canto ii.

[566:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 475. Act iii. sc. 4.

[566:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii. p. xxiii.

[566:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 363. Act i. sc. 1.

[566:D] Ibid. p. 367. King John, act i. sc. 1.

[567:A] Vide Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. ii. p. 201., and Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. i.

[567:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 502. Act v. sc. 1.

[567:C] Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romancees, vol. iii. p. 344.

[567:D] Vide Garrick Collection in Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 400.

[567:E] Todd's Spenser, vol. v. p. 313. 367.

[567:F] This poet is conjectured to have thrown some ridicule on the Squire of Low Degree, in his rhyme of _Sir Thopas_; but Ritson remarks, that this romance "is never mentioned by any one writer before the sixteenth century; nor is it known to be extant in manuscript; and, in fact, the Museum copy is the onely one that exists in print." Romancees, vol. iii. p. 345.

[568:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 326. note.

[569:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 5., and Walton's Hist. of Poetry, vol. iii. p. 294.

[569:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 254.

[569:C] See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 201, 202., and Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 342.

[569:D] See _Shakspeare Illustrated_, by Mrs. Lennox, 3 vols. 12mo. 1754.

[570:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 191. Act i. sc. 2.

[570:B] Jarvis's Don Quixote, vol. i. part i. chap. 1. Sharpe's edit. p. 3.

[570:C] Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2661.

[571:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 173. Act iii. sc. 1.

[571:B] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 148.

[571:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.—Mr. Douce observes, that the "oldest (edition) we know of is that of 1649, printed by Robert Ibbitson. In 1586, _The old book of Valentine and Orson_ was licensed to T. Purfoot." P. 240.

[572:A] British Bibliographer, No. V. p. 469.

[572:B] Ibid. p. 470.

[572:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.

[573:A] Arcadia, book i. p. 29. 7th edit.

[573:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 87. Act iii. sc. 2.

[573:C] Book ii. pp. 153, 154. edit. of 1629.

[574:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 305. 307, 308. Act ii. sc. 4.

[576:A] British Bibliographer, No. X. pp. 559, 560. This fragment, says Mr. Haslewood, "is in black letter, one sheet, and bears signature C."

[576:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. Act ii. sc. 1.

[576:C] Jacke of Dover, his quest of Inquirie, or his privy Search for the veriest Foole in England, 4to.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. note 4.

[577:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 64. and note by Steevens.

[577:B] Ibid. p. 130. Act iii. sc. 3.

[577:C] Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 219. col. 1. Act iii. sc. 7.

[577:D] Custom of the Country, act i. sc. 1. The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act v.

[577:E] Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632. p. 576.

[577:F] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 131. note 8.

[577:G] Ibid. p. 110.

[578:A] England's Helicon, 3d edit., reprint of 1812. p. 214, 215.

[578:B] Compleat Angler, Bagster's edit. 1808. pp. 147, 148.

[578:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 293. Act ii. sc. 3.

[579:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 294-297. 299.

[579:B] Ibid. v. p. 296. note by Steevens.

[579:C] Vol. i. p. 220.

[579:D] Reliques, vol. i. p. 220.

[580:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 194.

[580:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 166.

[580:C] Ibid. p. 166. note.

[580:D] Ibid. vol. vii. p. 51. Act iii. sc. 1.

[580:E] Ibid. p. 82. Act iv. sc. 1.

[580:F] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 119. Act iii. sc. 3.

[580:G] Ibid. p. 144. Act iv. sc. 1.

[581:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 238-240. Act i. sc. 3.

[581:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 131. Act iv. sc. 1.—There appears to be allusions to two catches in this scene. Grumio exclaims "_fire, fire; cast on no water_," which Judge Blackstone traces to the following old catch in three parts:—

"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth. Fire, fire;——Fire, fire; Cast on some more water."

Grumio a little afterwards calls out, "Why, _Jack boy! ho boy!_" the beginning, as Sir John Hawkins asserts, of an old round in three parts, of which he has given us the musical notes.

[581:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 244.

[581:D] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 131. note.

[581:E] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 132. Act iv. sc. 1.

[582:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 259.

