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 THE ISHAM REPRINTS. 
 
 SHAKES PEARE^S VENUS 
 
 AND ADONIS. 
 
 1599. 
 
 /\^a-t:^ ^^^'
 
 This work is printed for the fubfcnbers only, and the im- 
 prcflion ftriftly limited to one hundred and thirty-one copies, 
 twenty-five Deing on large paper, and fix on vellum. Every 
 copy is numbered and figned by the editor. 
 
 Small Paper. N".
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS, 
 
 FROM THE HITHERTO UNKNOWN 
 EDITION OF 1599; 
 
 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME, 
 
 FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF 1 599; OF 
 
 WHICH ONLY TWO COPIES 
 
 ARE KNOWN ; 
 
 EPIGRAMMES, 
 
 WRITTEN BY SIR JOHN DAVIES, 
 
 AND 
 
 CERTAINE OF OVID'S ELEGIES, 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, 
 
 FROM A RARE EARLY EDITION. 
 
 EDITED BY CHARLES EDMONDS, 
 
 EDITOR OF THE POETRY OF THE 
 ANTI-JACOBIN. 
 
 r 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY SOTHERAN and CO., 136, STRAND. 
 1870.
 
 CHiSWICK press:— PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
 
 sf 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 HE prefent volume contains accurate re- 
 prints of three very rare and important 
 works, which I had the good fortune to 
 difcover while examining the large collec- 
 tion of old books accumulated during a period of 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years by fucceffive mem- 
 bers of the ancient family of Ifham. 
 
 But this was far from being the only curious volume 
 found on the fame aufpicious occalion, for, in addition 
 to a large number of Poetical Works of the Elizabethan 
 era, of the greateft rarity and value, there were brought 
 to light upwards of a dozen contemporary works, chiefly 
 poetical, hitherto utterly unknown to literature. All 
 thefe volumes, with but flight exceptions, were in per- 
 fedl and mofl: deflrable condition, both infide and out, 
 being either in the vellum binding of the period, or 
 what was more remarkable, and almofl; unexampled 
 in the cafe of trails of that age, in the pamphlet form, 
 with the edges entirely uncut. 
 
 The fcene of this Angular difcoverv, which has been
 
 vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 corredly defcribed as " unprecedented in literature," 
 was an upper lumber-room, far away from the general 
 library (alio containing many valuable and rare old 
 works), at Lamport Hall, near Northampton, a large 
 and well-preferved manfion, remarkable within for its 
 beautiful old Italian cabinets, PaliiTy ware, paintings, 
 and other precious works of art ; and without, for its 
 delightful gardens and fplendid rockery, which make it 
 one of the glories of the county. The houfe, after 
 being for more than three centuries the property of the 
 TrufTels, was through a daughter's marriage transferred 
 to the family of Vere, Earl of Oxford, by whom it 
 was fold to Sir William Cecil, and afterwards to two 
 brothers, Robert and John Iftiam, whofe progenitors 
 had been extenfive landowners in Northamptonfhire 
 even before the time of William the Conqueror. This 
 John Ifham, Efq., a mercer, who became fole pofTeflbr 
 about the year 1560, was the fourth fon of Eufeby 
 Ifham, of Pytchley, and the founder of the Lamport 
 branch of the family. He married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Nicholas Barker, citizen of London, and had by her 
 feveral children, of whom Thomas, his eldeft fon, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, daughter of Chri'ftopher Nicholfon, and 
 dying in December, 160^, left iffue one fon, John, 
 who was knighted by King James I. 
 
 This Thomas Ifham appears, from the family records, 
 to have been a man of confiderable literary acquire- 
 ments, as well as an enlightened bibliomaniac. His 
 grandfather, Nicholas Barker, was, there is reafon to 
 fuppofe, one of the great family of Queen's printers of 
 that name, who even before entering that profefTion, 
 were perfons of rank and opulence. Thefe circum- 
 ftances led, in all probability, to Thomas Ifham's afTo-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 dating with many of the literary charadlers and printers 
 of his day, and thus enabled him to acquire the many 
 curious and rare books accumulated at Lamport. They 
 were obtained moft likely immediately on publication, 
 and depofited in this country-feat, where they were 
 kept fecure from depredation and ill-ufage, as well as 
 from fuch public calamities as the Fire of London and 
 the Civil Wars, which wrecked irretrievably many fine 
 colledions, both in town and country. 
 
 The firft colle6lor and preferver of thefe curious 
 books, therefore, was Thomas Ifham, and his name and 
 handwriting appear in fome of the trades. Great addi- 
 tions, however, were fubfequently made to the collec- 
 tion by his fucceffors, particularly by Sir Juftinian 
 liham, the fifth baronet, who built the library and 
 altered the houfe to its prefent form in the time of 
 King George I. It had, however, undergone various 
 alterations and improvements in the time of Charles L, 
 from a defign by John Webb, the fon-in-law of 
 Inigo Jones. The library becoming too fmall for 
 the accumulations, a large quantity of the commoner 
 works, with many other very old, and, to an inex- 
 perienced eye, comparatively worthlefs ones, moftly in 
 an unbound condition, were removed to a garret. This 
 room was for many years kept carefully locked up, and 
 was never allowed to be entered. Sir Juftinian Ilham, 
 D.C.L., who died in 1818, prohibiting to every one 
 but the butler the ufe of the key, and that only after 
 the Baronet had become too infirm to walk upftairs 
 himfelf. He was equally averfe to any ufe being made 
 of the books in the large library below flairs. Since 
 his time, however, the garret in queftion has been 
 thrown open and ufed for various purpofes, the books
 
 viii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 iHll remaining in it as before ; but no knowledge was 
 extant of their peculiar value. In this ftate they re- 
 mained till September, 1867, when Sir Charles Ifliam 
 requefted me, as the reprefentative of the publifhers of 
 this work, to report upon his library generally, and I was 
 thus fo fortunate as to bring to light a colleftion, in its 
 fpecial features unequalled in extent, value, and im- 
 portance, and which, but for this circumftance, might 
 have remained for many fucceeding years unknown, 
 ** unhonour'd, and unfung." 
 
