Page:Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age (1896).djvu/14

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PREFACE.

for an earthly king and the reception provided for the King of Heaven!—

     "But at the coming of the King of Heaven
     All's set at six and seven;
     We wallow in our sin,
     Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
     We entertain him always like a stranger,
     And as at first still lodge him in the manger."

The volume which consists this fine poem has more than one lyric, set to music, of Henry Vaughan the Silurist. Am I right in surmising that this unpublished poem is also by Vaughan? I know no other devotional poet who could have written it. Whether it be Vaughan's or not, I am glad to include it in my anthology. I trust that the other Christ Church songs will also be acceptable. The odd little snatch, "Hey nonny no! Men are fools that wish to die!" almost takes one's breath away by the vehemence of its rapture. "Daphnis came on a summer's day" is as good as the best things in Bateson's madrigals (no slight praise), and "Art thou that she than whom no fairer is?" might have come from Robert Jones' song-books. The frog's wooing of the crab, "There was a frog swum in the lake," is a capital piece of fooling, almost worthy to rank Ravenscroft's "It was the frog in the well." It was set to music by Alfonso