LYRICS FROM THE DRAMATISTS.

CUPID

From JOHN LYLY's Alexander and Campaspe, 1584.1

CARDS AND KISSES.

UPID and my Campaspe played
At cards for kisses-Cupid paid ;
He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin :
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes,
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?

1 Lyly's songs are not found in the original editions of his plays. They first appeared in the collective edition of 1632.

B

W

SPRING'S WELCOME.

WHAT bird so sings, yet so does wail?
O'tis the ravished nightingale.

“Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu," she cries,
And still her woes at midnight rise.
Brave prick-song!' who is't now we hear?
None but the lark so shrill and clear;
Now at heaven's gates 2 she claps her wings,
The morn not waking till she sings.
Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat,
Poor robin redbreast tunes his note;

Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing,
Cuckoo to welcome in the spring!
Cuckoo to welcome in the spring!

1 "Harmony written or pricked down in opposition to plainsong, where the descant rested with the will of the singer."Chappell. (The nightingale's song, being full of rich variety, is often termed prick-song by old writers. So they speak of the cuckoo's plain-song.)

2 "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings." Cymbeline, iii. 2.

O

From JOHN LYLY's Sappho and
Phao, 1584.

O CRUEL LOVE!

CRUEL Love, on thee I lay

My curse, which shall strike blind the day;

Never may sleep with velvet hand

Charm thine eyes with sacred wand;
Thy jailors shall be hopes and fears,
Thy prison-mates groans, sighs, and tears,
Thy play to wear out weary times,
Fantastic passions, vows, and rhymes;
Thy bread be frowns, thy drink be gall,
Such as when you Phao call;

The bed thou liest on be1 despair,

Thy sleep fond dreams, thy dreams long care.
Hope, like thy fool at thy bed's head,
Mock' thee till madness strike thee dead,
As, Phao, thou dost me with thy proud eyes;
In thee poor Sappho lives, for thee she dies.

1 Old ed. "by."

2 Old ed. "mockes."

VULCAN'S SONG.

MY shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply

Our Lemnian hammers lustily.
By my wife's sparrows,

I swear these arrows

Shall singing fly

Through many a wanton's eye.

These headed are with golden blisses,
These silver ones feathered with kisses;
But this of lead

Strikes a clown dead,
When in a dance

He falls in a trance,

To see his black-brow lass not buss him,
And then whines out for death t' untruss him.
So, so our work being done, let's play :
Holiday, boys! cry holiday!

Watch.

From JOHN LYLY's Endymion,

1591.

PAGES AND THE WATCH.

TAND! who goes there?

STA

We charge you appear

'Fore our constable here,

In the name of the Man in the Moon.

To us billmen relate,

Why you stagger so late,

And how you come drunk so soon.

What are ye, scabs?

Pages.

Watch.

The watch:

Constable. Knock 'em down unless they all stand;

Pages.

If any run away,

'Tis the old watchman's play,

To reach him a bill of his hand.

O gentlemen, hold,

Your gowns freeze with cold,

And your rotten teeth dance in your head.

Wine nothing shall cost ye;

Nor huge fires to roast ye;

Then soberly let us be led.

Constable. Come, my brown bills, we'll roar,
Bounce loud at tavern door.

Omnes.

And i' th' morning steal all to bed.