70 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Pisc. No, I thank you ; but I pray do us a courtesy that shall 

 stand you and your daughter in nothing, and yet we will think 

 ourselves still sometiiing in your debt : it is but to sing us a song, 

 that was sunc by your daughter when I last passed over this 

 meadow about eight or nine days since. 



MiLK-W. What song was it, I pray ? Was it, Come, Shep- 

 herds, deck your herds ? or, As at noon Dulcina rested ? or, 

 Philida flouts me ? or, Chevy Chase ? or, Johnny Armstrong ? or, 

 Troy Town ?* 



has some peculiar virtue, and tie a red string round the neck to stop the 

 nose-bleed. — Am. Ed. 



* The first of these songs was first reprinted in Sir Harris Nicholas' edi- 

 tion of the Angler, having been furnished him in MS. by Mr. Rodd from 

 Mr. Heber's collection. 



" As at noon Dulcina rested" is in Percy's Reliques (Series HL, B. 2, 

 12). It is quite free, as this best of the verses shows : — 



" But in vayne she did conjure him 

 To depart her presence soe ; 

 Having a thousand tongues to allure him, 

 And but one to bid him goe : 



Where lippes invite, 



And eyes delighte. 

 And cheeks, as fresh as rose in June, 



Persuade delay ; 



What boots she say, 

 Forgoe me now, come to me soone ?" 



" Philida flouts me" is in Ritson's Songs from Henry III. to the Revo- 

 lution, taken from " The Theatre of Compliments," 1659. It is a serio- 

 ludicrous complaint, as this third verse shows: — 



" Fair maid, be not so coy — 



Do not disdain me ; 

 I am my mother's joy — 



Sweet, entertaine me ! 

 I shall have, when she dies, 



All things that's fitting — 

 Her poultry and her bees, 



And her goose sitting ; 

 A pair of mattress beds, 



A barrel full of shreds ; 

 And yet for all these goods, 



Philida flouts me." 



