5
And said, of this matter let no one know:
And to keep the sheep in the vallies I’ll go,
The Wandering Shepherdess you can me call,
Unfortunate love is the cause of my fall.
A rich suit of green embroider’d ware,
With a garland of flow’rs had this lady fair,
To shade of the sun from her beauty clear,
To her sheep in the vallies she did repair.
When two long years were finish’d and gone,
Tho ’squire to Oxford straight did return,
Her parents accus’d him of wronging their child,
He said, she was fickle, and false as the wind.
But now, said her father, I fear she is dead,
So we can add nothing to what we have said;
But sure she was honest and virtuous to all,
And you’re the man that has caused her fall.
Now we will leave her parents to mourn,
And unto the Shepherdess let us return,
Who was the talk of the folk far and near,
At length her lover the same came to hear.
He must see this beauty whatever betide;
Then he got his coach and away he did ride;
And just as bright Phœbus was going down,
He came to the valley where she lay alone.
The lambs were sporting in innocent sport,
