A most excellent Song of the love of young Palmus, and faire Sheldra, with their unfortunate love.
To the tune of Shackley-hay.
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YOung Palmus was a Ferriman,
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whom Sheldra faire did love:
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At Shackley where her sheep did graze,
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she there his thoughts did prove.
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But he unkindly stole away,
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and left his love at Shackley hay.
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Fa, la la, fa, la la la la.
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So loud at Shackley did she cry,
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the woods resound at Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, fa, la la la la.
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But all in vaine she did complaine,
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for nothing could him move:
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Til wind did turne him backe againe,
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and brought him to his love.
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When she saw him thus turnd by fate,
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She turned her love to mortall hate.
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Fa, la la etc.
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Then weeping to her did he say,
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Ile live with thee at Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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No, no, (quoth she) I thee deny,
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my love thou once didst scorne:
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And my prayere wouldst not heare,
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but left me here forlorne:
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And now being turnd by fate of wind,
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Thou think'st to win me to thy mind.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Go, go, farewell, I thee denay,
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Thou shall not live at Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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If thou dost my love disdaine,
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because I live on seas:
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Or that I am a ferry-man,
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my Sheldra doth displease:
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I will no more in that estate,
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Be servile unto wind and fate.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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But quite forsake Boate, Oares, & Sea,
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And live with thee at Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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My Sheldra's bed shall be my Boat,
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her armes shall be my Oares,
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where love in stead of storms shall float,
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on pleasant downs and shores:
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Her sweetest breath my gentle gale,
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Through tides of love to drive my saile.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Her looke my praise, and she my joy,
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To live with me at Shackley-hay,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Not Phao shall with me compare,
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so fortunate to prove:
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Faire Venus never was his fare,
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Ile beare the Queene of love:
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The working waters never feare,
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For Cupids selfe our Barge shall steere,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And to the shore I still will cry,
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My Sheldra comes to Shackley-hey.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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To strew my Boate for thy availe,
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Ile rob the flowrie shores:
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And whilst thou guid'st the silken saile,
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Ile row the silver Oares:
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And as upon the streames we float,
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A thousand Swans shal guide our boat.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And to the shore still will I cry,
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My Sheldra comes to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And have a story painted there,
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wherein there shall be seene:
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How Sapho lov'd a Ferriman,
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being a learned Queene.
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In golden letters shall be writ,
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How well in love himselfe he quit.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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That all the Lasses still shall cry,
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With Palmus wee'le to Shackely-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And walking easily to the Strand,
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wee'le angle in the brooke:
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And fish with thy white-lilly hand,
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thou needst no other hooke:
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To which the fish shall soone be brough[t]
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& strive which shall the first be caught.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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A thousand pleasures will we try,
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As we doe row to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And if we be opprest with heat,
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in mid-time of the day:
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Under the Willowes tall and great,
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shall be our quiet bay:
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Where I will make thee fans of bow[e]
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From Phoebus beames to shade thy browe,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And cause them at the Ferry cry,
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A boat, a boat to Shackley-hay,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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A troupe of dainty neighboring girles
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shall dance along the strand:
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Upon the gravell of the pearles,
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to wait when thou shalt land,
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And cast themselves about thee round,
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Whilst thou with garlands shall be crown['d]
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And all the shepheards with joy shal [say]
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O Sheldra is come to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Although I did my selfe absent,
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'twas but to try thy mind:
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But now thou maist thy selfe repent,
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for being so unkind:
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For now thou art turnd by wind & fa[te]
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In stead of love th'hast purchast hate.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Wherefore returne thee to the Sea,
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And bid farewell to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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The second part, to the same tune.
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THus all in vaine he did complaine,
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and no remorse could find:
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Yong Palmus through his own disdaine
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made Sheldra faire unkind:
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And she is from him fled and gone,
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He laid him in his boat alone,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And so betooke him to the Sea,
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And bad farewell to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Then from the happy sandy shore,
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into the floating waves:
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His vessell fraught with brinish teares,
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into the maine he laves.
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But all in vaine, for why, he still
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With weeping eyes his boat did fill,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And lancht his boat into the sea,
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And bade farewell to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Now farewell to my Sheldra faire,
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whom I no more shall see:
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I meane to leave my life at sea,
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by thy unconstancy.
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Come Neptune, come, to thee I cry,
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With thee Ile live, with thee Ile dye.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Thus be lancht himselfe into the sea,
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And bade farewell to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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But farre from thence he had not gone,
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ere Sheldra faire returned,
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Whose heart kind pity made to move,
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such passion in her burned:
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But when she to that place arriv'd,
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She found the shore from him deprived.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And her deare Palmus now at sea,
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Had bade farewell to Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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She then with bitter sighs complaind,
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her griefe did so abound:
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Oft grieving, that she him disdaind,
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whom she so loving found:
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But now (alas) 'twas all in vaine,
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For he was gone by her disdaine.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Leaving that place to her alone,
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Who now laments that he is gone,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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O wretched Sheldra, then, quoth she,
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confesse what fond disdaine,
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Hath wrath caused to fall on thee:
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could not this long-suffering paine,
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By thee (alas) so soone forgot,
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Serv'd to thy loves strange hatefull lot.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And thus to lye, and for him crie,
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Whom thou so fondly didst deny.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Who once did truely love, I see,
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shall never after hate,
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As doth too well appeare by me,
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in my forsaken state.
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Alas, I meant my scorne to prove,
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By onely tryall of his love.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Now haplesse me, since I doe see,
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He hath forsaken wofull me,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Thus all this while in roughest seas,
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poore Palmus boat was tost:
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But more his mind with his disease,
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because he Sheldra lost.
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In midst of this, he her forsweares,
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He rent his boat and tore his haires.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Threw hope away, for he, alas,
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Could be no more drownd then he was.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Even as his griefe had swallowed him,
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so strove the greedy waves:
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About his boat, and o're the brim,
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each lofty billow raves:
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There is no trust to swelling powers,
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That what it may, it still devoures,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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But by the breach the seas might see,
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The boat felt more the rage then hee.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Thus wrackt & scattered was their state
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while he in quiet swomme:
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Through liquid pathes to Thetis gate,
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by soft degrees went downe
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Whom when the Nymphs beheld, the Girles,
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Soone layd aside their sorting pearles.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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And up they heav'd him as a guest,
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Unlookt for, now come to their feast.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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His case they pittied: but when they
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beheld his face right faine:
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For very love, into the sea
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they pulld him backe againe:
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So were they with his beauty mov'd,
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For what is faire is soone belov'd.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Thus with Nymphs he lives in the sea
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That left his love at Shackley-hay.
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Fa, la la, etc.
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Then Sheldra faire to Shackely went,
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to end her wofull dayes,
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Because young Palmus cast himselfe
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into the floating Seas.
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At Shackley-hay did faire Sheldra dye,
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And Palmus in the sea doth lye,
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Fa, la la, etc.
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So as they lived, so did they dye,
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And bade farewell to Shackely-hay.
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Pa, la la, etc.
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