112 ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY.

Ver. 208, sic. MS., none that can, P. C. Ver. 212, to, P. C. Ver. 222, i. e. 120 yards. Ver. 243, sic. MS., out met, P. C. i

II.

The Aged Cover Renounceth Love.

THE grave-digger's song in Hamlet, act v., | My muse doth not delight

is taken from three stanzas of the following poem, though greatly altered and disguised, as the same were corrrupted by the balladsingers of Shakspeare's time: or perhaps so designed by the poet himself, the better to

suit the character of an illiterate clown. The

original is preserved among Surrey's Poems, and is attributed to Lord Vaux, by George Gascoigne, who tells us, it "was thought by some to be made upon his death-bed;" a popular error which he laughs at. (See his Epist, to Yong Gent. prefixed to his Posies, 1575, 4to.) It is also ascribed to Lord Vaux in a manuscript copy preserved in the British Museum.* This lord was remarkable for his skill in drawing feigned manners, &c., for so I understand an ancient writer. "The Lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the facilitie of his meetre, and the aptnesse of his descriptions such as he taketh upon him to make, namely in sundry of his songs, wherein he showeth the counterfait action very lively and pleasantly." Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 51. See another song by this poet in Series the Second, No. VIII.

I LOTH that I did love

In youth that I thought swete,
As time requires: for my behove
Me thinkes they are not mete.

My lustes they do me leave,
My fansies all are fled;

And tract of time begins to weave
Gray heares upon my hed.

For Age with steling steps

Hath clawde me with his crowch, And lusty Youthe' away he leapes, As there had been none such.

Me, as she did before:

My hand and pen are not in plight,
As they have bene of yore.

For Reason me denies,

All' youthly idle rime;
And day by day, to me she cries,
Leave off these toyes in tyme.

The wrinkles in my brow,

The furrowes in my face
Say, Limping age will 'lodge' him now,
Where youth must geve him place.

The harbenger of death,

To me I se him ride,

The cough, the cold, the gasping breath,
Doth bid me to provide

A pikeax and a spade,

And eke a shrowding shete,
A house of clay for to be made
For such a guest most mete.

Me thinkes I heare the clarke,

Ver. 6, be, P. C. [printed copy in 1557.] V. 10, Crowch perhaps should be clouch, clutch, grasp. Ver. 11, Life away she, P. C.

*Harl. MSS. num. 1703, 25. The readings gathered from that copy are distinguished here by inverted commas. The text is printed from the "Songs," &c., of the Earl of Surrey and others, 1557, 4to.

Whose badge I long did weare:
To them I yeld the wanton cup,
That better may it beare.

40

V. 18, This, P. C. Ver. 23, So Ed. 1583; 'tis hedge in Ed. 1557, hath caught him, MS. V. 30, wyndynge-sheete, MS. V. 34, bell, MS. V. 35, wofull. P. C. V. 38, did, P. C. V. 39, clene shal be, P. C. V. 40, not, P. C.

*Alluding perhaps to Eccles. xii. 3.

Edit. 1793, vol. xv. p. 133.

HAVE you not heard these many years ago,
Jeptha was judge of Israel?

IN Shakspeare's Hamlet, act ii., the hero | like it was.' The first row of the pious chanof the play takes occasion to banter Polonius son will shew you more.” with some scraps of an old ballad, which has never appeared yet in any collection: for which reason, as it is but short, it will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader; who will also be diverted with the pleasant absurdities of the composition. It was retrieved from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory, as she had formerly heard it sung by her father. I am indebted for it to the friendship of Mr. Steevens.

"Ham. Why, 'One faire daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.'

"Polon. Still on my daughter. "Ham. Am not I i' th' right, old Jeptha? "Polon. If you call me Jeptha, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love passing well. "Ham. Nay, that follows not.

"Polon. What follows then, my lord? "Ham. Why, 'As by lot, God wot:' and then you know, 'It came to passe, As most

V. 45, bare-hedde, MS., and some, P. CC. V. 48, Which, P. C., That MS., What is conject.

He had one only daughter and no mo,'
The which he loved passing well:
And, as by lott,

God wot,

It so came to pass,

As Gods will was,

5

That great wars there should be,
And none should be chosen chief but he. 10

That should meet with him then,
Off his house, when he should return agen

For joy that her father is come so nigh. 30

V. 56, wast, P. C.

In his "Twelfth Night," Shakspeare introduces the clown singing part of the two first stanzas of the following song; which has been recovered from an ancient MS. of Dr. Harrington's at Bath, preserved among the many literary treasures transmitted to the ingenious and worthy possessor by a long line of most respectable ancestors. Of these only a small part hath been printed in the "Nuga Antiquæ," 3 vols. 12mo. ; a work which the public impatiently wishes to see

continued.

The song is thus given by Shakspeare, act iv. sc. 2. (Malone's edit. iv. 93.)

My lady is unkind perdy-
Alas, why is she so?"

But this ingenious emendation is now superseded by the proper readings of the old song itself, which is here printed from what appears the most ancient of Dr. Harrington's poetical MSS., and which has, therefore, been marked No. I. (scil. p. 68). That volume seems to have been written in the reign of King Henry VIII., and as it contains many of the poems of Sir Thomas Wyat, hath had almost all the contents attributed to him by marginal directions written with an old but later hand, and not always rightly, as, I think,

Clown. "Hey Robin, jolly Robin." [sing- might be made appear by other good authori

ing.]

"Tell me how thy lady does."

Malrolio. Fool.

Clown. "My lady is unkind, perdy.
Malvolio. Fool.-

Clown. "Alas, why is she so?"
Malcolio. Fool, I say.-

Clown. "She loves another.".

ha?"

ties. Among the rest, this song is there attributed to Sir Thomas Wyat also; but the discerning reader will probably judge it to belong to a more obsolete writer.

In the old MS. to the 3d and 5th stanzas is prefixed this title, Responce, and to the 4th and 6th, Le Plaintif; but in the last instance -Who calls, so evidently wrong, that it was thought better to omit these titles, and to mark the changes of the dialogue by inverted commas. In

Dr. Farmer has conjectured that the song other respects the MS. is strictly followed, should begin thus:

"Hey, jolly Robin, tell to me
How does thy lady do?

except where noted in the margin-Yet the first stanza appears to be defective, and it should seem that a line is wanting, unless the four first words were lengthened in the tune.