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Sweet boy, if it by fortune chance

Thy father home again to send,
If Death do strike me with his lance,
Yet mayst thou me to him commend:
If any ask thy mother's name,

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Tell how by love she purchased blame.

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Then will his gentle heart soon yield;

I know him of a noble mind;
Although a lion in the field,

A lamb in town thou shalt him find:
Ask blessing, babe; be not afraid;
His sugared words hath me betrayed.

Then mayst thou joy and be right glad,

Although in woe I seem to moan;

Thy father is no rascal lad,

A noble youth of blood and bone:

His glancing looks, if he once smile,
Right honest women may beguile.

Come, little boy, and rock asleep;
Sing lullaby and be thou still;
I that can do naught else but weep
Will sit by thee and wail my fill:
God bless my babe, and lullaby,
From this thy father's quality.

WORLDLY PARADISE

Who can live in heart so glad
As the merry country lad?
Who upon a fair green balk
May at pleasure sit and walk,
And amid the azure skies
See the morning sun arise;
While he hears in every spring
How the birds do chirp and sing;
Or before the hounds in cry
See the hare go stealing by;
Or, along the shallow brook
Angling with a baited hook,

1594.

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See the fishes leap and play
In a blessed sunny day;
Or to hear the partridge call,
Till she have her covey all;
Or to see the subtle fox,
How the villain plies the box,
After feeding on his prey
How he closely sneaks away

Through the hedge and down the furrow
Till he gets into his burrow;
Then the bee to gather honey;
And the little black-haired coney,
On a bank for sunny place,
With her forefeet wash her face.
Are not these, with thousands moe
Than the courts of kings do know,
The true pleasing spirit's sights,
That may breed true love's delights?
But, with all this happiness,

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Quhilk sunne perceaves the little larks,

The lapwing, and the snyp,

And tunes their sangs like Nature's clarks,

Ou'r midow, mure, and stryp. . . .

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