Yet stay, fair lady; rest awhile85
Beneath this cloyster wall:
See through the hawthorn blows the cold wind.
And drizzly rain doth fall.
O stay me not, thou holy friar;
O stay me not, I pray;90
No drizzly rain that falls on me,
Can wash my fault away.
Yet stay, fair lady, turn again,
And dry those pearly tears;
For see beneath this gown of gray95
Thy owne true-love appears.
Here forc'd by grief, and hopeless love,
These holy weeds I sought;
And here amid these lonely walls
To end my days I thought.100
But haply for my year of grace[892]
Is not yet past away,
Might I still hope to win thy love,
No longer would I stay.
Now farewell grief, and welcome joy105
Once more unto my heart;
For since I have found thee, lovely youth,
We never more will part.
⁂ As the foregoing song has been thought to have suggested to our late excellent Poet Dr. Goldsmith, the plan of his beautiful ballad of Edwin and Emma (first printed in his Vicar of Wakefield) it is but justice to his memory to declare, that his poem was written first, and that if there is any imitation in the case, they will be found both to be indebted to the beautiful old ballad Gentle Herdsman, &c. printed in the second volume of this Work, which the Doctor had much admired in manuscript, and has finely improved. See vol. ii. book i. song xiv. ver. 37.
FOOTNOTES:
[891] These are the distinguishing marks of a pilgrim. The chief places of devotion being beyond sea, the pilgrims were wont to put cockle-shells in their hats to denote the intention or performance of their devotion. Warb. Shakesp. vol. viii., p. 224.