Thus things are strangely wrought, Whiles joyful May doth last. Take May in time: when May is gone, The pleasant time is past. All ye that live on earth, And have your May at will; Rejoice in May, as I do now, And use your May with skill. Use May, while that you may, Too late the tree to climb. Your liking and your lust Is fresh whiles May doth last: When May is gone, of all the year The pleasant time is past. Amantium iræ amoris redintegratio est. [In the Paradise of Dainty Devices.] In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept, I heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had wept. I She sighed sore, and sang full sweet, to bring the her child, 2 but cried still, in sucking of her watch, and grieved with She rocked it, and rated it, until on her it smil'd; Then did she say, true to prove, "Now have I found the proverb "The falling out of faithful friends renewing is 3 of "love." Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to write, In register for to remain of such a worthy wight. As she proceeded thus in song unto her little brat, Much matter utter'd she of weight in place whereas 1 she sat; So ed. 1580.-Ed.1576, "sore." 1576,"rest.” So ed.1580.-Ed. 3 So ed. 1580.-Ed.1576, "is the renewing." And proved plain, there was no beast, nor creature bearing life Could well be known to live in love without discord and strife: Then kissed she her little babe, and sware by God above, "The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of "love." "I marvel much, pardie," quoth she, "for to "behold the rout, "To see man, woman, boy, and beast, to toss the "world about; "Some kneel, some crouch, some beck, some "check, and some can smoothly smile, "And some embrace others in arms, and there "think many a wile. "Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble, "and some stout, "Yet are they never friends indeed untill they once "fall out." Thus ended she her song, and said, before she did remove, "The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of "love." THOMAS TUSSER Was born (says Mr. Warton) at Rivenhall, in Essex, about he prospered no where; and every period of his singular tions of Fortune. At Ratwood he composed his "Hundreth good points of "Husbandrie," which was first printed in 1557, and passed through many subsequent editions (with improvements) which are diligently enumerated in Ritson's Bibliographia. That by Denham in 1580 took the title of" Five "hundreth pointes of good husbandrie, as well for the แ champion or open countrie, as also for the woodland, or "severall, mixed in everie month, with huswiferie, over and "besides the booke of huswiferie. Corrected, better ordered, "and newlie augmented to a fourth part more." &c. It was finally reprinted (says the London Review for May, 1800) in 1710, with notes and observations by Mr. Daniel Hilman, a surveyor, of Epsom, in Surrey. This work is a sensible and lively, though not an elegant didactic poem, being solely intended for the use of the practical farmer. The preface" to the buier of this book," begins with the following lines, in a metre afterwards adopted by Shenstone: What lookest thou herein to have? Fine verses, thy fancy to please? Of many, my betters, that crave: In general, as Mr. Warton has justly observed, the work is "valuable as a genuine picture of the agriculture, the rural 86 arts, and the domestic economy and customs of our "industrious ancestors." The following specimens will sufficiently exemplify the style of this author. Moral reflections on the winds. THOUGH winds do rage, as winds were wood,* Yet, true it is, as cow chews cud, Mad with rage. |