 The interell excited by the difcovery of thefe books 
 has led to the reprint of that volume, which is, on 
 feveral accounts, the moll precious of them all ; the firft 
 trad in it being a hitherto unknown edition of the earlieft 
 produdion of him whofe name has been charaderifed 
 as " the greateft in our literature — as the greateil in all 
 literature," for whatever doubts may exift as to the dates 
 of the compofition and the publication of other works of 
 Shakefpeare, one thing feems certain, namely, that his 
 '* Venus and Adonis " was not only his firft-publifhed 
 but his firft-written work, partially, if not entirely, 
 compofed before he left Warwickfhire, and kept by him 
 till an opportunity occurred of giving it to the world. 
 
 And, as my difcovery of the edition of 1599 has altered 
 the received chronology of the various early impreffions, 
 incidentally leading to the finding of another unknown 
 edition; and, as my refearches on the fubjed have 
 enabled me to corred fome errors in previous accounts 
 of them, I purpofe to preface the prefent reprint by a 
 (hort defcription of each edition. Thofe preferved in 
 the Britifh Mufeum 1 have myfelf examined, and for 
 careful accounts of the others I am indebted to Mr. 
 H. S. Harper, of the Bodleian Library.
 
 LIST OF EDITIONS. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS Vilia miretur vulgus : 
 tnihi fiauus Apollo Pocula Cajlalia plena minijlret 
 aqua. London Imprinted by Richard Field, and 
 are to be fold at the figne of the white Greyhound 
 in Paules Church-yard. 1593. [4to. 27 leaves.] 
 
 This is the Firft Edition, printed with remarkable accuracy, 
 doubtlefs from the author's own manufcript, by an excellent 
 printer, Richard Field, a native of Stratford, and the fon of the 
 Henry Field, whofe goods John Shakefpeare was employed to 
 value in 1592. To the circumftance of the printer being the 
 fellow-townfman and probably the friend and aflbciate of the poet, 
 may be attributed the honour of his being entrufted with the pub- 
 lication of the firft work of the bard. 
 
 The printer's device is an anchor, with the motto, ** Anchora 
 Spei," which were adopted, with a flight alteration in the anchor, 
 in confequence of their having been ufed by his father-in-law, 
 Thomas VautroUier, a celebrated and learned printer, who refided 
 in Black Friars, and to whofe bufinefs, at his death in 1 5 89, Field 
 fucceeded and continued in till after 1600. 
 
 This poem was licenfed by the' Archbifhop of Canterbury 
 (Whitgift), and entered in the StationerVReglfter the 1 8th April, 
 1593. It is dedicated, like the fucceeding editions, to Henrie 
 Wriothefley, Earle of Southampton and Baron of Titchfield. This 
 dedication, and that of the " Rape of Lucrece," which was pub- 
 lifhed in the next year, to the fame patron, are the onlyprofecom- 
 pofitions of Shakefpeare not in a dramatic form which have come 
 down to us. 
 
 Only one copy of this Firft Edition of the " Venus and Adonis " 
 is known^ forming part of the Malone coUedlion, in the Bodleian 
 Library, and for which that eminent critic gave £25. He had long 
 been in fearch of it, for in his preface, 1790, he regrets his not 
 having been able to procure the " Firft imprelfion." In 1866 a 
 lithographic fac-fimile edition was made by E. W. Aftibee, at the 
 expenfeof Mr. J.O.Halliwell : only 50 copies were printed, of which 
 19 were deftroyed, and the impreffions removed from the ftones. 
 
 This unique copy meafures "j"^ by 5^ inches.
 
 X EDITOR'S PREFACE, 
 
 II. 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. Filia miretur vulgus, iffc. 
 1594, 
 
 The Second Edition, alfo in quarto, confifting of the fame number 
 of leaves as the Firft, and likewife printed by Richard Field. The 
 title-page alfo is exaftly fimilar, except in the alteration of the date. 
 
 This edition " followed hard upon " the preceding one, for it 
 muft have been printed early in 1594., as the transfer of the copy- 
 right from Field to Harifon is recorded at Stationers^ Hall as having 
 taken place the 25th June, 1594. This rapid fucceflion is a fuffi- 
 cient proof of the immediate popularity of the poem. 
 
 The text of this edition generally coincides with that of the Firft; 
 but the occafional deviations are always improvements, which feems 
 to fhow that this impreflion, like the Firft, had the benefit of the 
 author's revifion— a faft interefting on feveral accounts. In this 
 opinion lam confirmed by the authority of a moft competent judge, 
 Mr. J. P. Collier, who, after declaring his mature convidion, that 
 in no inftance did Shakefpeare authorize the publication of a play, 
 but allowed moft mangled and deformed copies of feveral of his 
 greatcft works to Fe circulated for many years, without expotifig 
 the fraud — an indifference fhared by many, if not"T)y moft, oThls 
 contemporaries— feels quite as ftrongly convinced with refpeft to 
 the poems, efpecially " Venus and Adonis," and " Lucrece,'' that 
 Shakefpeare, being inftrumental in their publication, and more 
 anxious about their corre£lnefs, did fee, at leaft, the firft editions 
 through the prefs. Thefe alterations are perpetuated in the fuc- 
 ceeding impreffions. Among them I may notice the following : — 
 Sign. A V. re-v. (line 123), where be is advantageoufly fubftituted for 
 are, apparently on account of the collocation of three words of 
 fimilar found, luhere^ there^ are; fign. A vi. rev. (line \%6)^face, I 
 inAead of face I; fign. A v'm. rev. (line z66), girths tor girtbes', 
 fign. B ii. (line 353), where tender feems, on a little confidera- 
 tion, an improvement on tenderer; fign. B ii. rev. (line 363) ala- 
 blafier for allablajier; fign. B v. (line 484), ivorld for earth; 
 fign. C viii, rev. (line 1041), ugly for ougly ; fign. D. iii. (line 
 li()%),Jfrung forjprocng, etc. The patron's name is here fpelled 
 Wriothefly, inftead of Wriothefley, as in the firft edition. In fome 
 other impreffions it appears as Wriotheflie — another proof of the 
 unfettled orthography of that age.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFJCE. xi 
 
