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ROSALIND.

FROM the east to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind.

Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind.

All the pictures, fairest lined,
Are but black to Rosalind.
Let no face be kept in mind,
But the fair* of Rosalind.
If a hart do lack a hind,
Let him seek out Rosalind.
If the cat will after kind,
So, be sure, will Rosalind.
Winter garments must be lined,
So must slender Rosalind.

They that

reap must sheaf and bind;
Then to cart with Rosalind.
Sweetest nut hath sourest rind,
Such a nut is Rosalind.

He that sweetest rose will find,
Must find love's prick and Rosalind.

WHY

THE, HOMILY OF LOVE.

HY should this desert silent be?
For it is unpeopled? No;

Tongues I'll hang on every tree,

That shall civil sayings shew. Some, how brief the life of man Runs his erring pilgrimage; That the stretching of a span Buckles in his sum of age.

Some, of violated vows

"Twixt the souls of friend and friend:

But the fairest boughs,

upon

Or at every sentence' end,

* Used for fairness, or beauty.

Will I Rosalinda write:

Teaching all that read to know
The quintessence of every sprite
Heaven would in little show.
Therefore heaven nature charged
That one body should be filled
With all graces wide enlarged:
Nature presently distilled
Helen's cheek, but not her heart;
Cleopatra's majesty ;
Atalanta's better part;

Sad Lucretia's modesty.

Thus Rosalind of many parts

By heavenly synod was devised;
Of many faces, eyes, and hearts,

To have the touches dearest prized.
Heaven would that she these gifts should have,
And I to live and die her slave.

THE DEATH OF THE DEER.

WHAT shall he have that killed the deer?

His leather skin, and horns to wear.
Take thou no scorn, to wear the horn;
It was a crest ere thou wast born.
Thy father's father wore it;
And thy father bore it:

The horn, the horn, the lusty horn,
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.

A

THE MESSAGE OF HOPELESS LOVE.

RT thou god to shepherd turned,

That a maiden's heart hath burned?
Why, thy godhead laid apart,
Warrest thou with a woman's heart?
Whiles the eye of man did woo me,
That could do no vengeance to me.

THE DRAMATISTS.

7

If the scorn of your bright eyne
Have power to raise such love in mine,
Alack, in me what strange effect
Would they work in mild aspèct?
Whiles you chid me, I did love;
How then might your prayers move?
He that brings this love to thee,
Little knows this love in me:
And by him seal up thy mind;
Whether that by youth and kind
Will the faithful offer take
Of me, and all that I can make;
Or else by him my love deny,
And then I'll study how to die.

LOVERS LOVE THE SPRING.

T was a lover and his lass,

IT

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o'er the green corn-field did pass

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, &c.

This carol they began that hour,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, How that a life was but a flower

In spring time, &c.

And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

For love is crowned with the prime,
In spring time, &c.

THEN

THE BETROTHAL.

HEN is there mirth in heaven,
When earthly things made even
Atone together.

Good duke, receive thy daughter,
Hymen from heaven brought her,
Yea, brought her hither;

That thou mightst join her hand with his,
Whose heart within her bosom is.

WEDLOCK.

WEI

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EDDING is great Juno's crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed!
'Tis Hymen peoples every town;

High wedlock then be honourèd:
Honour, high honour and renown,
To Hymen, god of every town!

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

TAKE, OH! TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY.

AKE, oh! take those lips away,

TAKE

That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again,

Bring again.

Seals of love, but sealed in vain,

Sealed in vain.*

* The music of this song was composed by Jack Wilson,' the singer, who belonged to the same company of players with Shakespeare, and whose name is given in a stage direction in Much Ado about Nothing, 4to, 1600. [See communication from Mr. Collier, Shakespeare Society Papers, ii. 33.] Shakespeare's claim to the words is doubtful. The same song, with an additional stanza, appears in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, under which head they will be found in the present volume. Mr. Collier ob

A WINTER'S TALE.

THE SWEET OF THE YEAR.

HEN daffodils begin to peer,

WE

With heigh! the doxy over the dale,

Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year;

For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,

With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! Doth set thy pugging* tooth on edge;

For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,

With heigh! with hey! the thrush and the jay:
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.

But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon shines by night:
And when I wander here and there,
I then do most go right.

If tinkers may have leave to live,

And bear the sow-skin bowget; Then my account I well may give,

And in the stocks avouch it.

serves, on the other hand, that both stanzas are ascribed to Shakespeare in the edition of his poems printed in 8vo, 1640. But it should be observed also that the song is not given in the earlier edition by Juggard, and that the edition of 1640 is not conclusive authority. The best evidence in favour of Shakespeare's authorship is the general fact that, unlike most of the old dramatists, he never introduced into his plays (with the exception of scraps and foots of popular ballads) any songs by other writers. This is the only instance upon which a doubt

can be raised.

* Supposed to mean thieving, from the old word puggard, a thief. The close resemblance suggests the derivation from this word of the flash term prigging or proguing, which, however, is rejected by Dr. Nares.

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