Jonson. From "Pan's Anniversary"

Ben Jonson

from

Pan's Anniversary

[The scene is Arcadia. After the antimasque, a hymn
is sung by nymphs and Arcadians.]

Of Pan we sing, the best of singers, Pan,
That taught us swains how first to tune our lays,
And on the pipe more airs then Phoebus can.
Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his praise.

Of Pan we sing, the best of leaders, Pan,
That leads the Naiads and the Dryads forth,
And to their dances more then Hermes can.
Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his worth.

Of Pan we sing, the best of hunters, Pan,
That drives the hart to seek unusèd ways,
And in the chase more then Silvanus can.
Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his praise.

Of Pan we sing, the best of shepherds, Pan,
      That keeps our flocks and us, and both leads forth
To better pastures then great Pales can.
      Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his worth;
            And while his powers and praises thus we sing,
            The valleys let rebound and all the rivers ring.

Elizabethan and Seventeenth-Century Lyrics.
Matthew W. Black, Ed.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1938. 247-248.

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