The milkmaid’s life

1. You rural goddesses
That woods and fields possess,
Assist me with your skill,
That may direct my quill
More jocundly to express
The mirth and delight,
Both morning and night,
On mountain or in dale.
Of them who choose
This trade to use,
‖: And through cold dews
Do never refuse :‖
To carry the milking pail.

2. The bravest lasses gay
Live not so merry as they;
In honest civil sort
They make each other sport,
As they trudge on their way;
Come fair or foul weather,
They’re fearful of neither,
Their courages never quail;
In wet and dry,
Though winds be high,
‖: And dark’s the sky,
They never deny :‖
To carry the milking pail.

3. Their hearts are free from care,
They never will despair
Whatever them befall;
They bravely bear out all,
And fortune’s frowns out-dare.
They pleasantly sing
To welcome the spring,
’Gainst heaven they never rail.
If grass well grow,
Their thanks they show;
‖: And frost or snow,
They merrily go :‖
Along with the milking pail.

4. Base idleness they do scorn;
They rise very early i’ th’ morn,
And walk into the field,
Where pretty birds do yield
Brave music on every thorn;
The linnet and thrush
Do sing on each bush,
And the dulcet nightingale
Her note doth strain
In a jocund vein,
‖: To entertain
That worthy train :‖
Which carry the milking pail.

5. Their labor doth health preserve;
No doctors’ rules they observe,
While others, too nice
In taking their advice,
Look always as though they would starve.
Their meat is digested,
They ne’er are molested,
No sickness doth them assail;
Their time is spent
In merriment;
‖: While limbs are lent,
They are content :‖
To carry the milking pail.

6. Those lasses, nice and strange,
That keep shops in the exchange,
Sit pricking of clouts
And giving of flouts,
They seldom abroad do range;
Then comes the green sickness
And changeth their likeness,
All this is for want of good sale;
But ’tis not so,
As proof doth show,
‖: By them that go
In frost and snow :‖
To carry the milking pail.

7. If they any sweethearts have,
That do their affections crave,
Their privilege is this,
Which many others miss,
They can give them welcome brave.
With them they may walk,
And pleasantly talk,
With a bottle of wine or ale;
The gentle cow
‖: Doth them allow,
As they know how. :‖
God speed the plow,
And bless the milking pail!

8. Upon the first of May,
With garlands fresh and gay,
With mirth and music sweet,
For such a season meet,
They pass their time away;
They dance away sorrow,
And all the day thorough
Their legs do never fail;
They nimbly
Their feet do ply,
‖: And bravely try
The victory, :‖
In honor o’ th’ milking pail.

9. If any think that I
Do practise flattery,
In seeking thus to raise
The merry milkmaids’ praise,
I’ll to them thus reply:
It is their desert
Inviteth my art
To study this pleasant tale
In their defence,
‖: Whose innocence
And providence :‖
Gets honest pence
Out of the milking pail.

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