“Second shepherd.

“Innocent creatures! how those deer
Trot merrily, and romp and rear!

“First shepherd.

“The glorious knight who walks beside
His most majestic lady bride,

“Second shepherd.

“Under these branches spreading wide,

“First shepherd.

“Carries about so many cares
Touching his ancestors and heirs,
That came from Athens and from Rome —

“Second shepherd.

“As many of them as are come —

“First shepherd.

“Nought else the smallest lodge can find
In the vast manors of his mind;
Envying not Solomon his wit —

“Second shepherd.

“No, nor his women not a bit;
Being well-built and well-behaved
As Solomon, I trow, or David.

“First shepherd.

“And taking by his jewell’d hand
The jewel of that lady bland,
He sees the tossing antlers pass
And throw quaint shadows o’er the grass;
While she alike the hour beguiles,
And looks at him and them, and smiles.

“Second shepherd.

“With conscience proof ’gainst Satan’s shock,
Albeit finer than her smock, {50a}
Marry! her smiles are not of vanity,
But resting on sound Christianity. 
Faith, you would swear, had nail’d {50b} her ears on
The book and cushion of the parson.”

“Methinks the rhyme at the latter end might be bettered,” said Sir Thomas.  “The remainder is indited not unaptly.  But, young man, never having obtained the permission of my honourable dame to praise her in guise of poetry, I cannot see all the merit I would fain discern in the verses.  She ought first to have been sounded; and it being certified that she disapproved not her glorification, then might it be trumpeted forth into the world below.”

“Most worshipful knight,” replied the youngster, “I never could take it in hand to sound a dame of quality,—­they are all of them too deep and too practised for me, and have better and abler men about ’em.  And surely I did imagine to myself that if it were asked of any honourable man (omitting to speak of ladies) whether he would give permission to be openly praised, he would reject the application as a gross offence.  It appeareth to me that even to praise one’s self, although it be shameful, is less shameful than to throw a burning coal into the incense-box that another doth hold to waft before us, and then to snift and simper over it, with maidenly, wishful coyness, as if forsooth one had no hand in setting it asmoke.”

Then did Sir Thomas, in his zeal to instruct the ignorant, and so make the lowly hold up their heads, say unto him, —