LYRICS FROM THE DRAMATISTS. CUPID From JOHN LYLY's Alexander and Campaspe, 1584.1 CARDS AND KISSES. UPID and my Campaspe played Growing on's cheek (but none knows how); 1 Lyly's songs are not found in the original editions of his plays. They first appeared in the collective edition of 1632. B W SPRING'S WELCOME. WHAT bird so sings, yet so does wail? “Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu," she cries, Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing, 1 "Harmony written or pricked down in opposition to plainsong, where the descant rested with the will of the singer."Chappell. (The nightingale's song, being full of rich variety, is often termed prick-song by old writers. So they speak of the cuckoo's plain-song.) 2 "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings." Cymbeline, iii. 2. O From JOHN LYLY's Sappho and O CRUEL LOVE! CRUEL Love, on thee I lay My curse, which shall strike blind the day; Never may sleep with velvet hand Charm thine eyes with sacred wand; The bed thou liest on be1 despair, Thy sleep fond dreams, thy dreams long care. 1 Old ed. "by." 2 Old ed. "mockes." VULCAN'S SONG. MY shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply Our Lemnian hammers lustily. I swear these arrows Shall singing fly Through many a wanton's eye. These headed are with golden blisses, Strikes a clown dead, He falls in a trance, To see his black-brow lass not buss him, Watch. From JOHN LYLY's Endymion, 1591. PAGES AND THE WATCH. TAND! who goes there? STA We charge you appear 'Fore our constable here, In the name of the Man in the Moon. To us billmen relate, Why you stagger so late, And how you come drunk so soon. What are ye, scabs? Pages. Watch. The watch: Constable. Knock 'em down unless they all stand; Pages. If any run away, 'Tis the old watchman's play, To reach him a bill of his hand. O gentlemen, hold, Your gowns freeze with cold, And your rotten teeth dance in your head. Wine nothing shall cost ye; Nor huge fires to roast ye; Then soberly let us be led. Constable. Come, my brown bills, we'll roar, Omnes. And i' th' morning steal all to bed. |