UCSB LIBRARY
 
 SHAKE SPEAKE 's
 
 LIBRARY
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 SONGS 
 
 With Drawings 
 
 BY 
 HENRY OSPOVAT 
 
 JOHN LANE 
 
 The *&odley Hea d L ondon and 
 icjoi
 
 Printed by COLSTON & COY. LIMITED, Edinburgh
 
 Songs from the Plays . . pp i to 84 
 
 A Lover's Complaint ... 85 
 
 The Passionate Pilgrim . . . 105 
 
 Songs to Notes of Music . . 117 
 
 The Phoenix and the Turtle . . 131
 
 LlSf of 
 
 ' When shepherds pipe on oaten straws ' 
 
 (Page 53) Frontispiece 
 
 . . . 'The fool will stay, 
 
 And let the wise man fly ' . To face page 8 
 
 '"Tis Hymen peoples every town' . 18 
 
 4 Fear no more '..... 24 
 
 'Come buy' 32 
 
 'A merry heart goes all the day, 
 
 Your sad, tires in a mile-a' 43 
 
 'Saint Withold' 56 
 
 'And let me the canakin clink' 67 
 
 ' In thy vats our cares be drown'd ' . 74 
 
 ' Sigh no more, ladies ' . . . . 82 
 
 'All our love is lost, for Love is dead' 122 
 
 vii
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'CYMBELINE' 
 
 HARK, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 
 And Phoebus 'gins arise, 
 His steeds to water at those springs 
 
 On chaliced flowers that lies ; 
 And winking mary-buds begin 
 
 To ope their golden eyes : 
 With every thing that pretty is. 
 My Lady sweet, arise : 
 Arise, arise ! 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE' 
 
 TELL me where is Fancy bred, 
 Or in the heart or in the head ? 
 How begot, how nourished ? 
 Reply, reply. 
 It is engender'd in the eyes, 
 With gazing fed ; and Fancy dies 
 In the cradle where it lies. 
 
 Let us all ring Fancy's knell : 
 I'll begin it, Ding, dong, bell : 
 Ding, dong, bell. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA' 
 
 WHO is Silvia? what is She 
 That all our swains commend her? 
 Holy, fair and wise is she ; 
 The heavens such grace did lend her 
 That she might admired be. 
 
 Is she kind as she is fair ? 
 
 For beauty lives with kindness : 
 Love doth to her eyes repair 
 
 To help him of his blindness, 
 And, being help'd, inhabits there. 
 
 Then to Silvia let us sing 
 
 That Silvia is excelling ; 
 She excels each mortal thing 
 
 Upon the dull earth dwelling : 
 To her let us garlands bring. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE II. 
 
 3
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'TWELFTH-NIGHT* 
 
 O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming ? 
 O stay and hear ; your true love's coming 
 That can sing both high and low : 
 Trip no further, pretty sweeting ; 
 Journeys end in lovers meeting, 
 Every wise man's son doth know. 
 
 What is love ? 'tis not hereafter ; 
 Present mirth hath present laughter ; 
 
 What's to come is still unsure : 
 In delay there lies no plenty ; 
 Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty : 
 
 Youth's a stuff will not endure. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 IT was a Lover and his Lass, 
 With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, 
 That o'er the green corn-field did pass 
 In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring. 
 
 Between the acres of the rye 
 
 With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, 
 These pretty country folks would lie, 
 
 In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 This carol they began that hour, 
 
 With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, 
 
 How that a life was but a flower 
 
 In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, 
 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring. 
 
 And therefore take the present time, 
 
 With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, 
 
 For love is crowned with the prime 
 
 In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, 
 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'WINTER'S TALE' 
 
 Autoljcus D areas Mops a 
 
 A. (^ ET you hence, for I must go 
 VJT Where it fits not you to know ! 
 
 D. Whither? 
 M. O whither ? 
 D. Whither? 
 M. It becomes thy oath full well 
 
 Thou to me thy secrets tell. 
 D. Me, too, let me go thither. 
 M. Or thou goest to the grange or mill. 
 D. If to either, thou dost ill. 
 A. Neither. 
 D. What, neither ? 
 A. Neither. 
 
 D. Thou hast sworn my Love to be. 
 M. Thou hast sworn it more to me : 
 
 Then whither goest ? say, whither ? 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 
 7
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Song, 
 
 From 'KING LEAR' 
 
 FATHERS that wear rags 
 Do make their children blind ; 
 But fathers that bear bags 
 Shall see their children kind. 
 Fortune, that arrant whore, 
 
 Ne'er turns the key to the poor. 
 
 That, Sir, which serves and seeks for gain, 
 
 And follows but for form, 
 Will pack when it begins to rain, 
 
 And leave thee in the storm. 
 But I will tarry ; the fool will stay, 
 
 And let the wise man fly ; 
 The knave turns fool that runs away ; 
 
 The fool no knave, perdy. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE IV. 
 
 8
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'MEASURE FOR MEASURE' 
 
 TAKE, O, take those lips away 
 That so sweetly were forsworn ; 
 And those eyes, the break of day, 
 Lights that do mislead the morn : 
 But my kisses bring again ; 
 
 Seals of love, but seal'd in vain ; 
 Seal'd in vain. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE I.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 HANG there, my verse, in witness of my 
 love : 
 
 And thou, thrice-crowned Queen of 
 night, survey 
 With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, 
 
 Thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway. 
 O Rosalind ! these trees shall be my books, 
 
 And in their barks my thoughts I'll character ; 
 That every eye which in this forest looks 
 
 Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. 
 Run, run, Orlando ; carve on every tree 
 The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive She. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 
 10 

 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 ART thou, god, to shepherd turn'd 
 That a maiden's heart hath burn'd ? 
 Why, thy godhead laid apart, 
 Warr'st thou with a woman's heart ? 
 Whiles the eye of man did woo me, 
 That could do no vengeance to me. 
 If the scorn of your bright eyne 
 Hath power to raise such love in mine, 
 Alack, in me what strange effect 
 Would they work in mild aspect ! 
 Whiles you chid me, I did love ; 
 How then might your prayers move ? 
 He that brings this love to thee 
 Little knows this love in me : 
 And by him seal up thy mind ; 
 Whether that thy youth and kind 
 ii
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Will the faithful offer take 
 Of me and all that I can make ; 
 Or else by him my love deny, 
 And then I'll study how to die. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 
 From 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST' 
 
 SO sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not 
 To those fresh morning drops upon the 
 
 rose, 
 As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have 
 
 smote 
 
 The night of -dew that on my cheeks down 
 flows 
 
 12
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright 
 Through the transparent bosom of the deep, 
 
 As doth thy face through tears of mine give light ; 
 Thou shinest in every tear that I do weep : 
 
 No drop but as a coach doth carry thee ; 
 
 So ridest thou triumphing in my woe. 
 Do but behold the tears that swell in me, 
 
 And they thy glory through my grief will show : 
 
 But do not love thyself ; then thou wilt keep 
 My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. 
 O Queen of queens ! how far dost thou excel, 
 No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 
 J 3
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST' 
 
 IF love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to 
 love ? 
 Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty 
 
 vow'd ! 
 Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful 
 
 prove ; 
 Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like 
 
 osiers bow'd. 
 Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine 
 
 eyes, 
 Where all those pleasures live that art would 
 
 comprehend : 
 
 If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall 
 suffice ;
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Well learned is that tongue that well can thee 
 
 commend, 
 All ignorant that soul that sees thee without 
 
 wonder ; 
 Which is to me some praise that I thy parts 
 
 admire : 
 Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his 
 
 dreadful thunder, 
 Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet 
 
 fire. 
 
 Celestial as thou art, O pardon, Love, this wrong, 
 That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly 
 tongue ! 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng, 
 
 From 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST' 
 
 DID not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, 
 'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argu- 
 ment, 
 Persuade my heart to this false perjury ? 
 
 Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. 
 
 A woman I forswore ; but I will prove, 
 
 Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee : 
 
 My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love ; 
 
 Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me. 
 
 Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is : 
 Then thou, fair Sun, which on my earth dost 
 shine, 
 
 Exhalest this vapour-vow ; in thee it is : 
 If broken, then, it is no fault of mine : 
 
 If by me broke, what fool is not so wise 
 To lose an oath, to win a paradise ? 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 16
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 From 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST' 
 
 ON a day alack the day ! 
 Love, whose month is ever May, 
 Spied a blossom passing fair 
 Playing in the wanton air : 
 Through the velvet leaves the wind, 
 All unseen, can passage find ; 
 That the Lover, sick to death, 
 Wish himself the heaven's breath. 
 Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow ; 
 Air, would I might triumph so ! 
 But, alack, my hand is sworn 
 Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn ; 
 Vow, alack, for youth unmeet, 
 Youth so apt to pluck a sweet ! 
 Do not call it sin in me, 
 That I am forsworn for thee ; 
 
 B 17
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Thou, for whom Jove would swear 
 Juno but an Ethiope were, 
 And deny himself for Jove, 
 Turning mortal for thy love. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 WEDDING is great Juno's crown : 
 O blessed bond of board and bed ! 
 'Tis Hymen peoples every town ; 
 High Wedlock then be honoured : 
 Honour, high honour and renown, 
 To Hymen, god of every town ! 
 
 ACT V., SCENE IV. 
 
 18
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 THEN is there mirth in heaven, 
 When earthly things made even 
 Atone together ! 
 
