V.

A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE.

This sonnet (which is ascribed to RICHARD EDWARDS*, in the Paradise of Daintie Devises," fo. 31, b.) is by Shakespeare made the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his ROMEO AND JULIET, act iv. sc. 5, where he introduces Peter putting this question to the Musicians.

"PETER.... why "Silver Sound"? why "Musicke "with her silver sound?" what say you, Simon Catling? "1. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet "sound.

"PET. Pretty! what say you, Hugh Rebecke ?

"2. Mus. I say, silver sound, because Musicians "sound for silver.

"PET. Pretty too! what say you, James Sound-post? "3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.

"PET.... I will say it for you: It is "Musicke with "her silver sound," because Musicians have no gold for "sounding."

Edit. 1793, vol. xiv. p. 529.

This ridicule is not so much levelled at the song itself (which for the time it was written is not inelegant) as at those forced and unnatural explanations often given by us painful editors and expositors of ancient authors.

This copy is printed from an old quarto MS. in the Cotton Library (Vesp. A. 25), entitled, "Divers things "of Hen. viij's time:" with some corrections from The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1596.

Concerning him see Wood's Athen. Oxon. and Tanner's Biblioth. also Sir John Hawkins's Hist. of Music, &c.

WHERE

WHERE gripinge grefes the hart would wounde,

And dolefulle dumps the mynde oppresse,
There musicke with her silver sound

With spede is wont to send redresse:
Of trobled niynds, in every sore,
Swete musicke hathe a salve in store.

In joye yt maks our mirthe abounde,
In woe yt cheres our hevy sprites;
Be-strawghted heads relyef hath founde,

By musickes pleasaunt swete delightes:
Our senses all, what shall I say more?
Are subjecte unto musicks lore.

The Gods by musicke have theire prayse;
The lyfe, the soul therein doth joye:
For, as the Romayne poet sayes,

In seas, whom pyrats would destroy,
A dolphin saved from death most sharpe
Arion playing on his harpe.

O heavenly gyft, that rules the mynd,

Even as the sterne dothe rule the shippe!

O musicke, whom the Gods assinde

To comforte manne, whom cares would nippe! Since thow both man and beste doest move,

What beste ys he, wyll the disprove?

5

10

15

20

VI. KING

-is a story often alluded to by our old Dramatic Writers. Shakespeare, in his ROMEO AND JULIET, act ii. sc. 1, makes Mercutio say,

"Her (Venus's) purblind son and heir, "Young Adam * Cupid, he that shot so true, "When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."

As the 13th line of the following ballad seems here particularly alluded to, it is not improbable that Shakespeare wrote it SHOT SO TRIM, which the players or printers, not perceiving the allusion, might alter to TRUE. The former, as being the more humorous expression, seems most likely to have come from the mouth of Mercutio +.

In the 2d Part of HEN. IV. act v, sc. 3, Falstaff is, introduced affectedly saying to Pistoll,

"O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
"Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof,"

These lines, Dr. Warburton thinks, were taken from an old bombast play of KING COPHETUA. No such play is, I believe, now to be found; but it does not therefore follow that it never existed. Many dramatic pieces are

*See above, Preface to Song i. Book ii. of this vol. p. 158, Since this conjecture first occurred, it has been discovered that SHOT SO TRIM was the genuine reading. See Shakesp. ed. 1793, xiv. $93.

referred

referred to by old writers *, which are not now extant, or even mentioned in any List. In the infancy of the stage, plays were often exhibited that were never printed.

It is probably in allusion to the same play that Ben Jonson says, in his Comedy of EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR, act iii. sc. 4,

"I have not the heart to devour thee, an' I might be "made as RICH as King Cophetua."

At least there is no mention of King Cophetua's RICHES in the present ballad, which is the oldest I have met with on the subject.

It is printed from Rich. Johnson's " Crown Garland of "Goulden Roses," 1612, 12mo. (where it is entitled simply A SONG OF A BEGGAR AND A KING:) corrected by another copy.

I

READ that once in Affrica
A princely wight did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine:

From natures lawes he did decline,
For sure he was not of my mind,
He cared not for women-kinde,

But did them all disdaine.
But, marke, what hapned on a day,
As he out of his window lay.

He saw a beggar all in gray,

The which did cause his paine.

10

* See Meres Wits Treas. f. 283. Arte of Eng. Poes. 1589,

p. 51, 111, 143, 169.

The

The blinded boy, that shootes so trim,

From heaven downe did hie;

He drew a dart and shot at him,

In place where he did lye:

Which spone did pierse him to the quicke,
And when he felt the arrow pricke,

Which in his tender heart did sticke,

He looketh as he would dye.

15

20

What sudden chance is this, quoth he,

That I to love must subject be,

Which never thereto would agree,

But still did it defie?

'Then from the window he did come, And laid him on his bed,

A thousand heapes of care did runne

Within his troubled head: