[581:E] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 132. Act iv. sc. 1.
[582:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 259.
[582:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 328. Act iv. sc. 2.
[582:C] Ibid. p. 346. Act iv. sc. 3.—We shall add, in this note, in order to complete the catalogue, all the fragments of ancient minstrelsy that have escaped our enumeration in the text.
In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, lamenting the approaching departure of Cressida, expresses his sorrow by quoting an old song beginning—
"O heart, o heart, o heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking."
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 393.
Hamlet, bantering Polonius, quotes part of the first stanza of a ballad entitled, Jephtha, Judge of Israel. This has been published by Dr. Percy, retrieved, as he relates, from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her father.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 142.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 189.
It is probable that Hamlet, who appears to have been well versed in ballad-lore, has again introduced two morsels from this source, in his dialogue with Horatio on the conduct of the king at the play: they strongly mark his triumph in the success of his plan for unmasking the crimes of his uncle:—