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

No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again, &c."[590:C]

passages of which Dr. Percy has admirably availed himself in his Friar of Orders Gray, and to which the Mynstrelle's song in Œlla is indebted for its pathetic burden:

"Mie love ys dedde,

Gonne to his deathe-bedde,

Alle underre the wyllowe tree."[590:D]

The vacillation of poor Ophelia amid her heavy afflictions is rendered strikingly apparent by the insertion of two ballad lines between the stanzas last quoted, which again manifestly allude to her lover:—

"Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him adown-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.——"[591:A]

"For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy."[591:B]