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THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM.

"The Passionate Pilgrime By W. Shakespeare. At London Printed for W. Laggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard. 1599." 16mo. 30 leaves.

The title-page first given to the edition of 1612 ran thus: "The Passionate Pilgrime. Or Certaine Amorous Sonnets, betweene Venus and Adonis, newly corrected and augmented. By W. Shakespere. The third Edition. Loue-Epistles, the first from answere backe againe to Paris. The title-page substituted for the above differs in no other respect but in the omission of "By W. Shakespere."

Where-vnto is newly added two Paris to Hellen, and Hellen's Printed by W. Iaggard. 1612."

INTRODUCTION.

IN the following pages we have reprinted "The Passionate Pilgrim," 16mo, 1599, as it came from the press of W. Jaggard, with the exception only of the orthography. Malone omitted several portions of it; some because they were substantially repetitions of poems contained elsewhere, and others because he thought they had been improperly assigned to Shakespeare: one piece, the last in the tract, is not inserted at all in Boswell's edition, although Malone reprinted it in 1780 ("Supplement," Vol. i. p. 178), and although no reason whatever is assigned for excluding it. "The Passionate Pilgrim" was reprinted by W. Jaggard in 1612, with additions, and purporting to be the third time it had come from the press; but if it ever appeared a second time, no such impression has descended to our day': these additions included two of Ovid's Epistles, which had been translated by Thomas Heywood, and had been published with his name in his "Troja Britannica," 1609. When, therefore, Heywood printed his next work in 1612 ("The Apology for Actors," Shakespeare Society's Reprint, pp. 62. 66), he exposed the wrong that had been done to him, and claimed the performances as his own. He seems also to have taken steps against W. Jaggard; for the latter cancelled the titlepage of "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1612, which contained the name of Shakespeare, and substituted another without any name, so far discrediting Shakespeare's right to any of the poems.contained in the collection. These several title-pages we have inserted in the usual place and manner, the first from the edition of 1599 among Capel's books in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the two last from Malone's copy of the edition of 1612 in the Bodleian. It fortunately has both title-pages, that which was first issued with Shakespeare's name, and that which was substituted at the instance, we may presume, of Heywood, which is without Shakespeare's name.

1 If it came out at all, it was probably published about 1603 or 1604, at which last date Nicholas Breton put forth an imitation of it, both in style and title, called "The Passionate Shepherd," of which the only known copy is in the possession of the editor. As it is thus connected with Shakespeare, and has never been even mentioned by bibliographers, we subjoin an exact copy of the original title-page:

"The Passionate Shepheard, or The Shepheardes Loue: set downe in Passions to his Shepheardesse Aglaia. With many excellent conceited Poems and pleasant Sonnets, fit for young heads to passe away idle houres.-London Imprinted by E. Allde for John Tappe, and are to bee solde at his Shop, at the Tower-Hill, neere the Bul-warke Gate. 1604." 4to.

VOL. VI.

X X

Since the publication of our former edition we have ascertained a fact of considerable importance, in relation to the question how far our great dramatist was really concerned in "The Passionate Pilgrim," and how far W. Jaggard was authorised in 1599 in attributing the poems it includes to him? Ten years ago we believed, that when, in 1605, Richard Barnfield put forth a second edition of his "Encomion of Lady Pecunia" under the title of "Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money," he had reprinted there all the pieces contained in his first edition of 1598. The fact is otherwise he did not reprint certain smaller pieces, but seems purposely to have excluded them; and the question is why he did so? The answer, we apprehend, is, that Barnfield excluded them in 1605, because they were not his, but were written by Shakespeare, and had been improperly inserted in 1598 in the "Encomion of Lady Pecunia." They are all to be found in the edition of 1598, and none of them to be found in the edition of 1605, while Barnfield carefully preserved, in both impressions, his tribute to four of the most distinguished poets of that day, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, and Shakespeare'.

Hence we may fairly infer that between 1598, when "The Encomion of Lady Pecunia" first came out, and 1605, when the second edition of it appeared, Shakespeare and Barnfield continued upon good terms; and that the former, who seems to have been strangely indifferent to his literary reputation, had taken no offence at the latter for printing as his poems to which he had no claim, and which must have been foisted in by the publisher, John Jaggard, in order to swell the volume, and without Barnfield's knowledge or concurrence. Moreover, it is to be remarked, that Barnfield's second edition, from which Shakespeare's contributions were purposely excluded, was not printed for the same stationer, but for John Hodgets; and it may not be too much to presume that Barnfield had actually quarrelled with John Jaggard for the trick he had played in the first edition3.

2 For the use of Barnfield's "Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money," 4to, 1605, the editor was obliged to the kindness of the late Earl of Ellesmere, who so liberally, upon all occasions, placed his library at the disposal of literary men. No other copy of this impression is known, and its value, in reference especially to the question of Shakespeare's share in "The Passionate Pilgrim," cannot be overestimated. Barnfield's poem, in praise of the four poets we have named, may be seen in "The Bridgewater Catalogue," 4to, 1837, p. 23.

3 It will not be out of place to add literal copies of the title-pages of the two editions of Barnfield's poems: the first runs as follows:

"The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, or The praise of Money.

quærenda pecunia primum est,

Virtus post nummos.-Horace.

By Richard Barnfeild, Graduate in Oxford.-London, Printed by G. S. for Iohn

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