I play to please myself, all be it ill.

Nought weigh I, who my song doth praise or blame,

Ne strive to win renown, or pass the rest:

With shepheard sits not follow flying Fame,

But feed his flock in fields where falls them best.

I wot my rhymes be rough, and rudely drest;

The fitter they my careful case to frame:

Enough is me to paint out my unrest,

And pour my piteous plaints out in the same.

The god of shepheards, Tityrus,[10] is dead,