NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 62. 



ally printed befoi-e tb'at year: the first we bear 

 of the Wintei's Tule is in 1611, when it was acted 

 at coiirt, and it was not printed until it appeared 

 in the folio of 1623. 



The ballad to which I refer has for title The 

 Royal Courthj Garland., or Joy after Sorroiv : it 

 is in ordinary type, and was " I'rinted and sold in 

 Alderniary Churchyard, London." It has no date, 

 and in appearance does not look older than from, 

 perhaps, 1690 to 1720; it may even be more re- 

 cent, as at that period it is not easy to form a 

 correct opinion either from typography or ortho- 

 graphy : black-letter has a distinguishing character 

 at various periods, so as to enable a judgment to 

 be formed within, perhaps, ten years, as regards 

 an rnulated production ; but such is not the case 

 with Roman type, or white-letter. What I sus- 

 pect, however, is that this ballad is considerably 

 older, and that my copy is only a comparatively 

 modern reprintwithsonie alterations; itrequires no 

 proof, at this time of day, to show that it was the 

 constant habit of our old publishers of ephemeral 

 literature to reprint ballads without the slightest 

 notice that they had ever appeared before. This, 

 in fact, is the point on which I Avant information, 

 as to The Royal Courtly Gaiiand, or Joy after 

 Sorroiv. Can any of jovlv correspondents refer me 

 to an older copy, or do they know of the e.xist- 

 ence of one which belongs to a later period ? I 

 cannot be ignoi-ant of Dr. Rimbault's learning 

 on such matters, and I make my appeal especially 

 to him. 



It is very possible that it may bear a diflferent 

 title in other copies, and for the sake of identifi- 

 cation I will furnish a few extracts from the 

 various " parts " '^no fewer than si.x) into which 

 the ballad is divided ; observing that they fill a 

 closely printed broadside, and that the production 

 is entirely different from Jordan's versification of 

 the Wiiiter^s Tale, under the title of The Jealous 

 Dtihe and the injured Duchess, which came out in 

 his Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie, 8vo. 1664. It 

 is singular that two ballads, hitherto wholly un- 

 known, should have been written upon the same 

 incidents of the same drama, although we are yet 

 without evidence that Jordan's effusion was ever 

 published as a broadside. 



Not a single name is given to any of the per- 

 sons in my Royal Courtly Garland, but the places 

 of action are reversed exactly in the same way as 

 in Greene's novel of Pundosto, where what Shak- 

 speare represents as passing in Sicily occurs in 

 Bohemia, and vice versa ; moreover, the error of 

 representing Bohemia as a maritime country be- 

 longs to my ballad, as well as to the novelist and 

 the dramatist. The King of Bohemia, jealous of 

 an I' outlandish prince," who he suspected had 

 intrigued with his queen, employs his cup-bearer 

 to poison the prince, who is informed by the cup- 

 bearer of the design against his life. 



" For fear of the king the prince dare not stay : 

 The wind being fair, lie sailed away, 

 Saying, I will escnpe from his blood-thirsty hand 

 By steering away to my native land." 



Not long after his departure, the queen, " who 

 had never conceived before " (which varies both 

 from Greene and Shakspeare), produces a daughter, 

 which the king resolves to get rid of by turning it 

 adrift at sea in " a little boat." He so informs 

 the queen, and she in great grief provides the 

 outfit for the infant voyager : 



" A purse of rare jewels she placed next her skin, 

 And fasten'd it likewise securely within ; 

 A chain round her neck, and a mantle of gold, 

 Because she her infant no more should beViold." 



It is revealed to the king in a dream that his wife 

 is innocent, but she soon dies of a broken-heart. 

 Meanwhile, the prince, on his return to his own 

 dominions, marries, and has a son. The infant 

 princess is driven on shore in his kingdom, and is 

 saved by an old shepherd, and brought up by him 

 and his wife as their own child, they carefully 

 concealing the riches they had found in the " little 

 boat." 



" This child grew up, endued with grace, 

 A modest behaviour, a Sweet comely face; 

 And being arrived at the age of fifteen. 

 For beauty and wisdom few like her were seen." 



"Her" is misprinted him in the original, and the 

 whole, as may be expected, is not a first-rate spe- 

 cimen of typography. The son of the prince sees 

 and falls in love with the supposed shepherd's 

 daughter, and, to avoid the anger of the prince his 

 fathei", he secretly sails away with her and the 

 old shepherd. By a storm they are driven on the 

 coast of Bohemia : 



" A violent storm on the sea did arise, 



Drove them to Bohemia ; they are took for spies ; 

 Their ship was seized, and they to prison sent : 

 To confine them a while the kmg's fully bent." 



Here we arrive at an incident which is fovmd in 

 Greene, but which Shakspeare had the judgment 

 to avoid, making the termination of his drama as 

 wonderful for its art, as delightful for its poetry. 

 Greene and my ballad represent the king of Bo- 

 hemia falliuK in love with his own daughter, whom 

 he did not recognise. She effectually resisted his 

 entreaties, and he resolves " to hang or burn " the 

 whole party ; but the old shepherd, to save himself, 

 reveals that she is not his daughter, and produces 

 " the mantle of gold " in which he had found her : 



" He likewise produced the mantle of gold. 

 The king was amazed the sight to behold ; 

 Though long time the shepherd had used the same, 

 The king knew it marked with his own name." 



This discovery leads directly to the unwinding of 

 the plot : the young priuce makes himself known, 

 and his father being sent for, the lovers are 



