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| SING! sing, PARTHENOPHIL! sing! pipe! and play! | |
| This feast is kept upon this plain, | |
| Amongst th’ Arcadian shepherds everywhere, | |
| For ASTROPHEL’s birthday! Sweet ASTROPHEL! | |
| Arcadia’s honour! mighty PAN’s chief pride! | 5 |
| Where be the Nymphs? The Nymphs all gathered be | |
| To sing sweet ASTROPHEL’s sweet praise! | |
| ECHO! record what feasts be kept to-day | |
| Amongst th’Arcadian shepherd swains! | |
| What keep they, whiles they do the Muses cheer? | 10 |
ECHO, Cheer! | |
| |
| He cheered the Muses with celestial skill! | |
| All Shepherds’ praise died with him, when he died! | |
| He left no peer! Then, what deservèd he, | |
| At whose pipe’s sound, the lambkin bays? | 15 |
ECHO, Bays! | |
| |
| The bullocks leap! the fawns dance in array! | |
| Kids skip! the Satyrs friskins fain! | |
| Here stand a herd of Swains! Fair Nymphs stand there! | |
| Swains dance! while Nymphs with flowers their baskets fill! | 20 |
| What was he to those Nymphs with garlands tied? | |
ECHO, Tied! | |
| |
| What tied him? Hath he to tell there bound t’ee? | |
ECHO, Bounty! | |
| How! To report his martial days? | 25 |
ECHO, All days! | |
| Thrice happy man! that found this happy way! | |
| His praise all Shepherds’ glory stains! | |
| What doth PARTHENOPHE, my purchase dear? | |
ECHO, Chase dear! | 30 |
| What saith She, to her PARTHENOPHIL? | |
ECHO, O fill! | |
| |
| Shepherds! I fill sweet wines repurified, | |
| And to his blessed Soul, this health have we! | |
| Singing sweet Odes and Roundelays! | 35 |
| |
| Let every man drink round besides this bay! | |
| Where are the Nymphs and Fairy train? | |
| STELLA, three garlands in her hand doth bear; | |
| And those, for his sweet sake! she proffer will, | |
| Unto th’Elizian souls! And I have spied | 40 |
| PARTHENOPHE, with spoil returns to me, | |
| Of three great hearts. Sing Virelays! | |
| |
| Those golden darts fly never void of prey, | |
| And STELLA sits (as if some Chain | |
| Of Fancies bound her!) by that motley bier! | 45 |
| Where, with sweet eglantine and daffodil, | |
| She, chaplets makes, with gold and scarlet dyed. | |
| Here, COLIN sits, beneath that oaken tree! | |
| ELIZA singing in his Lays! | |
| |
| Blest is Arcadia’s Queen! Kneel Swains, and say | 50 |
| That “She (which here chief Nymph doth reign) | |
| May blessèd live! to see th’extremest year!” | |
| For sacrifice, then, lambs and kidlings kill! | |
| And be, by them, ELIZA glorified! | |
| The Flower of Loves, and pure Virginity! | 55 |
| This Delian Nymph doth amaze! | |
| |
| The fairest deers, which in the forests stay! | |
| Those harts (which proudest herds disdain; | |
| And range the forests as without compeer!) | |
| Submissive, yield themselves! that if She will, | 60 |
| She, them may wound! or on their swift backs ride! | |
| Lions and bears, with beauty tameth She! | |
| Shepherds! for Her! your voices raise! | |
| |
| ECHO! this favour, if I purchase may! | |
| Do not herdgrooms there feign? | 65 |
ECHO, They’re fain! | |
| What want they? Speak! now, they be blest, if e’er! | |
ECHO, Fear! | |
| What be the confines? Rebels they be still! | |
ECHO, They be still! | 70 |
| What is She, that so many Swains doth there guide? | |
ECHO, Their guide! | |
| None but herself hath that ability | |
| To rule so many ways! | |
| Her thoughts, sure grounded on Divinity; | 75 |
| For this sweet Nymph, each Shepherd prays! | |
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