A most Excellent Song of the Love of Young Palmus and fair Sheldra.
To the Tune of, Shackley-hey.
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YOung Palmus was a Ferry-man,
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whom Sheldra fair 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-hey,
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fa la, fa la la la,
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So loud at Shackley she did cry,
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The words resounded at Shackley-hey.
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fa la, fa la la la.
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But all in vain she did complain,
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for nothing did him move,
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Till wind did turn him back again,
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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 turnd her love to mortal hate.
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fa la, etc.
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Then weeping to himself did say,
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Ill live with thee at Shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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No no quoth she, I thee deny,
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my love thou once did scorn,
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And to my prayers would not hear,
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but left me here forlorn:
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But now being turnd by fate of wind,
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Thou thinkst to win me to thy mind, etc.
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Go go, farewel I thee deny,
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Then shalt thou live at Shackley-hey, etc.
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If thou dost my love disdain,
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because I live on the 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 subject unto wind and fate, etc.
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But quite forsake both Oars and Sea,
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To live with thee at Shackley-hey, etc.
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My Sheldras bed shall be my boat,
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her arms shall be my Oars,
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Where love instead of storms shall float,
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on pleasant downs and shoars:
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Her sweet breath my pleasant gale,
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through tides of love to guide my sail, etc.
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Her love my praise, she is my joy,
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To live with me at Shackley-hey, etc.
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No Titan shall with me compare,
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so fortunate to prove,
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For Venus never was his peer,
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ile bear the Queen of love:
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The working water never fear,
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For Cupids self our Barge shall steer:
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fa la, etc.
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And to the shore I still will cry,
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My Sheldras come to Shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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To strow the boat for thy avail,
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ile Rob the flowery shores,
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And whilst thou guidst the Silken Sail,
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ile Row with golden Oars,
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And as upon the Seas we float,
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fa la, etc.
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And to the Shoar I still will cry,
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My Sheldra comes to Shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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And have a story painted there,
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whereon there may be seen
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How Sopho lovd a Ferry-man,
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being a learned Queen:
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in Golden letters shall be writ,
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How well in love himself he quit,
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fa la, etc.
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Then all the Lasses still shall say,
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With Palmus well to Shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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And walking easily to the Strand,
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well angle in the brook,
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And fish with the white lilly wand
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thou knowst no other hook:
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To which the fish shall soon be brought
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And strive which shall be caught, etc.
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A thousand pleasures we shall try,
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As we walk on to Shackley-hey, etc.
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And if we be opprest with heat,
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in the mid time of the Day,
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Under the Willows tall and great,
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shall be our quiet bay:
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Where I will make thee fans of bowes,
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from Phoebus beams to shade thy brow
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fa la, etc.
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And cause them at the ferry cry,
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My sheldra comes to shackley hey, etc.
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A troop of dainty neighbouring Girls
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shall dance along the strand,
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Upon the Gravel all of pearls,
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to wait when thou shalt land:
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And cast themselves upon the ground,
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whilst thou with garland shall be crownd
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And shepherds all with joy shall say,
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See sheldra come to shackley-hey, etc.
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ALthough I did my self absent,
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twas but to try thy mind,
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But now thou mayst thy self absent,
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for being so unkind:
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for now thourt turnd by wind and fate,
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instead of love thou purchest hate,
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fa la, etc.
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[T]herefore return thee to the sea,
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And bid farewel to Shackley-hey,
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[fa] la, etc.
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[T]hen all in vain she did complain,
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and no remorse could find,
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[Y]oung Palmus through his own disdain,
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made fair Sheldra unkind:
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And she is from him fled and gone,
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He laid him in his boat alone, etc.
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And so betook him to the sea;
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And bad farewel to Shackley hey, etc.
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Then from the happy sandy shore,
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into the floating waves,
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His Vessel fraught with brinish tears,
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into the main he laves:
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but all in vain, for why he still,
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With weeping eyes his boat did fill, etc.
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He launcht himself into the sea,
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And bad farewel to shackley-hey, etc.
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Now farewel to my Sheldra fair,
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whom I no more shall see,
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[I m]ean to lead my life at Sea,
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by thy inconstancy.
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Come Neptune come, to thee I cry,
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With thee ile live, with thee ile die, etc.
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Then launcht himself into the Sea
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and bad farewel to shackley-hey, etc.
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but far from thence he had not gone,
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ere Sheldra fair returnd:
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Whose kind pitty made me moan,
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such passion in her burnd:
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but when she to that place arrivd,
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She found the shore of him deprivd,
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fa la, etc.
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and her dear Palmus now at Sea,
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Had bid farewel to shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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She then with bitter sighs complaind,
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her grief 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 vain,
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for he was gone by her disdain,
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fa 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, etc.
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O wretched Sheldra then quoth he,
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confess what fond disdain,
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Hath wrath caused to fall on thee,
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by this long suffering pain:
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By thee alas, so soon forgot,
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Serve to thy loves strange hateful lost
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fa la, etc.
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and thus to lie and for him cry,
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Whom thou so fondly did deny,
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fa la, etc.
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Who once did fairly love I see,
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will never after hate,
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as doth too well appear by me,
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in my forsaking state:
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alas my scorn I mean to prove,
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By only trial of thy love, etc.
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Now hapless me for I do see.
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He hath forsaken woful me, etc.
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Thus all the while in roughest Seas,
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poor Palmus boat was tost,
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But more ins mind this did disease,
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because his Sheldras lost?
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in midst of this he her forswears,
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He rent his Coat, and tore his hair, 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, etc.
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Even as his grief had swallowd him,
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so did the greedy waves,
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about his Boat and ore the brim,
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each Billow swiftly raves:
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There is no trust in swelling powers,
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That what it may it still devours, etc.
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and the breach of the Seas may see,
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The boat felt more the rage than he, etc.
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Thus wrapt and scattered in the state,
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while he in quiet swam,
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Through liquid path to Thetis gate,
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by soft degrees went down
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Whom when the Nymph beheld, the girls
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Soon laid aside their sporting Pearls,
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fa la, etc.
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And up they heavd him as a Guest,
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Unlookt for now come to the feast, etc.
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His case they pittied, but when they
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beheld his face right fain,
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For very love into the Sea,
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they pulld him back again:
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So they were with his beauty movd,
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For what is fair is soon belovd,
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fa la, etc.
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Then with the Nymphs he lives in Sea,
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That left his love at Shackley-hey,
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fa la, etc.
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Then sheldra fair to shackley went,
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to end her woful daies,
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Because Young Palmus cast himself
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into the floating Seas,
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At Shackley did fair Sheldra die,
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Young Palmus in the Seas doth lie,
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fa la, etc.
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So as they livd, so did they die,
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And bid farewel to Shackley-hey,
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fa la, fa la la la.
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