III.   MEDIÆVAL LATIN STUDENTS’ SONGS

72

“But the theme of the dance is worked up with . . . more studied ingenuity of rhyme and rhythm in the following characteristic song. This has the true accent of what may be called the Musa Vagabundula, and is one of the best lyrics of the series.”

INVITATION
TO THE
DANCE.

CAST aside dull books and thought;
Sweet is folly, sweet is play:
Take the pleasure Spring hath brought
     In youth’s opening holiday!
Right it is old age should ponder
     On grave matters fraught with care;
Tender youth is free to wander,
     Free to frolic light as air.
              Like a dream our prime is flown,
                      Prisoned in a study:
              Sport and folly are youth’s own,
                    Tender youth and ruddy.


Lo, the Spring of life slips by,
    Frozen Winter comes apace;
Strength is ’minished silently,
    Care writes wrinkles on our face:
Blood dries up and courage fails us,
    Pleasures dwindle, joys decrease,
Till old age at length assails us
    With his troop of illnesses.
73               Like a dream our prime is flown,
                    Prisoned in a study:
              Sport and folly are youth’s own,
                    Tender youth and ruddy.


Live we like the gods above:
    This is wisdom, this is truth:
Chase the joys of tender love
    In the leisure of our youth!
Keep the vows we swore together,
    Lads, obey that ordinance;
Seek the fields in sunny weather,
    Where the laughing maidens dance.
              Like a dream our prime is flown,
                    Prisoned in a study:
              Sport and folly are youth’s own,
                    Tender youth and ruddy.


There the lad who lists may see
    Which among the maids is kind:
There young limbs deliciously
    Flashing through the dances wind:
While the girls their arms are raising,
    Moving, winding o’er the lea,
Still I stand and gaze, and gazing
    They have stolen the soul of me!
              Like a dream our prime is flown,
                    Prisoned in a study:
              Sport and folly are youth’s own,
                    Tender youth and ruddy.