Say, Limping age will lodge' him now, The harbenger of death, To me I se him ride, The cough, the cold, the gasping breath, A pikeax and a spade, 25 And eke a shrowding shete, Me thinkes I hear the clarke, That knoles the carefull knell, 6 And bids me leave my wearye' warke, Ere nature me compell. My kepers knit the knot, That youth doth laugh to scorne, Of me that shall bee cleane' forgot, 6 As I had ne'er' been borne. Thus must I youth geve up, Whose badge I long did weare: 30 35 40 V. 23, sic ed. 1583; 'tis hedge in ed. 1557. hath caught him. MS. To them I yelde the wanton cup, That better may it beare. Lo here the bared skull; By whose bald signe I know, That stouping age away shall pull 'What' youthful yeres did sow. For Beautie with her band, These croked cares had wrought, From whence I first was brought. Have ye none other trust: 45 50 And ye that bide behinde, As ye of claye were cast by kinde, 55 V. 45, bare-hedde. MS. and some PCC. That. MS. What is conject. V. 48, Which. PC., V. 56, wast. PC. III. Jephthah Judge of Esrael. In Shakspeare's Hamlet, act ii. sc. 7, the hero of the Play takes occasion to banter Polonius with some scraps of an old ballad, which has never appeared yet in any collection for which reason, as it is but short, it will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader; who will also be diverted with the pleasant absurdities of the composition. VOL. I. K It was retrieved from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her father. I am indebted for it to the friendship of Mr. Steevens. It has been said that the original ballad, in black-letter, is among Anthony à Wood's Collection, in the Ashmolean Museum. But, upon application lately made, the volume which contained the song was missing, so that it can only now be given as in the former edition. The banter of Hamlet is as follows: "Hamlet. O Jephtha, Judge of Israel,' what a treasure hadst thou! Polonius. What a treasure had he, my lord? Ham. Why, 'One faire daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.' Pol. Still on my daughter. Ham. Am not I i' th' right, old Jephtha? Pol. If you call me Jephtha, my lord; I have a daughter, that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not. Pol. What follows then, my lord? Ham. Why, As by lot, God wot;' and then, you know, 'It came to passe, As most like it was.' chanson will shew you more." The first row of the pious Edit. 1793, vol. xv. p. 133. HAVE you not heard these many years ago, He had one only daughter and no mo, The which he loved passing well: And when he was appointed judge, And chieftain of the company, That should meet with him then, Off his house, when he shoud return agen. 20 It came to pass, the wars was o'er, And he returnd with victory; His dear and only daughter first of all Came to meet her father foremostly: She did play On tabret and pipe, Full many a stripe, With note so high, For joy that her father is come so nigh. But when he saw his daughter dear Coming on most foremostly, He wrung his hands, and tore his hair, Oh it's thou, said he, That have brought me 25 30 335 And troubled me so, That I know not what to do. For I have made a vow, he sed, The which must be replenished: 40 * "What thou hast spoke Do not revoke: What thou hast said, Be not affraid : 45 Altho' it be I; Keep promises to God on high. But, dear father, grant me one request, That I may go to the wilderness, Three months there with my friends to stay; 50 There to bewail my virginity; And let there be, Said she, Some two or three Young maids with me." So he sent her away, 55 For to mourn, for to mourn, till her dying day. IV. A Robyn, Jolly Robyn. In his Twelfth Night, Shakspeare introduces the Clown, singing part of the two first stanzas of the following song; which has been recovered from an ancient MS. of |