The Faithful Shepherdess

The Faithful Shepherdess is a Jacobean era stage play, the work that inaugurated the playwriting career of John Fletcher.

Quotes

Text from the Second Folio (1679), edited by Arnold Glover and A. R. Waller (Cambridge UP, 1906)

Act I

• Sing his praises that doth keep
    Our Flocks from harm,
  Pan the Father of our Sheep,
    And arm in arm
  Tread we softly in a round,
  Whilest the hollow neighbouring ground
  Fills the Musick with her sound.
  Pan, O great God Pan, to thee
    Thus do we sing:
  Thou that keep’st us chaste and free
    As the young spring,
  Ever be thy honour spoke,
  From that place the morn is broke,
  To that place Day doth unyoke.
  • Scene 1, Song

Act IV

• This place is Ominous, for here I lost
  My Love and almost life, and since have crost
  All these Woods over, never a Nook or Dell,
  Where any little Bird, or Beast doth dwell,
  But I have sought him, never a bending brow
  Of any Hill or Glade, the wind sings through,
  Nor a green bank, nor shade where Shepherds use
  To sit and Riddle, sweetly pipe, or chuse
  Their Valentines, that I have mist, to find
  My love in. Perigot, Oh too unkind,
  Why hast thou fled me? whither art thou gone?
  How have I wrong'd thee? was my love alone
  To thee worthy this scorn'd recompence? 'tis well,
  I am content to feel it: but I tell
  Thee Shepherd, and these lusty woods shall hear,
  Forsaken Amoret is yet as clear
  Of any stranger fire, as Heaven is
  From foul corruption, or the deep Abysse
  From light and happiness; ...
  • Scene 1, Amoret

Act V

• Stay thy pace,
  Most loved Amaryllis, let the Chase
  Grow calm and milder, flye me not so fast,
  I fear the pointed Brambles have unlac'd
  Thy golden Buskins; turn again and see
  Thy Shepherd follow, that is strong and free,
  Able to give thee all content and ease.
  I am not bashful, Virgin, I can please
  At first encounter, hug thee in mine arm,
  And give thee many Kisses, soft and warm
  As those the Sun prints on the smiling Cheek
  Of Plums, or mellow Peaches; I am sleek
  And smooth as Neptune, when stern Eolus
  Locks up his surly Winds, and nimbly thus
  Can shew my active Youth; why dost thou flye?
  • Scene 1, Sullen

External links

• Encyclopedic article on The Faithful Shepherdess on Wikipedia
• Works related to The Faithful Shepherdess on Wikisource