 Good duke, receive thy daughter : 
 Hymen from heaven brought her, 
 
 Yea, brought her hither, 
 That thou mightest join her hand with his 
 Whose heart within his bosom is. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE IV.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 HONOUR, riches, marriage-blessing, 
 Long continuance, and increasing, 
 Hourly joys be still upon you ! 
 Juno sings her blessings on you. 
 
 Earth's increase, foison plenty, 
 Barns and garners never empty : 
 Vines with clustering bunches growing, 
 Plants with goodly burthen bowing ; 
 
 Spring come to you at the farthest 
 In the very end of harvest ! 
 Scarcity and want shall shun you ; 
 Ceres' blessing so is on you. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE I. 
 
 20
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE' 
 
 ALL that glisters is not gold, 
 Often have you heard that told : 
 Many a man his life hath sold, 
 But my outside to behold : 
 Gilded tombs do worms infold. 
 Had you been as wise as bold, 
 Young in limbs, in judgment old, 
 Your answer had not been inscroll'd : 
 Fare you well ; your suit is cold. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE VII. 
 
 21
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'TWELFTH-NIGHT' 
 
 COME away, come away, Death, 
 And in sad cypress let me be laid ; 
 Fly away, fly away, breath ; 
 I am slain by a fair cruel maid. 
 My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, 
 
 O, prepare it ! 
 
 My part of death, no one so true 
 Did share it. 
 
 Not a flower, not a flower sweet, 
 
 On my black coffin let there be strown ; 
 Not a friend, not a friend greet 
 
 My poor corpse, where my bones shall be 
 
 thrown : 
 A thousand thousand sighs to save, 
 
 Lay me, O, where 
 Sad true lover never find my grave, 
 To weep there. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE IV. 
 22
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' 
 
 PARDON, Goddess of the night, 
 Those that slew thy virgin knight ; 
 For the which, with songs of woe, 
 Round about her tomb they go. 
 Midnight, assist our moan ; 
 Help us to sigh and groan, 
 
 Heavily, heavily : 
 Graves, yawn and yield your dead 
 Till death be uttered, 
 Heavily, heavily. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'CYMBELINE' 
 
 FEAR no more the heat o' the sun 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages 
 Golden lads and girls all must, 
 As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 
 
 Fear no more the frown o' the great ; 
 
 Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ; 
 Care no more to clothe and eat ; 
 
 To thee the reed is as the oak : 
 The sceptre, learning, physic, must 
 All follow this, and come to dust. 
 
 24
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 Fear no more the lightning-flash 
 Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone ; 
 
 Fear not slander, censure rash ; 
 Thou hast finish'd joy and moan : 
 
 All lovers young, all lovers must 
 
 Consign to thee, and come to dust. 
 
 No exerciser harm thee ! 
 Nor no witchcraft charm thee ! 
 Ghost unlaid forbear thee ! 
 Nothing ill come near thee ! 
 Quiet consummation have ; 
 And renowned be thy grave ! 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I : 
 In a cowslip's bell I lie ; 
 There I couch when owls do cry. 
 On the bat's back I do fly 
 After summer merrily. 
 Merrily, merrily shall I live now, 
 Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE I. 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 Puck. 
 
 BE, as thou wast wont to be ; 
 See, as thou wast wont to see : 
 Dian's Bud o'er Cupid's flower 
 Hath such force and blessed power. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE I. 
 26
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 COME unto these yellow sands, 
 And then take hands : 
 Courtsied when you have, and kiss'd, 
 The wild waves whist, 
 Foot it featly here and there ; 
 And, sweet Sprites, the burthen bear : 
 Hark, hark ! 
 
 Bow-wow. 
 The watch-dogs bark : 
 
 Bow-wow. 
 Hark, hark ! I hear 
 The strain of strutting chanticleer 
 Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. 
 
 ACT I., SCENE II. 
 
 27
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 OVER hill, over dale 
 Thorough bush, thorough brier 
 Over park, over pale 
 Thorough flood, thorough fire 
 I do wander every where, 
 Swifter than the moon's sphere ; 
 And I serve the fairy Queen, 
 To dew her orbs upon the green. 
 The cowslips tall her pensioners be : 
 In their gold coats spots you see, 
 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 
 In those freckles live their savours : 
 I must go seek some dewdrops here 
 And hang a pearl on every cowslip's ear. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE I. 
 
 28
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 WHILE you here do snoring lie, 
 Open-eyed conspiracy 
 
 His time doth take : 
 If of life you have a care, 
 Shake off slumber, and beware : 
 Awake ! Awake ! 
 
 ACT II., SCENE I. 
 
 A 
 
 From 'KING HENRY V.' 
 
 ND sword and shield, 
 In bloody field, 
 Doth win immortal fame. 
 
 If wishes would prevail with me, 
 My purpose should not fail with me, 
 And thither would I hie. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 29
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 Puck. 
 
 ^AIRY King, attend and mark: 
 I do hear the morning lark. 
 
 O her on. 
 
 Then, my queen, in silence sad, 
 Trip we after the night's shade ; 
 We the globe can compass soon, 
 Swifter than the wand'ring moon. 
 
 Titania. 
 
 Come, my lord ; and in our flight, 
 Tell me how it came this night, 
 That I sleeping here was found 
 With these mortals on this ground. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE I.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 FLOWER of this purple dye, 
 Hit with Cupid's archery, 
 Sink in apple of his eye ! 
 When his love he doth espy, 
 Let her shine as gloriously 
 As the Venus of the sky. 
 When thou wak'st, if she be by, 
 Beg of her for remedy. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng, 
 
 L 
 
 From 'WINTER'S TALE' 
 
 AWN as white as driven snow ; 
 
 Cypress black as e'er was crow ; 
 Gloves as sweet as damask roses ; 
 Masks for faces and for noses ; 
 Bugle bracelet, necklace amber, 
 Perfume for a lady's chamber ; 
 Golden quoifs and stomachers, 
 For my lads to give their dears ; 
 Pins and poking-sticks of steel ; 
 What maids lack from head to heel : 
 Come buy of me, come ; come buy, come buy ; 
 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry : 
 Come buy. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR' 
 
 LOVE like a shadow flies, 
 When substance love pursues ; 
 Pursuing that that flies, 
 And flying what pursues. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE II. 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 THE raging rocks, 
 With shivering shocks, 
 Shall break the locks 
 
 Of prison-gates ; 
 And Phibbus' car 
 Shall shine from far, 
 And make and mar 
 The fooling fates. 
 
 ACT I., SCENE II. 
 c 33
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So tigs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 THROUGH the forest have I gone, 
 But Athenian found I none, 
 On whose eyes I might approve 
 This flower's force in stirring love. 
 Night and silence ! who is here ? 
 Weeds of Athens he doth wear : 
 This is he, my master said, 
 Despised the Athenian maid ; 
 And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 
 On the dank and dirty ground. 
 Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 
 Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy. 
 Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 
 All the power this charm doth owe. 
 When thou wakest, let love forbid 
 Sleep his seat on thy eyelid. 
 So awake when I am gone, 
 For I must now to Oberon. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III 
 34
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 YOU spotted snakes with double tongue, 
 Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen ; 
 Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong ; 
 Come not near our fairy Queen ! 
 
 Philomel, with melody 
 Sing in our sweet lullaby ; 
 Lulla, lulla, lullaby ; Lulla, lulla, lullaby : 
 
 Never harm, 
 
 Nor spell nor charm, 
 Come our lovely lady nigh : 
 So, good-night, with lullaby. 
 
 35
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Weaving spiders, come not here ; 
 
 Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence ! 
 Beetles black, approach not near ; 
 
 Worm nor snail, do no offence. 
 
 Philomel, with melody 
 Sing in our sweet lullaby ; 
 Lulla, lulla, lullaby ; Lulla, lulla, lullaby ; 
 
 Never harm, 
 
 Nor spell nor charm, 
 Come our lovely lady nigh : 
 So, good-night, with lullaby. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 NOW the hungry lion roars, 
 And the wolf behowls the moon ; 
 Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, 
 All with weary task fordone. 
 Now the wasted brands do glow, 
 
 Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 
 Puts the wretch that lies in woe 
 In remembrance of a shroud. 
 Now it is the time of night 
 
 That the graves, all gaping wide, 
 Every one lets forth his sprite, 
 
 In the church-way paths to glide : 
 And we fairies, that do run 
 
 By the triple Hecate's team, 
 From the presence of the sun, 
 Following darkness like a dream, 
 37
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 Now are frolic : not a mouse 
 Shall disturb this hallow'd house : 
 I am sent with broom before, 
 To sweep the dust behind the door. 
 
 Through the house give glimmering light, 
 By the dead and drowsy fire : 
 
 Every elf and fairy sprite 
 
 Hop as light as bird from brier ; 
 
 And this ditty, after me, 
 
 Sing, and dance it trippingly. 
 
 First, rehearse your song by rote, 
 To each word a warbling note : 
 Hand in hand, with fairy grace, 
 Will we sing, and bless this place. 
 
 Now, until the break of day, 
 Through this house each fairy stray. 
 To the best bride-bed will we, 
 Which by us shall blessed be ; 
 38
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 And the issue there create 
 
 Ever shall be fortunate. 
 
 So shall all the couples three 
 
 Ever true in loving be ; 
 
 And the blots of Nature's hand 
 
 Shall not in their issue stand ; 
 
 Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, 
 
 Nor mark prodigious, such as are 
 
 Despised in nativity, 
 
 Shall upon their children be. 
 
