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The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd.

IF that the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
But time drives flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb,

And all complain of cares to come:
The Howers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs ;
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee, and be thy love.
What should we talk of dainties then,
Of better meat than's fit for men?
These are but vain: that's only good
Which God hath bless'd, and sent for food.
But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, and age no need;
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

These

These two poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakspere, are, by writers nearer that time, disposed of, one to Marlow, the other to Raleigh. They are read in different copies with great variations.

JOHNSON.

In England's Helicon, a collection of love-verses printed in Shakspere's life-time, viz. in 1600, the first of them is given to Marlow, the second to a person unknown: and Dr. Piercy, in the first volume of his. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, observes, that there is good reason to believe that (not Shakspere, but) Christopher Marlow wrote the song, and sir Walter Raleigh the Nymph's Reply; for so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his Compleat Angler, under the character of "That smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow, now at least fifty years ago; and an Answer to it, which was made by sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days . . . . . Old fashioned poetry, but. choicely good." See the Reliques, &c. vol. I. p. 218. 221, third edit.

In Shakspere's sonnets, printed by Jaggard, 1599, this poem is attributed to Shakspere. Mr. Malone, however, observes, that, "What seems to ascertain it to be Marlowe's, is, that one of the lines is found (and not as a quotation) in a play of his-The Jew of Malta; which, though, not printed till 1633, must have been written before 1593, as he died in that year. ' "Thou in those groves, by Dis above,

"Shalt live with me, and be my love." STEEVENS.

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The tune to which the former was sung, I have lately discovered in a MS. as old as Shakspere's time, and it is as follows:

Come live with me, and be my

love, and we will all the plea-sures prove,

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23. When as I sat in Babylon] This line is from

the old version of the 137th psalm:

"When we did sit in Babylon,

"The rivers round about,

"Then in remembrance for Sion,

"The tears for grief burst out.”

The word rivers, in the second line, may be supposed to have been brought to sir Hugh's thoughts by

the

the line of Marlowe's Madrigal, that he has just repeated; and in his fright he blends the sacred and prophane song together. The old quarto has-—————— “There liv'd a man in Babylon,”- -which was the first line of an old song, mentioned in Twelfth Night: but the other line is more in character. MALONE.

84. for missing your meetings and appointments.] These words, which are not in the folio, were recovered from the early quarto, by Mr. Pope.

91. Peace, I say, Gallia and Gaul, French and

Welch, Possibly Gallia and Guallia. -]

Thus, in K. Henry IV. Gualtier for Walter.

MALONE.

FARMER.

STEEVENS.

The quarto, 1602, confirms Dr. Farmer's conjecture. It reads Peace I say, Gawle and Gawlia, French and Welch, &c.

110.

MALONE.

-make-a de sot of us?] Sot in French,

signifies a fool.

114.

-scald, scurvy,]

MALONE. -Scall was an old word

of reproach, as scab was afterwards. Chaucer impre cates on his scrivener:

"Under thy longe lockes mayest thou have the

scalle."

JOHNSON. Scall, as Dr. Johnson interprets it, is a scab breaking out in the hair, and approaching nearly to the leprosy. It is used by other writers of Shakspere's time. You will find what was to be done by persons afflicted with it by looking into Leviticus, ch. xiii.

30, 31, &c.

WHALLEY.'

G iij

159.

159.

-so seeming mistress Page,-] seeming is

specious. So, in K. Lear,

"If aught within that little seeming substance.”

STEEVENS.

162. shall cry aim.] i. e. shall encourage. The phrase is taken from archery. See a note in K. John, act ii. STEEVENS. 174. We have linger'd] They have not linger'd very long. The match was proposed by sir Hugh but the day before. JOHNSON.

Shallow represents the affair as having been long in hand, that he may better excuse himself and Slender from accepting Ford's invitation on the day when it was to be concluded. STEEVENS.

184. he writes verses, he speaks holy-day,—] i. e. in an high-flown, fustian style. It was called a holy-day style, from the old custom of acting their farces of the mysteries and moralities, which were turgid and bombast, on holy-days. So, in Much ado about Nothing,

"I cannot woo in festival terms.” And again, in The Merchant of Venice,

"Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising

Part I.

him."

WARBURTON.

he speaks holy-day,] So, in K. Henry IV.

"With many holiday and lady terms."

186.

STEEVENS.

-'tis in his buttons;] Alluding to an an

cient custom among the country fellows, of trying

whether

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