Then both her hands they basely cutt off quite, My brother Marcus found her in the wood, 60 Staining the grassie ground with purple bloud, That trickled from her stumpes, and bloudlesse armes: Noe tongue at all she had to tell her harmes. But when I sawe her in that woefull case, When as I sawe she could not write nor speake, For with a staffe, without the helpe of hand, 65 70 75 I tore the milk-white hairs from off mine head, I curst the houre wherein I first was bred, 80 The moore delighting still in villainy Did say, to sett my sonnes from prison free I should unto the king my right hand give, The moore I caus'd to strike it off with speede, 85 But for my sonnes would willingly impart, But as my life did linger thus in paine, 90 Then past reliefe I upp and downe did goe, The empresse then, thinking that I was mad, 95 100 *If the ballad was written before the play, I should suppose this to be only a metaphorical expression, taken from that in the Psalms, They shoot out their arrows, even bitter words." Ps. lxiv. 3. I fed their foolish veines* a certaine space, I cut their throates, my daughter held the pan 105 Betwixt her stumpes, wherein the bloud it ran: And then I ground their bones to powder small, And made a paste for pyes streight therewithall. Then with their fleshe I made two mighty pyes, Myselfe bereav'd my daughter then of life, Then this revenge against the moore was found, Whereas he stood untill such time he starv'd. * 110 115 And soe God send all murderers may be serv'd. 120 i. e. encouraged them in their foolish humours, or fancies. XIV. Take those Lips Away. The first stanza of this little sonnet, which an eminent critic* justly admires for its extreme sweetness, is found in Shakspeare's Measure for Measure, act. iv. sc. 1. Both the stanzas are preserved in Beaum. and Fletcher's Bloody Brother, act v. sc. 2. Sewel and Gildon have printed it among Shakspeare's smaller poems, but they have done the same by twenty other pieces that were never writ by him; their book being a wretched heap of inaccuracies and mistakes. It is not found in Jaggard's old edition of Shakspeare's Passionate Pilgrime,† &c. TAKE, oh take those lips away, That so sweetlye were forsworne; But my kisses bring againe, Seales of love, but seal'd in vaine. Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe, Which thy frozen bosom beares, On whose tops the pinkes that growe, But first set my poor heart free, Bound in those icy chains by thee. * Dr. Warb. in his Shakspeare. 5 10 + Mr. Malone, in his improved edit. of Shakspeare's Sonnets, &c. hath substituted this instead of Marlow's Madrigal, printed above; for which he hath assigned reasons, which the reader may see in his vol. x. p. 340. XV. King Leir and his three Daughters. The reader has here an ancient ballad on the subject of King Lear, which (as a sensible female critic has well observed)* bears so exact an analogy to the argument of Shakspeare's play, that his having copied it could not be doubted, if it were certain that it was written before the tragedy. Here is found the hint of Lear's madness, which the old chronicles † do not mention, as also the extravagant cruelty exercised on him by his daughters: in the death of Lear they likewise very exactly coincide. The misfortune is, that there is nothing to assist us in ascertaining the date of the ballad but what little evidence arises from within; this the reader must weigh, and judge for himself. It may be proper to observe, that Shakspeare was not the first of our dramatic poets who fitted the story of LEIR to the stage. His first 4to. edition is dated 1608; but three years before that, had been printed a play entitled The true Chronicle History of Leir and his three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella, as it hath been divers and sundry times lately acted, 1605, 4to. This is a very poor and dull performance, but happily excited Shakspeare to undertake the subject, which he has given with very different incidents. It is remarkable, that neither the circumstances of Leir's madness; nor his retinue of a select number of knights; nor the affecting deaths of Cordelia and Leir, are found in that first dramatic piece: in all which Shakspeare concurs with this ballad. But to form a true judgment of Shakspeare's merit, the curious reader should cast his eye over that previous sketch: which he will find printed at the end of the * Mrs. Lennox. Shakspeare Illustrated, vol. iii. p. 302. + See Jeffery of Monmouth, Holingshed, &c., who relate Leir's history in many respects the same as the ballad. |