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de earl, de knight, de lords, de gentlemen, my patients.

HOST. For the which, I will be thy adversary towards Anne Page; said I well?

CAIUS. By gar, 'tis good; vell said.

HOST. Let us wag then.

CAIUS. Come at my heels, Jack Rugby.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

A Field near Frogmore.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

EVA. I pray you now, good master Slender's serving-man, and friend Simple by your name, which way have you looked for master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of Physick?

SIM. Marry, sir, the city-ward, the park-ward,

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find what you seek,

"That fame may cry you

loud."

Again, in Ford's Lover's Melancholy, 1629:

"A gull, an arrant gull by proclamation." Again, in King Lear: "A proclaimed prize." Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think."

Cock of the Game, however, is not, as Dr. Warburton pronounces it, a modern elegancy of speech, for it is found in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. xii. c. 74: "This cocke of game, and (as might seeme) this hen of that same fether."

Again, in The Martial Maid, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "O craven chicken of a cock o' the game!"

And in many other places. STEEVENS.

8 the CITY-WARD,] The old editions read-the Pittieward, the modern editors the Pitty-wary. There is now no place that answers to either name at Windsor. The author might possibly have written (as I have printed) the City-ward, i. e. towards London.

In the Itinerarium, however, of William de Worcestre, p. 251,

every way; old Windsor way, and every way but

the town way.

EVA. I most fehemently desire you, you will also look that way.

SIM. I will, sir.

EVA. 'Pless my soul! how full of cholers I am, and trempling of mind!-I shall be glad, if he have deceived me:-how melancholies I am!-I will knog his urinals about his knave's costard, when I have good opportunities for the 'orke :'pless my soul! [Sings.

To shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sings madrigals;

the following account of distances in the city of Bristol occurs: "Via de Pyttey a Pyttey-yate, porta vocata Nether Pittey, usque antiquam portam Pyttey usque viam ducentem ad Wynchstrete continet 140 gressus," &c. &c. The word-Pittey, therefore, which seems unintelligible to us, might anciently have had an obvious meaning. STEEVENS.

9 To shallow rivers, &c.] This is part of a beautiful little poem of the author's; which poem, and the answer to it, the reader will not be displeased to find here.

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

"Come live with me, and be my love,
"And we will all the pleasures prove
"That hills and vallies, dale and field,
"And all the craggy mountains yield.
"There will we sit upon the rocks,

"And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

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There will we make our peds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies.
To shallow-

"A belt of straw, and ivy buds,
"With coral clasps, and amber studs:
"And if these pleasures may thee move,
"Come live with me, and be my love.

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Thy silver dishes for thy meat,

"As precious as the gods do eat,
"Shall on an ivory table be

"Prepar'd each day for thee and me.

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The shepherd swains shall dance and sing, "For thy delight each May morning:

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If these delights thy mind may move, "Then live with me and be my love *."

THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE SHEPHERD.

"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.
"But time drives flocks from field to fold,
"When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,
"And Philomel becometh dumb,
"And all complain of cares to come:
"The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
"To wayward winter reckoning yields.
"A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
"Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

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Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,

"Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,

"Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
"In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

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Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds,

"Thy coral clasps, and amber studs ;

"All these in me no means can move
"To come to thee, and be thy love.
"What should we talk of dainties then,
"Of better meat than's fit for men?

* The conclusion of this and the following poem seem to have furnished Milton with the hint for the last lines both of his Allegro and Penseroso. STEEVENS.

"Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry.

"These are but vain: that's only good
"Which God hath bless'd, and sent for food.
"But could youth last, and love still breed,
"Had joys no date, and age no need;
"Then these delights my mind might move
"To live with thee, and be thy love."

These two poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakspeare, are, by writers nearer that time, disposed of, one to Marlow, the other to Raleigh. They are read in different copies with great variations. JOHNSON.

In England's Helicon, a collection of love-verses printed in Shakspeare's life-time, viz. in quarto, 1600, the first of them is given to Marlowe, the second to Ignoto; and Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, observes, that there is good reason to believe that (not Shakspeare, but) Christopher Marlowe wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh the Nymph's Reply; for so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his Compleat Angler, under the character of "That smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago; and an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days . . . . . Old fashioned poetry, but choicely good." See The Reliques, &c. vol. i. p. 218, 221, third edit.

In Shakspeare's sonnets, printed by Jaggard, 1599, this poem was imperfectly published, and attributed to Shakspeare. Mr. Malone, however, observes, that "What seems to ascertain it to be Marlowe's, is, that one of the lines is found (and not as a quotation) in a play of his-The Jew of Malta; which, though not printed till 1633, must have been written before 1593, as he died in that year:

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"Thou in those groves, by Dis above,

"Shalt live with me, and be

my

love." STEEVENS.

Evans in his panick mis-recites the lines, which in the original run thus:

"There will we sit upon the rocks,

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And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals :

"There will I make thee beds of roses

"With a thousand fragrant posies," &c.

In the modern editions the verses sung by Sir Hugh have been corrected, I think, improperly. His mis-recitals were certainly intended. He sings on the present occasion, to shew that he is

Melodious birds sing madrigals ;-
When as I sat in Pabylon',

And a thousand vagram posies.

To shallow

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not afraid. So Bottom, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear, I am not afraid." MALONE.

A late editor has observed that Evans in his panick sings, like Bottom, to shew he is not afraid. It is rather to keep up his spirits; as he sings in Simple's absence, when he has a great dispositions to cry." RITSON.

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The tune to which the former was sung, I have lately discovered in a MS. as old as Shakspeare's time, and it is as follows:

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1 When as I sat in Pabylon,-] This line is from the old

version of the 137th Psalm:

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