Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made,

Beasts did leap and birds did sing,
Trees did grow and plants did spring;
Every thing did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone:
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn,
And there sung the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity :
'Fie, fie, fie,' now would she cry;
'Tereu, Tereu!' by and by;
That to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain;
For her griefs so lively shown
Made me think upon mine own.

Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain!
None takes pity on thy pain:

Senseless trees they cannot hear thee;
Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee:
King Pandion he is dead;

All thy friends are lapp'd in lead;

All thy fellow birds do sing,

Careless of thy sorrowing.
Even so, poor bird, like thee,
None alive will pity me.
Whilst as fickle Fortune smiled,
Thou and I were both beguiled.

10 up-till] against England's Helicon. 14 Tereu, Tereu] Sewell (ed. 2). Teru, Teru edd. 1599, 1612.

17 lively] lovely ed. 1640.

22 beasts] England's Helicon. Beares edd. 1599, 1612 and Barnfield.

23 Pandion] Paudion ed. 1640.
27, 28 Even...me.] England's Helicon.
Omitted in edd. 1599, 1612 and by
Barnfield.

29-58 Whilst...foe.] Omitted in Eng-
land's Helicon.

Pity but he were a king;'
If he be addict to vice,
Quickly him they will entice;
If to women he be bent,
They have at commandment:
But if Fortune once do frown,
Then farewell his great renown;
They that fawn'd on him before
Use his company no more.
He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep;
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.

42 Pity...king;'] Marked as a quota-
tion first by Malone.
were] was Sewell.

43-46 If he...commandment:] Omitted
in Pepysian MS.

44 him they] ed. 1612. him, they ed.

40

45

50

55

46 have at] edd. 1599, 1612. have him at Sewell.

commandment] commaundement ed. 1599. commandement ed. 1612. 56 doth] ed. 1640. doeth edd. 1599, 1612. does Collier,

NOTES.

NOTE I.

VIII. 1. This sonnet is printed by Barnfield among the 'Poems: in diuers humors' with the following heading: 'To his friend Maister R. L. In praise of Musique and Poetrie.' There are no variations except in spelling and punctuation. Number [xx] occurs in the same collection.

XI. 9-14.

Griffin's Fidessa:

NOTE II.

Instead of these six lines, the following are printed in

'But he a wayward boy refusde her offer,

And ran away, the beautious Queene neglecting :
Shewing both folly to abuse her proffer,

And all his sex of cowardise detecting.

Oh that I had my mistris at that bay,

To kisse and clippe me till I ranne away!'

NOTE III.

XIII. A second copy of this poem 'from a corrected Manuscript' appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, xxx. 39. The readings are the same as those of the other copy quoted in the notes, except that in line 1 it has 'a fleeting' for 'and fleeting,' and in line 8 'fading' for 'faded.'

NOTE IV.

XIX. 43-46. Malone, quoting from a MS. copy in the possession of Mr Lysons, reads in his edition of 1790:

'Think, women love to match with men,

And not to live so like a saint:

Here is no heaven; they holy then

Begin, when age doth them attaint.'

We have printed the text of the old copies.

Dyce (ed. 2) reads with Malone in the third line, and in the rest follows the old copies.

In Halliwell's Folio Shakespeare, vol. 16, a facsimile is given of a MS. copy, which is apparently the same as that quoted by Malone. The readings from this are referred to in the notes as 'MS.'

NOTE V.

[xx.] 12. Here the edition of 1640 inserts from England's Helicon the following lines:

'A gowne made of the finest wooll,

Which from our pretty Lambes we pull,

Faire lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold.'

After the next stanza the same edition gives from the same source the following:

'The Shepheards Swaines shall dance and sing,

For thy delight each May morning;

If these delights thy minde may move,
Then live with me and be my love.'

In the different versions of this song found in England's Helicon, and Walton's Complete Angler, edd. 1 and 2, there are many minor variations recorded by Mr Dyce in his edition of Marlowe, Vol. III. pp. 299, 300. It probably, as Walton says, was written by Marlowe. In England's Helicon, Love's answer is called 'The Nimphs reply to the Sheepheard,' and is in six quatrains, the whole of which are given in the edition of 1640.

THE PHOENIX AND TURTLE.

LET the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,

To this troop come thou not near!

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender makest

With the breath thou givest and takest,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

1 loudest] lowest ed. 1640.

2 On the sole] Sole on the Anon. apud Malone conj.

11 feather'd] Gildon. feathered ed. 1640. feath'red Chester.

VOL. IX.

14 can] ken Ewing.

15 death-divining] death-deuining Ches

ter. No hyphen in ed. 1640. 17 treble-dated] Hyphened by Sewell.

27