Being glad to feed on beggars food, That lately wore a crown. Which made him rend his milk-white locks, And tresses from his head, And so to England came with speed, To repossesse king Leir, And drive his daughters from their thrones By his Cordelia dear: Where she, true-hearted noble queen, Was in the battel slain : 165 Yet he good king, in his old days, He swooning fell upon her breast, From whence he never parted: But on her bosom left his life, That was so truly hearted. The lords and nobles when they saw The end of these events, 175 The other sisters unto death They doomed by consents; And being dead, their crowns they left Unto the next of kin : Thus have you seen the fall of pride, 180 XVI. Youth and Age, Is found in the little collection of Shakspeare's Sonnets, entitled the Passionate Pilgrime,* the greatest part of which seems to relate to the amours of Venus and Adonis, being little effusions of fancy, probably written while he was composing his larger Poem on that subject. The following seems intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan. In the Garland of Good-will it is reprinted, with the addition of four more such stanzas, but evidently written by a meaner pen. Youth is nimble, Age is lame: Age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and Age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee, Youth, I do adore thee; O, my love, my love is young: Age, I do defie thee; Oh sweet shepheard, hie thee, 15 For methinks thou stayst too long. 20 See Malone's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 325. XVII. The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's The following ballad is upon the same subject as the Induction to Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew: whether it may be thought to have suggested the hint to the dramatic poet, or is not rather of later date, the reader must determine. The story is told of Philip the Good,* Duke of Burgundy, and is thus related by an old English writer: "The said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugall, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnized in the deepe of winter; when as by reason of unseasonable weather he could neither hawke nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c., and such other domestick sports, or to see ladies dance; with some of his courtiers he would * By Ludov. Vives in Epist. and by Pont. Heuter. Rerum Burgund. b. iv. It so in the evening walke disguised all about the towne. fortuned, as he was walking late one night, he found a countrey fellow dead drunke, snorting on a bulke; he caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and attyring him after the court fashion, when he wakened, he and they were all ready to attend upon his excellency, and persuade him that he was some great duke. The poor fellow admiring how he came there, was served in state all day long; after supper he saw them dance, heard musicke, and all the rest of those courtlike pleasures; but late at night, when he was well tipled, and again faste asleepe, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the day before, as he did now, when he returned to himself; all the jest was to see how he looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poore man told his friends he had seen a vision, constantly believed it, would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the jest ended."-Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. ii. sec. 2, mem. 4. 2d. ed. 1624, fol. This ballad is given from a black letter copy in the Pepys Collection, which is entitled as above. "To the tune of " Fond boy." Now as fame does report a young duke keeps a court, The duke said to his men, William, Richard, and Ben, |