Chapter III (3)

Before we notice, however, the ballads which Shakspeare has quoted, or to which he has alluded, it will be satisfactory, if, to the articles specified in Captain Cox's "Bunch of Ballets and Songs," we add a few more of similar popularity, and from a source equally rare and authentic. In the _British Bibliographer_, Mr. Haslewood has given us a description of the fragment of a tract in his possession, entitled THE WORLD'S FOLLY, printed, as he concludes, from the type, before 1600, and from which, "as every allusion," he justly observes, "to our early ballads is interesting," he has obliged his readers with some very curious quotations. "The author," he remarks, "appears to describe the purgatory of Folly. He wanders from room to room, and to each new character assigns a ballad, that may be presumed was distinguished for popularity. A man, whose credit had decayed by trusting servants, and had commenced botcher, 'had standing by him, for meate and drinke, a pot of strong ale, which was often at his nose, that it kept his face in so good a colour, and his braine in so kinde a heate, as forgetting part of his forepassed pride, in the good humour of grieving patience, made him with a hemming sigh, ilfavourdly singe the ballad of _Whilom I was_: to the tune of _Tom Tinker_.' An old man, shaking with palsy, who, 'having beene a man of some possessions, and with too fat feeding of horses, too high keeping of hawkes, and too much delighting in banquetinges, through lacke of husbandrie, was forced to leave himself without lande; . . . after many a deepe sighe, with a hollow voice, in a solemne tune, with a heavie hearte fell to sing the song of _Oken leaves began wither_: to the tune of _Heavilie, heavilie_.' A dapper fellow that in his youth had spent more than he got on his person, 'fell to singe the ballad of the _blinde beggar_: to the tune of _Heigh ho_.' The general lover, having no further credit with beauty, 'howled out the dittie of _When I was faire and young_: to the tune of _Fortune_. The next is whimsically described as 'one that was once a virgin, had beene a little while a mayde, knew the name of a wife, fell to be a widdow,' and finally a procuress; 'she would sing the _Lamentation of a sinner_: to the tune of _Welladaye_.' A decayed prostitute, who had become laundress to the house, 'stood singing the ballet of _All a greene willowe_: to the famous tune of _Ding Dong_.' A man with good personage, with a froward wife, 'hummed out the balled of _the breeches_: to the tune of _Never, never_.' His termagant spouse drewe from her pocket 'a ballad of _the tinker's wife that beate her husbande_.' To the last character in the fragment is also given Raleigh's ballad. He was 'one that had beene in love, sat looking on his mistresse picture, making such a legge to it, writing such verses in honour to it, and committing such idolatrie with it, that poore man, I pittied him: and in his behalfe sorrowed to see how the Foole did handle him: but there sat he, hanging his head, lifting up the eyes, and with a deepe sigh, singing the ballad of _Come live with me and be my love_: to the tune of _adieu my deere_.'"[576:A]

It is, notwithstanding, to the dramas of our poet, that we must look for more copious intimations relative to the ballad-poetry of the sixteenth century, and of the first ten years of the reign of James the First. The list which we shall collect from his works, in the order in which they are usually published, will sufficiently evince his love for these productions, and, at the same time, afford a pretty accurate enumeration of those which were esteemed the most popular of his age.

Yet, in forming this catalogue of Shakspearean ballads and songs, it may be necessary to premise, that it is not our intention to comment on the original pieces of our author in this branch of poetry, which will fall under consideration in a subsequent chapter; but merely to confine our notices to his quotations from and allusions to the minstrel strains of others. We commence, therefore, with the ballad of _Queen Dido_, which the poet had no doubt in view, when he represents Gonzalo in the _Tempest_ so familiar with her name and history.[576:B] That this was a favourite song with the common people appears from a passage in a scarce pamphlet quoted by Mr. Ritson, and published in 1604. "O you ale-knights, you that devoure the marrow of the mault, and drinke whole ale-tubs into consumptions; that sing _Queen Dido_ over a cupp, and tell strange newes over an ale-pot."[576:C] Dr. Percy, who has published a correct copy of this old ballad from his folio MS. collated with two different printed copies, both in black letter, in the Pepysian collection, terms it "_excellent_;" an epithet justly merited, for, though blended with the manners of a Gothic age, it is certainly both pathetic and interesting.

Mrs. Ford, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, speaking of Falstaff's proposals, says, that his disposition and his words "do no more adhere and keep place together than the hundredth psalm to the tune of _Green Sleeves_."[577:A] This seems to have been a very popular song about 1580, for it is licensed several times during this year, and entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, under the titles of "A newe northerne dittye of the Lady _Green Sleeves_," and "A new Northern Song of _Green Sleeves_, beginning

"The bonniest lass in all the land."

It is mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher in _The Loyal Subject_, but is supposed to be now no longer extant.

In the same play, Falstaff alludes to another old song, which was entitled _Fortune my foe_[577:B], enumerating all the misfortunes incident to mankind through the instability of fortune. Of this ballad, which is mentioned by Brewer in his _Lingua_[577:C], twice by Beaumont and Fletcher[577:D], and by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy[577:E], the tune is said to be the identical air now known by the song of "Death and the Lady;" and the first stanza, observes Mr. Malone, was as follows:—

"_Fortune, my foe_, why dost thou frown on me?
And will my fortune never better be?
Wilt thou, I say, for ever breed my pain,
And wilt thou not restore my joys again?"[577:F]

Sir Hugh Evans, in the first scene of the third act of this[577:G] play, quotes, though from his trepidation very inaccurately, four lines from two of the most popular little madrigals at the close of the sixteenth century, entitled _The Passionate Shepherd to His Love_, and _The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd_; the first written by Christopher Marlow, and the second by Sir Walter Raleigh. These had been attributed, however, to Shakspeare, in consequence of their being included in a copy of his smaller poems printed by William Jaggard in 1599. This edition being published during the life-time of the poet, gave currency to the ascription; but in the year following Marlow's poem appeared in _England's Helicon_, with his name annexed, and Raleigh's with his usual signature of _Ignoto_[578:A]; and Isaac Walton, in the first edition of his _Compleat Angler_, printed in 1653, has attributed these pieces to the same authors, describing them as "that smooth song, which was made by Kit Marlow, now at least fifty years ago; and—an Answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days—old fashioned poetry," he adds, "but choicely good; I think much better then the strong lines that are now in fashion in this critical age."[578:B] Had Marlow written nothing but this beautiful song, he would yet have descended to posterity as an excellent poet; the imitations of it have been numerous.

