* * * * *
The dapper ditties, that I wont devise
To feed youths' fancy and the flocking fry,
Delighten much: what I the best for thy?
They han the pleasure, I a sclender prize.
I beat the bush, the birds to them do fly.
What good thereof to Cuddie can arise?
But Master Colin Clout is not everybody, and albeit his old companions, Master Cuddie and Master Hobinoll, be as little beholding to their mistress poetry as ever you wist: yet he, peradventure, by the means of her special favour, and some personal privilege, may haply live by Dying Pelicans, and purchase great lands and lordships with the money which his Calendar and Dreams have, and will afford him.
FOOTNOTES:
[42:1] In the Guardian, No. 40. Compare Johnson's Life of Ambrose Phillips.
[42:2] Shepherd's Calendar, May, July, and September.
[46:3] First published in 1559. It was popular book, and was often re-edited.
[46:4] Dedication to Virgil.
[49:5] Bolton in Haslewood, ii. 249.