Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 1 of 2] / Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age

by Nathan Drake

[326:A] Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 252, 253.

[326:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 281. Mr. Gay has more distinctly recorded this ceremony in the following lines:—

"Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind

Their paramours with mutual chirpings find;

I early rose, just at the break of day,

Before the sun had chas'd the stars away;

Afield I went, amid the morning dew,

To milk my kine (for so should housewives do),

Thee First I spied, and the first swain we see

In spite of fortune shall our true Love be."