THE SECOND PART Of the Jews crueltie; setting foorth the mercifulnesse of the Judge towards the Marchant. To the tune of Blacke and Yellow. SOME offered for his hundred crownes Five hundred for to pay; And some a thousand, two or three, And at the last ten thousand crownes A pound of fleshe is my demand, Then sayd the judge, Yet, good my friend, To take the flesh from such a place, As yet you let him live: Do so, and lo! an hundred crownes To thee here will I give. No: no quoth he; no: judgement here: For this it shall be tride, For I will have my pound of fleshe From under his right side. It grieved all the companie His crueltie to see, For neither friend nor foe could helpe The bloudie Jew now ready is With whetted blade in hand,1 To spoyle the bloud of innocent, And as he was about to strike In him the deadly blow: Stay (quoth the judge) thy crueltie; 1 The passage in Shakspeare bears so strong a resemblance to this, as to render it probable that the one suggested the other. See act iv. sc. 2. BASS. Why doest thou whet thy knife so earnestly? &c. Sith needs thou wilt thy forfeit have, See that thou shed no drop of bloud, For if thou doe, like murderer, For if thou take either more or lesse Gernutus now waxt franticke mad, Quoth he at last, Ten thousand crownes, And so I graunt to set him free. The judge doth answere make; At the last he doth demaund No, quoth the judge, doe as you list, Either take your pound of flesh, quoth he Or cancell me your bond. O cruell judge, then quoth the Jew, And so with griping1 grieved mind 'Then' all the people prays'd the Lord, That ever this heard tell. Good people, that doe heare this song, That many a wretch as ill as hee That seeketh nothing but the spoyle 1 "Griped." Ashmol. copy. And for to trap the innocent From whome the Lord deliver me, And every Christian too, And send to them like sentence eke That meaneth so to do. Since the first edition of this book was printed, the Editor hath had reason to believe that both Shakspeare and the author of this ballad are indebted for their story of the Jew (however they came by it) to an Italian novel, which was first printed at Milan in the year 1554, in a book entitled, "Il Pecorone, nel quale si contengono Cinquanta Novelle antiche," &c. republished at Florence about the year 1748, or 9. The author was Ser. Giovanni Fiorentino, who wrote in 1378; thirty years after the time in which the scene of Boccace's Decameron is laid. (Vid. Manni Istoria del Decamerone di Giov. Boccac. 4to. Fior. 1744.) That Shakspeare had his plot from the novel itself, is evident from his having some incidents from it, which are not found in the ballad : and I think it will also be found that he borrowed from the ballad some hints that were not suggested by the novel. (See above, pt. 2. ver. 25, &c. where, instead of that spirited description of "the whetted blade,' &c. the prose narrative coldly says, "The Jew had prepared a razor, &c." See also some other passages in the same piece.) This however is spoken with diffidence, as I have at present before me only the abridgment of the novel which Mr. Johnson has given us at the end of his Commentary on Shakspeare's play. The translation of the Italian story at large is not easy to be met with, having I believe never been published, though it was printed some years ago with this title, "The Novel, from which the Merchant of Venice written by Shakspeare is taken, translated from the Italian. To which is added a translation of a Novel from the Decamerone of Boccacio." London, printed for M. Cooper, 1755, 8vo. XII. THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE This beautiful sonnet is quoted in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," act iii. sc. I. and hath been usually ascribed (together with the Reply) to Shakspeare himself by the modern editors of his smaller poems. A copy of this madrigal, containing only four stanzas (the 4th and 6th being wanting), accompanied with the first stanza of the answer, being printed in "The passionate Pilgrime, and Sonnets to sundry Notes of Musicke, by Mr. William Shakspeare." Lond. printed for W. Jaggard, 1599. Thus was this sonnet, &c. published as Shakspeare's in his lifetime. And yet there is good reason to believe that (not Shakspeare, but) Christopher Marlow wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh the "Nymph's Reply:" for so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his " Compleat Angler," under the character of "that smooth song, which was made by Kit. Marlow, now at least fifty years ago; and . an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days . . oldfashioned poetry, but choicely good.' It also passed for Marlow's in the opinion of his contemporaries; for in the old Poetical Miscellany, intitled "England's Helicon," it is printed with the name of Chr. Marlow subjoined to it; and the Reply is signed Ignoto, which is known to have been a signature of Sir Walter Raleigh. With the same signature Ignoto, in that collection, is an imitation of Marlow's beginning thus: Come live with me, and be my dear, And we will revel all the year, In plains and groves, &c. Upon the whole I am inclined to attribute them to Marlow, and Raleigh; notwithstanding the authority of Shakspeare's Book of Sonnets. For it is well known that as he took no care of his own compositions, so was he utterly regardless what spurious things were fathered upon him. "Sir John Oldcastle," "The London Prodigal,' and "The Yorkshire Tragedy," were printed with his name at full length in the title-pages, while he was living, which yet were afterwards rejected by his first editors Heminge and Condell, who were his intimate friends (as he mentions both in his will), and therefore no doubt had good authority for setting them aside." The following sonnet appears to have been (as it deserved) a great favourite with our earlier poets: for, besides the imitation above mentioned, another is to be found among Donne's Poems, intitled "The Bait," beginning thus : Come live with me and be my love, As for Chr. Marlow, who was in high repute for his dramatic writings, he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the year 1593. See A. Wood, i. 138. COME live with me, and be my love, There will I make thee beds of roses A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Imbrodered all with leaves of mirtle; 1 First printed in the year 1653, but probably written some time before. 2 Since the above was written, Mr. Malone, with his usual discernment, hath rejected the stanzas in question from the other sonnets, &c. of Shakspeare, in his correct edition of the "Passionate Pilgrim," &c. See his Shaksp. vol. x. p. 340. A gown made of the finest wool, A belt of straw, and ivie buds, The shepherd swains shall dance and sing THE NYMPH'S REPLY If that the World and Love were young, But time drives flocks from field to fold, The flowers do fade, and wanton fields Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds, Thy coral clasps, and amber studs ; But could youth last, and love still breed, VOL. I. |