Robert Herrick


AN ECLOGUE OR PASTORAL BETWEEN ENDYMION
PORTER AND LYCIDAS HERRICK,
SET AND SUNG.


    End.  AH !  Lycidas, come tell me why
                 Thy whilom merry oat
              By thee doth so neglected lie,
                 And never purls a note ?

              I prithee speak.  Lyc. I will.  End. Say on.
    Lyc.       'Tis thou, and only thou,
              That art the cause, Endymion.
    End.      For Love's sake, tell me how.
    Lyc.   In this regard :  that thou do'st play
                 Upon another plain,
              And for a rural roundelay
                 Strik'st now a courtly strain.

              Thou leav'st our hills, our dales, our bowers,
                 Our finer fleeced sheep,
              Unkind to us, to spend thine hours
                 Where shepherds should not keep.

              I mean the court :  let Latmos be
                 My lov'd Endymion's court.
    End.  But I the courtly state would see,
    Lyc.      Then see it in report.

              What has the court to do with swains,
                 Where Phyllis is not known ?
              Nor does it mind the rustic strains
                 Of us, or Corydon.

              Break, if thou lov'st us, this delay.
    End.      Dear Lycidas, e're long
              I vow, by Pan, to come away
                 And pipe unto thy song.

              Then Jessamine, with Florabell,
                 And dainty Amaryllis,
              With handsome-handed Drosomell
                 Shall prank thy hook with lilies.

    Lyc.   Then Tityrus, and Corydon,
                 And Thyrsis, they shall follow
              With all the rest ;  while thou alone
                 Shalt lead like young Apollo.

              And till thou com'st, thy Lycidas,
                 In every genial cup,
             Shall write in spice :  Endymion 'twas
                 That kept his piping up.

And, my most lucky swain, when I shall live to see
Endymion's moon to fill up full, remember me :
Meantime, let Lycidas have leave to pipe to thee.



Oat, oaten pipe.
Purls, murmurs.
Prank, bedeck.
Drosomell, honey dew.



Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 229-231.



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