The defign of this Æglogue is to introduce a panegyric, in the pastoral kind, on Queen Elizabeth: it begins with a complaint of Hobbinol (a fhepherd mention'd in the first Æglogue) for Colin's neglect of his friendship for the fake of Rofalind, with whom he was fallen in love; and from the mentioning of Colin's skill in poetry, Hobbinol takes occafion to recite one of his fongs or poems on Eliza, queen of shepherds.
TELL me, good Hobbinol, what gars thee greet?
What! hath fome wolf thy tender lambs ytorn,
Or is thy bag-pipe broke, that founds fo fweet?
Or art thou of thy loved lafs forlorn?
Or been thine eyes attempred to the year,
Quenching the gafping furrows thirst with rain?
Like April shower so stream the trickling tears
Adown thy cheek; to quench thy thirsty pain.
HOB. Nor this nor that so much doth make me
But for the lad whom long I lov'd fo dearn
Now loves a lafs that all his love doth fcorn:
He, plung'd in vain, his treffed locks doth tear,
Shepherds delights he doth them all forfwear;
His pleasant pipe, which makes us merriment,
He wilfully hath broke, and doth forbear
His wonted fongs wherein he all out-went.
THE. What is he for a lad you fo lament?
Is love fuch pinching pain to them that prove?
And hath he skill to make fo excellent,
Yet hath fo little skill to bridle love?
HOB. Colin, thou kenst the southern fhepherd's
Him Love hath wounded with a deadly dart :
Whylom on him was all my care and joy,
Forcing with gifts to win his wanton heart.
But now from me his madding mind is start,
And wooes the widdow's daughter of the glenne;
So now fair Rosalind hath bred his fmart;
So now his friend is changed for a frenne.
THE. But if his ditties be fo trimly dight,
I pray thee, Hobbinol, record fome one,
The whiles our flocks do graze about in fight,
And we close shrouded in this shade alone.
Palindore, inviting Piers to join with the youths and fhepherds in mirth, and the pleasures of the season, and in celebrating the festival of May, is reprov'd by him, and told that a life of vanity and luxury, while their flocks are neglected, does not become good fhepherds. Piers describes the Paftoral life, at firft fimple and frugal, without wealth, yet free from want and from vice, but corrupted afterwards by licentioufnefs, and by the ambition of power and command, which expos'd both the fhepherds and their flocks to be destroy'd by the wolves. And, to shew how dangerous it is to have any communication with bad company, he relates a fable of the Kid and her Dam.
This Æglogue is purely allegorical, and seems to be defign'd as a moral lesson on the life of Chriftians, and particularly of the clergy, and on the difference between those of the Reform'd and thofe of the Romish perfuafion; as appears further by a paffage in the feventh Æglogue, in which Palinode is again mentioned as giving an account of the lordly lives of the shepherds at Rome.
Is not this the merry month of May,
When love-lads masken in fresh array?
How falls it, then, we no merrier been,
Ylike as others, girt in gawdy green?
Our blonket leveries been all too fad
For thilk fame season, when all is yclad
With pleasance; the ground with grafs, the woods
With green leaves, the bushes with bloffeming
buds,
Youth's folk now flocken in every where,
To gather May-buskets and smelling breere,
And home they haften the posts to dight,
And all the kirk-pillars e'er day-light,
With hawthorn buds and fweet eglantine,
And girdlends of roses, and fops in wine.
Such merry-make holy faints doth queam,
But we here fitten as drown'd in a dream.
PIERS. For yonkers, Palinode, fuch follies fit,
But we tway been men of elder wit.
PAL. Siker this morrow, no longer ago,
I saw a shole of fhepherds out-go,
With finging aud fhouting, and jolly chear;
Before them yode a lufty tabrere,
That to the many a horn-pipe plaid,
Whereto they dauncen each one with his maid.
To fee thefe folks make fuch jouifaunce,
Made my heart after the pipe to daunce :
Tho to the green wood thy speeden them all,
To fetchen homé May with their musical;
And home they bringen in a royal throne,
Crowned as a king; and his queen attone
Was Lady Flora, on whom did attend
A fair flock of fairies, and a fresh bend
Of lovely nymphs. (O that I were there,
To helpen the ladies their May-bush bear!)
Ah! Piers, been not thy teeth on edge, to think
How great sport thy ginen with little swink?