 This impre/Tion was unknown to Malone, who erroneoufly fup- 
 pofed that of 1596 to be the fecond edition. In Mr. Davies' 
 valuable <' Memoir of the York Prefs," ( I vol. 8vo, Nichols, 1868) 
 it is ftated that in the catalogue of the books belonging to John 
 Fofter, bookfeller there, who died in 1 6 1 6, an edition or the " Venus 
 and Adonis " is valued at threepence^ and " The PafTiOnate Pil- 
 grime," ztfi'epence: unfortunately to neither of thefe items is the 
 date of the edition attached. 
 
 Only three copies of this edition are known — I. The one in the 
 Grenville coUedlion in the Britifli Mufeum, which formerly be- 
 longed to the eminent colle£tor, Mr. Jolley, who had purchafed 
 it in Lancafhire for a mere trifle : unfortunately it is cut clofe and 
 mended. It meafures 6^^ by 4| in., and is richly bound in olive 
 morocco. It realized at his lale in 1844 the fum of £li6. 
 II. Mr. H. Huth's, a fair copy, very fuperior to the preceding one, 
 meafuring jj by 4J| in. It formerly belonged to Mr. G. Daniel, at 
 whofe fale, in 1864, it produced ^^240. III. The copy in the 
 Bodleian Library, bequeathed by Mr. Caldecott, meafuring 63 by 
 4|in. 
 
 III. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. Fi/ia mireturvulgus, iffc. 
 Imprinted at London by R. F. for lohn Harifon, 
 1596. [Sm. 8vo. 27 leaves.] 
 
 This edition, like the preceding ones, iffued from the prefs of 
 Richard Field, who, though he had parted with his property in it, 
 was ftill employed to print it. It bears his device of the anchor, 
 but a fmaller and lefs elaborately executed one than that on the 
 " Lucrece" of 1594. It muft have been publifhed early in the 
 year 1596, for Harifon transferred the copyright to Leake in June, 
 after having pofTeileJ it only two years. The text clofely follows 
 that of the preceding imprelTion. I have noticed, however, at 
 leaft a dozen ireih errors ; but there are, on the other hand, a few 
 alterations, which are fometimes improvements — both of which 
 changes are doubtlefsdue to the printer. 
 
 Only two copies are known — I. The one in the Malone col- 
 ledlion m the Bodleian Library, meaiuring 4^ by 3 inches. The 
 other, which is a very fine one, meafuring 4I inches, and half bound, 
 after being fold at Mr. Bolland's fale at Evans's in 1840, for £^J, 
 to Mr. B. H. Bright, was purchafed at his fale in 1845, by Mr. G.
 
 xii EDITOR'S PREFJCE. 
 
 Daniel for ^^91 \os. At the fale of the library of this latter dif- 
 tinguiihed collector, in 1864, it was fecured by the Britifh Mufeum 
 for the lum oi ^-^i^). In the beginning of the volume is a 
 manufcript note fron:i the eminent bookleller, Thomas Rodd, 
 written in the auiftion-room during the fale, warning Mr. Daniel that 
 there was no likelihood of his obtaining it under ^100 : alfo ano- 
 ther in the handwriting of Mr. Daniel. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. Filia miretur valgus, ^c. 
 Imprinted at London for William Leake, dwelling in 
 Paules Churchyard at the figne of the Greyhound. 
 1599. [Sm. 8vo. 27 leaves.] 
 
 A HITHERTO-UNDESCRIBED EDITION, AND FROM THE ONLY COPY 
 OF IT KNOWN TO EXIST, THE PRESENT REPRINT HAS BEEN MADE. 
 
 It is, confequently, in every fenfe of the word, unijiue. 
 
 This moft precious volume I had the good fortune to difcover 
 in a lumber-room at Lamport Hall, Northamptonfhire, the feat 
 of Sir Charles 'llham, Bart, in September, 1867. Bound in the 
 fame vellum cover, are *' The PalTionate Pilgrime," of the fame 
 date; prefumed to be the firft edition, and of which only one 
 othercopy is known; and thefupprefTeJ " Epigrammesand Elegies" 
 of Davies and Marlowe, and the latter's verfions of *' Ovid's 
 Elegies;" all of which I have likewife reprinted. The volume 
 throughout is wonderfully clean and frefh, bound in the wrapping 
 vellum of the period, with firings, and with no outward indication 
 of its contents. It meafures 4| by 3^ inches. 
 
 The text is evidently a copy of that of previous editions ; but 
 while a few corredions are introduced, they bear no proportion to 
 the mifprints, which are fuch as could have arifen only from the 
 abfence of that inJifpenfable fupervifion which is now exercifed 
 by the corredor of the prefs. When this edition was difcovered, 
 it was imagined that it might be identical with the one mentioned 
 below (No. V.'>, preferved in the Bodleian, which, being without 
 a title-page, had had attached to it the fuppoficidous date of 
 1600, in confequence of its being bound up with the unique 
 copy of ths "Lucrece" of that date, "printed by I. H. for 
 John Karrifon," which had been given by Dr. Farmer to Malonc.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xiii 
 
 Not only does a comparative examination prove that thefe are dif- 
 ferent impreffions, but as the text of this edition of 1599 agrees 
 generally with that of 1596, it may reafonably be fuppofed that 
 the former preceded the edition with the prefumed dare of 1600. 
 
