In regard to the poems themselves, as they originally appeared in Barnfield's "Encomion of Lady Pecunia," 1598, as they were 'republished in "The Passionate Pilgrim " in 1599, excluded from Barnfield's "Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money," 1605, and reprinted in "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1612, we are to bear in mind that they were of such a character, and of so much excellence, that a writer like Barnfield would have been glad to own them, if he could justly have established his claim. He could not do so, and he therefore, as we apprehend, quietly relinquished them, in favour of the poet to whom he knew they belonged. We have thus no difficulty in restoring to Shakespeare the pieces to which it now seems he is entitled, although in our former edition we doubted his right, on the ground of previous appropriation by Barnfield. But, besides these productions, there still remain, in both impressions of "The Passionate Pilgrim," several short poems which, at all events, appear there under peculiar circumstances. Two sonnets with which the little volume opens are contained (with variations, on which account we print them again) in Thorpe's edition of "Shakespeare's Sonnets," 1609: three other pieces (also with changes) are found in "Love's Labour's Lost," which had been printed the year before "The Passionate Pilgrim :"-another, and its "answer," notoriously belong to Marlowe and Raleigh; a sonnet, with some slight differences, had been printed as his own in 1596, by a person of the name of Griffin; while one production appeared in "England's Helicon" in 1600, under the signature of Ignoto. The various circumstances attending each poem, wherever any remark seemed required, are stated in our notes, and it is not necessary therefore to enter farther into the question here. It ought to be mentioned, that although the signatures at the bottom of the pages of "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, are continued throughout, after the poem beginning, "Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east!" we meet with a new and dateless title-page, which runs thus :-" Sonnets to sundry Notes of Musicke. At London Printed for W. Iaggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard." Hence we may infer, that all the productions inserted after this division Iaggard, and are to be solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre, at the Signe of the Hand and starre. 1598." 4to. The title-page of the second edition enters into more particulars: it is, "Lady Pecunia, or The praise of Money. Also a Combat betwixt Conscience and Couetousnesse. Togither with The complaint of Poetry, for the death of Liberality. Newly corrected and inlarged by Richard Barnfield, Graduate in Oxford.-Printed by W. I. and are to bee sold by Iohn Hodgets dwelling in Paules Church-yard a little beneath Paules Schoole. 1605." 4to. had been set by popular composers: that some of them had received this distinction, evidence has descended to our day: and we refer particularly to the lyric, "My flocks feed not " (p. 686), and to the well-known lines, "Live with me and be my love (p. 690), the air to which seems to have been so common, that it was employed by Deloney as a ballad-tune: see his "Strange Histories," 1607, p. 28 of the reprint by the Percy Society. One object with W. Jaggard, when he republished "The Passionate Pilgrim" in 1612, with unwarrantable additions by Heywood, was probably to swell the bulk of it; and so much had he felt this want in 1599, that, excepting the three last leaves, all the rest is printed on one side of the paper only, a peculiarity we do not recollect to belong to any other work of the time: by the insertion of Heywood's translations from Ovid, this course was rendered unnecessary in 1612, and although the volume is still of small bulk, it was not so insignificant in its appearance as it had been in 1599 *. "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, concludes with a piece of moral satire, "Whilst as fickle fortune smil'd," &c., and we have followed it by a poem found only in a publication by Robert Chester, dated 1601. Malone preceded "The Phoenix and the Turtle," by the song, "Take, oh! take those lips away:" this we have not thought it necessary to repeat, because we have given the whole of it, exactly in the same words, in "Measure for Measure," Act iv. sc. 1. The first verse only is found in Shakespeare, and the second, which is much inferior, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bloody Brother." It may be doubted, therefore, whether Shakespeare wrote it, or whether, like Beaumont and Fletcher, he only introduced part of it into his play, as a popular song of the time. 4 It is as small a poetical volume as we remember to have seen, excepting a copy of George Peele's "Tale of Troy," which was reprinted in 1604, of the size of an inch and a half high by an inch broad. It contains some curious variations from the text of the first edition in 1589. 4to. 5 It is called "Love's Martyr, or Rosalin's Complaint." Of the author or editor nothing is known; but he is not to be confounded with Charles Chester, called Carlo Buffone in Ben Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour," and respecting whom see Nash's "Pierce Penniless," 1592 (Shakespeare Society's Reprint, pp. 38. 99), and Thoms's "Anecdotes and Traditions" (printed for the Camden Society), p. 56. Charles Chester is several times mentioned by name in "Skialetheia," (a collection of Epigrams and Satires, by E. Guilpin, printed in 1598,) as well as in "Ulysses upon Ajax," 1596. THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. I. WHEN my love swears' that she is made of truth Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, II. Two loves I have of comfort and despair, 1 When my love swears] This sonnet is substantially the same as Sonnet 138 in the 4to. published by Thorpe in 1609. There are, however, verbal differences, and as it was printed ten years before the collection of "Shakespeare's Sonnets," we give it here from the earliest copy; and by referring to p. 651, the reader will be able to compare the two. 2 Two loves I have] This sonnet is also included in the collection of 1609 (Sonnet 144), but with some variations, which the reader may easily ascertain by comparison: see p. 653. To win me soon to hell, my female evil For being both to me, both to each friend, The truth I shall not know, but live in doubt, III. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye3, IV. Sweet Cytherea, sitting by a brook, With young Adonis, lovely, fresh and green, Did court the lad with many a lovely look, Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen. She told him stories to delight his ear; She show'd him favours to allure his eye; 3 Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,] This sonnet is found in "Love's Labour's Lost" (Vol. ii. p. 136), but with some slight variances: that play was published in 1598, the year preceding the appearance of the first edition of "The Passionate Pilgrim ;" but, perhaps, W. Jaggard employed some MS. copy. to delight his EAR;] The editions of 1599 and 1612 both read ears, evidently an error. To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there: But whether unripe years did want conceit, Then, fell she on her back, fair queen, and toward : V. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Which (not to anger bent) is music and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, oh! do not love that wrong, VI. Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn, And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade, When Cytherea, all in love forlorn, A longing tarriance for Adonis made, Under an osier growing by a brook, A brook, where Adon us'd to cool his spleen: 5 her FIGUR'D proffer,] We may suspect, notwithstanding the concurrence of the two ancient editions in our text, that the true reading was "sugar'd proffer " the long & having been, as in other places, mistaken for the letter f. Sugar'd was an epithet not in uncommon use, and Meres in 1598 talks of Shakespeare's "sugar'd sonnets." • If love make me forsworn,] This poem is read by Sir Nathaniel in "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 132. It is not necessary here to point out the verbal or other changes, as the reader will see them by comparison. |