several of his contemporaries. He was appointed, in 1620, Chronologer to the City of London, and 'Inventor of its honourable Entertainments.' In 1624, the Spanish ambassador having complained to the King that the persons of the King of Spain, Conde de Gondomar, and others were represented upon the stage in a very scandalous comedy' called A Game at Chess, written by Middleton, the author and the actors were cited before the Privy Council. The actors appeared, and pleaded that the piece had been produced under the usual sanction of the Master of the Revels; but Middleton, 'shifting out of the way, and not attending the board with the rest,' was ordered to be arrested, and a warrant was issued for his apprehension. The play was in the meanwhile suppressed, and for a certain time the actors were prohibited from appearing. Middleton afterwards submitted, but no further punishment appears to have been inflicted. At this time, Middleton resided at Newington Butts, where he died in 1627.

Middleton may be fairly assigned a distinguished position amongst the dramatists of his period. His most conspicuous characteristics are a rich and natural humour and a poetical imagination. Nor was he deficient in passionate energy and pathos, although inferior in these qualities to some of his contemporaries.]

BLURT, MASTER CONSTABLE;* OR, THE SPANIARD'S

NIGHT-WALK.

[First printed in 1602.]

WHAT LOVE IS LIKE.

LOVE is like a lamb, and love is like a lion;

Fly from love, he fights; fight, then does he fly on;

Love is all on fire, and yet is ever freezing;
Love is much in winning, yet is more in leesing:t

* A proverbial phrase.

+ Losing.

Love is ever sick, and yet is never dying;
Love is ever true, and yet is ever lying;

Love does doat in liking, and is mad in loathing;
Love indeed is anything, yet indeed is nothing.

PITY, PITY, PITY!

DITY, pity, pity!
Pity, pity, pity!

That word begins that ends a true-love ditty.
Your blessed eyes, like a pair of suns,
Shine in the sphere of smiling;
Your pretty lips, like a pair of doves,
Are kisses still compiling.

Mercy hangs upon your brow like a precious jewel:
O, let not then,

Most lovely maid, best to be loved of men, Marble lie upon your heart, that will make you cruel! Pity, pity, pity! Pity, pity, pity!

That word begins that ends a true-love ditty.

CHERRY LIP AND WANTON EYE.

LOVE for such a cherry lip

Would be glad to pawn

Venus here to take a sip

his arrows;

Would sell her doves and team of sparrows.

But they shall not so;

Hey nonny, nonny no!

None but I this life must owe;

Hey nonny, nonny no!

Did Jove see this wanton eye,

Ganymede must wait no longer;

Phoebe here one night did lie,*

Would change her face and look much younger.

* Mr. Dyce changes the line to

'Did Phoebe here one night lie,'

obtaining the sense at the cost of the melody.

But they shall not so;
Hey nonny, nonny no!
None but I this life must owe;
Hey nonny, nonny no!

A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS.

[Licensed and first printed in 1608.]

0

BACCHANALIAN CATCH.

FOR a bowl of fat canary,

Rich Aristippus, sparkling sherry!
Some nectar else from Juno's dairy;
O these draughts would make us merry!
O for a wench! I deal in faces,
And in other daintier things;
Tickled am I with her embraces;
Fine dancing in such fairy rings!
O for a plump, fat leg of mutton,
Veal, lamb, capon, pig, and coney!
None is happy but a glutton,
None an ass, but who wants money.
Wines, indeed, and girls are good;
But brave victuals feast the blood;
For wenches, wine, and lusty cheer,
Jove would come down to surfeit here.*

*The authorship of this song is doubtful. It was printed for the first time in the Alexander and Campaspe of Lyly appended to the edition of 1632, and is not to be found in the earlier editions, the first of which appeared in 1584. That it did not originally belong to A Mad World, my Masters, is clear from this circumstance, the first edition of that play having been published in 1608; but it was added to the second edition in 1640. The probability is that it was not written by either Lyly or Middleton; but, if by either, the evidence is in favour of the latter, as Lyly was dead many years before 1632, when the song was first printed, and Middleton was certainly alive a few years before that time. Mr. Dyce, who prints it at the end of Middleton's play from the edition of 1640, does not appear to have been aware that it had previously been printed in Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe.

THE WITCH.

THE THREE STATES OF WOMAN.

N a maiden-time professed,

IN

Then we say that life is blessed;
Tasting once the married life,
Then we only praise the wife;
There's but one state more to try,
Which makes women laugh or cry—
Widow, widow of these three
The middle's best, and that give me.

Voices above.

HECATE AND THE WITCHES.

COME away, come away,

Hecate, Hecate, come away!
Hecate. I come, I come, I come, I come,
With all the speed I may,

With all the speed I

Where's Stadlin?

Here;

may.

And Hoppo too, and Hellwain too;
We lack but you, we lack but you;
Come away, make up the count.

Hecate. I will but 'noint, and then I mount.

[A spirit like a cat descends.

Voice above. There's one comes down to fetch his dues,

Hecate.

A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood;

And why thou stayest so long
I muse, I muse,

Since the air's so sweet and good.
O, art thou come?

What news, what news?

Spirit. All goes still to our delight:

Either come, or else

Refuse, refuse.

Hecate. Now I'm furnished for the flight.

Now I go, now I fly,

Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
O what a dainty pleasure 'tis
To ride in the air

When the moon shines fair,

And sing and dance, and toy and kiss!
Over woods, high rocks, and mountains,
Over seas, our mistress' fountains,
Over steeples, towers, and turrets,
We fly by night, 'mongst troops of spirits:
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water's breach,

Or cannon's throat our height can reach.

THE CHARM.

BLACK spirits and white, red spirits and gray,

Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may!
Titty, Tiffin,
Keep it stiff in;
Firedrake, Puckey,
Make it lucky;
Liard, Robin,

You must bob in.

Round, around, around, about, about!

All ill come running in, all good keep out!
Here's the blood of a bat.

Put in that, O put in that!

Here's libbard's bane.

Put in again!

The juice of toad, the oil of adder;

Those will make the younker madder.

Put in-there's all-and rid the stench.

Nay, here's three ounces of the red-haired wench. Round, around, around, about, about!*

*The similarity between these passages and the witch scenes in Macbeth is too close to admit of a doubt that Shakespeare borrowed from Middleton, or Middleton from Shakespeare. Which play was