 On the difcovery of this edition, a limited reprint was fuggefted 
 for the purpofe of perpetuating a curiofity in literature j and as 
 the great intereft confifts in an accurate reprodudion of the text 
 as it appears in the volume, the moft fcrupulous pains have been 
 taken by the editor to prevent any deviation from the original 5 
 confequently no attempts have been made to correal even palpable 
 errors. The type has been imitated as clofely as poflible, and 
 occupies the fame length of page as in the original ; while the title- 
 page, ornamental letters, and head and tail-pieces, have been cut in 
 fac-fimile. 
 
 Though this poem achieved fuch fudden popularity that the 
 edition of 1593 was fucceeded by another early in 1594, we 
 know of no re-impreffion till that of 1596 5 but it is hardly likely 
 that the new proprietor, John Harifon, was not called upon for a 
 new one before this. Early in the latter year he publifhed what 
 was doubtlefs intended as a popular edition, in fmall odtavo fize, 
 the previous ones being in quarto 5 and then, after having poirefled 
 the copyright only two years, he difpofed of it to William Leake, 
 who, according to prefent appearances, produced no edition till three 
 years afterwards, in 1599, and the fame interval elapfed before his 
 edition of 1602 was publifhed. I lay no ftrefs on the fuppofititious 
 edition of 1600, for this was evidently, from the ftate of the text, 
 fubfequent to that of 1599. But the moft remarkable circum- 
 ftance is that no editions betwe en thofe of 1602 and 1617, at which 
 latter date Leake parted with ffie copy Hgh t to WHfiam Barrett, are 
 known to exift. 
 
 There are grounds, therefore, for believing that feveral editions 
 of this poem difappeared foon after the firft publication of it. It 
 is fcarcely poflible that impreflions of a work of fuch fplendour, 
 and fo fuited to the public tafte — fo fuperior to every production 
 of the kind that had preceded it — in faft, a work that had 
 created in the minds of readers a new fenfation — ihould not have 
 followed each other with greater rapidity than would be evi- 
 denced by the few which have come down to our time. When we 
 confider that of the firft edition only one copy has furvived 5 of 
 the fecond only three j of that of 1596 only two 5 of our prefent 
 edition only one j of the fuppofititious edition of 1600 only one;
 
 xiv EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 of that of 1602 only two; of the Edinburgh edition by John 
 Wreiftoun, 1627, only two ; and when we refledl that of many 
 other popular coritemporary works not one copy is now known to 
 exift, there is nothing unreafonable in the fuppofition that more 
 editions of the "Venus and Adonis," — a poem of all others which 
 would be read with avidity both by the learned and the unlearned, 
 and confequently more liable to fpeedy deftrudlion — were printed 
 than has been hitherto fufpeded. 
 
 For the difappearance of fo many works obvious reafons may be 
 afligned, fuch as their popularity among all claifes, their continual 
 ufe, and the natural carelefTnefs of common readers, the limited 
 number printed, and their fmall fize ; while the copies in the pof- 
 felTion of a higher order of fociety no doubt ftiared the fate of many 
 other valuable objefts in the Fire of London, the Civil Wars, etc. 
 
 But another caufe was likewife in operation, and this was the 
 frequent feizure of books by the Privy Council. The power of 
 the court in thofe days to inflift vengeance on its vi£lims was evi- 
 denced in various ways, and in printing and publifhing matters was 
 provided by that moft arbitrary decree of the Star Chamber, dated 
 23rd June, 1^85, which in addition to other regulations, gave un- 
 limited authority to the ecclefiaftical authorities to feize and deftroy 
 whatever baoks they thought proper. A notable inftance of this 
 i.iterference with books already printed took place in this very year, 
 1599, at Stationers' Hall, when a number of objedlionable works 
 were condemned to the flames, and fpecial admonitions given then 
 and there to the printers, among whom were iome of the moft 
 eminent of the time, including Adam Iflip, Edmund Eollifant, 
 Valentine Simmes, John WinJet, Richard Field, the original 
 printer of the " Venus and Adonis," and others. 
 
 Although only one fuch comprehenfive literary cuto da fe is 
 recorded, feizures of books fo conftantly took place, that the 
 authorities would think it unneceflary to regifter them, and the 
 difficulty of arriving at the truth of even recorded fadts is illuftrated 
 by the circumftance that Warton and his copyifts uniformly alTert 
 that in the aforefaid conflagration Hall's " Satires " and Cutwode's 
 " Caltha Poetarum " were included ; but in the '* Order" for this 
 burning, figned by Archbifhop Whitgift and Bifhop Bancroft, 
 preferved in Stationers' Hall, and which I for the firll time printed 
 verbatim, in " Notes and Queries," 3rd Ser. vol. xii. it is expreflly 
 ftated that thefe two works were reprieved ("ftaid"); and 
 Willobie's " Avifa," not previoufly included in the warrant, was
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xv 
 
 direfted " to bee called in." But this fame order reveals two other 
 important fafls, the firft of which is that among other arbitrary powers 
 granted by the aforenamed decree of the Star Chamber, of 23rd 
 June, 1585, the Privy Council, reprefented by the Archbiftiop 
 of Canterbury and the Biihop of London, claimed the abfolute right 
 not only of feizing any book they chofe, even after its having been 
 licenfed, but of prohibiting its reprint altogether, as in the cafe of 
 the works of Tom Naih and Gabriel Harvey, all of which were to 
 ** be taken wherefoever they maye be found, and none of theire 
 bookes bee ever printed hereafter." The fecond relates to a prac- 
 tice we Ihould have little fufpedled, namely, the obtaining of 
 licenfes to print under falfe pretences. This is plainly evidenced 
 by the following claufe in the faid order: "That thoughe any 
 booke of the nature of theiie heretofore exprefTed fhalbe broughte 
 unto you under the hands of the Lo. Archebifshop of Canter- 
 burye, or the Lo. B. of London, that the faid booke fhall not 
 bee printed untill the Mr. or wardens have acquainted the faid 
 Lo. Arp. or the Lo. B. with the fame to knowe whether it be 
 theire hand or no." 
 
