The world my cures doth see,
What youth and time effects
Is oft ascribed to me.

THE MERCHANT.

My trade doth everything
To every land supply,
Discovers unknown coasts,
Strange countries doth ally.

I never did forestall,
I never did engross,
Nor custom did withdraw
Though I return'd with loss.

I thrive by fair exchange,
By selling and by buying,
And not by Jewish use,
Reprisal, fraud, or lying.

THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

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