The _Twelfth Night_ presents us with a variety of fragments of ballads, songs, and catches; Sir Andrew Ague-cheek calls for the catch of _Thou Knave_, of which the words and musical notes are given by Sir J. Hawkins[578:C]; Sir Toby compares Olivia to _Peg-a Ramsay_, a licentious song mentioned by Nash among several other ballads, such as _Rogero_, _Basilino_, _Turkelony_, _All the Flowers of the Broom_, _Pepper is black_, _Green Sleeves_, _Peggie Ramsie_; and immediately afterwards this jovial knight quotes several detached lines from as many separate ballads, for instance, _Three merry men be we_; _There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady_; _O the twelfth day of December_; _Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone_.[579:A] Of these the first was a burden common to many ancient songs, and is called in _The Old Wives Tale_, by George Peele, 1595, an _Old Proverb_, and is thus given:—

"Three merrie men, and three merrie men,
And three merrie men be wee;
I in the wood, and thou on the ground,
And Jack sleepes in the tree:"[579:B]

an association which acquired such notoriety as to become the frequent sign of an ale-house, under the appellation of _The Three Merry Boys_. The second is the first line and the burden of a ballad which was licensed by T. Colwell, in 1562, under the title of _The goodly and constant Wyfe Susanna_. It is preserved in the Pepysian collection, and the first stanza of it has been quoted by Dr. Percy in his _Reliques_[579:C]; the burden _lady, lady_, is again alluded to by Mercutio in _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 4. The third has not been traced to its source, but the fourth, and the subsequent lines, are taken, with a little variation, from _Corydon's Farewell To Phillis_, published in a little black letter miscellany, called "The Golden Garland of Princely Delights," and reprinted entire by Dr. Percy.[579:D]

In act iv. sc. 2. the clown is introduced singing part of the first two stanzas of a song which has been discovered among the ancient MSS. of Dr. Harrington of Bath, and there ascribed, though perhaps not correctly, to Sir Thomas Wyat. It is evident that Shakspeare trusted to his memory in the quotation of these popular pieces, for most of them deviate, in some degree, from the originals; in the present instance, the first two lines, as given by the clown,

"Hey Robin, jolly Robin,
Tell me how thy lady does,"

are substituted for the opening stanza of the old song:—

"A Robyn,
Jolly Robyn,
Tell me how thy leman doeth,
And thou shalt knowe of myn."[580:A]

The commencement of a madrigal, the composition of William Elderton, is sung by Benedict, in _Much Ado about Nothing_.

"The god of love,
That sits above," &c.[580:B]

and a song beginning in a similar manner, is mentioned by Mr. Ritson, to be in _Bacchus' Bountie_, 4to. bl. l. 1593; Elderton's production was parodied by a puritan of the name of Birch, under the title of "The Complaint of a Sinner."[580:C]

In _Love's Labours Lost_, a sweet air, as Armado terms it, commencing with the word _Concolinel_, is sung by Moth[580:D], but no further intimation is given; and in another part of the same comedy, the burden of an ancient ditty is chaunted by Roseline and Boyet.[580:E] In _As You Like It_ Touchstone quotes a stanza from a ballad of which the first line is _O sweet Oliver_, and which appears to be the same with the ballad of

"O sweete Olyver
Leave me not behinde thee,"

entered by Richard Jones, on the books of the Stationers' Company, August 6th, 1584[580:F]; and in the subsequent act, Orlando alludes to a madrigal under the title of _Wit whither wilt_.[580:G]

_All's Well that Ends Well_ affords but two passages from the minstrel poesy of the day, which are put into the mouth of the clown; one of these is evidently taken from a ballad on the _Sacking of Troy_, and the other seems to have been the chorus of a song on courtship or marriage.[581:A]

From the _Taming of the Shrew_ we collect the initial lines of two apparently very popular ballads; the first beginning _Where is the life that late I led_[581:B], which is likewise quoted by Ancient Pistol[581:C], and referred to in _A gorgious Gallery of gallant Inventions_, 4to. 1578; there is also a song or sonnet with this title, observes Mr. Malone, in _a handeful of pleasant Delites, containing sundrie new Sonets_, &c. 1584, where we read of "Dame Beautie's replie to the _lover late at libertie_, and now complaineth himselfe to be her captive, intituled, _Where is the life that late I led_:

"The life that erst thou led'st, my friend,
Was pleasant to thine eyes," &c.[581:D]

The second fragment with which Petruchio has favoured us, commencing

"It was the friar of orders grey,
As he forth walked on his way,"[581:E]

has given rise to one of the most pleasing and pathetic of modern ballads, founded on a professed introduction of as many of our poet's ballad fragments as could consistently be adapted. "Dispersed through Shakspeare's plays," says the ingenious associator, "are innumerable little fragments of ancient ballads, the entire copies of which could not be recovered. Many of these being of the most beautiful and pathetic simplicity, the editor was tempted to select some of them, and with a few supplemental stanzas to connect them together, and form them into a little Tale."[582:A] That much taste and poetic spirit, together with a very successful effort in combination, have been exhibited in this little piece, the public approbation has unequivocally decided.

