ANONYMOUS

The Cuckoo

"HE cuckoo is a pretty bird,
She singeth as she flies;
She bringeth us good tidings,
She telleth us no lies;
She sucketh all sweet flowers

To keep her throttle clear,
And every time she singeth
Cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo!

The summer draweth near.

The cuckoo is a giddy bird,
No other is as she,
That flits across the meadow,
That sings in every tree.
A nest she never buildeth,
A vagrant she doth roam;
Her music is but tearful-
Cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo !

"I nowhere have a home."

The cuckoo is a witty bird,
Arriving with the spring.
When summer suns are waning
She spreadeth wide her wing.
She flies th' approaching winter,
She hates the rain and snow;
Like her, I would be singing,
Cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo!
And off with her I'd go!

ANONYMOUS

Robin Good-Fellow

FROM Oberon in fairyland,

The king of ghosts and shadows there,
Mad Robin I, at his command,

Am sent to view the night sports here.
What revel rout

Is kept about,

In every corner where I

I will o'ersee

And merry be

go,

And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho!

More swift than lightning can I fly

About the airy welkin soon,

And in a minute's space descry

Each thing that's done below the moon.
There's not a hag

Or ghost shall wag,

Cry, ware goblins, where I go;

But Robin I

Their seats will spy,

And send them home, with ho, ho,

Where'er such wanderers I meet,

ho!

As from their night sports they trudge home

With counterfeiting voice I greet

And call them on with me to roam

Through woods, through brakes,
Through bogs, through lakes,

Or else unseen with them I go,
And in the nick

To play some trick,

And frolic it, with ho, ho, ho!

Sometimes I meet them like a man;

Sometimes an oxe, sometimes a hound; And to a horse I turn me can,

To trip and trot about them round.
But if to ride,

My back they stride,
More swift than wind away I go,
O'er hedge and lands,
Through pools and ponds

I whirry, laughing, ho, ho, ho!
When lazy queans have nought to do;
But study how to cog and lie;
To make debate and mischief too
"Twixt one another secretly:
I mark their glose

And it disclose

To them whom they have wronged so;
When I have done

I get me gone,

And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho! When men do traps and engines set

In loop-holes where the vermin creep, Who from their folds and houses get Their ducks and geese and lambs asleep: I spy the gin,

And enter in,

And seem a vermin taken so.

But when they there
Approach me near,

I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and rills in meadows green,
We nightly dance our heydeguise,
And to our fairy king and queen

We chant our moonlight harmonies.
When larks gin sing,

Away we fling,

And babes new-born steal as we go;

An elf in bed

We leave instead,

And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!

From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
Thus nightly revelled to and fro,
And for my pranks men call me by
The name of Robin Good-fellow.
Fiends, ghosts and sprites,
Who haunt the nights,

The hags and goblins do me know;
And beldames old

My feats have told,

So vale, vale; ho, ho, ho!

ANONYMOUS

Song

RT thou that she than whom no fairer is,

"ARTA

Art thou that she desire so strives to kiss?" "Say I am; how then?

Maids may not kiss

Such wanton humoured men."

"Art thou that she the world commends for wit?

Art thou so wise and makest no use of it?"

"Say I am: how then?

My wit doth teach me shun

Such foolish, foolish men."

ANONYMOUS

On Francis Drake

SIR Drake, whom well the world's end knew,

Which thou didst compass round,

And whom both poles of heaven once saw,
Which north and south do bound:

The stars above would make thee known,

If men here silent were;

The sun himself cannot forget

His fellow traveller.

ANONYMOUS

W

'HEN busy fame o'er all the plain,
Velinda's praises rung;

And on their oaten pipes each swain
Her matchless beauty sung:

The envious nymphs were forc'd to yield
She had the sweetest face;
No emulous disputes were held,
But for the second place.

Young Coridon, whose stubborn heart
No beauty e'er could move;

But smil'd at Cupid's bow and dart,
And brav'd the God of Love:

Would view this nymph, and pleas'd at first
Such silent charms to see;

With wonder gaz'd, then sigh'd, and curs'd
His curiosity.

ANONYMOUS

s Cupid roguishly one day,

Had all alone stole out to play;

The Muses caught the little, little, little knave,
And captive Love to Beauty gave:

The Muses caught the little, little, little knave,
And captive Love to Beauty gave:

The laughing dame soon miss'd her son,
And here and there, and here and there,
And here and there distracted run;

Distracted run, and here and there,

And here and there, and here and there distracted run: And still his liberty to gain, his liberty to gain,

Offers his ransom,

But in vain, in vain, in vain;

The willing, willing prisoner still hugs his chain,

And vows he'll ne'er be free,

And vows he'll ne'er be free,

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

No, no, no, no, no he'll ne'er be free again,

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

No, no no, no, no he'll ne'er be free again.