THE COMPLETE ANGLER 83 



Thy silver dishes for my meat, 

 As precious as the gods do eat, 

 Shall, on an ivory table, be 

 Prepared each day for thee and me. 



The shepherd swains shall dance and sing, 

 For thy delight, each May morning. 

 If these delights thy mind may move, 

 Then live with me, and be my love.* 



VEN. Trust me, master, it is a choice song, and sweetly 

 sung by honest Maudlin. I now see it was not without 

 cause, that our good Queen Elizabeth did so often wish 

 herself a milk-maid all the month of May, because they 

 are not troubled with fears and cares, and sing sweetly 

 all the day, and sleep securely all the night : and without 

 doubt, honest, innocent, pretty Maudlin does so. I'll be- 

 stow Sir Thomas Overbury's milk-maid's wish upon her, 

 " That she may die in the spring, and being dead, may 

 have good store of flowers stuck round about her winding 

 sheet." t 



ZTbe /!DUfc*/l&ai&'s /iDotber's Hnswer 



If all 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. 



- Dr. Warburton, in his Notes on The Merry Wives of Windsor, 

 ascribes this song to Shakespeare. It is true, Sir Hugh Evans, in the 

 third act of that play, sings four lines of it ; and it occurs in a collec- 

 tion of poems said to be Shakespeare's, printed by Tho. Cotes for John 

 Benson, 12mo. 1640, with some variations. On the contrary, it is 

 to be found, with the name of Christopher Marlowe to it, in England's 

 Helicon (1600) ; and Walton has just said it was made by Kit 

 Marlowe : the reader will judge of these evidences as he pleases. 



As to the song itself, though a beautiful one, it is not so purely 

 pastoral as it is generally thought to be ; buckles of gold, coral clasps, 

 and amber studs silver dishes and ivory tables are luxuries, 

 and consist not with the parsimony and simplicity of rural life and 

 manners. 



t Sir Thomas Overbury's " Character of a fair and happy Milk- 

 maid," printed with his poem entitled " The Wife," in 12mo., 1665. 



