Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
An if these pictures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

15

20

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.

Thomas Dekker

Cir. 1570-cir. 1637

O SWEET CONTENT

(From The Patient Grissell, acted 1599)

Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
O sweet content!

Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed?
O punishment!

Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexèd
To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?
O sweet content! O sweet O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labor bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?

O sweet content!

10

Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?

O punishment!

Then he that patiently want's burden bears

15

No burden bears, but is a king, a king!

O sweet content! O sweet O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labor bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!

Thomas beywood

1581 (?)-1640 (?)

GOOD MORROW

(From The Rape of Lucrece, 1608 (printed), acted cir. 1605)

Pack, clouds, away, and welcome day,

With night we banish sorrow;

Sweet air blow soft, mount lark aloft,
To give my love good-morrow.

20

Wings from the wind to please her mind,
Notes from the lark I'll borrow;

5

Bird prune thy wing, nightingale sing,
To give my love good-morrow,

To give my love good-morrow,
Notes from them both I'll borrow.

Wake from thy rest, robin-redbreast,
Sing birds in every furrow;
And from each bill let music shrill

Give my fair love good-morrow.
Blackbird and thrush in every bush,

Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow,
You pretty elves, amongst yourselves
Sing my fair love good-morrow;
To give my love good-morrow
Sing birds in every furrow.

10

15

20

Thomas Campion

D. 1619 (?)

TO LESBIA

(In Rosseter's Book of Airs, 1601)

My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love,
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove
Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps
do dive

Into their west, and straight again revive; 5 But soon as once set is our litle light, Then must we sleep one ever-during night.

If all would lead their lives in love like me,
Then bloody swords and armour should not be;
No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should
move,

10 Unless alarm came from the Camp of Love:
But fools do live and waste their little light,
And seek with pain their ever-during night.

When timely death my life and fortunes ends, Let not my hearse be vext with mourning friends;

15 But let all lovers, rich in triumph, come

And with sweet pastimes grace my happy tomb:
And, Lesbia, close up thou my little light
And crown with love my ever-during night.

THE ARMOUR OF INNOCENCE

(From the same)

The man of life upright,

Whose guiltless heart is free

Jack and Joan, they think no ill,
But loving live, and merry still;
Do their week-day's work, and pray
Devoutly on the holy-day:

5 Skip and trip it on the green,

And help to choose the Summer Queen;
Lash out at a country feast

Their silver penny with the best.

Well can they judge of nappy ale, 10 And tell at large a winter tale; Climb up to the apple loft,

And turn the crabs till they be soft.
Tib is all the father's joy,

And little Tom the mother's boy:-
15 All their pleasure is, Content,
And care, to pay their yearly rent.

Joan can call by name her cows

And deck her windows with green boughs; She can wreaths and tutties make, 20 And trim with plums a bridal cake.

Jack knows what brings gain or loss,
And his long flail can stoutly toss:
Makes the hedge which others break,
And ever thinks what he doth speak.

25 Now, you courtly dames and knights,
That study only strange delights,
Though you scorn the homespun gray,
And revel in your rich array;

Though your tongues dissemble deep
30 And can your heads from danger keep;
Yet, for all your pomp and train,
Securer lives the silly swain!