 Without, however, laying any ftrefs on the probability of this 
 or any other edition of *' Venus and Adonis " having been 
 feized for its licentioufnefs, we have reafon from other fources to 
 fuppofe it was never favourably regarded by the ecclefiaftical 
 authorities, althought they had duly licenfed it. But it had been 
 brought out under the protedlion of a powerful patron, who was 
 then a favourite at court : no llight advantage in thofe times ; as 
 is hinted at in his '* Account of Marlowe and his Writings," by 
 Mr. Dyce, who fays, "We may wonder at the inconfiftency of the 
 book-inquifitors of thole days, who condemned to the flames 
 Marlowe's 'Ovid's Elegies,' Marfton's 'Metamorphofis of Pyg- 
 malion's Image,' nay, even Hall's ' Satires,' and yet fpared Har- 
 ington's 'Oilando Furiofo,' which equals the oriL,inal in licentiouf- 
 nefs, and is occafionally fo grofs in exprelfion that it would have 
 ftiocked Ariofto. The truth may be, that ' the authorities ' did not 
 choofe to meddle with a tranflation which was not only dedicated 
 to the Virgin gueen, but had been executed at her defire." 
 
 But curioufly enough in this fame year, 1599, it was the mif- 
 fortune of Lord Southampton to feel the Itings of court difgrace. 
 He had married the year previoufly, without the confent of the 
 ^ueen, Elizabeth Vernon, a coufin of Lord Eflex. Under any 
 circumftances this would have been a grave offence in the
 
 xvi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 eyes of a fovereign who was unreafonably jealous of any free- 
 will in matrimonial matters on the part of her favourite courtiers. 
 But in this cafe the royal difpleafure was aggravated by the ill- 
 judged condudl of Lord Eflex who, inftead of realizing the expec- 
 tations of his friends in his conduft of the expedition againft the 
 Irifli rebels, came back difhonoured. In the chorus to the fifth 
 adl of " Henry V.'' Shakefpeare, the friend of both EfTex and 
 Southampton, thus anticipates his triumphant return ; — 
 
 " But now behold, 
 In the quick forge and working houfe of thought, 
 How London doth pour out her citizens ! 
 The mayor, and all his brethren, in beft fort, — 
 Like to the fenators of the antique Rome, 
 With the plebeians fwarming at their heels, — 
 Go forth, and fetch their conquering Casfar in : 
 As, by a lower, but by loving likelihood. 
 Were now the general of our gracious emprefs 
 (As, in good time, he may) from Ireland coming, 
 Bringing rebellion broached on his fword. 
 How many would the peaceful city quit 
 To welcome him ? " 
 
 But his reception was very different ! His unauthorized truce 
 with thofe he had been fent to fubdue and his unexpected return 
 from Ireland, brought down upon himfelf the cenfures of the court, 
 and what was worfe, thofe of a fovereign then lurrounded by his per- 
 fonal enemies. Southampton was peremptorily difmifTed by 
 Elizabeth from the command to which EfTex had appointed him 
 in that country, and he felt no inclination to fhow himfelf at court. 
 It was at this period, as appears by a letter from Rowland Whytc 
 to Sir Robert Sydney, prelerved in the Sydney Papers, that " My 
 Lord Southampton and Lord Rutland came not to the court ; the 
 one doth but very feldom : they pafs away the time in London 
 merely in going to plays every day." Rutland alfo was conneded 
 with EfTex by family ties, having married the daughter of Lady 
 EfTex by her firfl hufband, the accomplifhed Sir Philip Sydney. 
 
 Under thefe untoward circumflances, it is pofTible that a printer 
 might deem it advifable to defer publifhing a work which, though 
 licenfed fome years before, had always been viewed with ungracious 
 eyes by the difpenfers of authority; which was dedicated to a con- 
 fpicuous courtier now under a cloud and expofed to the malice of 

 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xvii 
 
 pov.crful enemies, and written by a poet, who though protedled by 
 popular favour and by admirers in high places, muft have offended 
 the foes of Eflex by his loudly proclaimed praife. Thefe are mere 
 conje(flures, but everything connedled with our bard is fo interefting 
 that no fadl at all bearing upon his works fhould pafs unnoticed 
 even though it be put forth by fo humble a worker and admirer 
 as the penner of the prefent lines. 
 
 V. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. (1600?) 
 
 In the Bodleian Library is an edition in fmall 8vo. with a manu- 
 fcript title-page, purporting that the volume was " printed by I. 
 H. for lohn Harrifon. 1600." This date, as mentioned in the 
 preceding article, was probably feledted on account of this im- 
 preffion being bound up with the " Lucrece " of that year. But 
 Mr. Halliwell, in his folio Shakefpeare, had already pointed out 
 that no edition of 1600 with fuch an imprint could have exifted, for 
 Harifon had affigned the copyright to Leake four years pr.;vioufly. 
 
