DOLPHIN MY BOY.

The words "Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by", (Lear, III, iv, 104) are declared by Steevens to be part of a ballad. But his note sounds too romantic (see Furness, V, p. 192). "He shall be Dauphin my boy" is a passage in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (V, I).

HOW SHOULD I YOUR TRUE LOVE KNOW?

The three stanzas quoted by Ophelia in Hamlet, IV, v, 23f., show a marked affinity with (being also in the same measure as) a ballad beginning 'As you came from the holy-land', reprinted by Percy in his Reliques. A better copy is in The Garland of Good-Will (Percy Soc., XXX, p. 111) and in Percy's MS. (III, 471).1 The substance of this ballad is given in the following words by Mr. Hales (III, 465): 'A lover growing or grown old, it would seem, has been left in the 'lurch by the object of his affections. As all the world thronged to 'Walsingham, the lover supposes she too must have gone that way; 'and meeting a pilgrim returning from that English Holy Land, asks 'him if he has seen anything of her runaway ladyship. The lover, 'having described how his true and untrue love may be known from 'many another one, learns that she has been met making for Wal'singham; and then, asked why she has deserted him, explains that, 'though she once loved him, she has lost her love now he waxes old, 'and generally, that a woman's love is ever capricious and veering' &c. The situation is somewhat similar in Ophelia's fragment, where we must suppose the lady to enquire of a pilgrim whether he has met with her lover, to which he replies "How should I your true love "know From another one?" (Compare: 'How should I know your 'true love, That have met many a one?'-first half of stanza 2 of the above mentioned ballad). She tells him by what tokens, and learns that he is dead. What the cause of his death is we do not ascertain from the fragment. But we cannot be far wrong in supposing that some clue is to be found in 'Gentle Herdsman' (in Percy), where a lover is killed by the scorn of a lady, who now repents when it is too late and pilgrims to Walsingham.-After having taken every circumstance into consideration, I am inclined to hazard the conjecture that Ophelia's fragments (11. 23-39) belong to the original 'Walsingham' song, now lost.

1 Arber has also reprinted it in his 'Anthologies' from MS. Rawl. Poet. 2 Rawl. MS., shall.

JOG ON, JOG ON.

The tune with this title is preserved in the 'Dancing Master', 1650, etc., and with the title Hanskin in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (early 17th cent.) and with a third in Pills to purge Melancholy 1707, etc. Besides the stanza sung by Autolycus, Wint. Tale, IV, 111, 132, two more a given in the Antidote against Melancholy, 1661, no earlier copy of them being known. (see Chappell I, 159, for the words and tune).

THE MAN SHALL HAVE HIS MARE AGAIN.

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. (Mids. N. D., III, 11, 463.) See a note in Ballad Soc. No. 37 p. 746. Referring to Roxburghe Ballads, vol. I, p. 57, 1. 29 where "The man 'shall have his Mare agen' occurs, the Rev. Mr. Ebsworth observes: 'Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, Act [III], where the same line 'is quoted from an older ditty of How Mosse found his Mare. She 'was caught napping, and it is proverbial.' I always regarded the phrase as being proverbial. I can give no information about 'the 'older ditty'. Dr. Ritter directed my attention to the above passage in the Ball. Soc. Compare also Wright's note (Clar. Press, or in Furness).

"O THE TWELFTH DAY OF DECEMBER",

is a line put into the mouth of Sir Toby (Twelfth Night, II, 111, 90). Walker conjectures O' for 0, which sounds plausible enough. Kittredge suggests that the ballad quoted by Sir Toby may be 'Musselburgh Field' (Child, III, 378; IV, 507), which celebrates the Battle of Pinkie fought in 1547, and begins thus:

(Stanza 5 begins:

On the tenth day of December.

On the twelfth day in the morne)

This is not certain. There is a ballad of the year 1584, reprinted in Ancient Ballads and Broadsides (Lilly, 1870, p. 182) beginning, The twelfe day of November last.

"SLEEPEST OR WAKEST THOU, JOLLY SHEPHERD?"

(Lear III, vi, 43-46). Regarding the question 'sleepest or wakest?" compare Child, II, 240.

"TAKE, O, TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY', etc.

(Meas. f. Meas. IV, 1). The song recurs in the 'Bloody Brother' (Fleay:

c. 1616; Ward: after 1624), by Fletcher, etc., with an additional stanza, which is evidently by another and inferior hand. The second stanza sounds like a burlesque of the first, which may after all be Shakespeare's own composition.

TO-MORROW IS ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

Of this apparently old song consisting of four stanzas sung by Ophelia (Hamlet, IV, v, 48-55, 58-65) nothing further is known. Douce found a parallel to the lines.

Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more—

in a French ballad of 1598:

'Elle y entra pucelle

'Grosette elle en sorta.'1

WAS THIS FAIR FACE, etc.

"Was this fair face the cause, quoth she,
"Why the Grecians sacked Troy?" etc.

(All's Well, I, 111, 74-83.)

A ballad, called "The lamentations of Hecuba and ye ladies of Troye', was entered on the Stat. Reg. in 1586 (Arber, Transcr., II, 451).

