"G. Peele and Singer travelling together Neare Cambridge towne, where they oft times had playde; It was in summer, and full hot the weather; Sitting beneath a spreading beeches shade, They saw a drove of pigs all coming thither, A clownish hoggerd driving. 'Now,' Peele saide, 'Ile showe you sporte; do you my councell keepe, And Ile perswade the clowne his pigges are sheepe. " 'Go you on forward or he sees you here, And meete him comming, and unto him say, Holla, my friend! are thy sheepe very deare? I would buy some; soe stoppe them on the waye.' Singer agreed, and made a circuit cleare Over the fieldes, and that without delaye, That he might meet the hoggerd on his roade, Some halfe mile on, whilst G. Peele there abode. "Soone as the pigs came neare him and the man, G. Peele stept forward and survey'd the drove, As he would buy some, and bespake him than: 'Those truly are fine sheepe, I sweare by Jove, I nere saw finer since my time began: Wilt thou sell one? for mutton much I love.' And true it was stewde mutton he lov'd well As anie man twixt this and Clerkenwell. "The hoggerd, hearing thus his pigs calde sheepe, Did laugh outright whilst G. continued on; 'Tell me, my friend, what shall I give to keepe One of thy sheepe? Say, and the bargaines done.'— 'What!' cried the clowne, 'art thou not half asleepe, To take my pigs for sheepe? sheepe are they none, But pigs; and harke how they squeake, grunt, and snore: Ich never heard a sheepe bleate soe before.'— " 'Man, thou art mad,' quoth Peele, 'and I will wager These angels gainst a sheepe that sheepe they are.'— 'Done,' said the peasant to the humorous stager: 'Take which you will, for hang me if I care.'— 'Youle wish ere long,' said G., 'you had been sager, Ime very sure: but prithee now declare Who shall be judge betweene us: shall we saye The first man that we meete upon the way?'— " 'With all my hart,' the hoggerd answerèd. Singer, be sure, was not far off by now: They saw him coming on the road. Then said The hoggerd, 'Here's a stranger, as I vowe: It may be Adam, or Ile loose my head.'— 'His verdict in the matter Ile alowe,' Geo. Peele replied: 'to me to[o] he's a stranger. Thy sheepe, good friend, is mine and in my danger.'— " 'When pigges are sheepe it is, but not till then,' The clowne replied. And so they drove along To meete with Singer, who, some nine or ten Yardes distant, stood and gazde upon the throng Of hogges, all grunting as when in a pen. 'How sell you, you, your sheepe? for them among I see some fine ones that I faine would buy: How do you sell your sheepe? Ile buy one, I.'— " 'There!' exclaimed G., 'does he not call them sheepe? And sheepe they are, albeit pigs you call them. I have won my wager: one is mine to keepe, And you were lucky not to jeoperd all them.' The hoggerd starde, and cride, 'If so you clepe Pigs sheepe, you have no eies, but faire befall them! If you have eies, then I my wittes have lost.'— 'And that you have,' said George, 'unto your cost.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...REVIEW by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE CRESCENT MOON by AMY LOWELL ECHOES: 9 by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY STREET CORNER COLLEGE by KENNETH PATCHEN THE LITTLE REBEL by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY THREE SONGS OF LOVE (CHINESE FASHION): 2. RIVER SONG by WILLIAM A. BEATTY |