To the character of Autolycus, in the _Winter's Tale_, a very humorous exemplar of the fallen state of the minstrel tribe, we are indebted for some illustration of the prevalency of ballad-writing at the commencement of the reign of James the First. Most of the songs attributed to this adroit rogue, are, there is reason to think, the composition of Shakspeare, with the exception of the catch beginning _Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way_[582:B]; but, in his capacity of ballad-vender, he throws considerable light on the subjects to which these motley strains were devoted. He is represented as having ballads of all descriptions, and "the prettiest love-songs for maids"—"and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, _Whoop, do me no harm, good man_; puts him off, slights him, with _Whoop, do me_ no harm, good man."[582:C] Accordingly at the Fair he is applied to for these precious wares:—

"_Clo._ What hast here? ballads?

_Mop._ Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print, a'-life:
for then we are sure they are true.

_Aut._ Here's one to a very doleful tune, How a usurer's wife
was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden; and how
she longed to eat adder's heads, and toads carbonadoed.

_Mop._ Is it true, think you?

_Aut._ Very true; and but a month old.

_Dor._ Bless me from marrying a usurer!

_Aut._ Here's the midwife's name to't, one mistress Taleporter;
and five or six honest wives that were present: Why should I
carry lies abroad?

_Mop._ 'Pray you now, buy it.

_Clo._ Come on, lay it by: And let's first see more ballads;
we'll buy the other things anon.

_Aut._ Here's another ballad, Of a fish, that appeared upon
the coast, on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand
fathom above water, and sung this ballad against the hard
hearts of maids: it was thought she was a woman, and was turned
into a cold fish, for she would not exchange flesh with one
that loved her: The ballad is very pitiful, and as true.

_Dor._ Is it true, think you?

_Aut._ Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses, more than my
pack will hold.

_Clo._ Lay it by too: Another.

_Aut._ This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty one.

_Mop._ Let's have some merry ones.

_Aut._ Why, this is a passing merry one; and goes to the tune
of, _Two maids wooing a man_: there's scarce a maid westward,
but she sings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you."[584:A]

The request, in fact, for these popular pieces of poetry was then infinitely greater than has since obtained in more modern times; not a murder, or an execution, not a battle or a tempest, not a wonderful event or a laughable adventure, could occur, but what was immediately thrown into the form of a ballad, and the muse supplied what humble prose now details to us among the miscellaneous articles of a news-paper; a statement which is fully confirmed by the observation of another character in this very play, who tells us that "such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it."[584:B]

In the _Second Part of King Henry the Fourth_ Falstaff enters a room, in the Boar's Head Tavern, singing the first two lines of a ballad which Dr. Percy has reprinted under the title of _Sir Lancelot Du Lake_.[585:A] This, which is merely a metrical version of three chapters from the first part of _Morte Arthur_, is quoted imperfectly by the knight, owing to the interruptions attending his situation; the opening lines of the ballad are,

"When Arthur first in court began,
And was approved king,"

which Falstaff mutilates and alters, by omitting the last word of the first line, and converting _approved_ into _worthy_[585:B]; the version and quotation, it may be remarked, are strong proofs of the popularity of the romance.

To the admirably drawn character of _Silence_ in this play, we are indebted for several valuable fragments of popular poesy. This curious personage, who, when sober, has not a word to say, is no sooner exhilarated by the circling glass, than he chaunts forth an abundance of unconnected stanzas from the minstrelsy of his times. Having nothing original in his ideas, no fund of his own on which to draw, he marks his festivity by the vociferous repetition of scraps of catches, songs, and glees. We may, therefore, conceive the poet to have appropriated to this simple justice in his cups, the most generally known and, of course, the favourite, convivial songs of the age. They are of such a character, indeed, as to warrant the belief, that there was not a hall in Shakspeare's days but what had echoed to these jovial strains; a conclusion which almost imperatively calls for the admission of a few, as specimens of the vocal hilarity of our ancestors, when warmed, according to Shallow's confession, by "too much sack at supper."[585:C]

"_Sil._ Do nothing but eat and make good cheer, (Singing.)
And praise heaven for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,[586:A]
And lusty lads roam here and there,
So merrily,
And ever among so merrily.

_Fal._ There's a merry heart!—Good master Silence, I'll give
you a health for that anon.—

_Sil._ Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all;[586:B]
For women are shrews, both short and tall:
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.
Be merry, be merry, &c.

_Fal._ I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this
mettle.

_Sil._ A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine,
And drink unto the leman mine;
And a merry heart lives long-a.

_Fal._ Well said, master Silence.

_Sil._ And we shall be merry;—now comes in the sweet of the
night.

_Fal._ Health and long life to you, master Silence.

_Sil._ Fill the cup and let it come;
I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom."[586:C]

After drinking another bumper, and singing another song, allusive to the rights of pledging, _Do me right, And dub me knight_[586:D]; and quoting the old ballad of _Robin Hood_, and the _Pindar of Wakefield_[586:E], master Silence is carried to bed, fully saturated with sack and good cheer.

A character equally versed in minstrel lore, and equally prodigal of his stock, though wanting the excuse of inebriation, has been drawn by Beaumont and Fletcher, in the person of _Old Merrythought_ in their _Knight of the Burning Pestle_[586:F]; but, in point of nature and humour, it is a picture which falls infinitely short of Shakspeare's sketch.

Many of the old songs, or rather the fragments of them, which are scattered through the dramas of our poet, either proceed from the professed clown or fool of the play, or are given as the wild and desultory recollections of derangement, real or feigned; the ebullitions of a broken heart, and the unconnected sallies of a disordered mind.

