| |
| AT morning and at evening both | |
| You merry were and glad, | |
| So little care of sleep or sloth | |
| These pretty ladies had; | |
| When Tom came home from labour | 5 |
| Or Ciss to milking rose, | |
| Then merrily, merrily went their tabor | |
| And nimbly went their toes. | |
| |
| Witness those rings and roundelays | |
| Of theirs, which yet remain, | 10 |
| Were footed in Queen Mary’s days | |
| On many a grassy plain; | |
| But since of late, Elizabeth | |
| And later, James came in, | |
| They never danced on any heath | 15 |
| As when the time hath been. | |
| |
| Farewell rewards and fairies | |
| Good housewives now may say, | |
| For now foul sluts in dairies | |
| Do fare as well as they. | 20 |
| And though they sweep their hearths no less | |
| Then maids were wont to do, | |
| Yet who of late for cleanliness | |
| Finds sixpence in her shoe? | |
| |
| Lament, lament old abbeys | 25 |
| The fairies lost command; | |
| They did but change priests’ babies, | |
| But some have changed your land; | |
| And all your children sprung from thence | |
| Are now grown Puritans; | 30 |
| Who live as changelings ever since | |
| For love of your domains. | |
| |
