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 foone 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.

What fudden chance is this, quoth he,
That I to love must fubject be,

Which never thereto would agree,

But ftill did it defie?

15

20

And not this beggar wed.

But Cupid had him so in fnare,

That this poor begger must prepare

A falve to cure him of his care,

Or els he would be dead.

35

And,

And, as he mufing thus did lye,

He thought for to devise

How he might have her companye,

That so did 'maze his eyes.

40

In thee, quoth he, doth reft my life;

For furely thou fhalt be my wife,

Or elfe this hand with bloody knife

The Gods fhall fure fuffice.

Then from his bed he soon arose,

45

And to his pallace gate he goes;

Full little then this begger knowes
When the the king espies.

The gods preferve your majesty,

The beggers all gan cry:

50

Vouchfafe to give your charity

For thou, quoth he, fhalt be my wife,

And honoured for my queene;
With thee I meane to lead my life,

As fhortly shall be seene:

Our wedding fhall appointed be,
And every thing in its degree:

Come on, quoth he, and follow me,

Thou shalt

go fhift thee cleane.

What is thy name, faire maid? quoth he.

Penelophon*, O king, quoth the:

With that she made a lowe courtfèy;

The begger blusheth scarlet red,
And ftraight againe as pale as lead,
But not a word at all she said,

She was in fuch amaze.

At laft fhe fpake with trembling voyce,

And faid, O king, I doe rejoyce

That you wil take me for

your choyce,

80

*Shakespeare (who alludes to this ballad in his “ I ove's Labour loft," Act IV. Sc. 1.) gives the Beggar's name Zenelophon, according to all the old editions: but this feems to be a corruption; for Penelophon, in the text, founds more like the name of a Woman.---The ftory of the King and the Beggar is alfo alluded to in K. Rich. II. A&t V. Sc. 3.

And when the wedding d y was come,

The king commanded strait
The noblemen both all and fome

Upon the queene to wait.
And she behaved herself that day,
As if he had never walkt the way;
She had forgot her gowne of gray,

Which he did weare of late.
The proverbe old is come to paffe,
The priest, when he begins his maffe,
Forgets that ever clerke he was;

He knowth not his eftate.

Here you may read, Cophetua,
Though long time fancie-fed,
Compelled by the blinded boy
The begger for to wed:

He that did lovers lookes difdaine,

To do the fame was glad and faine,

Or elfe he would himfelfe have flaine,

In ftorie, as we read.

Difdaine no whit, O lady deere,

But pitty now thy fervant heere,

100

105

Least that it hap to thee this yeare,

As to that king it did.

Ver. go. i. e. tramped the freets.

Ver. 105. Here the Port adtreffes himself to his miflress.

And

And thus they led a quiet life

During their princely raigne ;
And in a tombe were buried both,
As writers fheweth plaine.
The lords they tooke it grievously,
The ladies tooke it heavily,
The commons cryed pitiously,

Their death to them was paine,

Their fame did found so paffingly,

That it did pierce the starry sky,
And throughout all the world did flye

To every princes realme *.

Ver. 112. Sheweth was anciently the plur. numb.

* An ingenious friend thinks the trvo laft ftanzas should change place.

VII.

TAKE THY OLD CLOAK ABOUT THEE,

This

-is fuppofed to have been originally a Scotch Ballad. The reader here has an ancient copy in the English idiom, with an additional ftanza (the 2d.) never before printed. curiofity is preferved in the Editor's folio MS. but not without corruptions, which are here removed by the affiftance of the Scottish Edit. Shakespeare, in his OTHELLO, A. 2, has quoted one ftanza, with fome variations, which are here adopted: the old MS. readings of that ftanza are however given in the margin.