“Shepherd, a friendly demand ought never to be offensive, and questions of courtesy carry privileged pardons in their foreheads.  Know, therefore, to discover my fortunes were to renew my sorrows, and I should, by discoursing my mishaps, but rake fire out of the cinders.  Therefore let this suffice, gentle shepherd:  my distress is as great as my travel is dangerous, and I wander in this forest to light on some cottage where I and my page may dwell:  for I mean to buy some farm, and a flock of sheep, and so become a shepherdess, meaning to live low, and content me with a country life; for I have heard the swains say, that they drunk without suspicion, and slept without care.”

“Marry, mistress,” quoth Corydon, “if you mean so, you came in good time, for my landslord intends to sell both the farm I till, and the flock I keep, and cheap you may have them for ready money:  and for a shepherd’s life, O mistress, did you but live awhile in their content, you would say the court were rather a place of sorrow than of solace.  Here, mistress, shall not fortune thwart you, but in mean misfortunes, as the loss of a few sheep, which, as it breeds no beggary, so it can be no extreme prejudice:  the next year may mend all with a fresh increase.  Envy stirs not us, we covet not to climb, our desires mount not above our degrees, nor our thoughts above our fortunes.  Care cannot harbor in our cottages, nor do our homely couches know broken slumbers:  as we exceed not in diet, so we have enough to satisfy:  and, mistress, I have so much Latin, Satis est quod sufficit.”

“By my troth, shepherd,” quoth Aliena, “thou makest me in love with your country life, and therefore send for thy landslord, and I will buy thy farm and thy flocks, and thou shalt still under me be overseer of them both:  only for pleasure sake I and my page will serve you, lead the flocks to the field, and fold them.  Thus will I live quiet, unknown, and contented.”

This news so gladded the heart of Corydon, that he should not be put out of his farm, that putting off his shepherd’s bonnet, he did her all the reverence that he might.  But all this while sate Montanus in a muse, thinking of the cruelty of his Phoebe, whom he wooed long, but was in no hope to win.  Ganymede, who still had the remembrance of Rosader in his thoughts, took delight to see the poor shepherd passionate, laughing at Love, that in all his actions was so imperious.  At last, when she had noted his tears that stole down his cheeks, and his sighs that broke from the centre of his heart, pitying his lament, she demanded of Corydon why the young shepherd looked so sorrowful.

“O sir,” quoth he, “the boy is in love.”

“Why,” quoth Ganymede, “can shepherds love?”

“Aye,” quoth Montanus, “and overlove, else shouldst not thou see me so pensive.  Love, I tell thee, is as precious in a shepherd’s eye, as in the looks of a king, and we country swains entertain fancy with as great delight as the proudest courtier doth affection.  Opportunity, that is the sweetest friend to Venus, harboreth in our cottages, and loyalty, the chiefest fealty that Cupid requires, is found more among shepherds than higher degrees.  Then, ask not if such silly swains can love.”