William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
When Daffodils Begin to PeerWilliam Shakespeare (15641616)
From “The Winter’s Tale,” Act IV. Scene 2
W
With heigh! the doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.