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were issued, or for their description of costume or of manners. Some of the best and more permanently pleasing of the ancient compositions of this class are here selected, together with a few of the modern songs, which have become popular.

WOMEN ARE BEST WHEN THEY ARE AT REST.
Anonymous.-Originally printed in 1559-60.

WOMEN are best when they are at rest;

But when is that, I pray?

By their good will they are never still,
By night and eke by day.

If the weather is bad, all day they gad,
They heed not wind or rain;

And all their gay gear they ruin or near:
For why-they not refrain.

Then must they chat of this and that;
Their tongues also must walk;
Wheresoever they go, they must alway do so,
And of their bad husbands talk.

When cometh the night, it is never right,
But ever somewhat wrong;

If husbands be weary, they are so merry,
They never cease one song.

Then can they chide, while at their side,
Their husbands strive to sleep;

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Why, how you snore! go lie on the floor."
Such is the coil they keep.

So women are best when they are at rest,
If you can catch them still;

Cross them, they chide, and are worse, I have tried,
If you grant them their will.

Give them their way, they still say, nay,

And change their mind with a trice;

Let them alone, or you will own

That mine was good advice.

THE CUCKOO'S SONG.

Anonymous. Originally printed in 1566.

FULL merrily sings the cuckoo
Upon the beechen tree;

Your wives you well should look to,
If you take advice of me.
Cuckoo! cuckoo! alack the morn,
When of married men

Full nine in ten

Must be content to wear the horn.

Full merrily sings the cuckoo
Upon the oaken tree;

Your wives you well should look to,
If you take advice of me.
Cuckoo! cuckoo! alack the day,
For married men

But now and then

Can 'scape to bear the horn away.

Full merrily sings the cuckoo

Upon the ashen tree;

Your wives you well should look to,
If you take advice of me.
Cuckoo! cuckoo! alack the noon,

When married men

Must watch the hen,

Or some strange fox will steal her soon.

Full merrily sings the cuckoo

Upon the alder tree;

Your wives you well should look to,
If you take advice of me.
Cuckoo! cuckoo! alack the eve,
When married men

Must bid good den

To such as horns to them do give.

Full merrily sings the cuckoo

Upon the aspen tree;

Your wives you well should look to,

If you take advice of me.

Cuckoo Cuckoo! alack the night
When married men

Again and again

Must hide their horns in their despite.

The reader will notice the resemblance between this song and the following by by Shakespeare-" When Daisies Pied," &c. Probably Shakspeare was indebted to the anonymous author for the idea.

WHEN DAISIES PIED.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

WHEN daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,

Do paint the meadows with delight:
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men for thus sings he:
Cuckoo !

Cuckoo! cuckoo! O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks:
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws;

And maidens bleach their summer smocks.
The cuckoo then on every tree

Mocks married men for thus sings he:-
Cuckoo !

Cuckoo cuckoo ! O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!

THE CHARACTER OF A MARRIED LIFE.

SIR HENRY WOOTTON.

How happy is he born and taught,

That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple thought your honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill.

Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepar'd for death;
Untied unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath.

Who envies none that chance doth raise,
Nor vice hath ever understood;
How deepest wounds are given by praise,
Nor rules of state, but rules of good
Who hath his life from rumours freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great.

Who God doth late and early pray

More of his grace than gifts to lend:
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend.

This man is freed from servile hands,
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of land
And having nothing, yet hath all.

THE CONTENTED MAN'S SONG. From HUGH COMPTON'S "Pierides; or the Muses' Mount." I HAVE no riches, neither know I where the mines of silver grow; The golden age I cannot find

Yet there is plenty in my mind;

'Tis wealth I crave, 'tis wealth that 1 require, Yet there's no wealth to fill my vain desire, Nor hopes thereof to still my craving lyre.

What shall I do in such a case?
I am accounted mean and base:

Both friends and strangers frown on me,
'Cause I am gall'd with poverty.

Well, let them frown; yet I will not lament Nor value them; though fortune has not lent To me her blessing, yet I am content.

WHY SO PALE AND WAN?

SIR JOHN SUCKLING.

WHY SO pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?

Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?

Prithee, why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prithee, why so mute?

Will, when speaking well can't win her,
Saying nothing do't?

Prithee, why so mute?

Quit, quit for shame, this will not move,
This cannot take her;

If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her.
The devil take her!

DEATH'S FINAL CONQUEST.

JAMES SHIRLEY, born 1594, died 1666.

THE glories of our birth and state

Are shadows, not substantial things.

There is no armour against fate:

Death lays his icy hands on kings.

Sceptre, and crown,

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill;
But their strong nerves at last must yield—
They tame but one another still.

Early or late

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath,
When they, pale captives, creep to death.

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