And all their birds with filence to complain ;
The fields with faded flowers did feem to mourn,
And all their flocks from feeding to refrain;
The running waters wept for thy return,
And all their fish with langour did lament;
But now both woods, and fields, and floods revive,
Sith thou art come, their cause of merriment,
That us late dead haft made again alive.
But were it not too painful to repeat
The paffed fortunes which to thee befel
In thy late voyage, we would thee intreat,
Now at thy leifure, them to us to tell.

To whom the fhepherd gently anfwer'd thus;
"Hobbin, thou tempteft me to that I covet,
For of good paffed newly to difcufs,
By double ufury doth twife renew it :
And fince I faw that angel's blessed eye,

Her world's bright fun, her heaven's faireft light,
My mind, full of my thought's fatiety,
Doth feed on fweet contentment of that fight:
Since that fame day in nought I take delight,
Ne feeling have in any earthly pleasure,
But in remembrance of that glory bright,
My life's fole blifs, my heart's eternal treasure.
Wake, then, my Pipe! my fleepy Mufe! awake,
Till I have told her praises lafting long;
Hobbin defires thou mayft it not forfake;
Hark, then, ye jolly shepherd's! to my fong."
With that they all 'gan throng about him neare,
With hungry ears to hear his harmony,
The whiles their flocks, devoid of danger's fear,
Did round about them feed at liberty.

"One day (quoth he) I fate (as was my trade)
Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hore,
Keeping my sheep amongst the cooly shade
Of the green alders by the Mulla's fhore;
There a strange shepherd chaunc'd to find me out,
Whether allured with my pipe's delight,
Whose pleafing found yfhrilled far about,
Or thither led by chance, I know not right;
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight? himself he did ycleep
The Shepherd of the Ocean by name,
And said he came far from the main-fea deep.
He fitting me befide in that fame fhade,
Provoked me to play fome pleafant fit;
And when he heard the mufick which I made,
He found himself full greatly pleas'd at it;
Yet, æmuling my pipe, he took in hond
My pipe, before that æmuled of many,
And plaid thereon, (for well that skill he cond)
Himfelf as fkilful in that art as any.

He pip'd, I fung; and when he fung I piped,
By change of turns each making other merry,
Neither envying other, nor envied;
So piped we until we both were weary."

There interrupting him, a bonny (wain,
That Cuddy hight, him thus atween befpake;
"And fhould it not thy ready courfe reftrain,
I would requeft thee, Colin, for my fake,
To tell what thou didst fing when he did play;
For well I ween it worth recounting was,
Whether it were fome hymn or moral lay,
Or carol made to praise thy loved lafs ?”

That walls the north-fide of Armulla dale)
He had a daughter fresh as flower of May,
Which gave that name unto that pleasant vale;
Mulla, the daughter of old Mole, so hight
The nymph, which of that water-courfe has
charge,

That fpringing out of Mole doth run down right
To Buttevant, where, fpreading forth at large,
It giveth name unto that antient city
Which Kilnemullah cleeped is of old,
Whofe cragged ruines breed great ruth and pity
To travellers which it from far behold.
Full fain the lov'd, and was belov'd full fain
Of her own brother river, Bregog hight,
So hight because of this deceitful train
Which he with Mulla wrought to win delight;
But her old fire, more careful of her good,
And meaning her much better to prefer,
Did think to match her with the neighbour
flood,

Which Alla hight, Broad-water called far,
And wrought fo well with his continual pain,
That he that river for his daughter won;
The dowre agreed, the day afligned plain,
The place appointed where it should be done.
Nath lefs the nymph her former liking held,
For Love will not be drawn, but must be led,
And Bregog did fo well her fancy weld,
That her good-will he got her first to wed;
But for her father, fitting ftill on high,
Did warily fill watch which way fhe went,
And eke from far obferv'd with jealous eye
Which way his courfe the wanton Bregog bent,
Him to deceive for all his watchful ward,
The wily lover did devife this flight;
First into many parts his ftream he fhar'd,
That whilft the one was watch, the other might
Pafs unefpy'd to meet her by the way;
And then befides thofe little ftreams, fo broken,
He under ground fo clofely did convey,
That of their paffage doth appear no token,
Till they into the Mulla's water slide:
So fecretly did he his love enjoy,
Yet not fo fecret but it was defcride,
And told her father by a fhepherd's boy,

Who, wondrous wroth for that fo foul defpight,
In great avenge did roll down from his hill
Huge mighty ftones, the which encomber might
His paffage, and his water-courfes fpill;
So of a river, which he was of old,

