Again, in Much Ado, III, iv, 41f.:

Hero. Why, how now? do you speak in the sick tune? [vide post, p. 180, 'Sick, sick'.]

Beat. I am out of all other tune, methinks.

Marg. Clap's into 'Light o' love'; that goes without a burden: do sing it, and I'll dance it.

Beat. Ye light o' love, with your heels! etc.

you

From this passage 'it appears that Light o' Love was strictly a ballet, 'to be sung and danced' (Chappell, old. ed., 222). The music will be found in Chappell, I, 82. The words of the original song are still undiscovered.

Regarding 'MAD TOM' cf. ante, s. v. Ovid (pp. 24-25).

MONSIEUR MINGO.

In 2. Henry IV. (Act V, 111, 77-79) Silence sings:

Do me right,

And dub me knight:
Samingo.

This is from an old song, beginning: 'Monsieur Mingo for quaffing 'doth surpass', to be found in Nash's 'Summer's Last Will and Testament' (1592; pr. 1600-see Dodsley, VIII, 55, 59, 61). Nash gives 'Domingo' instead of Silence's 'Samingo'.

MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS,

a song in praise of contentment and humbleness, composed by 'E. Dier', seems to have been a favourite poem in the sixteenth century. It is in Percy's Reliques and in Arber's Anthologies. There is some slight reason to suppose that Shakespeare had it in view in 3. Henry VI., Act III, 1, 59f.:

Sec. Keeper: . . . thou talk'st as if thou wert a king.
K. Henry: Why, so I am, in mind; and that's enough.
Sec. Keep. But, if thou be a king, where is thy crown?
K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Sir Edward Dyer's poem' ought to be compared with this passage. Regarding the music, see Rimbault, ut sup., p. 16.

1 Set to music in 1588. (J. W. E.) The word 'slight' is J. W. E's. Anders, Shakespeare's books.

12

MY ROBIN IS TO THE GREENWOOD GONE;

or,

BONNY SWEET ROBIN.

One tune to this song is at any rate older than 1597. The latter 'of the two versions given in William Ballet's Lute Book (circa 1600) 'is headed "Robin Hood is to the greenwood gone"; it is possible, 'therefore, that the original ballad was a song of Robin Hood.' This title must be the first line of the song. Another title is 'Bonny sweet 'Robin'. 'Nothing more is known of the words, unless the line sung by Ophelia in Hamlet (IV, v, 187),—

"For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,"

'should be part of them, which, indeed, seems very probable.' (Chappell, I, 153.) "A ballad intituled A Dolefull adewe to the last Erle of "Darby. to the tune of 'Bonny sweete Robin'" was entered on the Stationers' Registers, 26 April, 1594. (Arber, Transcr. II, 647.)

O DEATH, ROCK ME ASLEEP.

"Then death rock me asleep' is quoted by Pistol in 2. Henry IV. (Act II, iv, 211). The song, 'attributed with great improbability to 'Anne Boleyn, and perhaps with as little likelihood to her brother 'Viscount Rochford' (Dyce) is very old. The first stanza of the words 'with the tune, is contained in a Manuscript of the latter part of 'Henry VIII.'s reign', (Chappell, 2nd ed., p. 238.) Compare, too, Chappell, 3rd ed., I, p. 111, and Halliwell, ed. of Shakesp., vol. X, p. 112.

O MISTRESS MINE

is the name of a tune printed in Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599, which book, being for instruments, does not contain words. Feste's 'love-song in Twelfth Night, II, 111, 40, exactly suits this air, reproduced by Chappell, I, 103, who remarks': 'As it [the tune] is to be found in print in 1599, it proves either that Shakespeare's Twelfth Night 'was written in or before that year, or that, in accordance with the 'then prevailing custom, O mistress mine was an old song, introduced 'into the play.' "The latter supposition is doubtless the true one,' says Dyce. Mr. Furness expresses his flat dissent from such a supposition, which may none the less be correct. A third alternative, however, still remains: Shakespeare may have remodelled an old song, or composed entirely new words for an older tune.

1 Chappell, 1855-9, I, 209.

O SWEET OLIVER.

This song, now lost, is quoted by Touchstone in As You Like

'It would seem that Touchstone is citing two distinct portions of the 'ballad' (Dyce)-or of two different ballads.-In the Stationers' Registers, Aug. 6. 1584 (Arber, II, 434), we find the following entry: Ric. Jones.-Receaved of him for his license to printe A Ballat of.

O swete Olyver Leave me not behind the[e] .... md.

(Comp. Furness, VIII, 190, and Malone, VI, 449-451, for more information. See also Chappell, I, 88-9.)

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE,

beginning,

COME LIVE WITH ME, AND BE MY LOVE,

'that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow', is quoted, or rather misquoted, by Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives (III, 1, 17-29). Compare Chappell, I, 123. The poem was first published, fragmentarily, in The Passionate Pilgrim in the year 1599, and in complete form in England's Helicon, 1600.

PEG-A RAMSEY.

Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey,

says Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, II, III, 81, referring to a well-known dance tune still preserved, and reprinted by Chappell (I, 248). It, together with Green Sleeves and other dance tunes, is mentioned by Nash in 'Have with you', etc., 1596 (Huth Libr. ed., III, 181). No earlier version of a 'Peggy Ramsey' ballad is known than the song in 'Wit and Mirth or Pills to purge Melancholy' (1707, 1714, vol. III, 219; or 1719, V, 139). Being amazingly indecorous, it has seldom been reprinted. [Burns made use of this or some other version for his 'Cauld is the e'enin blast'. See Cent. Ed., III, 203, 444.]

A PLEASANT NEW BALLAD OF TWO LOVERS,

To A PLEASANT NEW TUNE,

is the title of a song, beginning 'Complaine, my lute, complaine on 'him,' which has been handed down to us in a copy of the commence'ment of the seventeenth century.' The first stanza ends with the following line: 'Hey, hoe! my heart is full of woe! It is thought. that this song (reprinted by the old Shakesp. Soc.,-Papers, 1844, p. 13, and by the Ball. Soc. No. 9, Roxb. Bds., vol. II, p.305) is the very one Shakespeare quotes, in 'Romeo', IV, v, 107 (vide ante 'Heart's Ease', p. 175).

SICK, SICK.

This is the name of two old tunes printed by Chappell (I, 73-74), who remarks: In Much Ado about Nothing, [Act, III, iv, 41] Hero 'says, "Why, how now? do you speak in the sick tune?" and Beatrice "answers, "I am out of all other tune, methinks." An old 'ballad in a handwriting of about the last quarter of the sixteenth century, 'which may perhaps be the original to which these tunes belong' is printed, in part, by Chappell (ut sup.).

A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE;1

or,

IN COMMENDATION OF MUSICKE,

beginning: 'Where gripinge grefes the hart would wounde.' "This 'song, both words and music, is the production of Richard Edwardes' (Rimbault). The words were printed in The Paradise of Dainty Devises', which first appeared in 1576 and passed through 8 editions within 24 years. The first lines are quoted (but with several variations), and humorously commented on, by Peter in 'Romeo', IV, v, 128 seq. Reprints of the song are numerous. Percy and Rimbault give the song from MS. copies.

THERE WAS AN OLD FELLOW AT WALTHAM CROSS.

Speaking of the wildness of his youth Shallow says: "our watch"word was 'Hem boys!" (2. Henry IV., Act III, 11, 231). Staunton observed very pertinently that "With a hem, boys, hem, And a cup

The first title is that given in a 'MS. volume of old tunes, etc. which purports to be "Thomas Mulliner's Boke for ye Organ or Virginalls." Rimbault, Mus. Ill. of Percy's Rel., p. 7. The music will be found there on p. 49. The song is not given by Chappell.-In Commendation', etc. is the heading in "The Paradise'.

1

of old sack" is, apparently, the refrain of the above song. "This is "quoted as an old song in Brome's play, The Jovial Crew.... acted 1641. "It is also in the Antidote against Melancholy, 1661." (Chappell, II, 158, where also the air is given.)

WHERE IS THE LIFE THAT LATE I LED?

This song referred to by Petruchio (Shrew, IV, 1, 143)' and by Pistol (2. Henry IV., Act V, 11, 146) is no longer extant. But we know in what metre the poem was written, and what subject it dealt with, and when it was probably composed. First, there is a song to the tune of 'Where is the Life that late I led' in A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions (1578). This settles the metre question. Then we have a poem in a Handefull of pleasant delites (1584) entitled 'Dame Beauties replie to the Lover late at libertie: and now complaineth 'himselfe to be her captive, Intituled: Where is the life that late I 'led.' (Arber, Engl. Sch. Libr., III, 14.) This reply to the lost song allows us to form some idea as to the contents of the latter. The title just given and the general contents of the 'reply' harmonize with the title of what may be the original song: 'a newe ballet of one 'who myslykeng his lybertie soughte his owne bondage through his 'owne folly'. This is an entry on the Stationers' Registers dated 1565/6 (Arber, Transcr., I, 308.)

WHOOP, DO ME NO HARM, GOOD MAN.

This song is alluded to by Shakespeare in The Winters Tale, IV, IV, 199-201. In The Famous History of Friar Bacon' there is a ballad to the tune of "Oh doe me no harme good man." (Thoms, Early Prose Rom., 1858, vol. I, p. 224.) 'A song [to this tune "Whoop, ""do mee", etc.] will be found in Fry's Ancient Poetry, but it would 'not be desirable for republication,' says Chappell (orig. ed., 208). Pourquoi pas? Its date is probably c. 1615. Ford, in Act III, sc. III, of "The Fancies chaste and noble" (pr. 1638) places the line "Whoop, "do me no harm, good woman" in the mouth of Secco.-The music (1610) is in Chappell (I, 96).

WILLOW, WILLOW,

is Desdemona's swan song (Oth. IV, II). Shakespeare, in making use

1 In An Antidote against Melancholy (1661) it is called a catch (=round). 2 "Where is the life that late I led? Where are those-Sit down, Kate, etc."

I am inclined to regard "Where are those" [pleasant days?] as the continuation of the song. ("No doubt", says J. W. E.)