SYMPOSIUM 



Whom, when I asked from what place he came, 



And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe 

 The shepherd of the ocean by name, 



And said he came from main-sea deep. 

 He, sitting me beside in that same shade, 



Provoked me to play some pleasant fit, 

 And when he heard the music that I made, 



He found himself full greatly pleased at it ; 

 Yet, asmuling my pipe, he took it in hond 



My pipe before that aemuled of many 

 And played thereon (for well that skill he conned) : 



Himself as skilful in that arl as any. 

 He piped, I sung ; and when he sung, I piped ; 



By change of turns each making other merry ; 

 Neither envying other nor envied, 



So piped we, until we both were weary. 



' Thus, O Jupiter, and you my fellow-denizens of Elysium, 

 would we hold sweet communion of soul. And then it was 

 I learnt of the right noble and valorous knight, the 

 exceeding comfort of the " soverane weed," which the 

 elements in aforetime had formed for the solace of men and 

 gods ; for nothing loth am I to say that I drew from the 

 pipe a foretaste of the peaceful joys of the blessed, and 

 therefore did I recognise in the divine herb a gift from 

 heaven, treasured up for mortals in Nature's bounteous 

 store. It seemeth, however, that the immortal powers 

 swayed by imperious Juno had disowned the Virginian 

 nymph and had lost the healing balm she breathes upon 

 the chafed and fretful ; yet, methinks, even Juno might find a 

 piquant pleasure in a few whiffs of the weed. 



' But if Raleigh denies himself the renown of being the 

 first to bring the Indian's herb to his native country, he can 

 fairly lay claim to the pleasure of having first planted it in 

 Ireland. When he was Mayor of Youghall, and his abode 