Shakspeare's fools may be considered, in fact, as exact copies of the living manners and costume of these singular personages, who, in his era, formed a necessary part of the household establishment of the great. To the due execution of their functions, a lively fancy, and a copious fund of wit and sarcasm, together with an unlimited licence of uttering what imagination and the occasion prompted, were essential; but it was likewise required, that bitterness of allusion, and asperity of remark, should be softened by the constant assumption of a playful and unintentional manner. For this purpose, the indirect method of quotation, and generally from ludicrous songs and ballads, is resorted to, with the evident intention of covering what would otherwise have been too naked and too severely felt. Thus, in an old play, entitled _A very mery and pythie Comedy, called, The longer thou livest the more Foole thou art_, printed about 1580, the appearance of a character of this description is prefaced by the following stage-note:—"Entreth _Moros_, counterfaiting a vaine gesture and a foolish countenance, _synging the foote of many songs, as fools were wont_."[587:A]

The simple yet sarcastic drollery of the fool, and the wild ravings of the madman, have been alike employed by Shakspeare, to deepen the gloom of distress. In the tragedy of _Lear_ it is difficult to ascertain whether the horrors of the scene are more heightened by the seeming thoughtless levity of the former, or by the delirious imagery of the latter. The greater part of the bitterly sportive metres, attributed to the fool, in this drama, appears evidently to have been written for the character; and as the reliques drawn from more ancient minstrelsy, seem rather the foot or burden of each song, than the commencement, and are at the same time of little poetical value, we shall forbear enumerating them. The fragments, however, allotted to Edgar are both characteristic, and apparently initial; the line which Mr. Steevens asserts to have seen in an old ballad,

"Through the sharp hawthown blows the cold wind,"[588:A]

is so impressive as absolutely to chill the blood; and the legendary pieces beginning

"Saint Withold footed thrice the wold,"[588:B]

and

"Child Rowland to the dark tower came,"[588:C]

are reliques which well accord with the dreadful peculiarity of his situation. The two subsequent quotations are from pastoral songs, of which the first,

"Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,"[588:D]

as Mr. Malone observes, has a marked propriety, alluding to an association then common; for in a description of beggars, published in 1607, one class of these vagabonds is represented as counterfeiting madness;

———————— "they were so frantique
They knew not what they did, but every day
Make sport with stick and flowers like an antique;—
_One calls herself poor Besse, the other Tom_."[588:E]

The second seems to have been suggested to the mind of Edgar by some connection, however distant and obscure, with the business of the scene. Lear fancies he is trying his daughters; and the lines of Edgar, who is appointed one of the commission, allude to a trespass which takes place in consequence of the folly of a shepherd in neglecting his charge,—the lines appear to be the opening stanza of a lyric pastoral. "A shepherd," remarks Dr. Johnson, "is desired to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promise, that though his sheep be in the corn, _i. e._ committing a trespass by his negligence—yet a single tune upon his pipe shall secure them from the pound.

"Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm."[589:A]

If the assumed madness of Edgar is heightened by the casual repetition of these artless strains, how is the real distraction of the heart-broken Ophelia augmented in its pathos by a similar appeal! The interesting fragments which she sings, certainly do not produce their effect, as Sir Joshua Reynolds imagined, by marking an "utter insensibility to her own misfortunes[589:B];" for they manifestly refer both to her father's death, and to her own unfortunate attachment, their influence over the heart being felt as the consequence of this indirect allusion.

Of the first three fragments, which appear to be parts of the same ballad, and, as the king observes, are a "conceit upon her father," the two prior have been beautifully incorporated by Dr. Percy in his _Friar of Orders Gray_:

"How should I your true love know,
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon."

"He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone."[589:C]

The first line of the third,

"White his shroud as the mountain snow,"

has been parodied by Chatterton, in the Mynstrelle's Songe in Œlla,

"Whyte his rode as the sommer snowe."

The subsequent songs, beginning

"Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day,"

and

"By Gis, and by Saint Charity,"[590:A]

were, there is little doubt, suggested to the fair sufferer's mind, by an obscure and distant association with the issue of her unfortunate amour, a connection, however, which is soon dissipated by reverting to the fate of her father, the scene closing with two fragments exquisitely adapted to unfold the workings of her mind on this melancholy event.

"They bore him barefac'd on the bier—
And in his grave rain'd many a tear."[590:B]

"And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,
Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again, &c."[590:C]

passages of which Dr. Percy has admirably availed himself in his _Friar of Orders Gray_, and to which the Mynstrelle's song in Œlla is indebted for its pathetic burden:

"_Mie love ys dedde,
Gonne to his deathe-bedde_,
Alle underre the wyllowe tree."[590:D]

The vacillation of poor Ophelia amid her heavy afflictions is rendered strikingly apparent by the insertion of two ballad lines between the stanzas last quoted, which again manifestly allude to her lover:—

"_Oph._ You must sing, _Down a-down, an you call him adown-a_.
O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that
stole his master's daughter.——"[591:A]

"For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy."[591:B]

We may remark that the expression, "_O, how the wheel becomes it!_" is meant to imply the popularity of the song, that

"The _spinsters_ and the knitters in the sun
Do use to _chaunt_ it,"

a custom which, as exercised in the winter, is beautifully exemplified by Mr. Malone, in a passage from Sir Thomas Overbury's characters, 1614:—"She makes her hands hard with labour, and her head soft with pittie; and when winter evenings fall early, sitting at her merry _wheele_, she sings a defiance to the giddy wheele of fortune."[591:C]

