Phillida

While he dressed he sang an ancient ballad, at the top of his voice, to an air he improvised. Phillida was a fair maid / As fresh as any flower; / Whom Harpalus the herd-man praide / To be his paramoure. / Harpalus and eke Corin, / Were herd-men both ysere; / And Phillida would twist and spinne, / And thereto sing ful clere. "Phyllis!" cried John. "Can you hear in the bedroom? I sing of thee!" "I thought her name was Phillida," said Phyllis, setting the bedroom door ajar. "Phillida is Old English for Phyllis," he explained.

1914 Munson Aldrich Havens, Old Valentines, Chapter X