The Herdsmen
BATTUS ( in a bantering tone )
What, Corydon man; whose may your cows be? Philondas's?
CORYDON
Nay, Aegon's; he hath given me the feeding of them in his stead.
BATTUS
And I suppose, come evening, you give them all a milking hugger-mugger?
CORYDON
Not so; the old master sees me to that; he puts the calves to suck, himself.
BATTUS
But whither so far was their own proper herdsman gone?
CORYDON
Did you never hear? Milon carried him off with him to the Alpheus.
BATTUS
Lord! When had the likes of him ever so much as set eyes upon a flask of oil?
CORYDON ( sententiously )
Men say he rivals Heracles in might.
BATTUS ( scoffing )
And mammy says I'm another Polydeuces.
CORYDON
Well, he took a score of sheep and a spade with him, when he went.
BATTUS ( with a momentary bitterness )
Ah, that Milon! he'ld persuade a wolf to run mad for the asking.
CORYDON
And his heifers miss him sore; hark to their lowing.
BATTUS ( resuming his banter )
Aye; 'twas an ill day for the kine; how sorry a herdsman it brought them!
CORYDON ( misunderstanding )
Marry, an ill day it was, and they are off their feed now.
BATTUS
Look you now, yonder beast, she's nought but skin and bone. Pray, doth she feed on dewdrops like the cricket?
CORYDON
Zeus! no. Why, sometimes I graze her along the Aesarus and give her a brave bottle of the tenderest green grass, and oftentimes her playground's in the deep shade of Latymnus.
BATTUS
Aye, and the red-poll bull, he's lean as can be. ( bitterly again ) I only would to God, when there's a sacrifice to Hera in their ward, the sons of Lampriadas might get such another as he: they are a foul mixen sort, they o' that ward.
CORYDON
All the same that bull's driven to the sea-lake and the Physcian border, and to that garden of good things, goat-flower, mullet, sweet odorous balsam, to wit Neaethus.
BATTUS ( sympathising as with another of Milon's victims )
Heigho, poor Aegon! thy very kine must needs meet their death because thou art gone a-whoring after vainglory, and the herdsman's pipe thou once didst make thyself is all one mildew.
CORYDON
Nay, by the Nymphs, not it. He bequeathed it to me when he set out for Pisa. I too am something of a musician. Mark you, I'm a dabster at Glauce's snatches and those ditties Pyrrhus makes:
O Croton is a bonny town as Zacynth by the sea,
And a bonny sight on her eastward height is the fane of Laciny,
Where boxer Milon one fine morn made fourscore loaves his meal,
And down the hill another day,
While lasses holla'd by the way,
To Amaryllis, laughing gay
Led the bull by the heel.
BATTUS ( not proof against the tactless reference; apostrophising )
O beautiful Amaryllis, though you be dead, I am true, and I'll never forget you. My pretty goats are dear to me, but dear no less a maiden that is no more. O well-a-day that my luck turned so ill!
CORYDON
Soft you, good Battus; be comforted. Good luck comes with another morn; while there's life there's hope; rain one day, shine the next.
BATTUS
Let be! 'tis well. ( changing the subject ) Up with you, ye calves; up the hill! They are at the green of those olives, the varlets.
CORYDON
Hey up, Snowdrop! hey up, Goodbody! to the hill wi' ye! Art thou deaf? 'Fore Pan I'll presently come thee an evil end if thou stay there. Look ye there; back she comes again. Would there were but a hurl-bat in my hand! I had had at thee.
BATTUS
Zeus save thee, Corydon; see here! It had at me as thou saidst the word, this thorn, here under my ankle. And how deep the spindle-thorns go! A plague o' thy heifer! It all came o' my gaping after her. ( Corydon comes to help him ) Dost see him, lad?
CORYDON
Aye, aye, and have got him 'twixt my nails; and lo! here he is.
BATTUS ( in mock-heroic strain )
O what a little tiny wound to overmaster so mighty a man!
CORYDON ( pointing the moral )
Thou should'st put on thy shoes when thou goest into the hills, Battus; 'tis rare ground for thorns and gorse, the hills.
BATTUS
Pray tell me, Corydon, comes gaffer yet the gallant with that dark-browed piece o' love he was smitten of?
CORYDON
Aye, that does he, ill's his luck. I happened of them but two days agone, and near by the byre, too, and faith, gallant was the word.
BATTUS ( apostrophising )
Well done, goodman Light-o'-love. 'Tis plain thou comest not far below the old Satyrs and ill-shanked Pans o' the country-side for lineage.
