Two Songs from Alexander and Campaspe

CUPID and my Campaspe played

At cards for kisses;

Cupid paid.

He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,

His mother's doves and team of sparrows,

Loses them too; then down he throws

The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how),

With these the crystal of his brow,

And then the dimple of his chin:

All these did my Campaspe win.

At last he set her both his eyes;

She won, and Cupid blind did rise.

O Love! has she done this to thee?

What shall, alas, become of me?

            i

What bird so sings, yet so does wail?

Oh, 'tis the ravished nightingale.

Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu, she cries,

And still her woes at midnight rise.

Brave prick-song! Who is't now we hear?

None but the lark so shrill and clear;

How at heaven's gates she claps her wings,

The morn not waking till she sings.

Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat

Poor robin redbreast tunes his note;

Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing

Cuckoo, to welcome in the spring,

Cuckoo, to welcome in the spring.

John Lyly