In the church-yard scene of this play, one of the grave-diggers, after amusing himself and his companion by queries, which, as Mr. Steevens observes, "perhaps composed the chief festivity of our ancestors by an evening fire[591:D];" sings three stanzas, though somewhat corrupted either by design or accident, of "A dyttie or sonet made by the lord Vaus, in the time of the noble quene Marye, representing the image of death."[591:E] This poem was originally published in Tottel's edition of Surrey and Wyat, and the Poems of Uncertain Authors; the earliest poetical miscellany in our language, and first printed in 1557 under the title of "Songes and sonettes by the right honourable Henry Howard, late earl of Surrey, and other." To this very popular collection, which underwent many editions during the sixteenth century[592:A], Slender alludes, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, where he exclaims, "I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of _Songs and Sonnets_ here[592:B];" from which we may conclude that this was the fashionable manual for lovers in the age of Elizabeth. Lord Vaux's lines have been reprinted by Dr. Percy, who remarks on the apparent corruptions of Shakspeare's transcript, that they were "perhaps so designed by the poet himself, the better to suit the character of an illiterate clown."[592:C]

No fragment of our minstrel poetry has been introduced by Shakspeare with greater beauty and effect, than the melancholy ditty which he represents Desdemona as singing, under a presentiment of her approaching fate:

"_Des._ My mother had a maid call'd—Barbara;
She was in love; and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,
And did forsake her: she had a song of—willow,
An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
And she died singing it: That song to-night,
Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
But to go hang my head all at one side,
And sing it like poor Barbara."[592:D]

Of this song of willow, ushered in with such a powerful appeal to the heart, Dr. Percy has given us a copy in his Reliques[592:E]; it is in two parts, and proves that the poet has not only materially altered the few lines which he quotes, but has changed also the sex of its subject; for in the original in the Pepys collection, it is entitled "A Lover's Complaint, being forsaken of _his_ Love."

From the ample, we may almost say complete, enumeration, which we have now given, of the fragments selected by Shakspeare from the minstrel-poetry of his country, together with the accompanying remarks, may be formed, not only a tolerably accurate estimate of the most popular songs of this period, but a clear idea of the use to which Shakspeare has applied them.[593:A] They will be found, in fact, with scarcely any exceptions, either elucidatory of the business of the scene, illustrative of the progress of the passions, or powerfully assistant in developing the features and the shades of character.

It will appear also, from the view which has been taken of romantic literature, as comprehending all the branches noticed in this chapter, that its influence, in the age of our poet, was great and universally diffused; that he was himself, perhaps more than any other individual, if we except Spenser, addicted to its study and partial to its fictions; and that, if we take into consideration, what will hereafter be mentioned, the bases of his various plays, he may be affirmed to have availed himself of its stores often with great skill, and with as much frequency as the nature of the province which he cultivated, would admit.

FOOTNOTES:

[520:A] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. Laneham's Letter, p. 34-36.

[520:B] Dibdin's Bibliographical Romance, p. 349, 350, and note.

[521:A] Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, reprint of 1811, p. 33, 69.

[522:A] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 283. col. 2.

[522:B] Anatomy of Melancholy, folio. 8th edit. p. 84. col. 2. p. 177. col. 2.

[522:C] See Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. i. Introduction, p. 38.; and the Abbé de la Rue's Dissertations on the Anglo-Norman poets, Archæologia, vol. xii. and xiii.

[523:A] See Toland's Life of Milton, p. 35.

[524:A] The title of this first edition, as gathered from the prologue and colophon, has been thus given by Mr. Dibdin:—

"A BOOK OF THE NOBLE HYSTORYES OF KYNGE ARTHUR, and of certeyn of his knyghtes. Whiche book was reduced in to englyshe by syr Thomas Malory knyght _and by me devyded into XXI bookes chapytred and enprynted, and fynysshed in th abbey Westmestre the last day of Juyl the yere of our lord M.CCCC._ lxxxv. FOLIO."—Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. i. p. 241.

[525:A] Ascham's Works, Bennet's edit. p. 254.

[525:B] Vide p. 268.

[525:C] Toland's Life of Milton, p. 35.

[526:A] Burnet's Specimens of English Prose Writers, vol. i. p. 287-289.

[527:A] Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 81, 82.

[528:A] Book III. chap. 176.

[529:A] Vide Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, and Todd's edition of Spenser's Works, vol. ii. p. lxviii.

[529:B] Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2670, and Todd's Spenser, vol. ii. p. lxvii. note _k_.

[529:C] Todd's Spenser, vol. ii. p. lxvii. note.

[530:A] Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 217.

[530:B] Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 230. note.

[531:A] Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. iii. p. 4. et seq.

[532:A] Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 223.

[533:A] This short summary has been drawn up from the larger account detailed by Mr. Ellis in his Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. iii. p. 1-22.

[533:B] Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. iii. p. 17.

[534:A] The common version of Pilpay was published in 1747. It should be remarked, however, that a translation from the Italian of Doni, containing many of the fables of Pilpay, and professedly rendered by Doni, from the Directorium Humanæ Vitæ, vel Parabole Antiquorum Sapientum, was given in English by Sir Thomas North, 4to. 1570, and 1601, under the title of the "Moral Philosophy of Doni." From this source, therefore, Shakspeare and his contemporaries may have been partially acquainted with this collection of tales.

[534:B] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 424.

[535:A] Two of these tales, chap. 31. and 32. are immediately taken from _The Seven Wise Masters_, and may be found also in the Arabian Nights and Pilpay's Fables.

[536:A] "_Edric_ was the name of _Enoch_ among the Arabians, to whom they attribute many fabulous compositions. Herbelot, in V.—Lydgate's _Chorle_ and _The Bird_ is taken from the _Clericalis Disciplina_."

[536:B] MSS. Harl. 3861, and in many other libraries. It occurs in old French verse, MSS. Digb. 86. membrar. "_Le Romaune de Peres Aunfour coment il aprist et chastia son fils belement._"

[536:C] "See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. iv. p. 325. seq."

[537:A] Milton's "Il Penseroso." Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. Dissertation on the Gesta Romanorum, p. v. vi.

[537:B] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 422.

[537:C] History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 18. vol. iii. p. lxxxiii.

