FOOTNOTES:
[152] [Ver. 3. to him came, MS.]
[153] [V. 4. as ere did weare, MS.]
[154] [V. 7. which was. MS.]
[155] V. 15. then not in MS.
[156] [V. 24. that lyes.]
[157] [V. 25. have a.]
[158] [V. 26. of your eye.]
[159] [V. 30. soe ffarr.]
[160] [V. 38. tell itt mee.]
[161] [V. 42. another inch above your eye. MS.]
[162] [Ver. 45. all this long. Shee not in MS.]
[163] [V. 46. shee ran.]
[164] [V. 49. but all this day.]
[165] [V. 50. shee ran.]
[166] [V. 52. as to say.]
[167] [V. 53. O not in MS.]
[168] [V. 55. but yours.]
[169] [V. 56. burst.]
[170] [V. 57. he sayes, sees.]
[171] [V. 59. Child Waters, shee said.]
[172] i.e. permit, suffer, &c.
[173] [V. 65. Ellen's clothes.]
[174] [V. 67. and Child Waters.]
[175] [V. 71. thou not in MS.]
[176] [Ver. 74. shine the yates. MS.]
[177] [V. 75. theres 24 ffayre ladyes.]
[178] [V. 76. the ffairest is my worldlye make.]
[179] [V. 78. Shineth.]
[180] [V. 79. there is 24 ffaire ladyes.]
[181] [V. 81, 85. I doe see.]
[182] [V. 82, 86. that of redd gold shineth the yates.]
[183] [V. 83, 87. God give good then.]
[184] [V. 84. worldlye make.]
[185] [V. 89. there were 24 ladyes.]
[186] [V. 90. were playing.]
[187] [V. 91. Ellen was the fairest ladye.]
[188] [V. 93. there were.]
[189] [V. 94. was playing.]
[190] [V. 95. shee was the ffairest ladye.]
[191] [V. 96. grasse.]
[192] [V. 98. and these.]
[193] [V. 100. eye. MS.]
[194] [Ver. 103. and ever I pray. MS.]
[195] [V. 104. let him goe.]
[196] [After V. 112 the two lines
then goe into the chamber with any ladye
that weares soe ... attyre
occur in the MS.]
[197] [V. 114. they waye.]
[198] [V. 116. hearken what I doe say.]
[199] [V. 117. and goe thy.]
[200] [V. 121. armes 2. MS.]
[201] i.e. defiling. See Warton's Observ. vol. ii. p. 158.
[202] [V. 127. and tooke her in her armes 2.]
[203] [V. 130. that I may creape in att.]
[204] Ver. 132. i.e. essay, attempt
[205] [V. 135-6.
this and itt drove now afterward
till itt was neere the day.]
[206] [V. 138. and give.]
[207] [V. 140. that he may carry me the better away.]
[208] [V. 141. and up then rose the.]
[209] [V. 143. did on.]
[210] [V. 144. that he might carry him.]
[211] [V. 145. she layned.]
[212] [V. 150. and heard her make her moane.]
[213] [V. 152. I think thou art a. MS.]
[214] [Ver. 153. for yonder is a ghost in thy stable.]
[215] [V. 157. but up then rose Childe Waters.]
[216] [V. 159. and not in MS.]
[217] [V. 162. full still that.]
[218] [V. 163. heare now faire.]
[219] sic in MS., i.e. moaning, bemoaning, &c.
[220] [V. 165. my owne.]
[221] [V. 170. and be of good cheere I thee pray.]
[222] [V. 172. they shall, MS.]
X.
PHILLIDA AND CORYDON.
This Sonnet is given from a small quarto MS. in the Editor's possession, written in the time of Q. Elizabeth. Another Copy of it containing some variations, is reprinted in the Muses' Library, p. 295, from an ancient miscellany, intitled England's Helicon, 1600, 4to. The author was Nicholas Breton, a writer of some fame in the reign of Elizabeth; who also published an interlude intitled An old man's lesson and a young man's love, 4to., and many other little pieces in prose and verse, the titles of which may be seen in Winstanley, Ames' Typog. and Osborne's Harl. Catalog. &c.—He is mentioned with great respect by Meres, in his 2d pt. of Wit's Common-wealth, 1598, f. 283, and is alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, act ii., and again in Wit without Money, act iii.—See Whalley's Ben Jonson, vol. iii. p. 103.
The present Edition is improved by a copy in England's Helicon, edit. 1614, 8vo.
This little Pastoral is one of the Songs in "The Honourable Entertainment gieven to the Queenes Majestie in Progresse at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the R. H. the Earle of Hertford, 1591, 4to." (Printed by Wolfe. No name of author.) See in that pamphlet,
"The thirde daies Entertainment.
"On Wednesday morning about 9 o'clock, as her Majestie opened a casement of her gallerie window, ther were 3 excellent musitians, who being disguised in auncient country attire, did greet her with a pleasant song of Corydon and Phillida, made in 3 parts of purpose. The song, as well for the worth of the dittie as the aptnesse of the note thereto applied, it pleased her Highnesse after it had been once sung to command it againe, and highly to grace it with her cheerefull acceptance and commendation.
The Plowman's Song.
In the merrie month of May, &c."
The splendour and magnificence of Elizabeth's reign is nowhere more strongly painted than in these little diaries of some of her summer excursions to the houses of her nobility; nor could a more acceptable present be given to the world, than a republication of a select number of such details as this of the entertainment at Elvetham, that at Killingworth, &c., &c., which so strongly mark the spirit of the times, and present us with scenes so very remote from modern manners.
Since the above was written, the public hath been gratified with a most compleat work on the foregoing subject, intitled, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, &c. By John Nichols, F.A.S., Edinb. and Perth, 1788, 2 vols. 4to.
[The author of this elegant little poem was a most voluminous author, and "is supposed to be the same Capt. Nicholas Breton, who was of Norton in Northamptonshire, and dying there June 22, 1624, has a monument in that church."[223] Dr. Rimbault (Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques) writes as follows of the music:—"We have here two settings of this beautiful pastoral, the first as it was sung by the 'three excellent musitians' before Queen Elizabeth in 1591; the second as it was reset in the following century. The first is extracted from Madrigals to 3, 4, and 5 parts, apt for viols and voices, newly composed by Michael Este, 1604; the second from Cheerfull Ayres or Ballads, set for three voyces, by Dr. John Wilson, Oxford, 1660. The latter became extremely popular, and is included in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1719, and several other musical miscellanies of subsequent date.">[
In the merrie moneth of Maye,
In a morne by break of daye,
With a troope of damselles playing
Forthe "I yode" forsooth a maying:[224]
When anon by a wood side, 5
Where as Maye was in his pride,
I espied all alone
Phillida and Corydon.
Much adoe there was, god wot;
He wold love, and she wold not. 10
She sayde, never man was trewe;
He sayes, none was false to you.
He sayde, hee had lovde her longe:
She sayes, love should have no wronge.
Corydon wold kisse her then: 15
She sayes, maydes must kisse no men,
Tyll they doe for good and all.
When she made the shepperde call
All the heavens to wytnes truthe,
Never loved a truer youthe. 20
Then with manie a prettie othe,
Yea and nay, and, faith and trothe;
Suche as seelie shepperdes use
When they will not love abuse;
Love, that had bene long deluded, 25
Was with kisses sweete concluded;
And Phillida with garlands gaye
Was made the lady of the Maye.