Your Hay it is Mow'd, and Your Corn is Reaped

By John Dryden 1631–1700 John Dryden

COMUS

Your hay it is mow'd, and your corn is reap'd;

Your barns will be full, and your hovels heap'd:

Come, my boys, come;

And merrily roar out Harvest Home.

CHORUS

Come, my boys, come;

And merrily roar out Harvest Home.

MAN

We ha' cheated the parson, we'll cheat him agen,

For why should a blockhead ha' one in ten?

One in ten,

For why should a blockhead ha' one in ten?

For prating so long like a book-learn'd sot,

Till pudding and dumplin burn to pot,

Burn to pot,

Till pudding and dumplin burn to pot.

CHORUS

Burn to pot,

Till pudding and dumplin burn to pot.

We'll toss off our ale till we canno' stand,

And Hoigh for the honour of Old England:

Old England,

And Hoigh for the honour of Old England.

CHORUS

Old England,

And Hoigh for the honour of Old England.

Biography

After John Donne and John Milton, John Dryden was the greatest English poet of the seventeenth century. After William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, he was the greatest playwright. And he has no peer as a writer of prose, especially literary criticism, and as a translator. Other figures, such as George Herbert or Andrew Marvell or William Wycherley or William Congreve, may figure more prominently in anthologies and literary . . .

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