[537:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vii. p. 229.

[537:E] According to his own assertion, in the MS. catalogue of his works in the British Museum, to which he has given the title of _Eupolemia_. See Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 423. 425.

[538:A] Ascham's Schole Master, Bennet's edit. 4to. p. 255.

[539:A] A writer, whose work has just fallen into my hands, closes a long and accurate analysis of the Italian Tales, with the following just observations:—"The larger works of fiction," he remarks, "resemble those productions of a country which are consumed within itself, while tales, like the more delicate and precious articles of traffic, which are exported from their native soil, have gladdened and delighted every land. They are the ingredients from which Shakspeare, and other enchanters of his day, have distilled those magical drops which tend so much to sweeten the lot of humanity, by occasionally withdrawing the mind, from the cold and naked realities of life, to visionary scenes and visionary bliss."—Dunlop's History of Fiction, vol. ii. p. 409.

[539:B] "In The London Chaunticleres, 1659, this work, among others," remarks Mr. Steevens, "is cried for sale by a ballad-man; The Seven Wise Men of Gotham; a _Hundred merry Tales_; Scoggin's Jests," &c.—See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 42.

[540:A] History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 475.

[540:B] The English Courtier and the Cuntrey Gentleman, sig. H. 4. See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 43. note.

[540:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 42. Act ii. sc. 1.

[540:D] Illustrations, vol. i. p. 166.

[541:A] Illustrations, vol. i. p. 168.

[542:A] The Roxburghe copy of the Palace of Pleasure produced the sum of 42_l._

[542:B] History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 478.

[543:A] History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 473.

[543:B] Ritson thinks that Whetstone's Heptameron was republished in 1593, under the title of "Aurelia." In the Roxburghe Library, No. 6392, this romance is termed "The Paragon of Pleasure, or the Christmas Pleasures of Queene Aurelia," 4to. 1593.

[544:A] Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 487.

[544:B] Of the Italian tales it may be useful to enumerate the best and most celebrated of those which were written during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; as, in some shape or other, most of them became familiar to English readers before the death of Shakspeare.

1. _Cento Novelle Antike._ The earliest collection of Italian novels.

2. _Boccacio il Decamerone._ Venet. Valdarfer. 1471. This, which is the first edition, was purchased at the Roxburghe sale, by the Marquis of Blandford, for 2260_l._!

3. _Novelle di Sacchetti._ Sacchetti died in 1408.

4. _Masuccio_, _Il Novellino_, nel quale si contengono _cinquanta_ Novelle.—Best edition that of 1484, folio.

5. _Sabadino_, _Porretane_, dove si narra Novelle _settanta una_.

6. _Sansovino_, _Cento Novelle_ scelte da più nobili Scrittori.

7. _Giovanni Fiorentino_, _il Pecorone_, nel quale si contengono _cinquanta_ Novelle antiche. First and best edition, 1559.

8. _Novelle del Bandello_, 3 vols. 4to. 1554.

9. _Straparola_, _le piacevoli Notte_. 2 vols. 1557.

10. _Giraldi Cinthio_, _gli Hecatomithi_, (Cento Novelle.) 4 vols.

11. _Erizzo_, _le Sei Giornate_, (trenta cinque Novelle) Edizione prim. 4to. Ven. 1567.

12. Parabosco, i Diporti, o varo Novelle, Venet. 1558.

13. _Granucci_, _la piacivol Notte, et lieto Giorno_ (undici Novelle), Venet. 1574.

14. Novelle di Ascanio de Mori. 4to. 1585.

15. Malespini, Ducento Novelle, 4to.

[544:C] Vide Gascoigne's Tale of Ferdinando Jeronimi, from the Italian riding tales of Bartello, in his "Weedes," and Turberville's "Tragical Tales, translated out of sundrie Italians," 1587.

[545:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vii. p. 221.

[545:B] Vide Aikin's General Biography, vol. vi. article Lobeira.

[545:C] "Amadis of Gaul," remarks Mr. Southey, "is among prose, what Orlando Furioso is among metrical Romances, not the oldest of its kind, but the best."—Preliminary Essay to his Translation, 4 vols. 1803.

"This" (Amadis de Gaul), says Mr. Burnet, "is perhaps one of the most beautiful books that ever was written."—Specimens of English Prose Writers, vol. i. p. 289. note.

[546:A] Jervis's Translation of Don Quixote, vol. i. chap. 6.

[546:B] Sir Philip Sidney's Works, fol. edit. of 1629. p. 551.

[546:C] This version, which was reprinted in 1618, is by Anthony Munday.

[547:A] Jervis's Don Quixote, vol. i. chap.

[548:A] The first edition of Palmerin D'Oliva, translated by Anthony Munday, was published by Charlewood in 1588. Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2665; and his version of Palmendos, was printed by J. C. for Simon Watersonne (1589), 4to. bl. l.

[548:B] In a letter from Mr. Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 1599, it is said, that "the Arcadia is now printed in Scotland, according to the best edition, which will make them good cheap, but is very hurtful to Ponsonbie, who held them at a very high rate: he must sell as others doe, or they will lye upon his hands."—Vide Zouch's Memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 361.

[549:A] A second edition of Underdowne's Heliodorus was printed in 1587, and a third in 1605.

[549:B] A complete edition of Sannazaro's Arcadia appeared in 1505.

[550:A] Task, book iv.

[551:A] Among the bulky romances of this prolific lady, who died June 2. 1701, aged 94, it may be worth while to enumerate a few, merely as instances of her uncommon fecundity, viz. Artamene, ou le Grand Cyrus, 10 vols. 8vo.; Clelie, 10 vols. 8vo.; Almahide ou l'Esclave Reine, 8 vols. 8vo.; Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa, 4 vols. 8vo.

