426 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 183. 



SHAKSPEARE CORKESPONBENCE. 



Songs and Rimes of Shakspeare. — I find in Mr. 

 J. P. Collier's History of Dramatic Poetnj (a work 

 replete Avitli dramatic lore and anecdote) the fol- 

 lowing note in p. 275., vol. iii.: 



" The Mitre and the Mermaid were celebrated taverns, 

 which the poets, wits, and gallants were accustomed 

 to visit. Mr. Tliorpe, the enterprising bookseller of 

 Bedford Street, is in possession of a manuscript full 

 of songs and poems, in the handwriting of a person of 

 the name of Richard Jackson, all copied prior to the 

 year 1631, and including many unpublished pieces, by 

 a variety of celebrated poets. One of the most curious 

 is a song in five seven-line stanzas, thus headed: 

 ' Shakespeare's Rime, which he made at the Mytre in 

 Fleete Streete.' It begins : ' From the rich Lavinian 

 shore ; ' and some few of the lines were published by 

 Playford, and set as a catch. Another shorter piece is 

 called in the margin, — 



' Shakespeare's Rime. 

 Give me a cup of rich Canary wine. 

 Which was the Mitre's (drink) and now is mine; 

 Of which had Horace and Anacreon tasted. 

 Their lives as well as lines till now had lasted.' 



" I have little doubt," adds Mr. Collier, " that the 

 lines are genuine, as well as many other songs and 

 poems attributed to Ben Jonson, Sir W. Raleigh, 

 H. Constable, Dr. Donne, J. Sylvester, and others." 



Who was the purchaser of this precious MS. ? 

 In this age of Shakspearian research, when every 

 newly discovered relic is hailed with intense delight, 

 may I inquire of some of your numerous readers, 

 who seem to take as much delight as myself in 

 whatever concerns our great dramatist and his 

 wi-itings, whether they can throw any light upon 

 the subject ? 



Again : " A peculiar interest," IMr. Collier says, 

 "attaches to one of the pieces in John Dowland's 

 First Book of Songs (p. 57.), on account of the initials 

 of ' W. S,' being appended to it, in a manuscript of 

 the time preserved in the Hamburgh City Library. It 

 is inserted in England's Helicoji, 4fo., 1(500, as from 

 Dowland's Book of Tahlature, without any name or 

 initials ; and looking at the character and language of 

 the piece, it is at least not impossible that it was the 

 work of our great dramatist, to whom it has been 

 assigned by some continental critics. A copy of it was, 

 many years ago, sent to the author by a German 

 scholar of high reputation, under the conviction that 

 the poem ought to be included in any future edition of 

 the works of Shakspeare. It will be admitted that the 

 lines are not unworthy of his pen; and, from the quality 

 of other productions in the same musical work, we may 

 perhaps speculate whether Shakspeare were not the 

 writer of some other poems there inserted. If we were 

 to take it for granted, that a sonnet in The Passionate 

 Pilgrim, 1599, was by Shakspeare, because it is there 

 attributed to him, we might be sure that he was a warm 

 admirer of Dowland, 



* whose heavenly touch 

 Upon the lute doth ravish human sense.* 



However, it is more than likely, that the sonnet in 

 which this passage is found was by Barnfield, and not 

 by Shakspeare : it was printed by Barnfield in 1598, 

 and reprinted by him in 1605, notwithstanding the 

 intermediate appearance of it in The Passionate- 

 Pilgrim." 



May I inquire if any new light has been thrown 

 upon this disputed song since the publication of 

 Mr. Collier's Lyric Poems in 1844? 



The song is addressed to Cynthia, and, as Mr. 

 Collier says, is not unworthy of Shakspeai-e's muse. 

 As it is not of any great length, perhaps it may be 

 thought worthy of insertion in " N. & Q." 



" To Cynthia. 

 " My thoughts are wing'd with hopes, my hopes with 

 love ; 

 Mount, love, unto the moone in cleerest night, 

 And say, as she doth in the heavens move. 



In earth so wanes and waxes my delight : 

 And whisper this, but softly, in her eares, 

 Hope oft doth hang the head, and trust shed teares.- 



" And you, my thoughts, that some mistrust do cary,,. 



If for mistrust my mistresse do you blame. 

 Say, though you alter, yet you do not vary, 



As she doth change, and yet remaine the same. 

 Distrust doth enter hearts, but not infect. 

 And love is sweetest season'd with suspect. 



" If she for this with cloudes do maske her eyes. 



And make the heavens darke with her disdaine, 

 With windie sighes disperse them in the sk'ies, 



Or with thy teares dissolve them into rain. 

 Thoughts, hopes, and love return to me no more. 

 Till Cynthia shine as she hath done before." 



J. M. G^ 



Worcester. 



Mr. Colliers " Notes and Emendations : " Pas- 

 sage in '■'■AlVs Well that Ends Well" — 

 " O you leaden messengers, 

 That ride upon the violent speed of fire. 

 Fly with false aim ; move the still-peering air, 

 That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord ! " 



Such is the text of the first folio. Mb. Payne 

 Collier, at p. 162. of his Notes and Emendations, 

 informs us that the old corrector of his folio of 

 1632 reads volant for "violent," wound for 

 " move," and still-piecing for " still-peering." 



Two of these substitutions are easily shown to- 

 be correct. In the Tempest, Act III. Sc. 3., we- 

 read: 



" The elements, 



Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well 



Wound the loud winds, or with bemockt-at stabs 



Kill the still-closing waters." 



What is still-closing but still-piecing, the silent 

 reunion after severance ? What is to wound the 

 loud winds but to ivound the air that sings with 

 piercing ? 



But as to the third substitution, I beg per- 

 mission through your pages to enter a caveat. If 



