Come then, shepherde, let us joine, Since thy happ is like to mine: For the maid I thought most true, Mee hath also bid adieu. 20
Thy hard happ doth mine appease, Companye doth sorrowe ease: Yet, Phillis, still I pine for thee, And still must weare the willowe-tree.
Shepherde, be advis'd by mee, 25 Cast off grief and willowe-tree: For thy grief brings her content, She is pleas'd if thou lament.
Herdsman, I'll be rul'd by thee, There lyes grief and willowe-tree: 30 Henceforth I will do as they, And love a new love every day.
Is given (with corrections) from the Editor's ancient folio MS.[323] collated with two printed copies in black-letter; one in the British Museum, the other in the Pepys Collection. Its old title is, _A lamentable ballad of the Lady's fall_. To the tune of, _In Pescod time, &c._--The ballad here referred to is preserved in the _Muses Library_, 8vo. p. 281. It is an allegory or vision, intitled, _The Shepherd's Slumber_, and opens with some pretty rural images, viz.
"In pescod time when hound to horn Gives eare till buck be kil'd, And little lads with pipes of corne Sate keeping beasts a-field."
"I went to gather strawberries By woods and groves full fair, &c."
[Mr. Hales thinks it possible that this ballad was written by the same author as _The Children in the Wood_--"the same facility of language and of rhyme, the same power of pathos, the same extreme simplicity characterise both ballads."
Mr. Chappell says that _Chevy Chace_ was sometimes sung to the tune of _In Pescod time_, as were the _Bride's burial_ (No. 12), and _Lady Isabella's Tragedy_ (No. 14). The various readings from the original MS. are noted at the foot of the page.]
Marke well my heavy dolefull tale, You loyall lovers all, And heedfully beare in your brest, A gallant ladyes fall. Long was she wooed, ere shee was wonne, 5 To lead a wedded life, But folly wrought her overthrowe Before she was a wife.
Too soone, alas! shee gave consent And yeelded to his will, 10 Though he protested to be true, And faithfull to her still. Shee felt her body altered quite, Her bright hue waxed pale, Her lovelye cheeks chang'd color white,[324] 15 Her strength began to fayle.
Soe that with many a sorrowful sigh,[325] This beauteous ladye milde, With greeved hart, perceived herselfe To have conceived with childe.[326] 20 Shee kept it from her parents sight As close as close might bee, And soe put on her silken gowne None might her swelling see.[327]