The Shepherds Delight.
Both by Day and by Night.
Describing the Shepherds simplicity; And their Felicity: their birth,
and their mirth: their lives, and their wives: their health and their
wealth: their ways, and their plays: their diet, and quiet.
And how with their Dam'sels they laugh and lye down,
And to each pretty Virgin, they give a green gown.
To a delightful tune Sung at the Dukes Play-house to the King, and all
the Nobility: Or, Now the Tyrant has stol[n] my dearest away, etc.
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WHat an innocent loving life
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Shepherds do lead,
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In Grove, Field, and Forest,
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on Mountain and Mead:
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Although our low Cottages
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are thatch[e]d above,
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Our hearts are well filled
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with joys of Love.
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With our Shepherdesses
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we laugh and lye down,
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And to each pretty Damosel
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we give a green gown.
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In courting, and sporting
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we spend all the day,
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We fear not, nor care not,
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how time runs away;
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And yet we can tell ye
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how nigh 'tis to Noon,
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Or Evening, if we do
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but gaze on the Sun:
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But every night we do
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laugh and lye down,
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And to each pritty Lass
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we give a green Gown.
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We live as instructed,
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by father and mother,
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Who teach us what we should
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do to one another:
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From Frighting with Fighting
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we care not a Flea,
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Our innocence is like
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a Navy at Sea,
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Which makes us so jocondly
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laugh and lye down,
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and to each fair Female
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we give a green gown.
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The second part, to the same tune.
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WE feel not the cares which
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attend upon crowns;
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Live free from the fears of
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great cities and towns;
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We fight not for honor
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with Sword, Pike, and Buff,
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We all are contented,
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and that's wealth enough,
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Not crafty, with a fafty,
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we laugh and lye down,
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and think it no treason
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to give a green Gown.
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Thus all our life long
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we are frolick and gay,
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And instead of Court Rebels
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we merrily play.
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At Trap, and at Keel,
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and at Barley-break run,
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At Golf, and at Foot-ball,
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and when we have done,
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These innocent sports,
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we do laugh and lye down;
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and to each pritty Lass, etc.
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We teach our little Doggs
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to fetch and to carry,
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The Patridge, the Hare, and
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the Phesant's our Quarrey,
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The nimble Squirrels,
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with Cudgels we Chase;
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And the little pretty Lark,
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we betray with a glass:
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and when we have done so,
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we laugh, etc.
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About the May-pole we
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dance all a-round,
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And with Garlands of Pinks,
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and of Roses are crown'd,
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Our little kind tributes
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we cheerfully pay,
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To the gay Lord, and
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the bright Lady of May,
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And when we have done so
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we laugh and lye down;
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And to each pritty Lass
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do we give a green grown.
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With our delicate Nymphs
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we kiss and we toy;
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What others but dream of,
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we daily enjoy:
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With our sweet-hearts we dally
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so long till we find;
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Their pritty eyes say that
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their hearts are grown kind,
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and when we have done so, etc.
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To make men revive
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with singing and dances,
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There's no flesh alive
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like Fedilia and Francis,
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At trap-ball, and stool-ball
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Rebecca and Rachel;
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Saphania doth stoop well,
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and Katey can catch well;
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They trip it, and lip it,
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and laugh and lye down,
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and freely accept of
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a Lovers green gown.
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With wild Curds and Custards,
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with Chees-cakes and Pyes,
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With Sider and Sugar,
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Cream and Stawberries,
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Green Tanseys and White-pots,
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with Fish, Fowl, and Beasts,
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Our table is spread at
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a Sheep-shearing Feast.
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And when we are filled
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we laugh and lye down:
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Embrace one another,
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and give a green Gown.
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With Bagpipes and taber,
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and Hoby sometimes,
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We dance and skip and sing,
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and our natural Rymes;
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Two Jews-trumps well play'd
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on, with Violin soft,
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Makes spirits to rise, and
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our bloods mount aloft.
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And when they are up,
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and our Lasses lye down;
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Each Shepheard turns Taylor,
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and gives a green gown.
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We multiply not with
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unnatural cheats,
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Nor Kiss by the strength
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of provocative meats:
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Our lively plump issue
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that springs from our beds,
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Are fat, fair, and clear,
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like young Cherubims heads.
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For which we do nothing,
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but kiss and lye down;
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Sometimes a great belly
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comes by a green gown.
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This is the true trade that
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each good Shepheard drives,
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We none of us mingle
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with other mens Wives:
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Our rules of propriety
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is so well known,
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That every man is
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content with his own.
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Though merrily, yet lawfully, etc.
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He that begets Boys abroad,
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at home begets strife,
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And sometimes can ne'r get
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an heir by his Wife:
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We therefore in loyalty
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do lead our lives,
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Are just to our friends, and
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as true to our Wives.
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Although we do merrily
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kiss and lye down,
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Young men to their sweet-hearts
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may give a green gown.
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And thus have I giv'n ye
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a taste of our lives,
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Our breeding, our feeding,
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our sports, and our wives:
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Our innocency, honesty,
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musick, and mirth,
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That waits upon us,
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from the day of our birth:
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If any maid here would
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fain laugh and lye down,
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Let her go amongst Shepherds,
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and get a green gown.
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