C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)

From ‘Summer’s Last Will and Testament’

SPRING, the sweet Spring, is the year’s pleasant king:

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring;

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing—

Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

The palm and may make country-houses gay;

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day;

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay—

Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet;

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit;

In every street these tunes our ears do greet—

Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

Spring, the sweet Spring.