Her eyes like angels watch them still; Robin Goodfellow. [Attributed, upon supposition only, to Ben Jonson.] From Oberon, in fairy land, The king of ghosts and shadows there, Am sent to view the night-sports here. Is kept about, In every corner where I go, I will o'ersee, And merry be, And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho! More swift than lightning can I fly Each thing that's done below the moon. Or ghost shall wag, Or cry, 'ware goblins ! where I go; Their feats will spy, And send them home with ho, ho, ho! Whene'er such wanderers I meet, As from their night-sports they trudge home, With counterfeiting voice I greet, And call them on with me to roam : Through woods, through lakes; To play some trick, And frolic it, with ho, ho, ho! Sometimes I meet them like a man, Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound; To trip and trot about them round. My back they stride, More swift than wind away I go, When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with junkets fine; I eat their cakes and sip their wine! I puff and snort: And out the candles I do blow: They shriek-Who's this? I answer nought but ho, ho, ho! Yet now and then, the maids to please, Their malt up still; I dress their hemp; I spin their tow; If any wake, And would me take, I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho! Away we fling; And babes new born steal as we go; We leave in stead, And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho! From hag-bred Merlin's time, have I The hags and goblins do me know; My feats have told, So vale, vale; ho, ho, ho! With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks, And an old kitchen, that maintain'd half a dozen old cooks; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many shrewd blows, And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose, And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper nose; Like an old courtier, &c. With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come, To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum, With good cheer enough to furnish every old room, And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old falconer, huntsmen, and a kennel of hounds, That never hawk'd, nor hunted, but in his own grounds; Who, like a wise man, kept himself within his own bounds, And when he died, gave every child a thousand good pounds; Like an old courtier, &c. But to his eldest son his house and lands he assign'd, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountiful mind, To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbours be kind: But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was inclined; Like a young courtier of the king's, And the king's young courtier. Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land, Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command, And takes up a thousand pounds upon his father's land, And gets drunk in a tavern till he can neither go nor stand: When this old cap was new, "Tis since two hundred year; No malice then we knew, But all things plenty were: All friendship now decays (Believe me this is true); Which was not in those days, When this old cap was new. The nobles of our land, Were much delighted then, To have at their command A crew of lusty men, Which by their coats were known, Of tawny, red, or blue, With crests on their sleeves shown, When this old cap was new. Now pride hath banish'd all, Unto our land's reproach, When he whose means is small, Maintains both horse and coach: Instead of a hundred men, The coach allows but two; This was not thought on then, When this old cap was new. Good hospitality Was cherish'd then of many; Now poor men starve and die, And are not help'd by any: For charity waxeth cold, And love is found in few; This was not in time of old, When this old cap was new. Where'er you travelled then, You might meet on the way Brave knights and gentlemen, Clad in their country grey; That courteous would appear, And kindly welcome you; No puritans then were, When this old cap was new. Our ladies in those days In civil habit went ; Broad cloth was then worth praise, And gave the best content: A French fashions then were scorn'd; At Christmas, in each hall, And meat for great and small : The neighbours were friendly bidden, And all had welcome true; The poor from the gates were not chidden, When this old cap was new. Black jacks to every man Were fill'd with wine and beer; In those days did appear: We took not such delight In cups of silver fine; None under the degree of a knight Now each mechanical man Hath a cupboard of plate for a show; Which was a rare thing then, When this old cap was new. Then bribery was unborn, At that time hardly knew ; When this old cap was new. No captain then caroused, Nor spent poor soldier's pay; As they are at this day: When this old cap was new: Their fortunes were the best. And send him long to live: Of that which is their due: This was not in time of yore, When this old cap was new. Loyalty Confined. [Supposed to have been written by Sir Roger L'Estrange, while in confinement on account of his adherence to Charles I.] Beat on, proud billows; Boreas, blow; Swell, curl'd waves, high as Jove's roof; Your incivility doth show That innocence is tempest-proof; Though surly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; Then strike, affliction, for thy wounds are balm. That which the world miscalls a jail, Into this private room was turned; The salamander should be burned; The pelican her wilderness, I, as my mistress' favours, wear; I have some iron shackles there: Like some high-prized margarite; Am cloister'd up from public sight: And thus, proud sultan, I'm as great as thee. Did only wound him to a cure: When once my prince affliction hath, Now not to suffer shows no loyal heart- That renders what I have not, mine: Have you not seen the nightingale But though they do my corpse confine, My soul is free as ambient air, ENGLISH LITERATURE. * Essays Illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, &c., ii. 9. Then went they together abroad, the good Kalander entertaining them with pleasant discoursing-how well he loved the sport of hunting when he was a disdained all chamber-delights, that the sun (how young man, how much in the comparison thereof he great a journey soever he had to make) could never prevent him with earliness, nor the moon, with her never live to my age, without you keep yourself in sober countenance, dissuade him from watching till midnight for the deers feeding. O, said he, you will breath with exercise, and in heart with joyfulness too much thinking doth consume the spirits; and oft doing, he leaves to do the effect of his thinking. Then it falls out, that, while one thinks too much of his spared he not to remember, how much Arcadia was changed since his youth; activity and good fellowbut, according to the nature of the old-growing world, ship being nothing in the price it was then held in; |