Though strange outlandish spirits Praise towns and countries scorn, The country is my home, I dwell where I was born. There profit and command With pleasure I partake, Yet do not hawks and dogs My sole companions make. I rule, but not oppress; End quarrels, not maintain; See towns, but dwell not there To abridge my charge or train. THE WIFE. The first of all our sex Came from the side of man, I thither am return'd From whence our sex began. I do not visit oft, Nor many when I do, I tell my mind to few And that in counsel too. I seem not sick in health, Nor sullen but in sorrow; I care for somewhat else Than what to wear to-morrow. THE WIDOW. My dying husband knew How much his death would grieve me, And therefore left me wealth To comfort and relieve me. Though I no more will have, I must not love disdain; Penelope her self Did suitors entertain. And yet to draw on such As are of best esteem, Nor younger than I am Nor richer will I seem." _Page_ 41. "I have house and land in Kent."--This admirable song has been frequently reprinted. Miss De Vaynes, in her very valuable "Kentish Garland" (i., 142), observes:--"We have met with no other song in the Kentish dialect except Jan Ploughshare's" (printed on p. 372, vol. i., of the "Garland"). Rimbault in his "Little Book of Songs and Ballads" (1851), gives the following lines from an old MS. (temp. Henry VIII.):-- "Joan, quoth John, when will this be? Tell me when wilt thou marry me, My corn and eke my calf and rents, My lands and all my tenements? Say, Joan, quoth John, what wilt thou do? I cannot come every day to woo?" David Herd printed a fragment of a Scotch song that was founded on the English song:-- "I hae layen three herring a' sa't, Bonny lass, gin ze'll take me, tell me now, And I hae brew'n three pickles o' ma't And I cannae cum ilka day to woo. _To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_. I hae a wee ca'f that wad fain be a cow, Bonny lassie, gin ye'll take me, tell me now, I hae a wee gryce that wad fain be a sow, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo. _To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_." _Page_ 43. "I joy not in no earthly bliss."--These stanzas are usually printed with "My mind to me a kingdom is" (p. 78), and the whole poem has been attributed to Sir Edward Dyer. _Page_ 47. "I weigh not Fortune's frown nor smile."--These lines (which seem to have been modelled on "I joy not in no earthly bliss") are by Joshua Sylvester. In the second stanza, "I sound not at the news of wreck," _sound_ is an old form of _swoon_. _Page_ 52. "If women could be fair."--This poem is ascribed to Edward, Earl of Oxford, in Rawlinson, MS. 85, fol. 16.