(58 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Thy silver dishes, for thy meat. 

 As precious as the Gods do eat, 

 Shall, ou an ivory table, be 

 FreparM 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. 



Ven. Trust me, master, it is a choice song, 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, because 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. Til 

 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 wore 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 Pkilomtl berometh dumb ; 

 And ge complains of care to come. 



The flowers dn fade, and wanton fields 

 To wayward winter reckoning yields. 

 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 

 Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. 



(I) Dr. Warburton, in his Notes on The Merry Wives of Windsor, ascribes 

 this song to Sli *ksp*are : it is true, Sir Hugh Evans, in the third Act of that 

 play, sines four lines of it ; and it occurs in a Collection of f'otms said to be 

 Shakspetre's. printed by Thomas Cotes for John Benson, 12mo. 1640. with some 

 vacations. On the contrary, it is to be found, with the name of " Christopher 

 Mat low" to it. in England'* Helicon; and Walton has just said it was made 

 by Kit Marlon. The reader will judge of these evidences, as lie pleases. 



As to the song itself, though a beautiful one, it is not so purely pastoral as it is 

 generally inouclil to be ; buckles of gold; cora/ clasps and amber studs, silver 

 dishes and irory tables, are luxuries ; and consist not with the parsimony and 

 simplicity of rural life and manners. 



(?) Sir Thomas Overbury's character of " a fayre and happy milke-maid," 

 printed with his poem, entitled "The Wife," in 12oio. l6.*5. 



