66

"Therefore taste, and again, I pray you, if they like "your appetite; spare not my orchard; if they offend your stomach, lay them by to ripen, and you shall prove of "my latter vintage. Thus leaving my labours to your Worship's good liking, and persuading myself of your "continual countenance, I humbly take my leave.

66

"Your Worship's ever to command,

"THOMAS WEELKES."

This set contains twenty-four Madrigals, one of which, My flocks feed not, although written by Shakspeare (vide The Passionate Pilgrim,) I have not reprinted; as the music is seldom or never met with, and the verses are but poor stuff, like many of the Rhymes of that mighty master.

CVIII.

Now ev'ry tree renews its summer's green,
Why is your heart in winter's garments clad?
Your beauty says, my love is summer's Queen ;
But
your cold love like winter makes me sad.
Then either spring with huds of love again,
Or else congeal my thoughts with your disdain.

CIX.

Young Cupid hath proclaim'd a bloody war,
And vows revenge on all the maiden crew:
Oh! yield, fair Cloris, lest in the foul jar

Thine after penance makes thy folly rue.
And yet I fear, her wondrous beauty's such,
A thousand Cupids dare not Cloris touch!

Set also for three voices by Michael Este, A.D. 1604.

It is a favorite conceit with Poets to represent their mistresses as more powerful than Cupid, who is said to rule all the world besides. M. Dorat has prettily expressed it in his translation of one of the Basia of Secundus:

"L'Amour soumet la terre, assujettit les cieux;
"Les Rois sont à ses pieds, il gouverne les Dieux.
"Il est maître absolu: mais Thaïs aujourd'hui

66

L'emporte sur les Rois, sur les Dieux, et sur lui."

CX.

Ah me! my wonted joys forsake me,
And deep despair doth overtake me;
I whilome sung, but now I weep:
Thus sorrows run, when joys do creep.
I wish to live, and yet I die;
For love hath wrought my misery.

CXI.

Our country swains in the morris dance
Thus woo and win their brides;

Will for our town, for Kate the next prance,

The Hobby-horse at pleasure frolic rides.

I woo with tears, yet ne'er the near*,

I die in grief and live in fear.

The Morris dance, &c. is treated of at large under Morley's Madrigal," Ho, who comes there?" No. LXXIV. From the expression Will for our Town, I should imagine that there was occasionally a sort of friendly contention in the

* Vide No. XVIII.

sports between neighbouring villages; which idea is rather corroborated by a passage from an old play called the Vow-breaker by Samson, A.D. 1636: "Let the Major "play the Hobby-horse an' he will; I hope our Town lads "cannot want a Hobby-horse." See also the following Madrigal.

CXII.

Lo! country sport that seldom fades;

A garland of the spring,

A prize for dancing country maids
With merry pipes we bring.

Then all at once for our town cries,
Pipe on, for we will have the prize.

See the preceding Madrigal.

CXIII.

Those sweet delightful lillies

Which nature gave my Phillis,

Ah me! each hour make me to languish,

So grievous is my pain and anguish.

A translation of the following Italian stanza set to music by Weelkes in his "Ayres or Phantastic Spirits, A.D. 1608."

"I bei ligustri e rose,

"Ch'in voi Natura pose,

"Donna gentil, mi fann' ogn' hor morire;
"Si grave è la mia pena, e'l mio martire."

The English version is also set by Thomas Bateson, A.D. 1604.

CXIV.

Retire, my thoughts, unto your rest again;
Your proffer'd service may incur disdain:
The dice are cast, and if the gamesters please,

I'll take my chance, and rest myself at ease.

A true philosophical frame of mind; as much as to say, I'll not allow myself to be over anxious or discomposed about that which no efforts or acts of my own can alter either one way or the other :-the magna voluptas or summum bonum of Epicurus.

In 1598, Weelkes published a set of twenty-three "Bal"lets and Madrigals to five voices, with one for six voices," dedicated to "the Right Worshipful his Master, Edward Darcye, Esquire, Groom of Her Majesty's Privy Cham"ber." In the dedication he speaks of his years being un

ripened.

CXVI.

To shorten winter's sadness,

See where the Nymphs with gladness

Disguised all are coming,

Right wantonly a mumming.

Fa la.

Mumming" consisted in an interchange of dress between "men and women, who in each others habits went from

66

one neighbour's house to another, and partook of their "Christmas cheer, and made merry with them in disguise, "by dancing and singing and such like merriments."

Bourne's Vulg. Antiq.

The custom is still kept up in many parts of the country. Those engaged in the frolic are in England called Mummers, in Scotland Guisarts. In Henry the Eighth's reign, in consequence of many abuses, an ordinance was published, that no persons should appear abroad like mummers, covering their faces with vizors, and in disguised apparel, under pain of three months imprisonment.

CXVII.

Whilst youthful sports are lasting,
To feasting turn our fasting;

With revels and with wassails,

Make grief and care our vassals.

Fa la.

For youth it well beseemeth,

That pleasure he esteemeth :

And sullen age is hated,

That mirth would have abated.

Fa la.