The shepherd swains shall dance and sing,
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.
Christopher Marlow, 1593.
Ven. Trust me, master, it is a choice song, and sweetly sung by honest Maudlin. I now see it was not without cause that our good Queen Elizabeth did so often wish herself a milk-maid all the month of May, because they are not troubled with fears and cares, but sing sweetly all the day, and sleep securely all the night; and without doubt honest, innocent, pretty Maudlin does so. I’ll bestow Sir Thomas Overbury’s milk-maid’s wish upon her, “That she may die in the spring, and, being dead, may have good store of flowers stuck round about her winding-sheet.”
THE MILK-MAID’S MOTHER’S ANSWER.
THE NYMPH’S REPLY.
If that the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,