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Ye violets that first appeare,

By your pure purple mantles known
Like the proud virgins of the yeare,
As if the Spring were all your own;
What are you when the Rofe is blown?

Ye curious chaunters of the wood,
That warble forth dame Nature's layes,
Thinking your paffions understood

By your weak accents: what's your praise,
When Philomell her voyce fhall raise ?

So when my miftris shal be seene

In fweetneffe of her looks and minde;
By virtue first, then choyce a queen;
Tell me, if she was not defign'd
Th' eclypfe and glory of her kind?

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VIII.

THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER,

This excellent old fong, the subject of which is a comparifon between the manners of the old gentry, as ftill fubfifting in the times of Elizabeth, and the modern refinements afVOL. II.

Y

fected

fected by their fons in the reigns of her fucceffors, is given, with corrections, from an ancient black-letter copy in the Pepys collection, compared with another printed among fome mifcellaneous "poems and fongs" in a book intitled, "Le "Prince d'amour," 1660, 8vo.

A

N old fong made by an aged old pate,

Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a greate
estate,

That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate;
Like an old courtier of the queen's,

And the queen's old courtier.

With an old lady, whofe anger one word affwages; They every quarter paid their old servants their wages, And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen, nor pages,

But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old study fill'd full of learned old books, With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks.

With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks,

And an old kitchen, that maintain❜d half a dozen old cooks:

Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old hail, hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old fwords, and bucklers, that had borne many fhrew de blows,

And an old frize coat, to cover his worship's trunk hofe, of old fherry, to comfort his copper nofe ;; Like an old courtier, &c.

And a cup

With a good old fashion, when Chriftmaffe was come, To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum, With good chear enough to furnish every old room, And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb, Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of hounds, That never hawked, nor hunted, but in his own grounds, Who, like a wife man, kept himself within his own

bounds,

And when he dyed gave every child a thoufand good pounds;

Like an old courtier, &c.

But to his eldest son his house and land he affign'd, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountifull mind, To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbours be kind:

But in the enfuing ditty you fhall hear how he was inclin'd;

Like a young courtier of the king's,

And the king's young courtier.

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Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land,

Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command, And takes up a thousand pound upon his father's land, And gets drunk in a tavern, till he can neither go nor ftand;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and fpare, Who never knew what belong'd to good houfe-keeping,

or care,

Who buyes gaudy-color'd fans to play with wanton air, And feven or eight different dreffings of other womens hair;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one

stood,

Hung round with new pictures, that do the poor no

good,

With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor wood,

And a new smooth fhovelboard, whereon no victuals ne'er stood;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new study, stuft full of pamphlets, and plays, And a new chaplain, that swears faster than he prays,

With a new buttery hatch, that opens once in four or

five days,

And a new French cook, to devife fine kickfhaws, and toys;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on, On a new journey to London straight we all must begone, And leave none to keep house, but our new porter John, Who relieves the poor with a thump on the back with a stone;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new gentleman-ufher, whofe carriage is compleat,

With a new coachman, footmen, and pages to carry up the meat,

With a waiting-gentlewoman, whofe dreffing is very neat, Who when her lady has din'd, lets the fervants not eat; Like a young courtier, &c.

With new titles of honour bought with his father's old gold,

For which fundry of his ancestors old manors are fold;
And this is the course moft of our new gallants hold,
Which makes that good houfe-keeping is now grown fo
cold,

Among the young courtiers of the king,
Or the king's young courtiers.

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