 ** This edition,'' fays the Cambridge editor (the Rev. W. G. 
 Clark), " was printed from that of 1596,'' a conclufion from which 
 I prefume to differ. From a comparifon of the two, I am of 
 opinion that the newly difcovered edition of 1599 '^ copied from 
 the impreflion of 1596, and is prior to the one in queftion. The 
 firft four editions generally agree, but with this impreffion of 1600 
 begins a frefh feries of readings, which are copied in the fubfequent 
 ones ; a fadl confirmed by the Cambridge editor, as he fays, 
 " It contains many erroneous readings, due, it would feem, 
 partly to careleflhefs and partly to wilful alteration, which were 
 repeated in later copies." 
 
 This volume meafures 4-^ by z^^ inches, and contains 27 leaves, 
 as do the other editions. 
 
 VI. 
 
 FEN^S AND ADONIS. Filia miretur vulgus, &c. 
 Imprinted at London for William Leake, dwelling 
 at the figne of the Holy Ghoft, in Paules Church- 
 yard. 1602. [Sm. 8vo. 27 leaves.] 
 
 Of this edition it has been difcovered by one of the editors of the 
 " Cambridge Shakefpeare," (the Rev. W. G. Clark), that two 
 b
 
 xviii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 diftindl impreflions were made, of each ol which only a fingle 
 copy exifts ; one prelerved in the Britifh Mufeum, and the other 
 in the Bodleian Library. I will give the account of them in his 
 own words. 
 
 "The imprint of the former is as follows : 
 
 " Imprinted at London for JVdliam Leakey 
 
 " dwelling at the figne of the Holy Clioft, in 
 
 " Paules Church-yard. 1602." 
 
 "The title-page of the Bodleian copy is the fame as that of the 
 Mufeum copy, excepting that it has ^•vulgns: mibi^ for ^ vulgus^ 
 mih'i^ and ' Pauls Churchyard ' for ' Paules Church-yard,' and the 
 printer's device is different. The fimilarity of title-page and 
 identity of date have led to the fuppofidon that thefe were copies 
 of the fame edition, but a comparifon of the two proves to demon- 
 ftration that they were different editions. The Bodleian copy is 
 very in:erior to the Mufeum copy in typography, in the quality 
 of the paper, and in accuracy. The Mufeum copy formerly be- 
 longed to the late Mr. George Daniel, who has written in a fly-leaf 
 the following note : ' No other copy of this excelfively rare edition 
 is known. Mr. Evans was wrong in ftating that a copy is in the 
 Malone Colledion in the Bodleian Library. No copy is mentioned 
 in the catalogue, nor is there one to be found there.' Mr. Daniel 
 had overlooked the exiftence of the Bodleian copy of 1602; but, 
 as it turns out, his own copy is unique after all. That in the 
 Bodleian has the autograph of R. Burton, author of the *' Anatomy 
 of Melancholy." Neither was printed from the other, but both 
 from the fuppofititious edition of 1600.'' 
 
 The copy in the Britifh Mufeum meafures 5-^ by 3J inches. It 
 was formerly George Steevens's, and has, in addition to a MS. 
 note on the bafe of the title-page, the following in his handwriting, 
 together with others by Mr. Jas. Bindley and Mr. G. Daniel. It 
 is printed on thick paper, and is in good condition, with thj excep- 
 tion of four leaves, which are mended, and is bound in yellow 
 morocco. 
 
 "Bought at the Au£lion of Dr. Chauncy's library April 15. 
 1790. 1745. fo'' o S^- O'^- ^^ ^is edition of Shakfpeare's Venus 
 & Adonis 1 have met with no other copy. G. S." " Bought at 
 Mr. Steevens's Sale, May 21ft, 1800 tor £1 lis. 6^, No. 1361. 
 J K." *' Bought at Mr. Strettle's Sale 13 May 1841 at Evans's : 
 Lot 350: for ^40 8j 6d, At Mr. Bindley's Sale this Copy was
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xix 
 
 fold for more than £^o. George Daniel. Canonbury." The fadV, 
 however, is that at Bindley's fale in 1 819 it was purchafed by Mr, 
 Strettell for £^z ; and at his fale in 1841 it was bought in for 
 £z6 5^., and afterwards fold for ^40 to Mr. Daniel, who parted 
 with it to the Britifh Mufeum. 
 
 The Bodleian copy meafures 5-^ by 3^ inches. Another is pre- 
 ferved at Shirburn Caftle, Oxfordfhire, the feat of the Earl of 
 Macclesfield. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. Filia miretur vulgus, &c. 
 LO NDONy Printed for Pf'.B. 1617. [Small 8v'o. 
 27 leaves.] 
 
 *' A copy of this edition," lays Bohn's Lowndes, " is in the 
 Bodleian Library, (Mr. Dyce mentions an edition of 16 16, but he 
 is the only authority for it.)" It would appear from Lowndes that 
 no copy has been fold by auction j a proof of its extreme rarity. 
 In March, 1620, William Barrett afligned the copyright to John 
 Parker. """ 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. H/ia miretur vulgus, ^c, 
 LONDONy Printed for LP. 1620. [Small 8vo. 
 27 leaves.] 
 
 Of this edition, of which Lowndes cannot indicate the fale of a 
 fingle copy, the Cambridge editor fays, *' A copy exifts in the 
 Capell coUedlion. Dr. Bandinel alfo purchafed one for the 
 Bodleian, but it cannot now be found." 
 
 The Capell copy is bound up with " The Paflionate Pilgrime " 
 of 1599 j and formerly belonged to the antiquary, Tom Martin, of 
 Palgrave, the hiftorian of Thetford, whofe autograph it bears. A 
 previous pofleflbr purchafed the volume for three halfpence. It 
 meafures 4I by 3] inches. 
 
