This sonnet (which is ascribed to Richard Edwards,[809] in the Paradise of Daintie Devises, fo. 31, b.) is by Shakespeare made the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5, where he introduces Peter putting this question to the musicians.
"Peter ... why 'Silver Sound?' why 'Musicke with her silver sound?' what say you, Simon Catling?
I. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
Pet. Pretty! what say you, Hugh Rebecke?
2. Mus. I say, silver sound, because musicians sound for silver.
Pet. Pretty too! what say you, James Sound-post.
3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.
Pet. ... I will say for you: It is 'Musicke with her silver sound,' because musicians have no gold for sounding."
This ridicule is not so much levelled at the song itself (which for the time it was written is not inelegant) as at those forced and unnatural explanations often given by us painful editors and expositors of ancient authors.
This copy is printed from an old quarto MS. in the Cotton Library (Vesp. A. 25), intitled, "Divers things of Hen. viij's time:" with some corrections from The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1596.