FOOTNOTES:
[866] Warton, ubi supra.
[867] [This book has been frequently reprinted.]
[868] Compared with the Ashmole Copy.
[869] [870] [hoard or heap.] [871] Ver. 32. Her Cow, &c. seems to have suggested to Shakespeare Shylock's argument for usury taken from Jacob's management of Laban's sheep, act i. to which Antonio replies, "Was this inserted to make interest good? [872] [sneering.] [873] [refuse.] [874] The passage in Shakespeare 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. [875] [destroy.] [876] [belongs.] [877] [knows.] [878] Ver. 61. griped, Ashmol. copy. This beautiful sonnet is quoted in the Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 1, and hath been usually ascribed (together with the Reply) to Shakespeare 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 Shakespeare, Lond. printed for W. Jaggard, 1599." Thus was this sonnet, &c. published as Shakespeare's in his lifetime. And yet there is good reason to believe that (not Shakespeare, 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,[879] 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.... Old-fashioned 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 subscribed 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, Upon the whole I am inclined to attribute them to Marlow, and Raleigh; notwithstanding the authority of Shakespeare'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.[880] 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. [These exquisite poems by Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh at once became popular favourites, and were often reprinted. The earliest appearance of the first was in Marlowe's Jew of Malta. An imperfect copy was printed by W. Jaggard with the Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, and the first stanza of the Reply was then added to it. In the following year both poems were correctly printed in England's Helicon, the first being signed "Chr. Marlow" and the second "Ignoto." When Walton introduced the poems into his Angler he attributed the Reply to Raleigh, and printed an additional stanza to each as follows:— Passionate Shepherd (after verse 20). "Thy silver dishes for thy meat Nymph's Reply (after verse 20). "What should we talk of dainties then In the Roxburghe Collection of Ballads (i. 205) is a street ballad in which these two songs are united and entitled A most excellent ditty of the Lover's promises to his beloved, with the Lady's prudent answer to her Love. The verses referred to above as added by Walton are here printed, but they take the place of verses 17 to 20 of each song respectively. Mr. Chappell and Dr. Rimbault have both drawn attention to the proofs of the popularity of Marlowe's song to be found in out of the way places. In Choice, Chance, and Change, or Conceits in their Colours (1606), Tidero being invited to live with his friend, replies, "Why, how now? do you take me for a woman, that you come upon me with a ballad of Come live with me and be my love?" In The World's Folly, 1609, there is the following passage: "But there sat he, hanging his head, lifting up the eyes, and with a deep sigh singing the ballad of Come live with me and be my love, to the tune of Adew my deere." Nicholas Breton refers to it in 1637 as "the old song," but Walton considered it fresh enough to insert in his Angler in 1653, although Marlowe had then been dead sixty years.] Come live with me, and be my love, There will we sit upon the rocks,5 There will I make thee beds of roses A gown made of the finest wool, A belt of straw, and ivie buds, The shepherd swains shall dance and sing If that the World and Love were young, But time drives flocks from field to fold,5 The flowers do fade, and wanton fields Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds, But could youth last, and love still breed,
Or are your gold and silver Ewes and rams?
Shy. I cannot tell, I make it breed as fast."XII.
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.
And we will revel all the year,
In plains and groves, &c."
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, &c."
As precious as the gods do eat
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me."
Of better meat than's fit for men?
These are but vain, that's only good
Which God hath blest and sent for food."
And we wil all the pleasures prove
That hils and vallies, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
With a thousand fragrant posies,10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Imbrodered all with leaves of mirtle;
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold;15
With buckles of the purest gold;
With coral clasps, and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Then live with me, and be my love.20
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.The Nymph's Reply.
And truth in every shepherd's toung,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb,
And all complain of cares to come.
To wayward winter reckoning yield:10
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall.
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,15
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs;
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee, and be thy love.20
Had joyes no date, nor age no need;
Then those delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.