30

338

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,

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

40

45

50

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:

55

M2

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.

30

"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. I say, 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]

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!

10

5

15

35

20

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?

MS

[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."

5

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.

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.

25

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.

Read that once in Affrica
A princely wight did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine:

From natures lawes he did decline,
For sure he was not of my mind,
He cared not for women-kinde,

But did them all disdaine.

But, marke, what hapned on a day.

10

As he out of his window lay,

10

20

15

Mi

He saw a beggar all in gray,

The which did cause his paine.

The blinded boy, that shootes so trim,

From heaven downe did hie;

He drew a dart and shot at him,

In place where he did lye:

[Which 168] Which soone did pierse him to the quicke,
And when he felt the arrow pricke,
Which in his tender heart did sticke,
He looketh as he would dye.
What sudden chance is this, quoth he,
That I to love must subject be,
Which never thereto would agree,
But still did it defie?

Then from the window he did come,
And laid him on his bed,

A thousand heapes of care did runne
Within his troubled head:

For now he meanes to crave her love,
And now he seekes which way to proove
How he his fancie might remoove,

And not this beggar wed.

But Cupid had him so in snare,

That this poore begger must prepare
A salve to cure him of his care,
Or els he would be dead.

And, as he musing thus did lye,
He thought for to devise

How he might have her companye,
That so did 'maze his eyes.

35

35

30

30

40

35

30

339

25

5

In thee, quoth he, doth rest my life,

For surely thou shalt be my wife;

[Or 169] Or else this hand with bloody knife

The Gods shall sure suffice.

45 Then from his bed he soon arose,

50

55

60

70

75

80

And to his pallace gate he goes;
Full little then this begger knowes
When she the king espies.

The gods preserve your majesty
The beggers all gan cry:
Vouchsafe to give your charity
Our childrens food to buy.

The king to them his pursse did cast,
And they to part it made great haste,
This silly woman was the last

That after them did hye.

The king he cal'd her back againe,
And unto her he gave his chaine,
And said, With us you shal remaine
Till such time as we dye:

For thou, quoth he, shalt be my wife,
And honoured for my queene;
With thee I meane to lead my life,
As shortly shall be seene:

Our wedding shall appointed be,
And every thing in its degree:
Come on, quoth he, and follow me,
Thou shalt go shift thee cleane.

[What 170] What is thy name, faire maid, quoth he?
Penelophon, O king, quoth she:

With that she made a lowe courtsèy;
A trim one as I weene.

Thus hand in hand along they walke
Unto the king's pallàce:

The king with courteous comly talke
This begger doth imbrace:
The begger blusheth scarlet red,
And straight againe as pale as lead,
But not a word at all she said,

She was in such amaze.