From the mountain, and ere day So shall you good shepherds prove, And deserve your master's love. Now, good night! may sweetest slumbers And soft silence fall in numbers1 On your eye-lids! so farewell; -Thus I end my evening's knell. He was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and "Taster-Geucral" to Charles I. UNFADING BEAUTY. He that loves a rosy cheek, Or from star-like eyes doth seek But a smooth and steadfast mind, Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes. 1 numbers, harmonious sounds. flames, affection. Robert Herrick was an English vicar, and was ejected by Cromwell, but reinstated by Charles II. His poems show an elegant fancy, but are often disfigured by the forced quaintness in fashion in his day. SONG. GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, And this same flower that smiles to-day, The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun, The sooner will his race be run, That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; What, were ye born to be An hour or half's delight, But you are lovely leaves, where we 30 THE COUNTRY LIFE. SWEET Country life, to such unknown To bring from thence the scorchèd clove; *See Note 3, p. 47. 1 Eastern Ind, East Indies. 2 ingot, a bar of gold or silver. 3 Gold and silver were then brought chiefly from South America. No! thy ambition's masterpiece* Flies no thought higher than a fleece; 5 All scores, and so to end the year: When now the cock, the ploughman's horn, Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neats 4 Thy highest wish. 5 hinds, farm servants. • compost, manure. ' enamelled meads, meadows covered with flowers. 8 Lit., not knowing, an ox. Scotch, nout, black cattle. In grass up to the loose folds round its throat, which lap the morning dew. And as thou look'st, the wanton steer,10 Of short sweet grass, as backs with wool; For sports, for pageantry,11 and plays, Tripping the comely country round, Thy wakes,13 thy quintels,1* here thou hast, 10 steer, a young ox. 11 pageantry, shows, processions. 12 eves, the evenings before a holi day, or evenings merely. 13 wakes, the commemoration of the dedication of a church, formerly kept by sitting up all night. quintels, a sport in which a mark was set on one end of a board, which had a sandbag on the other. Failing to strike the mark fairly with a pole as he ran past, the sandbag hit the player on the back, as it turned swiftly 15 May-poles, poles set up on May 17 Whitsun-ale was another fes tival, held at Whitsun-tide. There was a lord and lady of the ale, and a great dance, with a mimicry of a court-ball. |