70 The Complete Angler 



Thy silver dishes, for thy meat, 

 As precious as the Gods do eat, 

 Shall, on an ivory table, be 

 Prepared each day for thee and me. 



The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 

 For thy delight, each May morning. 

 If these delights thy mind may move, 

 Then live with me, and be my love. 



VENATOR. Trust me, master, it is a choice songj 

 and sweetly sung by honest Maudlin. I now see it 

 was not without cause that our good queen Elizabeth 

 did so often wish herself a milk-maid all the month 

 of May^ecause they are not troubled with fears and 

 cares, but "sing sweetly all the day, and sleep securely 

 all the night: and without doubt, honest, innocent, 

 pretty Maudlin \does so. I'll bestow Sir Thomas 

 Overbury's milk-maid's wish upon her, "that she 

 may die in the Spring ; and, being dead, may have 

 good store of flowers stuck round about her winding- 

 sheet". 



THE MILK-MAID'S MOTHER'S ANSWER. 



If all the world and love were young, 

 And truth in every shepherd's tongue, 

 These pretty pleasures might me move 

 To live with thee, and be thy love. 



But Time drives flocks from field to fold ; 

 When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold ; 

 Then Philomel becometh dumb ; 

 And age complains of cares to come. 



The flowers do fade, and wanton fields 

 To wayward winter reckoning yields. 

 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 

 Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. 



Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, 

 Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, 

 Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten ; 

 In folly ripe, in reason rotten. 



