Not long youth lasteth,
And old age hasteth.
Fa la la!
Now is best leisure
To take our pleasure.
Fa la la!
All things invite us
Now to delight us.
Fa la la!
Hence care be packing,
No mirth be lacking.
Fa la la!
Let spare no treasure
To live in pleasure.
Fa la la!
From Thomas Bateson’s First Set of English Madrigals, 1604.
Sister, awake! close not your eyes!
See, the clear sun, the world’s bright eye,
In at our window peeping:
Lo! how he blusheth to espy
Us idle wenches sleeping.
Therefore, awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the park a-maying.