265 And I thyrtene pence a day, said the quene, By God, and by my fay;

270

Come feche thy payment when thou wylt
No man shall say the nay.

Wyllyam, I make the a gentelman

Of clothyng, and of fe:

And thy two brethren, yemen of my chambre,
For they are so semely to se.

Your sonne, for he is tendre of age,

Of my wyne-seller he shal be;

275 And whan he commeth to mans estate,

280

Shal better avaunced be.

[And, 160] And, Wyllym, bring to me your wife,

Me longeth her sore to se:

She shall be my chefe gentelwoman

To governe my nurserye.

The yemen thanketh them curteously.
To some byshop wyl we wend,
Of all the synnes, that we have done,
To be assoyld at his hand.

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285 So forth be gone these good yemen,

As fast as they might he,

And after came and dwelled with the kynge,
And dyed good men all thre.

Thus endeth the lives of these good yemen;
God send them eternall blysse,

25

And all, that with a hand-bowe shoteth,
That of heven they never mysse. Amen.

30

THE AGED LOVER RENOUNCETH LOVE. The Grave-digger's song in HAMLET, A. 5. is taken from three stanzas of the following poem, though somewhat altered and disguised, probably as the same were corrupted by the ballad-singers of Shakespeare's time. The original is preserved among Surrey's Poems, 1559, and is attributed to 35 Lord Vaux, by Geo. Gascoigne, who tells us, it "was thought

by some to be made upon his death-bed;" a popular error which he laughs at. (See his Epist. to Yong Gent. prefixed to his Posies 1575. 4to.) Lord VAUX was remarkable for his skill in drawing feigned manners, &c. for so I under5 stand an ancient writer. "The Lord Vaux his commenda"tion lyeth chiefly in the facilitie "nesse of his descriptions such "make, namely in sundry of his "the COUNTERFAIT ACTION very lively and pleasantly." Arte 10 of Eng. Poesie, 1589. p. 51. See also Vol. 2. p. 45.

of his meetre, and the apt-
as he taketh upon him to
Songs, wherein he showeth

In youth that I thought swete:

As tyme requires for my behove,
Me thinkes they are not mete.

My lustes they do me leave,

My fancies all be fled,

And tract of time begins to weave
Gray heares upon my hed.

[For 162] For age with stealing steps,
Hath clawed me with his crowch,
And lusty life away she leapes,

5

VOL.

III. M.

10

As there had ben none such.

My muse doth not delight

Me as she did before,

25

My hand and pen are not in plight,

15

As they have ben of yore.

For reason me denyes,

This youthly ydle rime

And day by day to me she cryes,

Leave off these toyes in tyme.

30

The wrinkles in my brow,

The furrowes in my face

Say, limping age will lodge him now,
Where youth must geve him place.

The harbinger of death,

To me I see him ride,

The cough, the colde, the gasping breath,
Doth bid me to provyde

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25

A pikeax and a spade,

And eke a shrowding shete,
A howse of clay for to be made,
For such a guest most mete.

[Me 163] Me thinkes I heare the clarke,
That knowles the carefull knell,

And bids me leave my woful warke,
Ere nature me compell.

My kepers knit the knot,

That youth did laugh to skorne,
Of me that clene shal be forgot,
As I had not been borne.

Thus must I youth geve up,

Whose badge I long did weare,
To them I yield the wanton cup
That better may it beare.

Lo here the bar-hed skull,

By whose balde signe I know,
That stouping age away shall pull,
Which youthful yeres did sow.
For beauty with her band,

These croked cares hath wrought,
And shipped me into the lande,
From whence I first was brought.

And ye that byde behinde,
Have ye none other trust:

As ye of clay wer cast by kinde,
So shall ye wast to dust.

[A 164]

III.

A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE.

Shakespeare has made this sonnet the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his ROMEO AND JULIET A. IV. Sc. 5. where he introduces Peter putting this Question to the Musicians.

"PETER. .. why "Silver Sound"? why "Musicke with her 35 "silver sound"? what say you, Simon Catling?

"1. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

5

"PET. Pretty! what say you, Hugh Rebecke?

"2. Mus. Isay, silver sound, because Musicians sound for silver. "PET. Pretty too! what say you, James Sound-post.

"3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.

"PET.... I will say for you: It is "Musicke with her silver "sound," because Musicians have no gold for sounding.“

This ridicule is not so much levelled at the song itself (which for the time it was written is not inelegant) as at those forced and unnatural explanations often given by us 10 painful editors and expositors of ancient authors.

This copy is printed from the (l. an corr.) old quarto MS in the Cotton Library, [Vesp. A. 25.] entitled "Divers "things of Hen. viij's time": with some corrections from The Paradise of dainty devises, 1596.

15 [WHERE 165]

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35

WHERE gripinge grefes the hart would wounde,

And dolefulle dumps the mynde oppresse,

There musicke with her silver sound

With spede is wont to send redresse:
Of trobled mynds, in every sore,
Swete musicke hathe a salve in store.
In joye yt maks our mirthe abounde,

In woe yt cheres our hevy sprites;
Be-strawghted heads relyef hath founde,
By musickes pleasaunt swete delightes:
Our senses all, what shall I say more?
Are subjecte unto musicks lore.

The Gods by musicke have theire prayse,

The lyfe, the soule therein doth joye;
For, as the Romayne poet sayes,

In seas, whom pyrats would destroy,
A dolphin saved from death most sharpe
Arion playing on hys harpe.

O heavenly gyft, that rules the mynd,
Even as the sterne dothe rule the shippe!

35

O musicke, whom the gods assinde

To comforte manne, whom cares would nippe!
Sence thow both man and beste doest move,
What beste ys he, wyll the disprove?

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M 3

[IV. KING 166]

IV.

KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-MAID,

is a story often alluded to by our old Dramatic Writers. Shakespear in his ROMEO AND JULIET, A. ii. Sc. 1, makes Mercutio say,

"Her [Venus's] purblind son and heir,

"Young Adam* Cupid, he that shot so true,

"When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid.“

As the 13th Line of the following ballad seems here particularly alluded to, it is not improbable but Shakespeare 10 wrote it SHOT SO TRIM, which the players or printers, not perceiving the allusion, might alter to TRUE. The former, as being the more humorous expression, seems most likely to have come from the mouth of Mercutio.

5

In the 2d Part of HEN. IV. A. 5. Sc. 3. Falstaff is in- 15 troduced affectedly saying to Pistoll,

"O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
"Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof."

These lines Bp. Warburton thinks were taken from an old
bombast play of KING COPHETUA. No such play is, I be- 20
lieve, now to be found: but it does not therefore follow that
it never existed. Many dramatic pieces are referred to by
old writers †, which are not now extant, or even mentioned in
any [List. 167] List. In the infancy of the stage, plays were
often exhibited that were never printed.

It is probably in allusion to the same play that Ben Jonson says in his Comedy of EVERY MAN in his humour, A. 3.

SC. 4.

"I have not the heart to devour thee, an' I might be made as "RICH as King Cophetua."

At least there is no mention of King Cophetua's RICHES in the present ballad, which is the oldest I have met with on the subject.

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30

It is printed from Rich. Johnson's "Crown Garland of "Goulden Roses." 1612. 12mo. (where it is intitled simply, A 35 SONG OF A BEGGAR AND A KING:) corrected by another copy.

* See above p. 130.

† See Meres's Wits Treas. f. 283. Arte of Eng. Poes. 1589. p. 51, 111, 143, 169.