P. Fie on the sleights that men devise—­
(Heigho, silly sleights!)
When simple maids they would entice. 
(Maids are young men’s chief delights.)
A. Nay, women they witch with their eyes—­
(Eyes like beams of burning sun!)
And men once caught they do despise;
So are shepherds oft undone.

* * * * *

P. If every maid were like to me—­
(Heigho, hard of heart!)
Both love and lovers scorn’d should be. 
(Scorners shall be sure of smart.)
A. If every maid were of my mind—­
(Heigho, heigho, lovely sweet!)
They to their lovers should prove kind;
Kindness is for maidens meet[128].

Of Sir John Wotton, the short-lived half-brother of the more famous Sir Henry, there is a spirited song, betraying unusual command over a complicated rhythm: 

    Jolly shepherd, shepherd on a hill,
        On a hill so merrily,
        On a hill so cheerily,
    Fear not, shepherd, there to pipe thy fill;
      Fill every dale, fill every plain;
      Both sing and say, ‘Love feels no pain.’

Another graceful poet of England’s Helicon is the ‘Shepherd Tony,’ whose identity with Anthony Munday was finally established by Mr. Bullen.  He contributed, among other verses, a not very interesting reply to Harpelus’ complaint in ‘Tottel’s Miscellany,’ and the well-known and exquisite: 

    Beauty sat bathing by a spring
      Where fairest shades did hide her,

which reappears in his translation of the Castilian romance Primelion.

In Marlowe’s ‘Passionate Shepherd to his Love,’ of which England’s Helicon supplies one of three texts[129], we come to what is, with the possible exception of Lycidas alone, the most subtly modulated specimen of pastoral verse in English.  So far as internal evidence is concerned the poem has absolutely nothing but its own perfection to connect it with the name of Marlowe; it is utterly unlike all other verse, dramatic, narrative, or lyric, ascribed to him.  An admirable eclectic text, which exhibits to the full the delicacy of the rhythm, has been prepared by Mr. Bullen in his edition of Marlowe’s works.  It would be impossible not to quote the piece in full: 

    Come live with me and be my love,
    And we will all the pleasures prove
    That hills and vallies, dales and fields,
    Woods or steepy mountain yields.

    And we will sit upon the rocks,
    Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
    By shallow rivers to whose falls
    Melodious birds sing madrigals.

    And I will make thee beds of roses
    And a thousand fragrant posies,
    A cap of flowers and a kirtle
    Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

    A gown made of the finest wool
    Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
    Fair-lined[130] slippers for the cold,
    With buckles of the purest gold.