HYMN II.

Pan is our All, by him we breathe, we live,
We move, we are; 'tis he our lambs doth rear,
Our flocks doth bless, and from the store doth give
The warm and finer fleeces that we wear.
He keeps away all heats and colds,
Drives all diseases from our folds ;
Makes every where the spring to dwell,
The ewes to feed, their udders swell;
But if he frown, the sheep, alas!
The shepherds wither, and the grass.

Cho. Strive, strive to please him then, by still increasing thus

The rites are due to him, who doth all right for us.

The MAIN DANCE.

HYMN III.

If yet, if yet,

Pan's orgies you will further fit,
See where the silver-footed fays do sit,
The nymphs of wood and water;
Each tree's and fountain's daughter!
Go take them forth, it will be good
To see them wave it like a wood,
And others wind it like a flood;
In springs,

And rings,

Till the applause it brings,

Wakes Echo from her seat,
The closes to repeat.

Ech. The closes to repeat.

Echo the truest oracle on ground,
Though nothing but a sound.
Though nothing but a sound.
Beloved of Pan the valleys queen.

Ech.

Ech.

And often heard, though never seen.

Ech.

The valleys queen.

Though never seen.

Here the REVELS.

After which re-enter the Fencer.

Fen. Room, room, there; where are you, shepherd? I am come again, with my second part of my bold bloods, the brave gamesters; who assure you by me, that they perceive no such wonder in all is done here, but that they dare adventure another trial. They look for some sheepish devices here in Arcadia, not these, and therefore a hall! a hall! they demand.

Shep. Nay, then they are past pity, let them. come, and not expect the anger of a deity to pursue them, but meet them. They have their punishment with their fact: they shall be sheep. Fen. O spare me, by the law of nations, I am but their ambassador.

Shep. You speak in time, sir.

The THEBANS enter for the 2 ANTIMASQUE, which danced,

Shep. Now let them return with their solid heads, and carry their stupidity into Boeotia, whence they brought it, with an emblem of themselves, and their country. This is too pure an air for so gross brains. [They retire.

To the Nymphs.

End you the rites, and so be eas'd
Of these, and then great Pan is pleas'd.

HYMN IV.

Great Pan, the father of our peace and pleasure,
Who giv'st us all this leisure,

Hear what thy hallow'd troop of herdsmen pray
For this their holyday,

And how their vows to thee they in Lycæum pay.

Cho. So may our ewes receive the mounting rams,
And we bring thee the earliest of our lambs:
So may the first of all our fells be thine,
And both the beest ning of our goats and kine;
As thou our folds dost still secure,

And keep'st our fountains sweet and pure;
Driv'st hence the wolf, the tod,' the brock,
Or other vermin from the flock.

That we, presero'd by thee, and thou observ'd by us,
May both live safe in shade of thy loo'd Manalus.

Shep. Now each return unto his charge,

And though to-day you've liv'd at large,
And well your flocks have fed their fill,
Yet do not trust your hirelings still.
See yond' they go, and timely do
The office you have put them to;
But if you often give this leave,
Your sheep and you they will deceive.

Thus it ended.

5 The tod,] i. e. the fox. WHAL,

THE

MASQUE OF OWLS,

AT

KENELWORTH.

Presented by the Ghost of captain Cox, mounted on his Hobby-horse, 1626.

THE MASQUE OF OWLS, &c.] From the second folio. This trifle is not a Masque, nor could it have been so termed by the author: it is, in fact, a mere monologue, a Lecture on Heads ; which, such as it is, probably gave the first hint to G. A. Stevens, for his amusing exhibition, of that name.

Of captain Cox I know no more than Jonson tells. Queen Elizabeth had been entertained at Kenelworth by the " great earl of Leicester," in 1575. To make her time pass as agreeably as possible, the bears were brought in, and baited with great applause! There was also a burlesque representation of a battle, from some old romance, in which captain Cox, who appears to have been some well-known humourist, valiantly bestirred himself. A description of this part of the Entertainment was written and published at the time, in a "Letter from a freend Officer attendant in the court, unto his freend a citizen and merchaunt of London." To this letter, which is written in a most uncouth style by a pedantic coxcomb of the name of Lane. ham, under an affectation of humour, Jonson perpetually alludes.