CXVIII. On the plains, Fairy trains Were a treading measures: Satyrs play'd, Fairies stay'd At the stops set leisures. Nymphs begin To come in Quickly thick and threefold; Now they dance, Now they prance, Present there to behold. To tread a measure was the common phrase for dancing. Thus Shakspeare in Love's Labour's Lost, act v. 2. 66 we have measured many miles "To tread a measure with you on this grass." "At the stops set leisures" refers, I presume, to certain congés or curtesies which took place according to the old fashion at the pauses in the music. CXIX. Sweetheart arise, why do you sleep, G CXX. Give me my heart, and I will go, No, no, no. But since my dear doth doubt me, With no I mean to flout thee. No, no, no. Yet there is hope we shall agree, For double no importeth yea. No, no, no. If that be so, my dearest, With no, no, no, my heart thou cheerest. No, no, no. CXXI. Say, dainty dames, shall we go play ; CXXII. Phillis, go take thy pleasure My heart thou now hast broken! Go, frolic there sans measure; These wounds thy looks laid open. Engraven there Phillis may find, "Phillis is fair-but too unkind!" An' it were not for the "sweet and merry month of May" what would become of lovers and poets? Well might our Royal Scot exclaim, "Worship, all ye that lovers bin, this May, "For of your bliss the kalends are begun; "And sing with us, away, winter, away! "Come, summer, come, the sweet season and sun." The King's Quair, by James the First, Canto ii. "Love, whose month is ever May," sings Shakspeare. In short, page after page might be filled with quotations in its praise, but I question if many would present a prettier or more natural picture than the above Madrigal. Pity it is, that "cold December" should ever cause its brightness to fade! CXXIV. Sing we at pleasure, Content is our treasure; Sweet love shall keep the ground, All shepherds in a ring Shall dancing ever sing. Fa la. "Shall dancing ever sing" is in accordance with the meaning of the word Ballet as given in my former little treatise on Madrigals; viz., a light species of music which was sung and danced to at the same time. So also in one of Morley's Ballets, No. LXXVI. it is described of Thirsis and Chloris, how "......... they danced to and fro, and finely flaunted it, "And then both met again, and thus they chaunted it." Burton says that in his time nothing was so familiar in France, as for citizens' wives and maids to dance a round in the streets; and often too, for want of better instruments, to make good music of their own voices, and dance after it. "After the music had sounded his Madrigale, Philamour "took Harpaste by the hand, and thus applied his song to "the melody."-Euphues' Shadow, by T. Lodge, 1590. CXXV. Sing shepherds after me, Our hearts do never disagree: No war can spoil us of our store, Our wealth is ease, we wish no more. |