 With this field-dew consecrate, 
 
 Every fairy take his gait : 
 
 And each several chamber bless, 
 
 Through this palace, with sweet peace ; 
 
 And the owner of it blest 
 
 . 
 
 Ever shall in safety rest. 
 
 Trip away ; make no stay ; 
 
 Meet me all by break of day. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE II. 
 
 39
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR' 
 
 on sinful fantasy ! 
 Fie on lust and luxury ! 
 Lust is but a bloody fire, 
 Kindled with unchaste desire, 
 Fed in heart, whose flames aspire 
 As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. 
 Pinch him, fairies, mutually ; 
 Pinch him for his villainy ; 
 Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, 
 Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE V. 
 
 4
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST' 
 
 IF she be made of white and red, 
 Her faults will ne'er be known ; 
 For blushing cheeks by faults are bred 
 And fears by pale white shown : 
 Then if she fear, or be to blame, 
 By this you shall not know, 
 For still her cheeks possess the same 
 Which native she doth owe ! 
 
 ACT I., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From ' WINTER'S TALE ' 
 
 W 
 
 HEN daffodils begin to peer, 
 
 With heigh ! the doxy over the dale, 
 
 Why, then, comes in the sweet o' the year ; 
 For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. 
 
 The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, 
 
 With heigh ! the sweet birds, O, how they sing ! 
 
 Doth set my pugging tooth on edge ; 
 For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. 
 
 The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, 
 
 With heigh ! with heigh ! the thrush and the 
 
 Are summer songs for me and my aunts, 
 While we lie tumbling in the hay. 
 
 42
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 But shall I go mourn for that, my dear ? 
 
 The pale moon shines by night : 
 And when I wander here and there, 
 
 I then do most go right. 
 
 If tinkers may have leave to live 
 And bear the sow-skin budget, 
 
 Then my account I well may give, 
 And in the stocks avouch it. 
 
 Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, 
 
 And merrily hent the stile-a : 
 A merry heart goes all the day, 
 
 Your sad, tires in a mile-a. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE II. 
 
 43
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'TROILUS AND CRESSIDA' 
 
 JJLL merrily the humble-bee doth sing, 
 
 Till he hath lost his honey and his sting ; 
 And being once subdued in armed tail, 
 Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE XI. 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 NO more dams Til make for fish ; 
 Nor fetch in firing 
 At requiring, 
 
 Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish ; 
 'Ban, 'Ban, Ca Caliban, 
 Has a new master Get a new man. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE II. 
 
 44
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM 
 
 T 
 
 HE ousel-cock, so black of hue, 
 
 With orange-tawny bill. 
 The throstle with his note so true, 
 The wren with little quill. 
 
 The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, 
 
 The plain-song cuckoo grey, 
 Whose note full many a man doth mark 
 
 And dares not answer, nay. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE I. 
 
 45
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From ' SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.' 
 
 DO nothing but eat, and make good cheer, 
 And praise heaven for the merry year ; 
 When flesh is cheap and females dear, 
 And lusty lads roam here and there 
 
 So merrily, 
 And ever among so merrily. 
 
 Be merry, be merry, my wife has all ; 
 For women are shrews, both short and tall : 
 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all, 
 And welcome merry Shrove-tide. 
 Be merry, be merry ! 
 
 A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine, 
 And drink unto the leman mine ; 
 
 And a merry heart lives long-a. 
 Fill the cup, and let it come ; 
 I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE III. 
 46
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So?2gs 
 
 From 'ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL' 
 
 I the ballad will repeat, 
 Which men full true shall find; 
 Your marriage comes by destiny, 
 Your cuckoo sings by kind. 
 
 Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, 
 Why the Grecians sacked Troy ? 
 
 Fond done, done fond, 
 
 Was this King Priam's joy? 
 
 With that she sighed as she stood, 
 With that she sighed as she stood, 
 
 And gave this sentence then ; 
 Among nine bad if one be good, 
 Among nine bad if one be good, 
 
 There's yet one good in ten. 
 
 ACT I., SCENE III. 
 
 47
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'TWELFTH-NIGHT' 
 
 WHEN that I was and a little tiny boy, 
 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
 A foolish thing was but a toy, 
 For the rain it raineth every day. 
 
 But when I came to man's estate, 
 
 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
 
 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, 
 For the rain it raineth every day. 
 
 But when I came, alas ! to wive, 
 
 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
 
 By swaggering could I never thrive, 
 For the rain it raineth every day. 
 
 48
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 But when I came unto my beds, 
 
 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
 
 With toss-pots still had drunken heads, 
 For the rain it raineth every day. 
 
 A great while ago the world begun, 
 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
 
 But that's all one, our play is done, 
 
 And we'll strive to please you every day. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE I. 
 
 49
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 WHAT shall he have that killed the deer? 
 His leather skin and horns to wear 
 
 Then sing him home. 
 Take thou no scorn to wear the horn ; 
 It was a crest ere thou wast born : 
 
 Thy father's father wore it : 
 And thy father bore it ! 
 The horn, the horn, the lusty horn, 
 Is not a thing to laugh to scorn. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 THE master, the swabber, the boatswain 
 and I, 
 
 The gunner and his mate, 
 Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery, 
 But none of us cared for Kate ; 
 For she had a tongue with a tang, 
 Would cry to a sailor, Go hang ! 
 She loved not the savour of tar, nor of pitch ; 
 Yet a tailor might scratch her where-e'er she did 
 
 itch : 
 Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang ! 
 
 ACT II., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'KING HENRY VIII.' 
 
 ORPHEUS with his lute made trees, 
 And the mountain tops that freeze, 
 Bow themselves when he did sing : 
 To his music, plants and flowers 
 Ever sprung ; as sun and showers 
 
 There had made a lasting spring. 
 
 Every thing that heard him play 
 Even the billows of the sea, 
 
 Hung their heads, and then lay by. 
 In sweet music in such art, 
 Killing care and grief of heart 
 
 Fall asleep, or hearing, die. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE I.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 From ' LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST ' 
 
 SPRING 
 
 WHEN daisies pied and violets blue, 
 And lady-smocks all silver-white, 
 And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue 
 Do paint the meadows with delight, 
 The cuckoo, then, on every tree, 
 Mocks married men ; for thus sings he, 
 
 Cuckoo ; 
 
 Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear, 
 Unpleasing to a married ear ! 
 
 When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, 
 And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, 
 
 When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, 
 And maidens bleach their summer smocks, 
 
 The cuckoo, then, on every tree, 
 
 Mocks married men ; for thus sings he, 
 Cuckoo ; 
 
 Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear, 
 
 Unpleasing to a married ear ! ACT V., SCENE II. 
 
 53
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From ' LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST ' 
 
 WINTER 
 
 WHEN icicles hang by the wall, 
 And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, 
 And Tom bears logs into the hall, 
 And milk comes frozen home in pail, 
 When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul, 
 Then nightly sings the staring owl, 
 
 Tu-whit ; 
 
 Tu-who ; a merry note ; 
 While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 
 
 When all aloud the wind doth blow, 
 And coughing drowns the parson's saw, 
 
 And birds sit brooding in the snow, 
 And Marian's nose looks red and raw, 
 
 When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, 
 
 Then nightly sings the staring owl, 
 Tu-whit ; 
 
 Tu-who ; a merry note ; 
 
 While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE II. 
 54
 
 L 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 'From 'TROILUS AND CRESSIDA' 
 
 OVE, Love, nothing but Love, still more ! 
 
 For, O, love's bow 
 
 Shoots buck and doe : 
 
 The shaft confounds, 
 
 Not that it wounds, 
 But tickles still the sore. 
 
 These lovers cry, Oh ! oh ! they die ! 
 
 Yet that which seems the wound to kill, 
 Doth turn oh ! oh ! to ha ! ha ! he ! 
 
 So dying love lives still : 
 Oh ! oh ! a while, but ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 Oh ! oh ! groans out for ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 
 Heigh-ho ! 
 
 ACT III., SCENE I. 
 
 55
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From ' KING LEAR ' 
 
 SAINT WITHOLD footed thrice the wold ; 
 He met the night-mare, and her nine fold ; 
 Bid her alight, 
 And her troth plight, 
 And, aroint thee witch, aroint thee ! 
 
 ACT III., SCENE? IV. 
 
 H 
 
 From 'KING LEAR' 
 
 ORSE to ride, and weapon to wear, 
 But mice and rats, and such small deer, 
 Have been Tom's food for seven long 
 year. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE IV.

 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 From 'HAMLET' 
 
 OW should I your true love know 
 
 From another one ? 
 By his cockle hat and staff, 
 And his sandal shoon. 
 
 H 
 
 He is dead and gone, lady, 
 
 He is dead and gone ; 
 At his head a grass-green turf, 
 
 At his heels a stone. 
 
 w' 
 
 White his shroud as the mountain snow, 
 
 Larded with sweet flowers ; 
 Which bewept to the grave did go 
 
 With true-love showers. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE V. 
 
 57
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'HAMLET' 
 
 THEY bore him barefaced on the bier ; 
 Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny ; 
 And in his grave rain'd many a tear : 
 You must sing a-down, a-down, 
 An you call him a-down-a. 
 
 And will he not come again ? 
 And will he not come again ? 
 
 No, no, he is dead : 
 
 Go to thy death-bed : 
 He never will come again. 
 