[551:B] Tom of All Trades, or the plaine Pathway to Preferment, &c. By Thomas Powell. Lond. 1631. 4to. pp. 47, 48.—Vide Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 425, and 426.

[551:C] Fuller's Worthies, 1662, part ii. p. 75.

[551:D] See his Verses on Saccharissa, the Lady Dorothy Sidney.

[552:A] In his Essay on Poetry.

[552:B] In his Description of Arcadia in Greece, where he tells us that the Arcadia, "besides its excellent language, rare contrivances, and delectable stories, hath in it all the strains of poesy, comprehendeth the universal art of speaking, and to them who can discern and will observe, affordeth notable rules for demeanor both private and public."

[552:C] Park's edition of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 221. An excellent defence of the Arcadia against the decision of Lord Orford, who terms it "a tedious, lamentable, pedantic, pastoral romance," may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p. 57. See also Sir Egerton Brydges's edition of Phillip's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 134, et seq., and Zouch's Memoirs of Sidney, p. 155.

[552:D] Aikin's Annual Review, vol. iv. p. 547.

[553:A] Pennant's London, p. 103.

[554:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvi. p. 84., and Malone's note.

[554:B] Ibid. vol. xii. p. 213. Act v. sc. 1.

[554:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 472.

[556:A] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 56., the year 1573.

[556:B] See Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 2. Henry IV. Part I. act ii. sc. 3. Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 1. Love's Labour's Lost, act v. sc. 2. Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.

[556:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 124, 125. Act iii. sc. 4.

[557:A] Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. pp. liv. 285. 295.

[558:A] _Wrest_—the key with which the harp is tuned.

[559:A] Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.

[559:B] Kind Harts Dreame, sig. B. 2.

[560:A] Arte of English Poesie, reprint, p. 69.

[560:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 273. col. 1. Book iv. sat. 1.

[560:C] Malone's Supplement to Shakspeare's Plays, vol. i. p. 521.

[561:A] See Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës, vol. i. Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy, p. ccxxiv.

[562:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 144. Act iii. sc. 2.

[562:B] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 465.

[562:C] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 125.

[563:A] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 126, 127.

[563:B] _Positions concerning the training up of Children_, London, 1581 and 1587. 4to. chap. xxvi.

[564:A] The original, the _Histoire de Huon de Bordeaux_, was ushered into the world at the Fair of Troyes in Champagne, in the first century of printing.

[564:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 51. Act ii. sc. 1.

[564:C] Huon of Bourdeaux, chap. xvii.

[564:D] Chap. xlvi. edit. of 1601. Lord Berners's translation underwent three editions. The original has had the honour of giving birth to the Chef d'Oeuvre of _Wieland_—"the child of his genius," observe the Monthly Reviewers, "in moments of its purest converse with the all-beauteous forms of ideal excellence;—the darling of his fancy, born in the sweetest of her excursions amid the ambrosial bowers of fairy-land;—the OBERON,—an epic poem, popular beyond example, yet as dear to the philosopher as to the multitude; which, during the author's lifetime, has attained in its native country all the honours of a sacred book; and to the evolution of the beauties of which, a Professor in a distinguished university has repeatedly consecrated an entire course of patronized lectures." New Series, vol. xxiii. p. 576.

The beauties of Oberon are now accessible to the mere English scholar, through the medium of Mr. Sotheby's version, which, though strictly faithful to the German, has the spirit and harmony of an original poem.

[565:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xiii. p. 249. Act ii. sc. 3.

[565:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 189. col. 1.—Polyolbion, canto ii.

[566:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 475. Act iii. sc. 4.

[566:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii. p. xxiii.

[566:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 363. Act i. sc. 1.

[566:D] Ibid. p. 367. King John, act i. sc. 1.

[567:A] Vide Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. ii. p. 201., and Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. i.

[567:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 502. Act v. sc. 1.

[567:C] Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romancees, vol. iii. p. 344.

[567:D] Vide Garrick Collection in Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 400.

[567:E] Todd's Spenser, vol. v. p. 313. 367.

[567:F] This poet is conjectured to have thrown some ridicule on the Squire of Low Degree, in his rhyme of _Sir Thopas_; but Ritson remarks, that this romance "is never mentioned by any one writer before the sixteenth century; nor is it known to be extant in manuscript; and, in fact, the Museum copy is the onely one that exists in print." Romancees, vol. iii. p. 345.

[568:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 326. note.

[569:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 5., and Walton's Hist. of Poetry, vol. iii. p. 294.

[569:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 254.

[569:C] See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 201, 202., and Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 342.

[569:D] See _Shakspeare Illustrated_, by Mrs. Lennox, 3 vols. 12mo. 1754.

[570:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 191. Act i. sc. 2.

[570:B] Jarvis's Don Quixote, vol. i. part i. chap. 1. Sharpe's edit. p. 3.

[570:C] Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2661.

[571:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 173. Act iii. sc. 1.

[571:B] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 148.

[571:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.—Mr. Douce observes, that the "oldest (edition) we know of is that of 1649, printed by Robert Ibbitson. In 1586, _The old book of Valentine and Orson_ was licensed to T. Purfoot." P. 240.

[572:A] British Bibliographer, No. V. p. 469.

[572:B] Ibid. p. 470.

[572:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.

[573:A] Arcadia, book i. p. 29. 7th edit.

[573:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 87. Act iii. sc. 2.

[573:C] Book ii. pp. 153, 154. edit. of 1629.

[574:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 305. 307, 308. Act ii. sc. 4.

[576:A] British Bibliographer, No. X. pp. 559, 560. This fragment, says Mr. Haslewood, "is in black letter, one sheet, and bears signature C."

[576:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. Act ii. sc. 1.

[576:C] Jacke of Dover, his quest of Inquirie, or his privy Search for the veriest Foole in England, 4to.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. note 4.

