Sayth she, "Yet lever were I dead,
Then I should lose my mayden-head,
And all for love of men."
Sayth he, "Yet are you too unkind,
If in your heart you cannot finde
To love us now and then.
"And I to thee will be as kinde,
As Colin was to Rosalinde,
Of curtesie the flower."
"Then will I be as true," quoth she,
"As ever mayden yet might be
Unto her paramour."
With that she bent her snow-white knee,
Down by the shepheard kneeled shee,
And him she sweetely kist:
With that the shepheard whoop'd for joy,
Quoth he, "Ther's never shepheards boy
That ever was so blist."
NOTES
- He was born in 1563, and died 1631.--Biog. Brit.
- As also Chaucer'sRhyme of Sir Topas, ver. 6.
- Alluding toTamburlaine the great, or the Scythian Shepheard,1590, 8vo, an old
ranting play ascribed to Marlowe. - Sc. Abel.