 John Parker held the copyright until May 7, 1626, when he 
 parted wi'tTi it to John Haviland and John Wri^ght, fen.
 
 XX EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 IX, 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. Vilia miretur valgus, l^c. 
 EDINBFRGHy Printed by lohn Wreittoioiy and 
 are to bee fold in his Shop a litle hz-neath the S/ilt 
 Trone. 1627. [Small 8vo. 22 leaves.] 
 
 Of this edition only two copies are known, one of which is pre- 
 ferved in the Britifli Mufeum. The Cambridge editor "believes 
 that it was printed from a manufcript which the writer had copied 
 fronri the Bodleian copy of the imprefTion of I 602, but in which he 
 had introduced, probably by happy conjedlure, feveral emendations 
 agreeing with the text of the three earlieft editions." Beloe, in his 
 " Anecdotes of Literature," erroneoufly gives the date as 1607. 
 
 The Mufeum copy belonged to George Chalmers, at whofe 
 fale in March, 1S42, it was purchafed by P^r. B. H. Bright for 
 j(^37 lOi. At the latter's fale, in 1845, it was fecurcd by the 
 Briufh Mufeum for the fum of ^^35. Its fhape is peculiar, being 
 an elongated fmall 8vo. meafuring 5f^g by 3J inches. The title- 
 page is mounted and a few leaves are mended. Page 13 is mif- 
 printed j 32 is mifprinted 23 ; and the laft page, 46, is mifprinted 
 47. It has Geo. Chalmers's book-plate, and is bound in modern 
 calf. 
 
 The other copy, which, ftrange to fay, is in an uncut ftatc, was 
 fold at Sotheby's, in 1864, for ;Cii5- ^t had been found by a 
 country bookfeller in a lot of worthlefs books at a fale. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS Filia miretur vulgus, l^c. 
 London, Printed by J. H. and are to be fold by 
 Francis Coules in the Old Baily without Newgate 
 1630. [Small 8vo. 27 leaves.] 
 
 This is apparently an unique copy of a hitherto doubtful edition, 
 preferved among Anthony a Wood's books, which were recently 
 removed from the Afhmolean Mufeum to the Bodleian Library. 
 It was difcovered by Mr. H. S. Harper, to whom I am indebted 
 for an account of it. 
 
 The tradition that an edition had been really printed in 1 630, wa« 
 therefore founded on faft. Mr. Halliwell, in his folio Shakefpeare,
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxi 
 
 obferves, " Another edition is faid to have appeared at London in 
 1630, the only authority for which is a ftatement in fome copies 
 of Lintot's reprints of 171 1, copies of thofe reprints varying in the 
 feparate titles, that he copied the Venus and Adonis from an 
 edition printed at London in 1630." 
 
 The title-page, including the figure of a Cupid, fo exaftly 
 refembles that in the impreflion of 1636 by the fame printer, with 
 the exception of the date, which is unequivocally 1630, that at 
 firft fight the date and the initials of the printer, which are J. H. 
 inftead of I. H., might be confidered mifprints, but a comparative 
 examination of the two books proves them to be diftindl editions. 
 The text alfo differs in various places from that of the copy with 
 manufcript title-page mentioned below. 
 
 This volume meafures 4I by 3-^ inches. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. Filia miretur vulgus, l£c. 
 [Small 8vo. 27 leaves.] (1630?) 
 
 In the Bodleian Library is an edition wanting the printed title- 
 page, which has been fupplied by one in manufcript, purporting 
 that the book was printed in London in the year 1630, and it has 
 accordingly been catalogued as if printed in that year. It might 
 have been fuppofed that this is identical with the recently-difcovered 
 edition of 1630, but Mr. Harper, on comparing them, finds them 
 to be different impreflions. 
 
 " Whatever be the true date," fays the Rev, W. G. Clark (who 
 was not aware, when he printed the invaluable Cambridge Shake- 
 fpeare in 1866, of the exiftence of the edition of Coules, 1630), 
 it is certainly earlier than that of Coules, 1636." 
 
 This volume meafures 4^,^ by 2^ inches. 
 
 VENVS JND ADONIS. Fi/ia miretur vulgus, ^c. 
 London, Printed by I. H. and are to be fold by 
 Francis Coules in the Old Baily without Newgate. 
 1636. [Sm. 8vo. 27 leaves.] 
 
 The title-page of this edition bears fome refemblance to that 
 dated 1630 by the fame printer, defcribed by me as No. X., with
 
 xxii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 the exception of the date, &c. Minute differences alfo exift in the 
 text, which prove them to be diftindl impreflions. 
 
 It is a tolerably printed and very rare edition. Though Hibbert's 
 copy produced only ^^i 14.5. by public au£lion in 1829, one was 
 purchaled at Sotheby's in May, 1856, for ^^49 los. by Mr. H. 
 Stevens, at whole lale, in Auguft, 1857, it brought the fum of 
 ^56, having then been bound in morocco by Bedford. 
 
 Hibbert's copy, now in the Britifh Mufeum, bears the appearance 
 of having been well read : it is ftained, and a few leaves are mended, 
 but generally it is in good condition. It meafures 4J by 3^! inches, 
 and is bound in ruflia. 
 
 VENVS AND ADONIS. 1675. [8vo.] 
 
 In the Bodleian catalogue, fays the Cambridge editor, a copy is 
 mentioned of the date 1675, but none fuch exifts in the library 
 itfelf. It may be the edition defcribed by Mr. Halliwell as "a 
 chap-book impreflion, ' Printed by Elizabeth Hodgkinfonne, for 
 F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark,' a quaint-looking 
 diminutive volume of extreme rarity." According to Bohn's 
 Lowndes, a copy was fold at NafTau's fale, in 1824, bound in 
 rufTia, for £z 55. 
 
