Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
Parthenophil and ParthenopheCanzon 2. Sing! sing, Parthenophil! sing! pipe! and play!
Barnabe Barnes (1569?1609)S
This feast is kept upon this plain,
Amongst th’ Arcadian shepherds everywhere,
For A
Arcadia’s honour! mighty P
Where be the Nymphs? The Nymphs all gathered be
To sing sweet A
E
Amongst th’Arcadian shepherd swains!
What keep they, whiles they do the Muses cheer?
All Shepherds’ praise died with him, when he died!
He left no peer! Then, what deservèd he,
At whose pipe’s sound, the lambkin bays?
Kids skip! the Satyrs friskins fain!
Here stand a herd of Swains! Fair Nymphs stand there!
Swains dance! while Nymphs with flowers their baskets fill!
What was he to those Nymphs with garlands tied?
How! To report his martial days?
Thrice happy man! that found this happy way!
His praise all Shepherds’ glory stains!
What doth P
What saith She, to her P
And to his blessed Soul, this health have we!
Singing sweet Odes and Roundelays!
Where are the Nymphs and Fairy train?
S
And those, for his sweet sake! she proffer will,
Unto th’Elizian souls! And I have spied
P
Of three great hearts. Sing Virelays!
And S
Of Fancies bound her!) by that motley bier!
Where, with sweet eglantine and daffodil,
She, chaplets makes, with gold and scarlet dyed.
Here, C
E
That “She (which here chief Nymph doth reign)
May blessèd live! to see th’extremest year!”
For sacrifice, then, lambs and kidlings kill!
And be, by them, E
The Flower of Loves, and pure Virginity!
This Delian Nymph doth amaze!
Those harts (which proudest herds disdain;
And range the forests as without compeer!)
Submissive, yield themselves! that if She will,
She, them may wound! or on their swift backs ride!
Lions and bears, with beauty tameth She!
Shepherds! for Her! your voices raise!
Do not herdgrooms there feign?
What want they? Speak! now, they be blest, if e’er!
What be the confines? Rebels they be still!
What is She, that so many Swains doth there guide?
None but herself hath that ability
To rule so many ways!
Her thoughts, sure grounded on Divinity;
For this sweet Nymph, each Shepherd prays!