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, 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.

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 so evidently wrong, that it was thought better to omit these titles, and to mark the changes of the Dialogue by inverted commas. In other respects the MS. is strictly followed, 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.

A ROBYN,

Jolly Robyn,

Tell me how thy leman doeth,

And thou shalt knowe of myn.

"My lady is unkynde perde."
Alack! why is she so?

"She loveth an other better than me;

I fynde no such doublenes:

I fynde women true.

My lady loveth me dowtles,

10

15

And will change for no newe.

"Thou art happy while that doeth last; "But I say, as I fynde,

"That women's love is but a blast,

"And torneth with the wynde."

Suche folkes can take no harme by love,
That can abide their torn.

"But I alas can no way prove
"In love but lake and morn."

But if thou wilt avoyde thy harme
Lerne this lessen of me,

At others fieres thy selfe to warme,
And let them warme with the.

V.

A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE.

This sonnet (which is ascribed to RICHARD EDWARDS, in the Paradise of Daintie Devises," fo. 31, b.) is by Shakspeare made the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his ROMEO AND JULIET, act iv. sc. 5, where he introduces Peter putting this question to the Musicians.

"PE ER.... why "Silver Sound ?" why “Musicke "with her silver sound ?" what say you, Simon Catling?

1. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet "sound.

"PET. Pretty! what say you, Hugh Rebecke? "2. Mus. I say, silver sound, because Musicians "sound for silver.

"PET. Pretty too! what say you, James Soundpost?

"3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.

"PET.... I will say it for you: It is "Musicke "with her silver sound," because Musicians have no "gold for sounding."

Edit. 1793, vol. xiv. p. 529

This ridicule is not so much levelled at the song itself (which for the time it was written is not inelegant) as at those forced and unnatural explanations often given by us painful editors and expositors of ancient authors.

This copy is printed from an old quarto MS. in the Cotton Library (Vesp A. 25,) entitled, "Divers things "of Hen. viij's time:" with some corrections from The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1596.

Concerning him see Wood's Athen. Oxon. and Tanner's Biblioth. also sir John Hawkins's Hist. of Music, &c.

WHERE gripinge grefes the hart would wounde,
And dolefulle dumps the mynde oppresse,
There musicke with her silver sound

With spede is wont to sende redresse:
Of trobled mynds, in every sore,
Swete musicke hathe a salve in store.

In joye yt maks our mirthe abounde,
In woe yt cheres our hevy sprites;
Be-strawghted heads relyef hath founde,
By musickes pleasaunt swete delightes:
Our senses all, what shall I say more?
Are subjecte unto musicks lore.

The Gods by musicke have theire prayse ;
The lyfe, the soul therein doth joye:
For, as the Romaynepo et sayes,

In seas, whom pyrats would destroy,
A dolphin saved from death most sharpe
Arion playing on his harpe.

5

10

15

O heavenly gyft, that rules the mynd,
Even as the sterne dothe rule the shippe! 20
O musicke, whom the Gods assinde

To comforte manne, whom cares would nippe ! Since thow both man and beste doest move, What beste ys he, wyll the disprove?

VI.

KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-MAID,

—is a story often alluded to by our old Dramatic Writers. Shakspeare, in his ROMEO AND JULIET, act ii. sc. 1, makes Mercutio say,

"Her (Venus's) purblind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so true, "When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."

As the 13th line of the following ballad seems here particulary alluded to, it is not improbable that Shakspeare wrote it SHOT SO TRIM, which the players or printers, not perceiving the allusion, might alter to TRUE. The former, as being the more humerous expression, seems most likely to have come from the mouthe of Mercutio.†

In the 2d Part of HEN. IV. act v. sc. 3, Falstaff is introduced affectedly saying to Pistoll,

"O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? "Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof."

These lines, Dr. Warburton thinks, were taken from an old bombast play of KING COPHETUA. No such play is, I believe, now to be found; but it does not therefore follow that it never existed. Many drama

*See above, Preface to Song i. Book ii. of this vol. p. 158. Since the conjecture first occurred, it has been discovered that SHOT SO TRIM was the genuine reading. See Shaksp, ed. 1793, xiv. 393.