 His beard was as white as snow, 
 All flaxen was his pale : 
 
 He is gone, he is gone, 
 
 And we cast away moan : 
 God have mercy on his soul ! 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE V. 
 
 58
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'HAMLET' 
 
 WHY, let the stricken deer go weep, 
 The hart ungalled play ; 
 For some must watch, while some must 
 
 sleep : 
 So runs the world away. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 
 From ' KING LEAR ' 
 
 CHILD ROWLAND to the dark tower came, 
 His word was still, Fie, foh, and fum, 
 I smell the blood of a British man. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE IV. 
 
 59
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'KING LEAR' 
 
 BE thy mouth or black or white, 
 Tooth that poisons if it bite ; 
 Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, 
 Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, 
 Or bobtail tike, or trundel-tail ; 
 Tom would make them weep and wail ; 
 For, with throwing thus my head, 
 Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE VI. 
 
 60
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 From 'THE TEMPEST' 
 
 FULL fathom five thy father lies ; 
 Of his bones are coral made ; 
 Those are pearls that were his eyes : 
 Nothing of him that doth fade, 
 But doth suffer a sea-change 
 Into something rich and strange. 
 Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : 
 
 Ding-dong. 
 Hark ! now I hear them, Ding-dong, bell. 
 
 ACT I., SCENE II. 
 
 61
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 D 
 
 O 
 
 From 'HAMLET' 
 
 OUBT thou the stars are fire ; 
 
 Doubt that the sun doth move ; 
 Doubt truth to be a liar, 
 But never doubt I love. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE II. 
 
 From'TROILUS AND CRESSIDA' 
 
 HEART, O heart, O heavy heart, 
 Why sigh'st thou without breaking? 
 Because thou canst not ease thy smart, 
 By friendship nor by speaking. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE IV. 
 
 62
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' 
 
 T 
 
 HE god of love, 
 
 That sits above, 
 And knows me, and knows me, 
 
 How pitiful I deserve. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE II. 
 
 From 'THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR' 
 
 B 
 
 Y shallow rivers, to whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals ; 
 There will we make our beds of roses, 
 And a thousand fragrant posies. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE I.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'KING LEAR' 
 
 COME o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me, 
 Her boat hath a leak, 
 And she must not speak 
 Why she dares not come over to thee. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE VI. 
 
 From 'KING LEAR' 
 
 LEEPEST, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd ? 
 Thy sheep be in the corn ; 
 And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, 
 Thy sheep shall take no harm. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE VI. 
 
 64
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'TIMON OF ATHENS' 
 
 IMMORTAL gods, I crave no pelf; 
 I pray for no man but myself : 
 
 Grant I may never prove so fond, 
 To trust man on his oath or bond ; 
 Or a harlot for her weeping ; 
 Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping ; 
 Or a keeper with my freedom ; 
 Or my friends, if I should need 'em. 
 
 Amen. So fall to't : 
 
 Rich men sin, and I eat root. 
 
 ACT I., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 B 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 I LOW, blow, thou winter wind, 
 
 Thou art not so unkind 
 As man's ingratitude ; 
 Thy tooth is not so keen, 
 Because thou art not seen, 
 
 Although thy breath be rude. 
 
 Heigh-ho ! sing, heigh-ho ! unto the green holly : 
 Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly : 
 Then, heigh-ho, the holly ! 
 This life is most jolly. 
 
 Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, 
 That dost not bite so nigh 
 
 As benefits forgot : 
 Though thou the waters warp, 
 Thy sting is not so sharp 
 
 As friend remember'd not. 
 66
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Heigh-ho ! sing, heigh-ho ! unto the green holly 
 Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly 
 
 Then, heigh-ho, the holly ! 
 
 This life is most jolly. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE VII. 
 
 A 1 
 
 From 'OTHELLO' 
 
 ND let me the canakin clink, clink ; 
 And let me the canakin clink ; 
 A soldier's a man ; 
 A life's but a span ; 
 Why, then, let the soldier drink. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 U 
 
 VNDER the greenwood tree 
 
 Who loves to lie with me, 
 And turn his merry note 
 Unto the sweet bird's throat, 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither ! 
 Here shall he see 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 Who doth ambition shun, 
 And loves to live i' the sun, 
 Seeking the food he eats 
 And pleased with what he gets, 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither ! 
 Here shall he see 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE V. 
 68
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 K 
 
 From 'OTHELLO' 
 
 ING STEPHEN was a worthy peer, 
 
 His breeches cost him but a crown ; 
 He held them sixpence all too dear, 
 With that he call'd the tailor lown. 
 
 He was a wight of high renown, 
 And thou art but of low degree : 
 
 'Tis pride that pulls the country down ; 
 Then take thine auld cloak about thee. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III. 
 
 69
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Song, 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 HY should this desert silent be ? 
 
 For it is unpeopled ? No ; 
 Tongues I'll hang on every tree, 
 That shall civil sayings show : 
 
 w 
 
 Some, how brief the life of man, 
 Runs his erring pilgrimage, 
 
 That the stretching of a span 
 Buckles in his sum of age ; 
 
 Some of violated vows 
 
 'Twixt the souls of friend and friend 
 But upon the fairest boughs, 
 
 Or at every sentence end, 
 
 70
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Will I Rosalinda write ; 
 
 Teaching all that read to know 
 The quintessence of every sprite 
 
 Heaven would in little show. 
 
 Therefore Heaven Nature charg'd 
 That one body should be fill'd 
 
 With all graces wide enlarg'd ; 
 Nature presently distill'd 
 
 Helen's cheek, but not her heart ; 
 
 Cleopatra's majesty ; 
 Atalanta's better part ; 
 
 Sad Lucretia's modesty. 
 
 7 1
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Song, 
 
 Thus Rosalind of many parts 
 
 By heavenly synod was devis'd ; 
 Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, 
 
 To have the touches dearest priz'd. 
 Heaven would that she these gifts should have, 
 And I to live and die her slave. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 FROM the east to western Ind, 
 No jewel is like Rosalind. 
 Her worth, being mounted on the wind, 
 Through all the world bears Rosalind. 
 
 All the pictures, fairest lin'd, 
 Are but black to Rosalind. 
 Let no face be kept in mind, 
 But the fair of Rosalind. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 
 73
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From ' WINTER'S TALE ' 
 
 WILL you buy any tape, 
 Or lace for your cape, 
 My dainty duck, my dear-a ? 
 Any silk, any thread, 
 Any toys for your head, 
 Of the new'st and finest, finest wear-a ? 
 Come to the pedlar ; 
 Money's a medler 
 That doth utter all men's ware-a. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III. 
 
 From ' ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ' 
 
 COME, thou monarch of the vine, 
 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne ! 
 In thy vats our cares be drown'd: 
 With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd: 
 Cup us, till the world go round, 
 Cup us, till the world go round ! 
 
 ACT II., SCENE VII. 
 74
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 WHAT thou seest when thou dost wake, 
 Do it for thy true love's sake ; 
 Love and languish for his sake. 
 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 
 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 
 In thy eye that shall appear, 
 When thou wak'st, it is thy dear ; 
 Wake when some vile thing is near. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III. 
 
 75
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Son F 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 From 'TIMON OF ATHENS' 
 
 'ERE lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul 
 
 bereft : 
 Seek not my name : a plague consume you 
 
 wicked caitiffs left ! 
 He lie I, Timon ; who, alive, all living men did 
 
 hate : 
 
 Pass by, and curse thy fill ; but pass, and stay not 
 here thy gait. 
 
 ACT V., SCENE IV. 
 
 76
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'OTHELLO' 
 
 THE poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, 
 Sing all a green willow ; 
 
 Her hand on her bosom, her head on her 
 knee, 
 
 Sing willow, willow, willow : 
 
 The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her 
 moans ; 
 
 Sing willow, willow, willow : 
 Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the 
 stones ; 
 
 Sing willow, willow, willow : 
 
 77
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Sing all a green willow must be my garland, 
 Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve, 
 I call'd my love false love ; but what said he then ? 
 
 Sing willow, willow, willow : 
 
 If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe 
 men. 
 
 ACT IV., SCENE III.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL' 
 
 I AM Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone ; 
 Ambitious love hath so in me offended, 
 That bare-foot plod I the cold ground upon, 
 
 With sainted vow my faults to have amended. 
 Write, write, that from the bloody course of war 
 
 My dearest master, your dear son may hie : 
 Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far 
 
 His name with zealous fervour sanctify : 
 His taken labours bid him me forgive ; 
 I, his despiteful Juno sent him forth 
 From courtly friends, with camping foes to live, 
 Where death and danger dog the heels of 
 
 worth : 
 
 He is too good and fair for Death and me ; 
 Whom I myself embrace, to set him free. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE IV. 
 
 79
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'AS YOU LIKE IT' 
 
 IF a hart do lack a hind, 
 Let him seek out Rosalind. 
 If the cat will after kind, 
 So, be sure, will Rosalind. 
 
 Winter-garments must be lin'd 
 So must slender Rosalind. 
 They that reap must sheaf and bind ; 
 Then to cart with Rosalind. 
 
 Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, 
 Such a nut is Rosalind. 
 He that sweetest rose will find, 
 Must find love's prick, and Rosalind. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 
 80
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA' 
 
 MY thoughts do harbour with my Silvia 
 nightly, 
 And slaves they are to me, that send them 
 
 flying : 
 
 O, could their master come and go as lightly, 
 Himself would lodge, where senseless they are 
 
 lying ! 
 