He none was made, but scatter'd all to nought,
And, loft among thofe rocks into him rold,
Did lofe his name: fo dear his love he bought."
Which having faid, him Theftylis bespake."
Now by my life this was a merry lay,
Worthy of Colin's felf, that did it make;
But read now eke, of friendship I thee pray,
What dit y did that other fhepherd fing;
For I do covet moft the fame to hear,
As men use most to covet foreign thing."
"That shall I eke," quoth he, "
to you declare.
His fong was a lamentable lay
Of great unkindnefs, and of ufage hard
Of Cynthia, the lady of the fea,
Which from her prefence faultleffe him debarr'd;
And ever and anon, with fingults rife,
He cried out, to make his undersong,
"Ah! my loves queen, and goddess of my life,
Who fhall me pity when thou doft me wrong?"
Then 'gan a gentle bonny lafs to speak,
That Martine hight. "Right well he fure did
'plain,

That could great Cynthia's fore difpleasure break,
And move to take him to her grace again.
But tell on further, Colin, as befel

"Twixt him and thee, what thee did hence diffuade?"

"When thus our pipes we both had wearied well,"

Quoth he," and each an end of finging made,
He 'gan to caft great liking to my lore,
And great difliking to my lucklefs lot,
That banish'd had myfelf like wight forelore,
Into that waste, where I was quite forgot;

The which to leave thenceforth he counsel'd

me,

Unmeet for man in whom was ought regardful, And wend with him, his Cynthia to fee,

Whofe grace was great, and bounty most rewardful,

Befides her pecrless skill in making well,
And all the ornaments of wondrous wit,
Such as all womankind did far excell,
Such as the world admir'd and praised it:
So that with hope of good, and hate of ill,
He me perfuaded forth with him to fare:
Nought took I with me but mine oaten quill,
Small needments elfe need fhepherds to prepare :
So to the fea we came; the fea, that is,
A world of waters heaped up on high,
Rolling like mountains in wild wilderness,
Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse cry."
"And is the fea," quoth Coridon, “fo fear-
"ful?"

"Fearful much more," quoth he," than heart can fear;

Thousand wild beasts, with deep mouths gaping direful,

Therein still wait, poor paffengers to tear.
Who life doth loath, and longs death to behold
Before he die, already dead with fear,

And yet would live with heart half ftony cold,
Let him to fea, and he fhall fee it there:
And yet as ghaftly dreadful as it seems,
Bold men, prefuming life for gain to fell,
Dare tempt that gulf, and in thofe wandring
ftreams

Seek ways unknown, ways leading down to hell :
For as we stood there waiting on the frond,
Behold, an huge great veffel to us came,
Dancing upon the waters back to lond,
As if it fcorn'd the danger of the fame;
Yet was it but a wooden frame, and frail,
Glewed together with fome fubtile matter;
Yet had it arms, and wings, and head and tail,
And life to move itself upon the water.
Strange thing! how bold and fwift the monster
was!

That neither car'd for wind, nor hail, nor rain,
Nor fwelling waves, but through them did pass
So proudly, that the made them rore again.
The fame aboord us gently did receave,
And without harm us far away did bear,
So far, that land, our mother, us did leave,
And nought but sea and heaven to us appear.
Then heartless quite, and full of inward fear,
That shepherd I befought to me to tell
Under what sky, or in what world, we were,
In which I faw no living people dwell;
Who me recomforting all that he might,
Told me that that fame was the regiment
Of a great shepherdefs that Cynthia hight,
His liege, his lady, and his life's regent.

If then, quoth I, a fhepherdefs the be, Where be the flocks and herds which he doth keep?

And where may I the hills and pastures fee,
On which the useth for to feed her sheep?
Thefe be the hills, quoth he, the furges high,
On which fair Cynthia her herds doth feed;
Her herds be thousand fishes with their fry,
Which in the bofom of the billows breed:
Of them the shepherd which has charge in chief
Is Triton, blowing loud his wreathed horn,
At found whereof they all for their relief
Wend to and fro at evening and at morn.
And Proteus, eke with him does drive his heard
Of flinking feales and porcpifces together,
With hoary head and dewy dropping beard
Compelling them which way he lift, and whi-
ther;

And I, among the rest of many least,
Have in the ocean charge to me affign'd,
Where I will live or die at her beheaft,
And ferve and honour her with faithful mind.
Befides, an hundred nymphs, all heavenly born,
And of immortal race, do ftill attend

To wash fair Cynthia's fheep when they be fhorn,

And fold them up when they have made an end.