Face she had of filberd hue,
And bosom'd[505] like a swan;
Back she had of bended ewe,
And wasted by a span.
Haire she had as black as crowe
From the head unto the toe
Downe, downe, all over her
Hye nonny nonny noe.
With her mantle tuck't-up high
She foddered her flock
So bucksome and alluringly,
Her knee upheld her smock.
So nimbly did she use to goe,
So smooth she danc't on tip-toe,
That all men were fond of her
Hye nonny nonny noe.
[506]She smiled like a Holy-day
And simpred like the Spring,
She pranck't it like a popingaie
And like a swallow sing,
She trip't it like a barren doe,
She strutted like a gor-crowe,
Which made the men so fond of her
Hye nonny nonny noe.
To sport it on the merry downe
To daunce the lively Haye
To wrastle for a green gowne
In heate of all the daye
Never would she say me no
Yet me thought I had thô
Never enough of her
Hye nonny nonny noe.
But gonne she is, the prettiest[507] lasse
That ever trod on plaine.
What ever hath betide of her
Blame not the shepherd swayne
For why? she was her owne foe
And gave her selfe the overthrowe
By being so franke of her
Hye nonny nonny noe.
Finis.
Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613).
[508]Sir Thomas Overbury, knight:—ex registro capellae Turris Lond., scilicet. 'Anno Domini 1613, Sir Thomas Overbury, poysoned, buryed September 15th.'
His father was one of the judges of South Wales, viz. Caermarthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke circuites. He lived in his later time at Burghton on the hill in Glocestershire. Sir Giles Overbury was his eldest brother, who dyed in London in St. Clements Danes parish about 1651 or 2.
Scripsit:—Characters, Of education of youth, a stitch't 8vo. Translated Ovid de remedio amoris—which I have ('twas one of old Dr. Kettle's bookes).