What, Corydon man; whose may your cows be? Philondas's?
CORYDON
Nay, Aegon's; he hath given me the feeding of them in his stead.
BATTUS
And I suppose, come evening, you give them all a milking hugger-mugger?
CORYDON
Not so; the old master sees me to that; he puts the calves to suck, himself.
BATTUS
But whither so far was their own proper herdsman gone?
CORYDON
Did you never hear? Milon carried him off with him to the Alpheus.
BATTUS
Lord! When had the likes of him ever so much as set eyes upon a flask of oil?
CORYDON ( sententiously )
Men say he rivals Heracles in might.
BATTUS ( scoffing )
And mammy says I'm another Polydeuces.
CORYDON
Well, he took a score of sheep and a spade with him, when he went.
BATTUS ( with a momentary bitterness )
Ah, that Milon! he'ld persuade a wolf to run mad for the asking.
CORYDON
And his heifers miss him sore; hark to their lowing.
BATTUS ( resuming his banter )
Aye; 'twas an ill day for the kine; how sorry a herdsman it brought them!
CORYDON ( misunderstanding )
Marry, an ill day it was, and they are off their feed now.
BATTUS
Look you now, yonder beast, she's nought but skin and bone. Pray, doth she feed on dewdrops like the cricket?
CORYDON
Zeus! no. Why, sometimes I graze her along the Aesarus and give her a brave bottle of the tenderest green grass, and oftentimes her playground's in the deep shade of Latymnus.
BATTUS
Aye, and the red-poll bull, he's lean as can be. ( bitterly again ) I only would to God, when there's a sacrifice to Hera in their ward, the sons of Lampriadas might get such another as he: they are a foul mixen sort, they o' that ward.
CORYDON
All the same that bull's driven to the sea-lake and the Physcian border, and to that garden of good things, goat-flower, mullet, sweet odorous balsam, to wit Neaethus.
BATTUS ( sympathising as with another of Milon's victims )
Heigho, poor Aegon! thy very kine must needs meet their death because thou art gone a-whoring after vainglory, and the herdsman's pipe thou once didst make thyself is all one mildew.
CORYDON
Nay, by the Nymphs, not it. He bequeathed it to me when he set out for Pisa. I too am something of a musician. Mark you, I'm a dabster at Glauce's snatches and those ditties Pyrrhus makes:
O Croton is a bonny town as Zacynth by the sea,
And a bonny sight on her eastward height is the fane of Laciny,
Where boxer Milon one fine morn made fourscore loaves his meal,
And down the hill another day,
While lasses holla'd by the way,
To Amaryllis, laughing gay
Led the bull by the heel.
BATTUS ( not proof against the tactless reference; apostrophising )
O beautiful Amaryllis, though you be dead, I am true, and I'll never forget you. My pretty goats are dear to me, but dear no less a maiden that is no more. O well-a-day that my luck turned so ill!
CORYDON
Soft you, good Battus; be comforted. Good luck comes with another morn; while there's life there's hope; rain one day, shine the next.
BATTUS
Let be! 'tis well. ( changing the subject ) Up with you, ye calves; up the hill! They are at the green of those olives, the varlets.
CORYDON
Hey up, Snowdrop! hey up, Goodbody! to the hill wi' ye! Art thou deaf? 'Fore Pan I'll presently come thee an evil end if thou stay there. Look ye there; back she comes again. Would there were but a hurl-bat in my hand! I had had at thee.
BATTUS
Zeus save thee, Corydon; see here! It had at me as thou saidst the word, this thorn, here under my ankle. And how deep the spindle-thorns go! A plague o' thy heifer! It all came o' my gaping after her. ( Corydon comes to help him ) Dost see him, lad?
CORYDON
Aye, aye, and have got him 'twixt my nails; and lo! here he is.
BATTUS ( in mock-heroic strain )
O what a little tiny wound to overmaster so mighty a man!
CORYDON ( pointing the moral )
Thou should'st put on thy shoes when thou goest into the hills, Battus; 'tis rare ground for thorns and gorse, the hills.
BATTUS
Pray tell me, Corydon, comes gaffer yet the gallant with that dark-browed piece o' love he was smitten of?
CORYDON
Aye, that does he, ill's his luck. I happened of them but two days agone, and near by the byre, too, and faith, gallant was the word.
BATTUS ( apostrophising )
Well done, goodman Light-o'-love. 'Tis plain thou comest not far below the old Satyrs and ill-shanked Pans o' the country-side for lineage.
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