So love did vanish with my ftate,
Which now my foul repents too late;
Therefore example take by mee,
For friendship parts in povertìe.

But yet one friend among the rest,
Whom I before had seen distrest,
And fav'd his life, condemn'd to die,
Did give me food to fuccour me:

For which, by lawe, it was decreed
That he was hanged for that deed;
His death did grieve me so much more,
Than had I dyed myself therefore.

Then those to whom I had done good,
Durft not afford mee any food;
Whereby I begged all the day,
And ftill in freets by night I lay.

My gowns befet with pearl and gold,
Were turn'd to fimple garments old;
My chains and gems and golden rings,
To filthy rags and loathfome things.

Thus was I fcorn'd of maid and wife,
For leading fuch a wicked life;
Both fucking babes and children small,
Did make their paftime at my fall.

S 3

You wanton wives, that fall to luft,
Be you affur'd that God is juft;
Whoredome shall not escape his hand,
Nor pride unpunish'd in this land.

If God to me fuch fhame did bring,
That yielded only to a king,
How fhall they fcape that daily run
To practise fin with every one?

135

140

You

* But it bad this name long before; being fo called from its being a

common SEWER (vulgarly SHORE) or drain. See Stow.

You hufbands, match not but for love,
Left fome difliking after prove;
Women, be warn'd when you are wives,
What plagues are due to finful lives:

Then, maids and wives, in time amend,
For love and beauty will have end.

145

XXVI.

CORYDON's DOLEFUL KNELL.

This little fimple elegy is given, with fome corrections, from two copies, one of which is in "The golden garland of "princely delights."

The burthen of the fong, DING DONG, &c. is at prefent appropriated to burlefque fubjects, and therefore may excite only ludicrous ideas in a modern reader; but in the time of our poet it ufually accompanied the most folemn and mournful ftrains. Of this kind is that fine aerial Dirge in ShakeSpear's Tempest,

"Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,

"Harke now I heare them, Ding dong bell."

["Burtben, Ding dong."]

I make no doubt but the poet intended to conclude this air in a manner the moft folemn and expreffive of melancholy.

Y Phillida, adieu love!

MY

For evermore farewel!

Ay me! I've loft my true love,

And thus I ring her knell,

Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong,

My Phillida is dead!

I'll ftick a branch of willow

At my fair Phillis' head.

For my fair Phillida

Our bridal bed was made::

But 'ftead of filkes so gay,

She in her shroud is laid.
Ding, &c.

Her corpfe fhall be attended

By maides in fair

array,

Till th' obfequies are ended,

15

And she is wrapt in clay.
Ding, &c.

Her

It is a cuftom in many parts of England, to carry a fine garland before the corpfe of a woman who dies unmarried.

*See above, page 175: