112 ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY. I hold him an archar, said Cloudeslè, I shall assaye, syr, sayd Cloudeslè, 205 | He prayed the people, that wer there, 210 Thou art the best archer, then said the king, And yet for your love, sayd Wyllyam, I have a sonne is seven yere olde, He is to me full deare; I wyll hym tye to a stake; And lay an apple upon hys head, Now haste the, then sayd the kyng, And thou touche his head or gowne, That I have promised, said William, That I wyll never forsake. In the earth he drove a stake: And bound therto his eldest sonne, And bad hym stand styll thereat; And turned the childes face him fro, Because he should not start. An apple upon his head he set, And then his bowe he bent: Syxe score paces they were meaten, And thether Cloudeslè went. There he drew out a fayr brode arrowe, 215 220 225 Muche people prayed for Cloudeslè, That his lyfe saved myght be, 250 And whan he made hym redy to shote, 255 There was many weeping ee. 'But' Cloudeslè clefte the apple in two, 'His sonne he did not nee.' I geve thee eightene pence a day, I make the chyfe rydère. 260 And thy two brethren, yemen of my chambre, Your sonne, for he is tendre of age, Of my wyne-seller he shall be; 230 And when he commeth to mans estate, 275 Better avaunced shall he be. And, Wyllyam, bring me your wife, said the quene, Me longeth her sore to se: 235 She shall be my chefe gentlewoman, 240 245 Ver. 208, sic. MS., none that can, P. C. Ver. 212, to, P. C. Ver. 222, i. e. 120 yards. Ver. 243, sic. MS., out met, P. C. The yemen thanked them all curteously. Of all the synnes, that we have done, 280 285 So forth be gone these good yemen, II. The Aged Cover Lenounceth Love. Me, as she did before: My hand and pen are not in plight, THE grave-digger's song in Hamlet, act v., | My muse doth not delight is taken from three stanzas of the following poem, though greatly altered and disguised, as the same were corrrupted by the balladsingers of Shakspeare's time: or perhaps so designed by the poet himself, the better to suit the character of an illiterate clown. The 66 original is preserved among Surrey's Poems, I LOTH that I did love In youth that I thought swete, My lustes they do me leave, For Age with steling steps Hath clawde me with his crowch, And lusty 'Youthe' away he leapes, As there had been none such. "The For Reason me denies, 'All' youthly idle rime; The wrinkles in my brow, The furrowes in my face The harbenger of death, To me I se him ride, The cough, the cold, the gasping breath, A pikeax and a spade, And eke a shrowding shete, Me thinkes I heare the clarke, Ver. 6, be, P. C. [printed copy in 1557.] V. 10, Crowch perhaps should be clouch, clutch, grasp. Ver. 11, Life away she, P. C. Harl. MSS. num. 1703, 25. The readings gathered from that copy are distinguished here by inverted commas. The text is printed from the "Songs," &c., of the Earl of Surrey and others, 1557, 4to. Whose badge I long did weare: 40 V. 18, This, P. C. Ver. 23, So Ed. 1583; 'tis hedge in Ed. 1557, hath caught him, MS. V. 30, wyndynge-sheete, MS. V. 34, bell, MS. V. 35, wofull. P. C. V. 38, did, P. C. V. 39, clene shal be, P. C. V. 40, not, P. C. * Alluding perhaps to Eccles. xii. 3. Edit. 1793, vol. xv. p. 133. HAVE you not heard these many years ago, IN Shakspeare's Hamlet, act ii., the hero | like it was.' The first row of the pious chanof the play takes occasion to banter Polonius son will shew you more." with some scraps of an old ballad, which has never appeared yet in any collection: for which reason, as it is but short, it will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader; who will also be diverted with the pleasant absurdities of the composition. It was retrieved from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory, as she had formerly heard it sung by her father. I am indebted for it to the friendship of Mr. Steevens. It has been said, that the original ballad, in blackletter, is among Anthony à Wood's Collections in the Ashmolean Museum. But, upon application lately made, the volume which contained this Song was missing, so that it can only now be given as in the former edition. The banter of Hamlet is as follows: "Hamlet. 'O Jeptha, Judge of Israel,' what a treasure hadst thou! "Polonius. What a treasure had he, my lord? "Ham. Why, 'One faire daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.' "Polon. Still on my daughter. "Ham. Am not I i' th' right, old Jeptha? "Polon. If you call me Jeptha, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love passing well. "Ham. Nay, that follows not. “Polon. What follows then, my lord? "Ham. Why, 'As by lot, God wot:' and then you know, 'It came to passe, As most V. 45, bare-hedde, MS., and some, P. CC. V. 48, Which, P. C., That MS., What is conject. He had one only daughter and no mo,' God wot, It so came to pass, As Gods will was, 5 In his "Twelfth Night," Shakspeare introduces the clown singing part of the two first stanzas of the following song; which has been recovered from an ancient MS. of Dr. Harrington's at Bath, preserved among the many literary treasures transmitted to the ingenious and worthy possessor by a long line of most respectable ancestors. Of these only a small part hath been printed in the "Nuga Antiquæ," 3 vols. 12mo.; a work which the public impatiently wishes to see continued. My lady is unkind perdy- But this ingenious emendation is now superseded by the proper readings of the old song itself, which is here printed from what appears the most ancient of Dr. Harrington's poetical MSS., and which has, therefore, been marked No. I. (scil. p. 68). That volume seems to have been written in the reign of King Henry VIII., and as it contains many of the poems of Sir Thomas Wyat, hath had almost all the contents attributed to him by marginal directions written with an old but later hand, and not always rightly, as, I think, [sing- might be made appear by other good authorities. Among the rest, this song is there attributed to Sir Thomas Wyat also; but the discerning reader will probably judge it to belong to a more obsolete writer. The song is thus given by Shakspeare, act iv. sc. 2. (Malone's edit. iv. 93.) Clown. "Hey Robin, jolly Robin." ing.] "Tell me how thy lady does." Malvolio. Fool.- Clown." Alas, why is she so?" Malvolio. Fool, I say. In the old MS. to the 3d and 5th stanzas is prefixed this title, Responce, and to the 4th and 6th, Le Plaintif; but in the last instance Clown." She loves another."- -Who calls, so evidently wrong, that it was thought better ha?" to omit these titles, and to mark the changes of the dialogue by inverted commas. In Dr. Farmer has conjectured that the song other respects the MS. is strictly followed. should begin thus: "Hey, jolly Robin, tell to me except where noted in the margin-Yet the first stanza appears to be defective, and it should seem that a line is wanting, unless the four first words were lengthened in the tune. |