George Peele (1556-1596). The Impatient Maid. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

The Impatient Maid

By George Peele (1556–1596)


WHEN 1 as the rye reach’d to the chin,
And chop cherry, chop cherry ripe within,
Strawberries swimming in the cream,
And schoolboys playing in the stream;
Then O, then O, then O, my true love said,	5
Till that time come again
She could not live a maid!

Note 1. From The Old Wives’ Tale, 1595. [back]