I keep, that plays about my house,
Grown fat
With eating many a miching mouse.
As he writes down the list, he himself realises to what an extent his life in the country is a life of make-believe among toys:
Which are
But toys to give my heart some ease:
Where care
Ne’er is, slight things do lightly please.
His mistresses are, however, a thing apart from this happy farmyard. When he goes to the farmyard for a simile in praise of Julia, the effect is amusing, but it is a little lower than love-poetry:
Fain would I kiss my Julia’s dainty leg,