37. A Pastoral Sung to the King
MONTANO, SILVIO, AND MIRTILLO, SHEPHERDS
MON. Bad are the times. SIL. And worse than they are we.MON. Troth, bad are both; worse fruit, and ill the tree:The feast of shepherds fail. SIL. None crowns the cupOf wassail now, or sets the quintel up:And he, who used to lead the country-round,Youthful Mirtillo, here he comes, grief-drown’d.AMBO. Let’s cheer him up. SIL. Behold him weeping-ripe.MIRT. Ah, Amarillis! farewell mirth and pipe;Since thou art gone, no more I mean to playTo these smooth lawns, my mirthful roundelay.Dear Amarillis! MON. Hark! SIL. Mark! MIRT. Thisearth grew sweetWhere, Amarillis, thou didst set thy feet.AMBO Poor pitied youth! MIRT. And here the breathof kineAnd sheep grew more sweet by that breath of thine.This dock of wool, and this rich lock of hair,This ball of cowslips, these she gave me here.SIL. Words sweet as love itself. MON. Hark!—MIRT. This way she came, and this way too she went;How each thing smells divinely redolent!Like to a field of beans, when newly blown,Or like a meadow being lately mown.MON. A sweet sad passion—MIRT. In dewy mornings, when she came this way,Sweet bents would bow, to give my Love the day;And when at night she folded had her sheep,Daisies would shut, and closing, sigh and weep.Besides (Ai me!) since she went hence to dwell,The Voice’s Daughter ne’er spake syllable.But she is gone. SIL. Mirtillo, tell us whither?MIRT. Where she and I shall never meet together.MON. Fore-fend it, Pan! and Pales, do thou pleaseTo give an end… MIRT. To what? SIL. Such griefsas these.MIRT. Never, O never! Still I may endureThe wound I suffer, never find a cure.MON. Love, for thy sake, will bring her to these hillsAnd dales again. MIRT. No, I will languish still;And all the while my part shall be to weep;And with my sighs call home my bleating sheep;And in the rind of every comely treeI’ll carve thy name, and in that name kiss thee.MON. Set with the sun, thy woes! SIL. The daygrows old;And time it is our full-fed flocks to fold.CHOR. The shades grow great; but greater growsour sorrow:—But let’s go steepOur eyes in sleep;And meet to weepTo-morrow.