[582:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 328. Act iv. sc. 2.

[582:C] Ibid. p. 346. Act iv. sc. 3.—We shall add, in this note, in order to complete the catalogue, all the fragments of ancient minstrelsy that have escaped our enumeration in the text.

In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, lamenting the approaching departure of Cressida, expresses his sorrow by quoting an old song beginning—

"O heart, o heart, o heavy heart, Why sigh'st thou without breaking." Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 393.

Hamlet, bantering Polonius, quotes part of the first stanza of a ballad entitled, _Jephtha, Judge of Israel_. This has been published by Dr. Percy, retrieved, as he relates, from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her father.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 142.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 189.

It is probable that Hamlet, who appears to have been well versed in ballad-lore, has again introduced two morsels from this source, in his dialogue with Horatio on the conduct of the king at the play: they strongly mark his triumph in the success of his plan for unmasking the crimes of his uncle:—

"Why let the strucken deer go weep," &c.

* * * * *

"For thou dost know, O Damon dear," &c. Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. pp. 212. 214.

Iago in the drunken scene with Cassio, in the view of adding to his exhilaration, sings a portion of two songs; the first apparently a chorus,—

"And let me the canakin, clink, clink," &c.

the second,

"King Stephen was a worthy peer,"

from a humorous ballad of Scotch origin, preserved by Percy in his Reliques, vol. i. p. 204.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 334. 336.

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, in the following passage, alludes to two ballads of considerable notoriety:—

"Young _Adam_ Cupid, he that shot so trim, When king _Cophetua_ lov'd the _beggar maid_;"

the first line referring to the celebrated ballad of _Adam Bell_, _Clym of the Clough_, and _William of Cloudesly_, and the second to _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_; popular pieces which are again the objects of allusion in _Much Ado about Nothing_, act i.; and in the Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 77.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. pp. 154. 198.

The same play will afford us three or four additional references; Mercutio, ridiculing the old Nurse, gives us a ludicrous fragment commencing "_An old hare hoar_," vol. xx. p. 116.; and Peter, after calling for two songs called _Heart's ease_, and _My heart is full of woe_, attempts to puzzle the musicians by asking for an explanation of the epithet _silver_ in the first stanza of _A Song to the Lute in Musicke_, written by Richard Edwards, in the "Paradise of Daintie Devises," and commencing,

"Where griping griefs the hart would wounde." Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 220. 222. and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 196.

[584:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 353-355. Act iv. sc. 3.

[584:B] Ibid. p. 403. Act v. sc. 2.

[585:A] Reliques, vol. i. p. 214.

[585:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 78.

[585:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 232. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:A] _Dear_ is here to be remembered in its double sense.—Farmer.

[586:B] _My wife's as all_, that is, as all women are.—Steevens.

[586:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 232-236. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:D] Ibid. p. 237.

[586:E] Ibid. p. 241.

[586:F] This play was first printed in the year 1613.

[587:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 366, note.

[588:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 463, and 490, note. This finely descriptive line, Dr. Percy has interwoven in his ballad of _The Friar of Orders Gray_.

[588:B] Reed's Shakspeare vol. xvii. p. 472. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:C] Ibid. p. 478. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:D] Ibid. p. 484. Act iii. sc. 6.

[588:E] Ibid. p. 485, note by Malone.

[589:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 486.

[589:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 278. note.

[589:C] Ibid. p. 278-280. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 281, 282. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 292. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:C] Ibid. p. 299. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:D] Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and others. Cambridge edition, 1794, p. 70.

[591:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 293.

[591:B] Ibid. p. 298.

[591:C] Ibid. p. 294. note.

[591:D] Ibid. p. 322, note 4.

[591:E] Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 45.

[592:A] Namely in 1565, 1567, 1569, 1574, 1585, 1587, &c.

[592:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 27.

[592:C] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 186.

[592:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 472. Act iv. sc. 3.

[592:E] Vol. i. p. 208.

[593:A] To form a complete enumeration of the songs of the Elizabethan era, it would be necessary not only to consult _all_ the dramatic writers of this age, but to acquire a perfect series of the very numerous _Collections of Madrigals_ which were published during the same period.