 My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them ; 
 While I, their king, that thither them im- 
 portune, 
 Do curse the grace that with such grace hath 
 
 bless'd them, 
 
 Because myself do want my servant's fortune : 
 I curse myself, for they are sent by me, 
 That they should harbour where their lord should 
 
 be. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE I. 
 
 F 81
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 From 'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' 
 
 SIGH no more, ladies, sigh no more, 
 Men were deceivers ever, 
 One foot in sea and one on shore, 
 To one thing constant never : 
 Then sigh not so, but let them go, 
 
 And be you blithe and bonny, 
 Converting all your sounds of woe 
 Into, Hey nonny, nonny. 
 
 Sing no more ditties, sing no more, 
 
 Of dumps so dull and heavy ; 
 The fraud of men was ever so, 
 
 Since summer first was leafy : 
 Then sigh not so, but let them go, 
 
 And be you blithe and bonny, 
 Converting all your sounds of woe 
 
 Into, Hey nonny, nonny. 
 
 ACT II., SCENE III. 
 82
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 From 'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE' 
 
 YOU that choose not by the view, 
 Chance as fair, and choose as true ! 
 Since this fortune falls to you, 
 Be content, and seek no new. 
 If you be well pleas'd with this, 
 And hold your fortune for your bliss, 
 Turn you where your lady is, 
 And claim her with a loving kiss. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 o 
 
 From 'A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM' 
 
 4 
 the ground 
 
 Sleep sound : 
 I'll apply 
 To your eye, 
 Gentle lover, remedy. 
 
 When thou wak'st, 
 
 Thou tak'st 
 
 True delight 
 
 In the sight 
 
 Of thy former lady's eye : 
 And the country proverb known, 
 That every man should take his own, 
 In your waking shall be shown : 
 
 Jack shall have Jill ; 
 
 Nought shall go ill ; 
 The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be 
 
 well. 
 
 ACT III., SCENE II. 
 84
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 A LOVER'S COMPLAINT 
 
 FROM offa hill whose concave womb re-worded 
 A painful story from a sistering vale, 
 My spirits to attend this double voice ac- 
 corded, 
 
 And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale ; 
 Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale, 
 Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain, 
 Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain. 
 
 Upon her head a platted hive of straw, 
 
 Which fortified her visage from the sun, 
 
 Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw 
 
 The carcass of a beauty spent and done : 
 
 Time had not scythed all that youth begun, 
 
 Nor youth all quit ; but, spite of Heaven's fell rage, 
 
 Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, 
 Which on it had conceited characters, 
 Laundering the silken figures in the brine 
 That season'd woe had pelleted in tears, 
 And often reading what contents it bears ; 
 As often shrieking undistinguished woe, 
 In clamours of all size, both high and low. 
 
 Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride, 
 As they did battery to the spheres intend ; 
 Sometimes, diverted, their poor balls are tied 
 To the orbed earth ; sometimes they do extend 
 Their view right on ; anon their gazes lend 
 To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd, 
 The mind and sight distractedly commix'd. 
 
 Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat, 
 Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride : 
 For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat, 
 Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside ; 
 
 86
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Some in her threaden fillet still did bide, 
 
 And, true to bondage, would not break from thence, 
 
 Though slackly braided in loose negligence. 
 
 A thousand favours from a maund she drew 
 
 Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet, 
 
 Which one by one she in a river threw, 
 
 Upon whose weeping margent she was set ; 
 
 Like usury, applying wet to wet, 
 
 Or monarch's hands that let not bounty fall 
 
 Where want cries some, but where excess begs all. 
 
 Of folded schedules had she many a one, 
 Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood ; 
 Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone, 
 Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud ; 
 Found yet more letters sadly penn'd in blood, 
 With sleided silk feat and affectedly 
 Enswathed, and seal'd to curious secrecy. 
 
 8?
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes, 
 And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear ; 
 Cried ' O false blood, thou register of lies, 
 What unapproved witness dost thou bear ! 
 Ink would have seem'd more black and damned 
 
 here ! ' 
 
 This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, 
 Big discontent so breaking their contents. 
 
 A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh- 
 Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew 
 
 t 
 
 Of court, of city, and had let go by 
 
 The swiftest hours, observed as they flew 
 
 Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew, 
 
 And, privileged by age, desires to know 
 
 In brief the grounds and motives of her woe. 
 
 So slides he down upon his grained bat, 
 And comely-distant sits he by her side ; 
 
 88
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 When he again desires her, being sat, 
 Her grievance with his hearing to divide : 
 . If that from him there may be aught applied 
 Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage, 
 'Tis promised in the charity of age. 
 
 ' Father,' she says, ' though in me you behold 
 The injury of many a blasting hour, 
 Let it not tell your judgment I am old ; 
 Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power : 
 I might as yet have been a spreading flower, 
 Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied 
 Love to myself, and to no love beside. 
 
 ' But, woe is me ! too early I attended 
 A youthful suit it was to gain my grace 
 Of one by nature's outwards so commended, 
 That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face : 
 Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place ; 
 
 89
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 And when in his fair parts she did abide, 
 She was new lodged and newly deified. 
 
 ' His browny locks did hang in crooked curls ; 
 And every light occasion of the wind 
 Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls. 
 What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find : 
 Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind, 
 For on his visage was in little drawn 
 What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn. 
 
 ' Small show of man was yet upon his chin ; 
 His phoenix down began but to appear 
 Like unshorn velvet on that termless skin 
 Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear 
 Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear ; 
 And nice affections wavering stood in doubt 
 If best were as it was, or best without. 
 
 90
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Song, 
 
 ' His qualities were beauteous as his form, 
 
 For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free ; 
 
 Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm 
 
 As oft 'twixt May and April is to see, 
 
 When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be. 
 
 His rudeness so with his authorised youth 
 
 Did livery falseness in a pride of truth. 
 
 ' Well could he ride, and often men would say 
 
 That horse his mettle from his rider takes : 
 
 Proud of subjection, noble by the sway, 
 
 What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop 
 
 he makes ! 
 
 And controversy hence a question takes, 
 Whether the horse by him became his deed, 
 Or he his manage by the well-doing steed. 
 
 ' But quickly on this side the verdict went : 
 His real habitude gave life and grace 
 
 9 1
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 To appertainings and to ornament, 
 Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case : 
 All aids, themselves made fairer by their place, 
 Came for additions ; yet their purposed trim 
 Pierced not his grace, but were all graced by him. 
 
 ' So on the tip of his subduing tongue 
 All kind of arguments and question deep 
 All replication prompt and reason strong 
 For his advantage still did wake and sleep : 
 To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, 
 He had the dialect and different skill, 
 Catching all passions in his craft of will : 
 
 * That he did in the general bosom reign 
 Of young, of old ; and sexes both enchanted, 
 To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain 
 In personal duty, following where he haunted : 
 Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted ; 
 
 92
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ;; 
 
 And dialogued for him what he would say, 
 Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey. 
 
 ' Many there were that did his picture get, 
 To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind ; 
 Like fools that in th' imagination set 
 The goodly objects which abroad they find 
 Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd : 
 And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them 
 Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe 
 them : 
 
 ' So many have, that never touch'd his hand, 
 Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart. 
 My woeful self that did in freedom stand, 
 And was my own fee-simple, not in part, 
 What with his art in youth, and youth in art, 
 Threw my affections in his charmed power, 
 Reserved the stalk, and gave him all my flower. 
 
 93
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 ' Yet did I not, as some my equals did, 
 
 Demand of him, nor being desired yielded ; 
 
 Finding myself in honour so forbid, 
 
 With safest distance I mine honour shielded ; 
 
 Experience for me many bulwarks builded 
 
 Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil 
 
 Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil. 
 
 ' But, ah ! who ever shunn'd by precedent 
 The destined ill she must herself assay ? 
 Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content, 
 To put the by-past perils in her way ? 
 Counsel may stop a while what will not stay ; 
 For when we rage, advice is often seen 
 By blunting us to make our wits more keen. 
 
 ' Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood, 
 That we must curb it upon others' proof; 
 To be forbod the sweets that seem so good, 
 For fear of harms that preach in our behoof. 
 
 94
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 O Appetite, from Judgment stand aloof! 
 The one a palate hath that needs will taste, 
 Though Reason weep, and cry // is thy last. 
 
 ' For further I could say This mans untrue, 
 And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling ; 
 Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew, 
 Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling ; 
 Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling ; 
 Thought characters and words merely but art, 
 And bastards of his foul adulterate heart. 
 
 ' And long upon these terms I held my city, 
 Till thus he 'gan besiege me : Gentle maid, 
 Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity, 
 And be not of my holy vows afraid : 
 That's to ye sworn to none was ever said; 
 For feasts of love I have been calFd unto, 
 Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo. 
 
 95
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 n 
 
 4 All my offences that abroad you see 
 
 Are errors of the blood, none of the mind ; 
 
 Love made them not : with acture they may be, 
 
 Where neither party is nor true nor kind : 
 
 They sought their shame that so their shame did find; 
 
 And so much less of shame in me remains, 
 
 By how much of me their reproach contains. 
 
 ' Among the many that mine eyes have seen, 
 
 Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmd, 
 
 Or my affection put to the smallest teen, 
 
 Or any of my leisures ever charm d: 
 
 Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmd ; 
 
 Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, 
 
 And reign d, commanding in his monarchy. 
 
 * Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me 
 Of paPed pearls and rubies red as blood; 
 Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me 
 
 96
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Of grief and blushes, aptly understood 
 In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood ; 
 Effects of terror and dear modesty, 
 Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly. 
 
 ' And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, 
 With twisted metal amorously impleactid, 
 I have received from many a several fair, 
 Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech' d, 
 With the annexions of fair gems enricKd, 
 And deep-brain d sonnets that did amplify 
 Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality. 
 
 ' The diamond why, 'twas beautiful and hard, 
 Whereto his invised properties did tend 
 The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard 
 Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend ; 
 The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend 
 With objects manifold : each several stone, 
 With wit well blazon d, smiled or made some moan. 
 G 97
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 1 Lo, all these trophies of affections hot, 
 Of pensive d and subdued desires the tender. 
 Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not, 
 But yield them up where I myself must render, 
 That is, to you, my origin and ender ; 
 For these, of force, must your oblations be, 
 Since I their altar, you enpatron me. 
 
 ' O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand, 
 Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise 
 Take all these similes to your own command, 
 Hallow d with sighs that burning lungs did raise ; 
 What me your minister, for you obeys, 
 Works under you : and to your audit comes 
 Their distract parcels in combined sums. 
 
 ' Lo, this device was sent me from a nun, 
 Or sister sanctified, of holiest note ; 
 Which late her noble suit in court did shun, 
 
 98
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote ; 
 For she was sought by spirits of richest coat, 
 
 But kept cold distance, and did thence remove* 
 
 i 
 
 To spend her living in eternal love. 
 
 ' But, O my sweet, what labour is V to leave 
 
 The thing we have not, mastering what not strives, 
 
 Playing the place which did no form receive, 
 
 Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves ? 
 
 She that her fame so to herself contrives, 
 
 The scars of battle ' scape th by the flight, 
 
 And makes her absence valiant, not her might. 
 
 ' O, pardon me, in that my boast is true: 
 The accident which brought me to her eye 
 Upon the moment did her force subdue, 
 And now she would the caged cloister fly : 
 Religious love put out Religion s eye : 
 Not to be tempted, would she be immured ; 
 And now, to tempt, all liberty procured. 
 
 99
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 ' How mighty then you are, O hear me tell ! 
 
 The broken bosoms that to me belong 
 
 Have emptied all their fountains in my well, 
 
 And mine I pour your ocean all among: 
 
 I strong o'er them, ana 1 you oer me being strong, 
 
 Must for your victory us all congest, 
 
 As compound love to physic your cold breast. 
 
 * My parts had power to charm a sacred nun, 
 Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace, 
 Believed her eyes when they to assail begun, 
 All vows and consecrations giving place : 
 
 most potential love ! vow, bond, nor space, 
 In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, 
 For thou art all, and all things else are thine. 
 
 1 When thou impressest, what are precepts worth 
 Of stale example ? When thou wilt inflame, 
 How coldly those impediments stand forth 
 
 Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame ! 
 
 100
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Loves arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 
 
 'gainst shame, 
 
 And sweetens, In the suffering pangs it bears, 
 The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears. 
 
 ' Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, 
 Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine ; 
 And supplicant their sighs to you extend, 
 To have the battery that you make 'gainst mine, 
 Lending soft audience to my sweet design, 
 And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath 
 That shall prefer and undertake my troth. 
 
 ' This said, his watery eyes he did dismount, 
 Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face ; 
 Each cheek a river running from a fount 
 With brinish current downward flow'd apace : 
 O, how the channel to the stream gave grace ! 
 Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses 
 That flame through water which their hue encloses. 
 
 101
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 ' O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies 
 In the small orb of one particular tear ! 
 But with the inundation of the eyes 
 What rocky heart to water will not wear? 
 What breast so cold that is not warmed here ? 
 O cleft effect ! cold modesty, hot wrath, 
 Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath. 
 
 ' For, Jo, his passion, but an art of craft, 
 
 Even there resolved my reason into tears ; 
 
 There my white stole of chastity I dafF'd, 
 
 Shook off my sober guards and civil fears ; 
 
 Appear to him, as he to me appears, 
 
 All melting; though our drops this difference bore, 
 
 His poison'd me, and mine did him restore. 
 
 
 
 ' In him a plenitude of subtle matter, 
 Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives, 
 Of burning blushes, or of weeping water, 
 
 1 02
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Or swooning paleness ; and he takes and leaves, 
 In cither's aptness, as it best deceives, 
 To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes, 
 Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows : 
 
 ' That not a heart which in his level came 
 Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim, 
 Showing fair nature is both kind and tame ; 
 And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would 
 
 maim : 
 
 Against the thing he sought he would exclaim ; 
 When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury, 
 He preach'd pure maid, and praised cold chastity. 
 
 ' Thus merely with the garment of a Grace 
 The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd ; 
 That th' unexperient gave the tempter place, 
 Which like a cherubim above them hover'd. 
 Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd ? 
 
 103
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Ay me ! I fell ; and yet do question make 
 What I should do again for such a sake. 
 
 ' O that infected moisture of his eye, 
 O that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd, 
 O that forced thunder from his heart did fly, 
 O that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd, 
 O all that borrow'd motion, seeming owed, 
 Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd, 
 And new pervert a reconciled maid ! ' 
 
 104
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM 
 
 SWEET Cytherea, sitting by a brook 
 With young Adonis, lovely, fresh and green, 
 Did court the lad with many a lovely look, 
 Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen. 
 She told him stories to delight his ear ; 
 She show'd him favours to allure his eye ; 
 To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there : 
 Touches so soft still conquer chastity. 
 But whether unripe years did want conceit, 
 Or he refused to take her figured proffer, 
 The tender nibbler would not touch the bait, 
 But smile and jest at every gentle offer : 
 
 Then fell she on her back, fair queen, and 
 
 toward : 
 
 He rose and ran away ; ah ! fool too fro ward. 
 105
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng. 
 
 ii 
 
 Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn, 
 And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade, 
 When Cytherea, all in love forlorn, 
 A longing tarriance for Adonis made 
 Under an osier growing by a brook, 
 A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen : 
 Hot was the day ; she hotter that did look 
 For his approach, that often there had been. 
 Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by, 
 And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim : 
 The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye, 
 Yet not so wistly as this queen on him : 
 
 He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood : 
 ' O Jove,' quoth she, ' why was not I a flood! ? ' 
 
 1 06
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 in 
 
 Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love, 
 
 Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove, 
 For Aden's sake, a youngster proud and wild ; 
 Her stand she takes upon a steep-up hill : 
 Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds ; 
 She, silly queen, with more than love's good will, 
 Forbade the boy he should not pass those grounds. 
 ' Once,' quoth she, ' did I see a fair sweet youth 
 Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar, 
 Deep in the thigh, a spectacle of ruth ! 
 See, in my thigh,' quoth she, * here was the sore.' 
 
 She showed hers ; he saw more wounds than 
 one, 
 
 And blushing fled, and left her all alone. 
 
 107
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 IV 
 
 Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her 
 
 Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him : 
 
 She told the youngling how god Mars did try 
 
 her, 
 
 And as he fell to her, so fell she to him. 
 ' Even thus,' quoth she, ' the war-like god embraced 
 
 me,' 
 
 And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms ; 
 ' Even thus,' quoth she, * the war-like god unlaced 
 
 me,' 
 
 As if the boy should use like loving charms. 
 * Even thus/ quoth she, ' he seized on my lips,' 
 And with her lips on his did act the seizure ; 
 And as she fetched breath, away he skips, 
 And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure. 
 Ah ! that I had my lady at this bay, 
 To kiss and clip me till I ran away. 
 108
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Crabbed age and youth cannot live together : 
 Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care ; 
 Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather ; 
 Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. 
 Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short ; 
 
 Youth is nimble, age is lame ; 
 Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold ; 
 
 Youth is wild, and age is tame. 
 Age, I do abhor thee ; youth, I do adore thee ; 
 
 O ! my love, my love is young ; 
 Age, I do defy thee : O ! sweet shepherd, hie thee, 
 
 For methinks thou stay'st too long. 
 
 109
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 vi 
 
 Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon 
 
 faded, 
 
 Pluck'd in the bud, and faded in the spring ! 
 Bright orient pearl, alack ! too timely shaded ; 
 Fair creature, kill'd too soon by death's sharp 
 
 sting ! 
 
 Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree, 
 And falls, through wind, before the fall should 
 be. 
 
 I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have ; 
 
 For why thou left'st me nothing in thy will : 
 
 And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave ; 
 
 For why I craved nothing of thee still : 
 
 Oh yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee, 
 Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me. 
 
 1 10
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 VII 
 
 Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle ; 
 
 Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty ; 
 
 Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle ; 
 
 Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty : 
 A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her, 
 None fairer, nor none falser to deface her. 
 
 Her lips to mine how often hath she joined, 
 Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing ! 
 How many tales to please me hath she coined, 
 Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing ! 
 Yet in the midst of all her pure pretestings, 
 Herfaith,her oaths, her tears, and all werejestings. 
 
 She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth ; 
 She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-burneth ; 
 She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the framing ; 
 She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning. 
 
 Was this a lover, or a lecher whether ? 
 
 Bad in the best, though excellent in neither, 
 in
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 VIII 
 
 Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good ; 
 
 A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly ; 
 
 A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud ; 
 
 A brittle glass that's broken presently : 
 
 A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, 
 Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour. 
 
 And as goods lost are seld or never found, 
 As faded gloss no rubbing will refresh, 
 As flowers dead lie withered on the ground, 
 As broken glass no cement can redress, 
 So beauty blemish'd once's for ever lost, 
 In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost. 
 
 112
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 IX 
 
 Good night, good rest. Ah ! neither be my 
 
 share ; 
 
 She bade good night that kept my rest away ; 
 And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care, 
 To descant on the doubts of my decay. 
 
 * Farewell,' quoth she, ' and come again to- 
 morrow : ' 
 Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow. 
 
 Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile, 
 In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether : 
 'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile, 
 'T may be, again to make me wander thither : 
 ' Wander,' a word for shadows like thyself, 
 As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Lord ! how mine eyes throw gazes to the east ; 
 
 My heart doth charge the watch ; the morning rise 
 
 Doth cite each moving sense from idle rest. 
 
 Not daring trust the office of mine eyes, 
 
 While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark, 
 And wish her lays were tuned like the lark ; 
 
 For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty, 
 And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night : 
 The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty ; 
 Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight ; 
 Sorrow changed to solace, sorrow mix'd with 
 
 sorrow ; 
 
 For why, she sigh'd and bade me come to- 
 morrow. 
 
 114
 
 Were I with her, the night would post too soon ; 
 But now are minutes added to the hours ; 
 To spite me now, each minute seems a moon ; 
 Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers ! 
 Pack night, peep day ; good day, of night now 
 
 borrow : 
 
 Short, night, to-night, and length thyself to- 
 morrow.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 XI 
 
 If music and sweet poetry agree, 
 As they must needs, the sister and the brother, 
 Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me. 
 Because thou lovest the one, and I the other. 
 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 defence. 
 Thou lovest to hear the sweet melodious sound 
 That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes ; 
 And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd 
 Whenas himself to singing he betakes. 
 
 One god is god of both, as poets feign ; 
 
 One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 SONGS TO NOTES OF MUSIC 
 
 I 
 
 IT was a lordling's daughter, the fairest one of 
 three, 
 
 That liked of her master as well as well might be, 
 Till looking on an Englishman, the fair'st that 
 
 eye could see, 
 Her fancy fell a-turning. 
 
 Long was the combat doubtful that love with 
 
 love did fight, 
 To leave the master loveless, or kill the gallant 
 
 knight : 
 
 To put in practice either, alas ! it was a spite 
 Unto the silly damsel. 
 
 117
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 But one must be refused ; more mickle was the 
 
 pain 
 That nothing could be used to turn them both to 
 
 gain, 
 For of the two the trusty knight was wounded 
 
 with disdain : 
 Alas ! she could not help it. 
 
 Thus art with arms contending was victor of the 
 
 day, 
 Which by a gift of learning did bear the maid 
 
 away; 
 Then lullaby, the learned man hath got the lady 
 
 For now my song is ended. 
 
 
 118
 
 SHAKESPE AR E'S So 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 On a day, alack the day ! 
 Love, whose month was ever May, 
 Spied a blossom passing fair, 
 Playing in the wanton air : 
 Through the velvet leaves the wind, 
 All unseen, 'gan passage find ; 
 That the lover, sick to death, 
 Wished himself the heaven's breath. 
 ' Air,' quoth he, ' thy cheeks may blow 
 Air, would I might triumph so ! 
 But, alas ! my hand hath sworn 
 Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn : 
 Vow, alack ! for youth unmeet : 
 Youth, so apt to pluck a sweet. 
 Thou for whom Jove would swear 
 Juno but an Ethiope were ; 
 And deny himself for Jove, 
 Turning mortal for thy love.' 
 119
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ?^gs 
 
 in 
 
 My flocks feed not, 
 My ewes breed not, 
 My rams speed not, 
 
 All is amiss : 
 Love's denying, 
 Faith's defying, 
 Heart's renying, 
 
 Causer of this. 
 
 All my merry jigs are quite forgot, 
 All my lady's love is lost, God wot : 
 Where her faith was firmly fix'd in love, 
 There a nay is placed without remove. 
 One silly cross 
 Wrought all my loss ; 
 
 O ! frowning Fortune, cursed, fickle dame, 
 For now I see 
 Inconstancy 
 
 More in women than in men remain. 
 120
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 In black mourn I, 
 All fears scorn I, 
 Love hath forlorn me, 
 
 Living in thrall : 
 Heart is bleeding, 
 All help needing, 
 O ! cruel speeding, 
 
 Fraughted with gall. 
 My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal, 
 My wether's bell rings doleful knell ; 
 My curtal dog, that wont to have play'd, 
 Plays not at all, but seems afraid ; 
 My sighs so deep 
 Procure to weep, 
 
 In howling wise, to see my doleful plight. 
 How sighs resound 
 Through heartless ground, 
 
 Like a thousand vanquish'd men in bloody 
 fight! 
 
 121
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Clear wells spring not, 
 Sweet birds sing not, 
 Green plants bring not 
 
 Forth their dye ; 
 Herds stand weeping, 
 Flocks all sleeping, 
 Nymphs back peeping 
 
 Fearfully : 
 
 All our pleasure known to us poor swains, 
 All our merry meetings on the plains, 
 All our evening sport from us is fled, 
 All our love is lost, for Love is dead. 
 Farewell, sweet lass, 
 Thy like ne'er was 
 
 For a sweet content, the cause of all my moan 
 Poor Corydon 
 Must live alone ; 
 
 Other help for him I see that there is none. 
 
 122
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 IV 
 
 Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame, 
 And stall'd the deer that thou should'st strike, 
 Let reason rule things worthy blame, 
 As well as fancy partial wight : 
 Take counsel of some wiser head, 
 Neither too young nor yet unwed. 
 
 And when thou comest thy tale to tell, 
 Smooth not thy tongue with filed talk, 
 Lest she some subtle practice smell ; 
 A cripple soon can find a halt : 
 
 But plainly say thou lovest her well, 
 And set thy person forth to sell. 
 
 What though her frowning brows be bent, 
 
 Her cloudy looks will clear ere night ; 
 
 And then too late she will repent 
 
 That thus dissembled her delight ; 
 And twice desire, ere it be day, 
 That which with scorn she put away. 
 123
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 What though she strive to try her strength, 
 And ban and brawl, and say thee nay, 
 Her feeble force will yield at length, 
 When craft hath taught her thus to say, 
 * Had women been so strong as men, 
 In faith, you had not had it then.' 
 
 And to her will frame all thy ways ; 
 
 Spare not to spend, and chiefly there 
 
 Where thy desert may merit praise, 
 
 By ringing in thy lady's ear : 
 
 The strongest castle, tower, and town, 
 The golden bullet beats it down. 
 
 Serve always with assured trust, 
 
 And in thy suit be humble true ; 
 
 Unless thy lady prove unjust, 
 
 Seek never thou to choose anew. 
 
 When time shall serve, be thou not slack 
 To proffer, though she put thee back. 
 124
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ngs 
 
 The wiles and guiles that women work, 
 Dissembled with an outward show, 
 The tricks and toys that in them lurk, 
 The cock that treads them shall not know. 
 Have you not heard it said full oft, 
 A woman's nay doth stand for nought ? 
 
 Think, women love to match with men 
 And not to live so like a saint : 
 Here is no heaven ; they holy then 
 Begin when age doth them attaint. 
 Were kisses all the joys in bed, 
 One woman would another wed. 
 
 But, soft ! enough ! too much, I fear ; 
 For if my mistress hear my song, 
 She will not stick to ring my ear, 
 To teach my tongue to be so long : 
 Yet will she blush, here be it said, 
 To hear her secrets so bewray 'd. 
 125
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 Live with me, and be my love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove 
 That hills and valleys, dales and fields, 
 And all the craggy mountains yields. 
 
 There will we sit upon the rocks, 
 And see the shepherds feed their flocks, 
 By shallow rivers, by whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
 
 There will I make thee a bed of roses, 
 With a thousand fragrant posies, 
 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
 Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. 
 
 126
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 A belt of straw and ivy buds, 
 With coral clasps and amber studs ; 
 And if these pleasures may thee move, 
 Then live with me and be my love. 
 
 LOVE S ANSWER 
 
 If that the world and love were young, 
 And truth in every shepherd's tongue, 
 These pretty pleasures might me move 
 To live with thee and be thy love. 
 
 127
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 ng, 
 
 VI 
 
 As it fell upon a day 
 In the merry month of May, 
 Sitting in a pleasant shade 
 Which a grove of myrtles made, 
 Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, 
 Trees did grow, and plants did spring ; 
 Every thing did banish moan, 
 Save the nightingale alone : 
 She, poor bird, as all forlorn, 
 Leaned her breast up-till a thorn, 
 And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, 
 That to hear it was great pity : 
 * Fie, fie, fie ! ' now would she cry ; 
 4 Tereu, Tereu ! ' by and by ; 
 That to hear her so complain, 
 Scarce I could from tears refrain ; 
 For her griefs, so lively shown, 
 Made me think upon mine own. 
 128
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Ah ! thought I, thou mourn'st in vain, 
 None takes pity on thy pain : 
 Senseless trees they cannot hear thee, 
 Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee 
 King Pandion he is dead, 
 All thy friends are lapp'd in lead, 
 All thy fellow birds do sing 
 Careless of thy sorrowing. 
 Even so, poor bird, like thee, 
 None alive will pity me. 
 Whilst as fickle Fortune smiled, 
 Thou and I were both beguiled. 
 