[577:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 64. and note by Steevens.

[577:B] Ibid. p. 130. Act iii. sc. 3.

[577:C] Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 219. col. 1. Act iii. sc. 7.

[577:D] Custom of the Country, act i. sc. 1. The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act v.

[577:E] Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632. p. 576.

[577:F] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 131. note 8.

[577:G] Ibid. p. 110.

[578:A] England's Helicon, 3d edit., reprint of 1812. p. 214, 215.

[578:B] Compleat Angler, Bagster's edit. 1808. pp. 147, 148.

[578:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 293. Act ii. sc. 3.

[579:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 294-297. 299.

[579:B] Ibid. v. p. 296. note by Steevens.

[579:C] Vol. i. p. 220.

[579:D] Reliques, vol. i. p. 220.

[580:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 194.

[580:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 166.

[580:C] Ibid. p. 166. note.

[580:D] Ibid. vol. vii. p. 51. Act iii. sc. 1.

[580:E] Ibid. p. 82. Act iv. sc. 1.

[580:F] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 119. Act iii. sc. 3.

[580:G] Ibid. p. 144. Act iv. sc. 1.

[581:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 238-240. Act i. sc. 3.

[581:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 131. Act iv. sc. 1.—There appears to be allusions to two catches in this scene. Grumio exclaims "_fire, fire; cast on no water_," which Judge Blackstone traces to the following old catch in three parts:—

"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.
Fire, fire;——Fire, fire;
Cast on some more water."

Grumio a little afterwards calls out, "Why, _Jack boy! ho boy!_" the beginning, as Sir John Hawkins asserts, of an old round in three parts, of which he has given us the musical notes.

[581:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 244.

[581:D] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 131. note.

[581:E] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 132. Act iv. sc. 1.

[582:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 259.

[582:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 328. Act iv. sc. 2.

[582:C] Ibid. p. 346. Act iv. sc. 3.—We shall add, in this note, in order to complete the catalogue, all the fragments of ancient minstrelsy that have escaped our enumeration in the text.

In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, lamenting the approaching departure of Cressida, expresses his sorrow by quoting an old song beginning—

"O heart, o heart, o heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking."
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 393.

Hamlet, bantering Polonius, quotes part of the first stanza of a ballad entitled, _Jephtha, Judge of Israel_. This has been published by Dr. Percy, retrieved, as he relates, from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her father.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 142.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 189.

It is probable that Hamlet, who appears to have been well versed in ballad-lore, has again introduced two morsels from this source, in his dialogue with Horatio on the conduct of the king at the play: they strongly mark his triumph in the success of his plan for unmasking the crimes of his uncle:—

"Why let the strucken deer go weep," &c.

* * * * *

"For thou dost know, O Damon dear," &c.
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. pp. 212. 214.

Iago in the drunken scene with Cassio, in the view of adding to his exhilaration, sings a portion of two songs; the first apparently a chorus,—

"And let me the canakin, clink, clink," &c.

the second,

"King Stephen was a worthy peer,"

from a humorous ballad of Scotch origin, preserved by Percy in his Reliques, vol. i. p. 204.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 334. 336.

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, in the following passage, alludes to two ballads of considerable notoriety:—

"Young _Adam_ Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When king _Cophetua_ lov'd the _beggar maid_;"

the first line referring to the celebrated ballad of _Adam Bell_, _Clym of the Clough_, and _William of Cloudesly_, and the second to _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_; popular pieces which are again the objects of allusion in _Much Ado about Nothing_, act i.; and in the Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 77.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. pp. 154. 198.

The same play will afford us three or four additional references; Mercutio, ridiculing the old Nurse, gives us a ludicrous fragment commencing "_An old hare hoar_," vol. xx. p. 116.; and Peter, after calling for two songs called _Heart's ease_, and _My heart is full of woe_, attempts to puzzle the musicians by asking for an explanation of the epithet _silver_ in the first stanza of _A Song to the Lute in Musicke_, written by Richard Edwards, in the "Paradise of Daintie Devises," and commencing,

"Where griping griefs the hart would wounde."
Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 220. 222.
and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 196.

[584:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 353-355. Act iv. sc. 3.

[584:B] Ibid. p. 403. Act v. sc. 2.

[585:A] Reliques, vol. i. p. 214.

[585:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 78.

[585:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 232. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:A] _Dear_ is here to be remembered in its double sense.—Farmer.

[586:B] _My wife's as all_, that is, as all women are.—Steevens.

[586:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 232-236. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:D] Ibid. p. 237.

[586:E] Ibid. p. 241.

[586:F] This play was first printed in the year 1613.

[587:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 366, note.

[588:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 463, and 490, note. This finely descriptive line, Dr. Percy has interwoven in his ballad of _The Friar of Orders Gray_.

[588:B] Reed's Shakspeare vol. xvii. p. 472. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:C] Ibid. p. 478. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:D] Ibid. p. 484. Act iii. sc. 6.

[588:E] Ibid. p. 485, note by Malone.

[589:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 486.

[589:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 278. note.

[589:C] Ibid. p. 278-280. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 281, 282. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 292. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:C] Ibid. p. 299. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:D] Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and others. Cambridge edition, 1794, p. 70.

[591:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 293.

[591:B] Ibid. p. 298.

[591:C] Ibid. p. 294. note.

[591:D] Ibid. p. 322, note 4.

[591:E] Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 45.

[592:A] Namely in 1565, 1567, 1569, 1574, 1585, 1587, &c.

[592:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 27.

[592:C] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 186.

[592:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 472. Act iv. sc. 3.

[592:E] Vol. i. p. 208.

[593:A] To form a complete enumeration of the songs of the Elizabethan era, it would be necessary not only to consult _all_ the dramatic writers of this age, but to acquire a perfect series of the very numerous _Collections of Madrigals_ which were published during the same period.