh, 1801. The extracts may be found in Fitzgibbon's Early English Poetry (Canterbury Poets).

GO, heart, unto the lamp of light:

Go, heart, do service and honour;
Go, heart, and serve him day and night;
Go, heart, unto thy Saviour.

Go, heart, to thy only remede,
Descending from the heavenly tour,
Thee to deliver from pain and deid1:
Go, heart, unto thy Saviour.

Go, heart, right humble and full meek,
Go, heart, as leal and true servitour,
To him that health is for all flesh,
Go, heart, unto thy Saviour.

Go, heart, with true and whole intent,
To Christ, thy help and whole succour;
Thee to redeem He was all rent;

Go, heart, unto thy Saviour.

To Christ, that rose from death to life,
Go, heart, unto my latter hour,
Whose great mercy can none descrive,
Go, heart, unto thy Saviour.

1 death.

LEAVE ME NOT.

Psalm xxvii. 9.

AH! my Lord, leave me not,

Leave me not, leave me not,
Ah! my Lord, leave me not,
Thus mine alone:

With ane burden on my back
I may not bear, I am so weak,
Lord, this burden from me take,
Or else I am gone.

With Thy hands Thou hast me wrought, Leave me not, leave me not,

With Thy hands Thou hast me wrought,
Leave me not alone;

I was sold and Thou me bought,
With Thy blood Thou hast me coft1.
Now am I hither sought

To Thee, Lord, alone.

I cry and I call to Thee,

To leave me not, to leave me not,

I cry and I call to Thee,

To leave me not alone:

All they that laden be,

Thou bidst them come to Thee,

Then shall they saved be,

Through Thy mercy alone.

1 bought.

NICHOLAS UDALL (?).

(1504?-1556.)

PIPE, MERRY ANNOT.

This is a song from the early comedy of Ralph Roister Doister (printed 1566), of which Udall is thought to have been the author. The song seems to be of earlier date, and may not have been of Udall's composition. The play may be found in Hazlitt's Dodsley, vol. iii.

PIPE, merry Annot,

Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.

Work, Tibet; work, Annot; work, Margery;
Sew, Tibet; knit, Annot; spin, Margery.
Let us see who will win the victory.

Pipe, merry Annot,

Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.

What, Tibet! what, Annot! what, Margery!
Ye sleep, but we do not, that shall we try;
Your fingers be numbed, our work will not lie.

Pipe, merry Annot,

Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.

Now, Tibet; now, Annot; now, Margery;
Now whippet apace for the maistry:
But it will not be, our mouth is so dry.

Pipe, merry Annot,

Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.

When, Tibet? when, Annot? when, Margery?

I will not, I can not,-no more can I.

Then give we all over, and there let it lie!

EDMUND SPENSER.

(15527-1599.)

THE SONG OF ENCHANTMENT.

Spenser's Lyrical Poems (the Shepherd's Calendar, Astrophel, the Amoretti, Epithalamion, Four Hymns, and Prothalamion) have appeared in a separate volume in Mr. Ernest Rhys' series of "The Lyric Poets" (London and New York, 1895). Extracts of a lyrical cast from the Shepherd's Calendar, 1579, appear in the volume of English Pastorals in the present series. The Daphnaida, "an elegy upon the death of the noble and virtuous Douglas Howard", appeared in 1591; the Amoretti or Sonnets in 1595 (written 1592–3); the Epithalamion, a song in celebration of the poet's own marriage, in 1595 (written 1594-5); the Prothalamion, or a "Spousal Verse, in honour of the double marriage of two honourable and virtuous ladies, the Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Katherine Somerset ", in 1596; and the Four Hymns in the same year. The following is the famous Song of Despair from the Fairy Queen, book I., canto ix.

HO travels by the weary wandering way,

WHO

To come unto his wished home in haste, And meets a flood that doth his passage stay,

Is not great grace to help him over past,

Or free his feet that in the mire stick fast?

Most envious man, that grieves at neighbour's good,
And fond, that joyest in the woe thou hast!

Why wilt not let him pass, that long hath stood
Upon the bank, yet wilt thyself not pass the flood?

He there does now enjoy eternal rest

And happy ease, which thou dost want and crave,
And further from it daily wanderest:

What if some little pain the passage have,

That makes frail flesh to fear the bitter wave?

Is not short pain well borne, that brings long ease,
And lays the soul to sleep in quiet grave?

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,

Ease after war, death after life does greatly please!

The lenger life, I wot, the greater sin;
The greater sin, the greater punishment:
All those great battles, which thou boasts to win
Through strife, and bloodshed, and avengement,
Now praised, hereafter dear thou shalt repent;
For life must life, and blood must blood repay.
Is not enough thy evil life forespent?

For he that once hath missèd the right way,
The further he doth go, the further he doth stray.

Then do no further go, no further stray,
But here lie down, and to thy rest betake,
Th' ill to prevent, that life ensewen may;
For what hath life that may it loved make,
And gives not rather cause it to forsake?

Fear, sickness, age, loss, labour, sorrow, strife,
Pain, hunger, cold that makes the heart to quake;
And ever fickle fortune rageth rife;

All which, and thousands mo, do make a loathsome life.

FROM THE DAPHNAIDA.

HOW happy was I when I saw her lead

The shepherds' daughters dancing in a round!
How trimly would she trace and softly tread
The tender grass, with rosy garland crowned!
And when she list advance her heavenly voice,
Both Nymphs and Muses nigh she made astownd,
And flocks and shepherds caused to rejoice.

But now, ye shepherd lasses! who shall lead
Your wandering troups, or sing your virelayes1?
Or who shall dight your bowers, sith she is dead
That was the Lady of your holy-days?

Let now your bliss be turnèd into bale,

1 light songs.