What could Walton know about it fifty years after the publication of the song and answer as above? On such worthless testimony the Nymph's Answer is credited to Raleigh. And we have in the "Encyclopedia of Poetry," 1873, first the song by Marlowe, "about 1590," and then the Nymph's Reply by Raleigh" about 1610." Strange that the Nymph should wait about twenty years to reply, and should then repeat the lines credited to Shakspere in 1599 and to "Ignoto" in 1600! The song perhaps existed before the death of Marlowe in 1593, but was probably composed by "Ignoto," who also wrote "The Nymph's Reply" and numerous other poetical pieces that were published in the "Helicon " in 1600.

"Ignoto" was undoubtedly a concealed poet. Marlowe, Raleigh and Barnfield were not. As early as January 1590, if not a little sooner, "Ignoto" contributed to Spenser's first publication of the "Faery Queen" the following lines:

"To look upon a work of rare devise

The which a workman setteth out to view,
And not to yield it the deserved prize
That unto such a workmanship is due,

Doth either prove the judgment to be naught,
Or else doth show a mind with envy fraught.

"To labor to commend a piece of work

Which no man goes about to discommend,
Would raise a jealous doubt that there did lurk
Some secret doubt whereto the praise did tend :
For when men know the goodness of the wine
'Tis needless for the host to have a sign.

"Thus then, to show my judgment to be such

As can discern of colors black and white,
As als to free my mind from envy's touch,
That never gives to any man his right:

I here pronounce this workmanship is such
As that no pen can set it forth too much.
"And thus I hang a garland at the door;

(Not for to show the goodness of the ware;
But such hath been the custom heretofore,
And customs very hardly broken are ;)
And when your taste shall tell you this is true,
Then look you give your host his utmost due."

In No. viii of "The Passionate Pilgrim" the writer says:

"Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch

Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such

As, passing all conceit, needs no defense."

Is not this praise of Spenser a substantial repetition of the sentiments expressed by "Ignoto"? Again, in Shakspere's Sonnet lxxx we read:

"O how I faint when I of you do write,

Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,

To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame!"

Spenser praises Essex in one of the Sonnets prefixed to his "Faery Queen," which antedates the Sonnets of Shakspere.

Once more. grim" we read:

In No. xviii of "The Passionate Pil

"Poor Corydon must live alone,

Other help for him I see that there is none."

Compare this with the following lines from Spenser's "Colin Clout," dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh, December 27, 1591, and published in 1595:

"And there is Corydon, though meanly waged,

Yet ablest wit of most I know this day."

Was not Bacon the ablest wit of that time? Was

he not a concealed poet? Was he not "Corydon"? Was he not "Ignoto"?

But what evidence is there that Raleigh used that signature? The "Faery Queen" was publicly dedicated to him, and in the Sonnet addressed to him as one of Spenser's patrons, a forthcoming poem by Raleigh is announced thus:

"Yet, till that thou thy poem wilt make known,

Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown." That poem was known to Spenser, who in the Dedication said he had fashioned his Queen "according to your [Raleigh's] own excellent conceit of Cynthia," i. e., Queen Elizabeth.

Furthermore, Raleigh contributed two Sonnets in praise of Spenser's "Faery Queen;" these he subscribed with his own initials. Did he at the same time write another encomium and sign it "Ignoto"?

There are sixteen pieces in the "Helicon" subscribed "Ignoto." One of these, "The Nymph's Reply" is ascribed to Raleigh on the testimony of Walton in 1653; and two others are believed by the editor of the third edition, 1812, to belong to Raleigh, because in an early copy of the same "Ignoto" was found pasted over "W. R." Upon such flimsy evidence the modern editor infers that the signature "Ignoto" was "generally, though not exclusively, (his own italics,) subscribed to the pieces of Sir Walter Raleigh."

The next piece after "The Nymph's Reply" in the "Helicon" is the following by "Ignoto:"

Another of the same nature made since.

Come live with me and be my dear,
And we will revel all the year,

In plains and groves, on hills and dales,
Where fragrant air breeds sweetest gales.

There shall you have the beauteous pine,
The gedar, and the spreading vine;
And all the woods to be a screen,
Lest Phoebus kiss my summer queen.

The seat for your disport shall be
Over some river in a tree;

Where silver sands and pebbles sing
Eternal ditties with the Spring.

There shall you see the nymphs at play,
And how the Satyrs spend the day;
The fishes gliding on the sands,
Offering their bellies to your hands.

The birds, with heavenly tuned throats,
Possess woods' echoes with sweet notes;
Which to your senses will impart
A music to inflame the heart.

Upon the bare and leafless oak
The ring-dove's wooings will provoke
A colder blood than you possess,
To play with me and do no less.
In bowers of laurel trimly dight,
We will outwear the silent night,
While Flora busy is to spread
Her richest treasure on our bed.

Ten thousand glow-worms shall attend,
And all their sparkling lights shall spend,
All to adorn and beautify

Your lodging with most majesty.

Then in mine arms will I enclose

Lily's fair mixture with the rose;
Whose nice perfections in love's play,
Shall tune to me the highest key.

Thus as we pass the welcome night
In sportful pleasures and delight,
The nimble fairies on the grounds
Shall dance and sing melodious sounds.

Who will say that this is not equal to the first song ascribed to Marlowe? What couplet in that surpasses this one?

"Where silver sands and pebbles sing
Eternal ditties with the Spring."

Or this?

"Ten thousand glow-worms shall attend,

And all their sparkling lights shall spend."

For parallels with the first of these couplets take the following:

"Sing no more ditties." Ibid, ii, 1.
"Silver currents." K. John, ii, 1.

“The murmuring surge

That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes."

Ibid, iv, 6.

For a single parallel with the second couplet take

this:

"Twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be."

M. W. Windsor, v, 5.

Similar parallels may be found with other lines of the song. Now are we to believe that Marlowe wrote the first song, and Raleigh the other two signed "Ignoto"? Is it not far more rational and consistent to believe that all three were written by the same pen

?

Again, Barnfield has two pieces in the "Helicon," and the editor ascribes to him another signed "Ignoto "-No. xxi, "As it fell upon a day "—while Allibone, in his Dictionary of Authors, makes him the