With bow and bolts in either hand, For birds in bushes tooting, At length within the ivy tod, (There shrouded was the little god,) I heard a busy bustling; I bent my bolt against the bush, List'ning if any thing did rush, But then heard no more rustling. Then, peeping close into the thick, Might see the moving of some quick, Whose shape appeared not; But were it faery, fiend, or snake, My courage yearn'd it to awake, And manfully thereat shot: With that sprang forth a naked swain; With spotted wings like peacock's train, And laughing lope to a tree; His gilden quiver at his back, And silver bow, which was but slack, Which lightly he bent at me: That seeing, I levell'd again, And shot at him with might and main, As thick as it had hailed. So long I shot, that all was spent; Then pumie stones I hast'ly hent, And threw; but nought availed: He was so wimble and so wight, From bough to bough he leaped light, And oft the pumies latched: Therewith afraid I ran away; But he, that erst seem'd but to play, A shaft in earnest snatched, And hit me running in the heel: For then I little smart did feel, But soon it sore increased; And now it rankleth more and more, And inwardly it fest'reth sore, Ne wote I how to cease it. WIL. Thomalin, I pity thy plight, Perdie with Love thou didest fight; I know him by a token: For once I heard my father say, How he him caught upon a day, (Whereof he will be wroken,) Entangled in a fowling net, Which he for carrion crows had set That in our pear-tree haunted: Then said, he was a winged lad, But bow and shafts as then none had, Else had he sore been daunted. But see, the welkin thicks apace, And stooping Phœbus steeps his face; It's time to haste us homeward. WILLY'S EMBLEME. _To be wise and eke to love, Is granted scarce to gods above._ THOMALIN'S EMBLEME. _Of honey and of gall in love there is store; The honey is much, but the gall is more._ [Illustration: APRIL AEGLOGA QUARTA EMBLEMES] APRIL. ÆGLOGA QUARTA. ARGUMENT.