PIERS. Perdy, so far am I from envy,
That their fondness inly I pity:
Those faitours little regarden their charge,
While they, letting their fheep run at large,
Paffen their time, that should be sparely spent,
In luftihed and wanton meriment.
Thilk fame been fhepherds for the devel's sted,
That playen while their flocks be unfed :
Well it is feen their sheep be not their own,
That letten them run at random alone :
But they been hired for little pay,
Of other that caren as little as they
What fallen the flock, fo they han the fleece,
And get all the gain, paying but a piece.
I muse what account both thefe will make,
The one for the hire which he doth take,
And th' other for leaving his Lord's task,
When great Pan accounted of fhepherds shall
afk.
PAL. Siker now I fee thou fpeakeft of spight,
All for thou lackest some dele their delight.
I (as I am) had rather be envied,
All were it of my foe, that fonly pitied;
And yet, if need were, pitied would be,
Rather then other fhould fcorn at me;
For pitied is mishap that has remedy,
But fcorned been deeds of fond foolery.
What fhoulden fhepherds other things tend,
Than fith their God his good does them send,
Reapen the fruit thereof, that is pleasure.
The while they here liven at ease and leisure?
For when they been dead their good is ygo,
They fleepen in reft, well as other moe:
Tho with them wends what they spent in cost,
But what they left behind them is loft.
Good is no good but if it be spend;
God giveth good for none other end.
PIERS. Ah! Palinode, thou art a world's child:
Who touches pitch, mote needs be defit'd,
But fhepherds (as Algrind used to fay)
Mought not live like as men of the lay.
With them it fits to care for their heir,
Enaunter their heritage do impair :
They must provide for means of maintenance,
And to continue their wont countenance :
But shepherd muft walk another way,
Sike worldly fovenance he must for-fay.
The fon of his loins why fhould he regard,
To leave enriched with that he hath spar'd?
Should not thilk God that gave him that good
Eke cherish his child, if in his ways he flood?
For if he mislive in lewdness and luft,
Little boots all the wealth and the truft
That his father left by inheritance;
All will be foon wafted with mifgovernance:
But through this, and other their mifcrcance,
They maken many a wrong chevisance,
Heaping up waves of wealth and woe,
The floods whereof fhall them overflow.
Sike mens folly I cannot compare
Better then to the ape's foolith care,
That is fo enamoured of her young one,
(And yet, God wote, fuch caufe has the none)
That with her hard hold and fraight embracing,
She stoppeth the breath of her youngling.
So oftentimes, whenas good is ment,
Evil enfueth of wrong intent.
The time was once, and may again retorn,
(For ought may happen that hath been beforn)
When shepherds had none inheritance,
Ne of land nor fee in fufferauce,
But what might arise of the bare sheep,
(Were it more or lefs) which they did keep,
Well I wis was it with fhepherds tho,
Nought having nought feared they to forgo,
For Pan himself was their inheritance,
And little them ferved for their maintenance.
The fhepherd's God so weli them guided,
That of nought they were unprovided;
Butter enough, honey, milk, and whey,
And their flocks' fleeces them to array,
But tract of time, and long profperity,
(That nource of vice, this of infolency)
Lulled the fhepherds in fuch fecurity,
That not content with loyal obeyfance,
Some gan to gape for greedy governance,
And match themfelves with mighty potentates,
Lovers of lordships, and troublers of ftates,
Tho 'gan fhepherds fwains to look aloft,
And leave to live hard, and learn to lig foft:
Tho under colour of fhepherds, fome-while
There crept in wolves, full of fraud and guile,
That often devoured their own sheep,
And often shepherd that did 'em keep;
This was the first fourfe of fhepherd's forrow,
That now nill be quit with bale nor borrow.
PAL. Three things to bear been very burdenons,
But the fourth to torbear is outrageous:
Women that of love's longing once luft,
Hardly forbearen, but have it they must:
So when the cholar is enflamed with rage,
Wanting revenge is hard to affwage:
And who can couniel a thirty foul,
With patience to forbear the offer'd boul?
But of all burdens that a man can bear,
Moft is a fool's talk to bear and to her.
I ween the giant has not fuch a weight,
That bears on his fhoulders the heaven's height.
Thou findeft fault where nys to be found,
And buildeft ftrong wark upon a weak ground:
Thou raileft on right without reason,
And blameft 'em much for fmall encheafon.
How wolden fhepherds live if not fo?
What, fhould they pinen in pain and woe?
Nay, lay I thereto, by my dear borrow,
If I may reft, I nill live in forrow,
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