But if to ride
My back they stride,
More swift than wind away I go,
O'er hedge and lands,
Through pools and ponds,
I whirry, laughing, Ho! ho! ho!
When lads and lasses merry be
With possets and rich juncates fine,
Unseen of all the company,
I eat their cakes and sip their wine.
And to make sport
I puff and snort,
And out the candle I do blow;
And maids I kiss,
They shriek, "Who's this?"
I answer nought but Ho! ho! ho!
Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wool;
And while they sleep and take their ease
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at will
I dress their hemp and spin their tow;
If any walk,
And would me talk,
I wend me, laughing, Ho! ho! ho!
The men do traps and engines set
In loopholes where the vermines creep,
Who from their fields and houses get
Their ducks and geese, and lambs and sheep:
I spy the gin
And enter in,
And seem a vermin taken so:
But when they there
Approach me near.
I leap out, laughing, Ho! ho! ho!
THE PROCESSION OF THE MONTHS.
The Months all riding came;
First sturdy March, with brows full sternly bent,
And armed strongly, rode upon a ram,
The same which over Hellespontus swam;
Yet in his hand a spade he also bent,
And in a bag all sorts of seeds ysam,
Which on the earth he strewed as he went,
And filled her womb with fruitful hope of nourishment.
Next came fresh April, full of lusty head,
And wanton as a kid whose horn new buds;
Upon a bull he rode, the same which led
Europa floating thro' th' Argolick floods;
His horns were gilden all with golden studs,
And garnished with garlands goodly dight
Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds
Which th' earth brings forth, and wet he seemed in sight With waves, through which he waded for his love's delight.
Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground,
Decked all with dainties of her season's pride,
And throwing flowers out of her lap around;
Upon two brethren's shoulders she did ride,
The twins of Leda, which on either side
Supported her like to their sovereign queen ;
O! how all creatures laughed when they her spied,
And leapt and danced as they had ravished been!
And Cupid's self about her fluttered all in green.
And after her came jolly June, arrayed
All in green leaves, as he a player were,
Yet in his time he wrought as well as played,
That by his plough-irons mote right well appear;
Upon a crab he rode, that did him bear
With crooked crawling steps an uncouth pace,
And backward yode, as bargemen wont to fare,
Bending their force contrary to their face;
Like that ungracious crew which feigns demurest grace.
Then came hot July, boiling like to fire,
That all his garments he had cast away;
Upon a lion raging yet with ire
He boldly rode, and made him to obey;
(It was the beast that whilome did foray
The Næmean forest till th' Amphytrionide
Him slew, and with his hide did him array);
Behind his back a scythe, and by his side,
Under his belt, he bore a sickle circling wide
The sixth was August, being rich arrayed
In garments all of gold down to the ground;
Yet rode he not, but led a lovely maid
Forth by the lily hand, the which was crowned
With ears of corn, and full her hand was found,
That was the righteous Virgin, which of old
Lived here on earth, and plenty made abound,
But after wrong was loved, and justice sold,
She left th' unrighteous world, and was to heaven extolled.
Next him September marched, eke on foot;
Yet was he heavy laden with the spoil
Of harvest's riches, which he made his boot,
And him enriched with bounty of the soil;
In his one hand, as fit for harvest's toil,
He held a knife-hook, and in th' other hand
A pair of weights, with which he did assoil
Both more and less, where it in doubt did stand,
And equal gave to each as justice duly scanned.
Then came October, full of merry glee,
For yet his noule was totty of the must,
Which he was treading in the wine-vat's sea,
And of the joyous oil, whose gentle gust,
Made, him so frolic and so full of lust; Upon a dreadful scorpion he did ride, The same which by Diana's doom unjust Slew great Orion; and, eke, by his side He had his ploughing-share and coulter ready tied.
Next was November, he full gross and fat,
As fed by lard, and that right well might seem,
For he had been a fatting hogs of late,
That yet his brows with sweat did reek and steam,
And yet the season was full sharp and breem;
In planting eke he took no small delight;
Whereon he rode, not easy was to deem,
For it a dreadful Centaur was in sight,
The seed of Saturn and fair Nais, Chiron hight.
And after him came next the chill December,
Yet he, through merry feasting which he made
And great bonfires, did not the cold remember,
His Saviour's birth so much his mind did glad;
Upon a shaggy, bearded Goat he rode,
The same wherewith Dan Jove, in tender years,
They say was nourished by th' Iæan maid;
And in his hand a broad deep bowl he bears,
Of which he freely drinks a health to all his peers.
Then came old January, wrapped well
In many weeds, to keep the cold away,
Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell,
And blow his nails to warm them if he may,
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