John Gay

“ How the tight lass, knives, combs and scissars spys,
And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes.
Of lott'ries next with tuneful note he told,
Where silver spoons are won and rings-of gold. ⁠80
The lads and lasses trudge the street along,
And all the fair is crouded in his song. ”

“ The sun was set; the night came on a-pace, 115
And falling dews bewet around the place,
The bat takes airy rounds on leathern wings,
And the hoarse owl his woeful dirges sings; ”

“ And join in wedlock with the wadling goose;
For love hath brought a stranger thing to pass,
The fairest shepherd weds the foulest lass.
My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, 65
'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid. ”

“ See this tobacco pouch that's lin'd with hair, 35
Made of the skin of sleekest fallow deer.
This pouch, that's ty'd with tape of reddest hue,
I'll wager that the prize shall be my due.
CUDDY.
Begin thy carrols then, thou vaunting slouch,
Be thine the oaken staff, or mine the pouch. 40
LOBBIN CLOUT.
My Blouzelinda is the blithest lass,
Than primrose sweeter, or the clover-grass.
Fair is the king-cup that in meadow blows,
Fair is the daisie that beside her grows,
Fair is the gillyflow'r, of gardens sweet, 45
fair is the mary-gold, for pottage meet ”

“ That might my secret lover's name reveal; 50
Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found,
For always snails near sweetest fruit abound.
I seiz'd the vermin, home I quickly sped,
And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread. ”

“ My new straw hat that's trimly lin'd with green,
Let Peggy wear, for she's a damsel clean. ”

“ He first that useful secret did explain,
That pricking corns foretold the gath'ring rain. ”

“ Nor yellow butter nor sage cheese prepares; 51
For yearning love the witless maid employs.
And love; say swains, all busy heed destroys.
Colin makes mock at all her piteous smart,
A lass that Cic'ly hight, had won his heart; 20
Cic'ly the western lass that tends the kee, [1]
The rival of the parson's maid was she.
In dreary shade now Marian lies along,
And mixt with sighs thus wails in plaining song.
Ah woful day! ah woful noon and morn! 25
When first by thee my younglings white were shorn ”

“ In ale and kisses they forget their cares,
And Susan Blouzelinda's loss repairs.
↑ Dirge, or Dyrige, a mournful ditty, or song of lamentation over the dead, not a contraction of the Latin Dirige in the popish hymn Dirige Gressus meos, as some pretend; but from the Tutonick Dyrke, Laudare, to praise and extol: Whence it is possible their Dyrke and our Dirge, was a laudatory song to commemorate and applaud the dead. Cowell's interpreter. ”

“ An oaken staff each merits for his pains. [14] 120
But see the sun-beams bright to labour warn,
And gild the thatch of goodman Hodges' barn.
Your herds for want of water stand a-dry,
They're weary of your song's ——— and so am I.
↑ Line 3. Welkin the same as Welken, an old Saxon word, signifying a cloud, by poetical licence it is frequently taken for the element or sky, as may appear by this verse in the dream of Chaucer, Ne in all the Welkin was no cloud. ↑ Sheen or shine, an old word for shining or bright. ↑ 5. Scant, used in ancient British authors, for scarce. ↑ 6. ”

“ To drink new cyder mull'd, with ginger warm;
For gaffer Treadwell told us by the by, ⁠151
Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry.
While bulls bear horns upon their curled brow, [8]
Or lasses with soft stroakings milk the cow ”

“ Fortunati ambo, si quid mea Carmina possunt,
⁠Nulla Dies unquam memori vos eximet ævo.⁠Virg. ↑ 99. A song in the comedy of Love for Love, beginning
⁠A soldier and a sailor, &c. ↑ Line 109. A song of Sir J. Denham's See his poems. ↑ 112. Et fortunatum si nunquam Armenta fuissent Pasiphaen.⁠Virg. ↑ 117. Old English Ballads. ↑ 117. Quid loquar aut Scyllam Nisi, &c.⁠Virg. ”

“ Et mutata suos requierunt flumina cursus.Virg.
↑
Line 9. Tu mihi seu magni superas jam saxa Timavi.
Sive oram Illyrici legis æquoris———
↑ 11. An opera written by this author, called the World in the Sun, or the Kingdom of Birds; he is also famous for his song on the New-market horse-race, and several others that are sung by the British swains. ↑ 17. Meed, an old word for fame or renown. ”

“ Dight or bedight, from the Saxon word dihtan, which signifies to set in order. ↑ Line 21. Doff and don, contracted from the words do off and do on. ↑ 66. Daphnis memalus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide ↑ Line 64. ————ἐγὼ δ` ἐῶἰ Δἑλφιδι δἀφναν
Αἂθω. χ` ὠς ἀυτὰ λακέει μέγα καππυρἰσασα ̓.
Theoc. ↑
Line
93. Transque Caput jace; ne respexerisVirg.
↑
Line 109. ”

“ The pow'r that guards the drunk, his sleep atends,
'Till ruddy, like his face, the sun descends.
↑ Line 22. Serta procul tantum capiti delapsit jacebant.⁠Virg: ↑ 40 Sanguineis frontem Moris & Tempora pingit.⁠Virg. ↑ 43. Carmina quae vultis, cognoscite; carmina vobis
⁠Huic aliud Mercedis erit.⁠Virg. ↑ Line 47. Nec tantum Phœbo gradet Parnasia rupes
⁠ Nec tantum Rhodope mirantur & Ismarus Orphea.
⁠Virg. ↑ 51. Our swain had probably read Tusser, from whence he might have collected those philosophical Observations. ”