 Every one that flatters thee 
 Is no friend in misery. 
 Words are easy, like the wind ; 
 Faithful friends are hard to find : 
 Every man will be thy friend 
 Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend ; 
 But if store of crowns be scant, 
 No man will supply thy want, 
 i 129
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 If that one be prodigal, 
 Bountiful they will him call, 
 And with such-like flattering, 
 ' Pity but he were a king.' 
 If he be addict to vice, 
 Quickly him they will entice ; 
 If to women he be bent, 
 They have him at commandement : 
 But if Fortune once do frown, 
 Then farewell his great renown ; 
 They that fawned on him before 
 Use his company no more. 
 He that is thy friend indeed, 
 He will help thee in thy need : 
 If thou sorrow, he will weep ; 
 If thou wake, he cannot sleep : 
 Thus of every grief in heart 
 He with thee does bear a part. 
 These are certain signs to know 
 
 Faithful friend from flattering foe. 
 130
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 THE PHCENIX AND THE TURTLE 
 
 LET the bird of loudest lay, 
 On the sole Arabian tree, 
 Herald sad and trumpet be, 
 To whose sound chaste wings obey. 
 
 But thou shrieking harbinger, 
 Foul precurrer of the fiend, 
 Augur of the fever's end, 
 To this troop come thou not near. 
 
 From this session interdict 
 Every fowl of tyrant wing, 
 Save the eagle, feathered king : 
 Keep the obsequy so strict
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Let the priest in surplice white 
 That defunctive music can, 
 Be the death-divining swan, 
 Lest the requiem lack his right. 
 
 And thou treble-dated crow, 
 That thy sable gender makest 
 With the breath thou givest and takest 
 'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go. 
 
 Here the anthem doth commence : 
 Love and constancy is dead : 
 Phcenix and the turtle fled 
 In a mutual flame from hence. 
 
 So they loved, as love in twain 
 Had the essence but in one ; 
 Two distincts, division none : 
 Number there in love was slain. 
 132
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Hearts remote, yet not asunder ; 
 Distance, and no space was seen 
 'Twixt the turtle and his queen : 
 But in them it were a wonder. 
 
 So between them love did shine, 
 That the turtle saw his right 
 Flaming in the phoenix' sight ; 
 Either was the other's mine. 
 
 Property was thus appall'd, 
 That the self was not the same ; 
 Single nature's double name 
 Neither two nor one was call'd. 
 
 Reason, in itself confounded, 
 Saw division grow together ; 
 To themselves yet either neither, 
 Simple were so well conpounded, 
 133
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S So 
 
 n 
 
 That it cried, ' How true a twain 
 Seemeth this concordant one ! 
 Love hath reason, reason none, 
 If what parts can so remain.' 
 
 Whereupon it made this threne 
 To the phoenix and the dove, 
 Co-supremes and stars of love, 
 As chorus to their tragic scene. 
 
 THRENOS 
 
 Beauty, truth, and rarity, 
 Grace in all simplicity, 
 Here enclosed in cinders lie. 
 
 Death is now the phoenix' nest ; 
 And the turtle's loyal breast 
 To eternity doth rest, 
 134
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Songs 
 
 Leaving no posterity : 
 'Twas not their infirmity, 
 It was married chastity. 
 
 Truth may seem, but cannot be ; 
 Beauty brag, but 'tis not she ; 
 Truth and beauty buried be. 
 
 To this urn let those repair 
 
 That are either true or fair ; 
 
 For those dead birds sigh a prayer.
 
 INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE SONGS 
 
 All that glisters is not gold . . . .21 
 
 And let me the canakin clink, clink . . .67 
 
 And sword and shield . . . . .29 
 
 Art thou, god, to shepherd turn'd ? . 1 1 
 
 Be, as thou wast wont to be . . . .26 
 
 Be thy mouth or black or white . . .60 
 
 Blow, blow, thou winter wind . . .66 
 
 By shallow rivers, to whose falls . . .63 
 
 Child Rowland to the dark tower came . .59 
 
 Come away, come away, Death . . .22 
 
 Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me . .64 
 
 Come, thou monarch of the vine . . .74 
 
 Come unto these yellow sands . . .27 
 
 Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye . .16 
 
 Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer . . 46 
 
 Doubt thou the stars are fire ? . . . .62 
 
 Fain' King, attend and mark . . . .30 
 
 Fathers that wear rags . . . . .8 
 
 Fear no more the heat o' the sun . . .24 
 Fie on sinful fantasy ! .... 40 
 
 '37
 
 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Flower of the purple dye . . . .31 
 
 For I the ballad will repeat . . . .47 
 
 From the east to western Ind . . . -73 
 
 Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing . . 44 
 
 Full fathom five thy father lies . . .61 
 
 Get you hence, for I must go ... 7 
 
 Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love . .10 
 
 Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings . . i 
 Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft . 76 
 
 Honour, riches, marriage-blessing . . .20 
 
 Horse to ride, and weapon to wear . . .56 
 
 How should I your true love know ? . . -57 
 
 I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone . . 79 
 
 If a hart do lack a hind . . . .80 
 
 If she be made of white and red . . .41 
 If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love ? . 14 
 
 Immortal gods, I crave no pelf . . -65 
 It was a Lover and his Lass .... 5 
 
 King Stephen was a worthy peer . . .69 
 
 Lawn as white as driven snow . . . 32 
 
 Love like a shadow flies . . . -33 
 
 Love, love, nothing but Love, still more ! . -55 
 
 My thoughts do harbour with my Silvia nightly . 81 
 
 No more dams I'll make for fish . . -44 
 
 Now the hungry lion roars . . . -37 
 
 O heart, O heart, O heavy heart . 62 
 
 138
 
 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 
 
 O mistress mine, where are you roaming : .4 
 
 On a day alack the day ! . . 17 
 
 On the ground . . . . .84 
 
 Orpheus with his lute made trees . . .52 
 
 Over hill, over dale . . . . .28 
 
 Pardon, Goddess of the night . . . .23 
 
 Saint Withold footed thrice the wold . . 56 
 
 Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more . . .82 
 
 Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd ? . 64 
 
 So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not . .12 
 
 Take, O, take those lips away . . -9 
 Tell me where is Fancy bred . ... 2 
 
 The raging rocks . . . . -33 
 
 The god of love . . . . -63 
 
 The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I , i 
 
 Then is there mirth in Heaven . . .19 
 
 The ousel-cock, so black of hue . . -45 
 
 The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree . . 77 
 
 They bore him barefaced on the bier . . 58 
 
 Through the forest have I gone . . -34- 
 
 Under the greenwood tree . . . .68 
 
 Wedding is great Juno's crown . . .18 
 
 What shall he have that killed the deer ? -5 
 
 What thou seest when thou dost wake . -75 
 
 When daffodils begin to peer . 42 
 
 When daisies pied and violets blue . . -53 
 
 139
 
 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 
 
 When icicles hang by the wall . . .54 
 
 When that I was and a little tiny boy . . 48 
 
 Where the bee sucks, there suck I . .26 
 While you here do snoring lie ... 29 
 
 Who is Silvia ? what is She ... .3 
 
 Why, let the stricken deer go weep ? . . .59 
 
 Why should this desert silent be ? . . .70 
 
 Will you buy any tape ? . . .74 
 
 You spotted snakes with double tongue . -35 
 
 You that choose not by the view . . -83 
 
 140
 
 UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 SONNETS 
 
 With Fourteen Illustrations and Cover Design by 
 
 HENRY OSPOVAT 
 
 Square l6mo. 3*. bd. net 
 
 Art Journal says : ' Mr Ospovat has excelled himself in 
 his illustrations for Mr John Lane's dainty edition of Shake- 
 speare's Sonnets. They are finely decorative, and well attuned 
 to the measured, stately sweep of the poems they embellish.' 
 
 Studio, ' Mr Ospovat's . . . task has been by no means 
 a light one, but he has accomplished it with excellent 
 judgment and right feeling. His drawings are not merely 
 technically good : they have been inspired with true poetic 
 sentiment.' 
 
 Magazine of Art, ' Well printed on rough paper, with 
 one sonnet to a page. The illustrations are of unusual 
 excellence.' 
 
 Saturday Review. ' No one could desire an edition of 
 the Sonnets more tastefully and charmingly got up than 
 this.' 
 
 JOHN LANE, Publisher, LONDON AND NEW YORK
 
 UC LIBRARY 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON 
 
 AND 
 
 Upwards of Seventy Illustrations and a Cover Design by 
 HENRY OSPOVAT 
 
 Price 6s. net. Crown Svo. Price $2*50 
 
 The Magazine of Art. 'An extremely charming edition, 
 profusely illustrated with pen drawings by an artist whose 
 decorative fancy in the head-pieces is as remarkable as the 
 power to render the poetry itself. It speaks well for him 
 that he holds his readers by his artistic feeling.' 
 
 The Bookman. 'A beautiful edition. The illustrations 
 are bold and striking and worthy of close study.' 
 
 Literature. ' Mr Henry Ospovat has well caught the fine 
 spirit which informs the poems. The work in technique 
 reminds one of that done for the wood engravers of the 
 fifties.' 
 
 JOHN LANE, Publisher, LONDON AND NEW YORK
 
 ,, U .S.f?. U .J H .^.?.. E .?J NA l- LIBRARY FACIl 
 
 A 000 491 863