WE WILL BE MARRIED O' SUNDAY.

In the Taming of the Shrew (II, 1) Petruchio, having decided to wed Kate upon Sunday (1. 300), takes his leave saying (1. 324):

"Sunday comes apace:

"We will have rings and things and fine array;

"And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o' Sunday."

In illustration of this passage, Halliwell gives the following exhaustive note, which I quote verbatim:

We will be married o' Sunday. quoting from some old ballad. The

Petruchio is here probably earliest song with a similar

burden is one in Ralph Roister Doister, 1566, which commences,

I mun be maried a Sunday;

I mun be maried a Sunday;
Whosoever shall come that way,

I mun be maried a Sunday.1

There is a ballad of the last century, which may be a modernized version of an earlier one, commencing,

As I walk'd forth one May morning,

I heard a fair maid sweetly sing,

As she sat under her cow milking,

We will be married o' Sunday.2

Another stanza of which may be quoted, as illustrative of the belief that Petruchio's speech refers to a ballad,

Then on my finger I'll have a ring,
Not one of rush, but a golden thing;
And I shall be glad as a bird in spring,
Because I am married o' Sunday.

The present ballad is either copied, or is connected in some way, with "a country song" which is introduced into Mrs. Centlivre's comedy of the Platonic Lady, 1707, which commences as follows,As I walk'd forth one May morning,

I heard a pretty maid sweetly sing
As she sat under the cow a milking,

Sing I shall be marry'd a Tuesday;

I mun look smug upon Tuesday.

(Halliwell's Folio ed. of Shakesp., 1856, vol. VI., p. 391.)

Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare, 1842, vol. III, p. 148, gives verses3 from oral tradition, which come marvellously near Shakespeare's words. But I suspect, Collier is swindling.

BURDENS.

In Hamlet, IV, v, 170, Ophelia says, "You must sing 'a-down "a-down', And you 'call him a-down-a'." This, I take it, is the way to print this passage. Ophelia desires the by-standers to sing the burden. Again, in The Merry Wives (I, iv, 44) Mrs. Quickly sings: "And down, down, adown-a, &c." The words 'down, down', etc., as

1 See Dodsley's old Engl. Plays, 1874, vol. III, 159.

2 The whole ballad is reprinted in Old Sh. Soc., Papers, 1844, pp. 80-82. 3 also reproduced by Delius.

a refrain or undersong, are to be met with rather frequently in old songs and ballads. 1

In The Winter's Tale (IV, IV, 195) Autolycus is said to have songs "with such delicate burthens of dildos and fadings, 'jump her "and thump her"", etc.-Dildo occurs as a refrain in old songs. It also had a coarse meaning (='mentula factitia. Cotgrave in Godemiche.' Wright, Prov. Dict., Cp. New Engl. Dict.). The curious reader will find full information concerning this burden in Ballad Society, No. 16 (Bagford Ballads, vol. I) p. 551,—J. W. Ebsworth's introductory remarks to a coarse poem: 'The Maid's Complaint for Want of a Dil doul'.

Fading was the name of a dance and 'With a fading' the name of a tune, several songs to which with this burden are known (see Chappell, II, 104; old. ed., 235). A Round of Matt. White, “The Cour'tier scorns the country clowns' (date about 1600) has for its third and last line 'With a fading, fading, fading, fading', etc. (Naylor, 82).

The burden 'hey nonny, nonny', etc. (Much Ado, II, III, 71; Haml., IV, v, 165; As You L. It, V, 111, 18, etc.; Cp. Lear, III, iv, 103) is met with in older songs; e. g., in Chettle's Old Grissill is a song, the first, with such a burden; also in The Two Noble Kinsmen (III, iv) and elsewhere. Coverdale refers to this burden (see Chappell, old. ed., 53-4, or Clar. Press ed. of As You L. It, p. 160).,"

A somewhat similar refrain occurs in As You Like It, V, III, 21, etc., "hey ding a ding, ding". This is a burden in 'Old Simon the King' (Chappell, I, 280) and is quoted as the title of a song by Laneham (Cp. Furnivall's Introd.).

A NOTE.

To ballads on strange fishes and on monstrosities such as are

1 Comp. Chappell, old. ed., pp. 59, 219, 222, 376, 391; and Child, III, Robin Ophelia's burden 'will be found almost verbatim in a ballad

Hood ballads. 'commencing

'When as King Edgar did govern this land,

'Adown, adown, down, down, down,

'And in the strength of his years he did stand,

'Call him down-a.'

Chappell, old. ed., p. 768. This ballad is reprinted by the Percy Soc, XXX, 12. Another song to the same tune is in 'A Hande full of pleasant delites', 1584, (Arber, Engl. Sch. Libr., III, 57, cp. also p. XIII). A third in 'Misogonus', circa 1560, (Brandl, Quellen, p. 456). A fourth in Anc. Ball. and Broads., Lilly, 1870, p. 78, and compare pp. 288-9. No doubt the burden formed an essential part of the tune, 'Labandalashot', for such is the name of it.

2 Comp. Anglia, XII, 236.