Dr. Harrington's, at Bath, preserved among the many literary treasures transmitted to the ingenious and worthy possessor by a long line of most respectable ancestors. Of these, only a small part hath been printed in the Nuge Antique, 3 vols. 12mo.; a work which the public impatiently wishes to see continued. The song is thus given by Shakspeare, act. iv. sc. 2, (Malone's edit. iv. 93.) Clown. "Hey Robin, jolly Robin, [singing.] Tell me how thy lady does. Malvolio. Fool. Clown. My lady is unkind perdy. Mal. Fool. Clown. Alas, why is she so? Mal. Fool, I say.— Clown, She loves another. Who calls, ha?" Dr. Farmer has conjectured that the song should begin thus: Hey, jolly Robin, tell to me How does thy lady do? My lady is unkind perdy, But this emendation is now superseded by the proper readings of the old song itself, which is here printed from what appears the most ancient of Dr. Harrington's poetical MSS., and which has, therefore, been marked No. I. (scil. p. 68.) That volume seems to have been written in the reign of King Henry VIII., and as it contains many of the poems of Sir Thomas Wyat, hath had almost all the contents attributed to him by marginal directions, written with an old but later hand, and not always rightly, as, I think, might be made appear by other good authorities. Among the rest, this song is there attributed to Sir Thomas Wyat also; but the discerning reader will probably judge it to belong to a more obsolete writer. In the old MS. to the third and fifth stanzas is prefixed this title, Responce, and to the fourth and sixth, Le Plain tif: but in the last instance so evidently wrong, that it was thought better to omit these titles, and to mark the changes of the dialogue by inverted commas. In other respects the MS. is strictly followed, except where noted in the margin. Yet the first stanza appears to be defective, and it should seem that a line is wanting, unless the four first words were lengthened in the tune. Alack! why is she so? "She loveth an other better than me; And yet she will say no." I fynde no such doublenes; I fynde women true: My lady loveth me dowtles, And will change for no newe. "Thou art happy while that doeth last; But I say, as I fynde, That women's love is but a blast, And torneth with the wynde." Suche folkes can take no harme by love, That can abide their torn; Ver. 4, shall. MS. 5 10 15 But I alas can no way prove In love, but lake and morne." But if thou wilt avoyde thy harme, At others fieres thy selfe to warme, 20 V. A Song to the Lute in Musicke. This sonnet (which is ascribed to Richard Edwards* in the "Paradise of Daintie Devises," fo. 31, b.) is by Shakspeare made the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5, where he introduces Peter putting this question to the Musicians: Peter. " Why 'Silver Sound?' why Musické with her silver sound?' what say you, Simon Catling? 1st. Musician. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. Pet. Pretty! what say you, Hugh Rebecke? 2nd. Mus. I say, silver sound, because Musicians sound for silver. Pet. Pretty too! what say you, James Sound-post. 3rd. 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." Edit. 1793, vol. xiv. p. 529. 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 painful editors and expositors of ancient authors. * See Wood's Athen., Tanner's Biblioth., and Hawkins' Hist. of Music. This copy is printed from an 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. WHERE gripinge grefes the hart would wounde, There musicke with her silver-sound With spede is wont to send redresse: In joye yt maks our mirthe abounde, prayse; The Gods by musicke have theire In seas, whom pyrats would destroy, 5 10 15 A dolphin saved from death most sharpe O heavenly gyft, that rules the mynd, Even as the sterne dothe rule the shippe! 20 O musicke, whom the gods assinde To comforte manne, whom cares would nippe! Since thow both man and beste doest move, What beste ys he, wyll the disprove? VI. King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid, Is a story often alluded to by our old dramatic writers. Shakspeare in his Romeo and Juliet, act 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 Shakspeare 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. act v. sc. 3, Falstaff is introduced affectedly saying to Pistoll, "O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? These lines Dr. Warburton thinks were taken from an old bombast play of King Cophetua. No such play is, I believe, 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 men * See above, preface to Song i. Book ii. of this vol. p. 158. + Since this conjecture was first made, it has been discovered that shot so trim was the genuine reading. See Shakspeare, edit. 1793, xiv. 393. |