Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XXVIII. (B) THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER. 349How often haue I scaled the craggie Oke,All to dislodge the Rauen of her neste :Howe haue I wearied with many a strokeThe stately Walnut tree, the while the restVnder the tree fell all for nuts at strife :35For ylike to me was libertee and lyfe.And for I was in thilke same looser yeares,(Whether the Muse so wrought me from my birth,Or I to much beleeued my shepherd peres),Somedele ybent to song and musicks mirth. 40A good olde shephearde, Wre?iock was his name,Made me by arte more cunning in the same.Fro thence I durst in derring-doe ^compareWith shepheards swayne, what-euer fedde in fieldAnd if that Hohbinol right iudgement bare, 45To Pan his owne selfe pype I neede not yield.For if the flocking Nymphes did folow Pan,The wiser Muses after Colin ranne.But ah, such pryde at length was ill repayde,The shepheards God (perdie, God was he none) 50My hurtlesse pleasaunce did me ill vpbraide,My freedome lorne, my life he lefte to mone.Loue they him called, that gaue me checkmate,But better mought they haue behote him Hate.Tho gan my louely Spring bid me farewel, 55And Sommer-season sped him to display(For loue then in the Lyons house did dwell)The raging fyre, that kindled at his ray.A comett stird vp that vnkindly heate.That reigned (as men sayd) in Venus seate. 60^ Printed ' derring to'; but see the ' Glosse.'