Page:The Shepherd's Week - Gay (1728).djvu/9

MONDAY;

OR, THE

SQUABBLE.

Lobbin Clout, Cuddy, Cloddipole.

LOBBIN CLOUT.
HY younglings, Cuddy, are but just awake;
No thrustles shrill the bramble-bush forsake,
No chirping lark the welkin^[1] sheen^[2] invokes;
No damsel yet the swelling udder strokes;
O’er yonder hill does scant^[3] the dawn appear, 5
Then why does Caddy leave his cott so rear?^[4]

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1. Line 3. Welkin the same as Welken, an old Saxon word, signifying a cloud, by poetical licence it is frequently taken for the element or sky, as may appear by this verse in the dream of Chaucer, Ne in all the Welkin was no cloud.
2. Sheen or shine, an old word for shining or bright.
3. 5. Scant, used in ancient British authors, for scarce.
4. 6. Rear, an expression in several counties of England for early in the morning.

CUDDY