Der bringt uns blümlein vil.
Best of all, however, George Peele, who in his Old Wives’ Tale gives tryst to countless waifs of folklore and popular stories, makes room there for a pretty song of harvesters. “Ten to one,” cries Madge, when they first enter upon the stage, “they sing a song of mowing,” but they are sowing, it seems; and once again they come in, this time with a song of harvest. The present writer has ventured[[690]] to change the first song so as to make it agree with the second, not an audacious feat when one considers the case. The songs, with an interval between, would then run as follows:—
Lo, here we come a-sowing, a-sowing,
And sow sweet fruits of love.
All that lovers be, pray you for me,—
In your sweethearts well may it prove.
Lo, here[[691]] we come a-reaping, a-reaping,
To reap our harvest fruit;
And thus we pass the year so long,
And never be we mute.