John Lyly. Vulcan's Song from "Sappho and Phao." "My shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply"

JOHN LYLY, Sappho and Phao,
1584 ; acted 1582.

VULCAN'S SONG :

IN MAKING OF THE ARROWS.

MY shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply
Our Lemnian hammers lustily.
By my wife's sparrows,
I swear these arrows
Shall singing fly
Through many a wanton's eye.

These headed are with golden blisses,
These silver ones feathered with kisses,
But this of lead
Strikes a clown dead,
When in a dance
He falls in a trance,
To see his black-brow lass not buss him,
And then whines out for death t'untruss him.
So, so : our work being done, let's play :
Holiday ! boys, cry holiday !

Schelling, Felix E., Ed. A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics.
Boston: Ginn and Company, 1895. 22.

to the Works of John Lyly