 Some time previous to the year 1655, the copyright pafTed 
 into the hands of Edward Wright, who afTigned it to William 
 Gilbertfon, the 4th April, 1655. No edition, however, between 
 thofe of 1636 and 1675 is known to have furvived, which 
 ftrengthens my opinion already exprelTed that feveral impreffions 
 have difappeared without ** leaving a wrack behind."
 
 THE ISHJM REPRINTS. 
 
 isS^ 
 
 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME. 
 
 1599-
 
 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME, 
 
 A COLLECTION OF FUGITIVE POETRY PUBLISHED 
 UNDER THE NAME OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 NElf' EDITION, 
 
 ACCURATELY REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL 
 
 IMPRESSION OF 1 599, IN THE 
 
 POSSESSION OF 
 
 SIR CHARLES ISHAM, Bart. 
 
 WITH. A PREFACE, 
 
 N WHICH THE CLAIMS OF RICHARD BARNFIELD TO THE 
 
 AUTHORSHIP OF TWO OF THE PIECES ARE 
 
 VINDICATED FROM THE OBJECTIONS 
 
 OF MR. J. PAYNE COLLIER, 
 
 j BY CHARLES EDMONDS, 
 
 EDITOR OF THE POETRY 07 THE 
 ANTI-JACOBIN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 
 1870.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 HIS remarkable colie6lion of fugitive pieces, 
 publifhed under a fanciful title to diftinguifh 
 it from fimilar mifcellanies, as well as pro- 
 bably to induce the public to fuppofe that 
 the whole was a new poem by Shakefpeare, although pur- 
 porting to be folely his produdlion, really confills of poems 
 by various contemporary writers. In the words of Mr. 
 Dyce, in the Memoir prefixed to Shakefpeare's Sonnets, 
 Ixxvii. ed. Pickering, 1832 : " ^ The Paffionate Pilgrime' 
 appears to have been given to the prefs vvithout his confent 
 or even his knowledge, and how much of it proceeded 
 from his pen cannot be diftindly afcertained." But the 
 obje6l of the publifher, William Jaggard, in thus at- 
 tributing the whole to Shakefpeare is fufiiciently ap- 
 parent ; — the poet's great popularity would be likely to 
 I make the publication a fuccefsful venture, while his 
 i known indifference to the fate of his works would render 
 ' hTTcaTrihgattentibn to the fraud extremely improbable. 
 , That William Jaggard was generally unfcrupulous in 
 his bufinefs tranfadions is ihown by his condu6l in the 
 publication of another edition of this work, called on 
 the title-page " the third," printed in 161 2. The
 
 vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 " fecond" edition feems to have difappeared altogether, 
 no copy being known to exift. This third impreffion 
 contains all the poems that appeared in that of 1599, 
 and here again all are attributed to Shakefpeare, not- 
 withllanding it muft have been known by this time that 
 the whole could not have been his produ6lion. But 
 Jaggard, not content with his firrt deception on the 
 public, has here, with an effrontery almoft ludicrous, 
 ventured to add to the original title the exprelBon, — 
 " or, Certaine Amorous Sonnets between Venus and 
 Adonis;" although only four of them bear upon thofe 
 perfonages; his intention evidently being to take ad- 
 vantage of the celebrity of the poem bearing their names. 
 He, however, foon met with his match, in confequence 
 of having without authority inferted in the fame volume 
 two of Ovid's Epiftles, which, from the ambiguous 
 wording of the title-page, might alfo be fuppofed to have 
 been from the pen of Shakefpeare. Thefe had really 
 been tranflated by Thomas Heywood, as was no doubt 
 known to Jaggard, he having been the printer of the 
 work in which they appeared, and which was publifhed 
 with Hey wood's name in 1 609, under the title of** Troia 
 Britannica, or Great Britaines Troy ; a Poem, etc. 
 London, printed by W. Jaggard :" folio. What fteps 
 Heywood, who was more fenfitive than Shakefpeare 
 on the fcore of his publications, took in the matter, will 
 appear further on. 
 
 I am the more particular in thus calling attention to 
 the natural laxity of Jaggard's principles, as it will enable 
 us to judge how he would adl in any other inftance in 
 which his intereft was concerned : as to the prefent 
 publication, unfortunately, his equivocal proceedings 
 have been the means of involving an intereiling literary
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 iubjedl in coniiderable doubt, and of throwing obloquy 
 on parties little deferving of it. 
 
 That we may underftand the peculiar bearings of the 
 cafe, J will give a complete lift of the various pieces of 
 which "The PafTionate Pi]grime"confifts,with references 
 to the work in which each firft appeared, followed by 
 a few obfervations on Barnfield's fhare in it. 
 
 [I.] 
 *' When my Loue fweares that /he is made of truth,''' 
 This, with fome verbal variations, is the fame as 
 No. 138 of Shakefpeare's Sonnets. 
 
 [II.] 
 ^* Two Loues I haue, of Comfort, and Defpaire'* 
 This poem, alfo, with fome flight variations, is the 
 fame as Sonnet 144. 
 
 [m.] 
 ** Did not the heauenly Rhetorike of thine eie!^ 
 With fome trifling variations this occurs in " Love's 
 Labour's Loft," 1598. 
 
 [IV.] 
 
 *' Sweet Cythereay Jit ting by a Brooked Is found 
 only in '*The Paflionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [v.] 
 
 " If Loue make me forjworn, how Jhal I fwere to 
 loue.'' Printed, with flight variations, in " Love's 
 Labour's Loft," 1598. 
 
 [VI.] 
 
 " Scarf e had the Sunne dride up the deawy morne." 
 Occurs only in " The Paflionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [vn.] 
 ** Faire is my loue, but not fo fair e as fickle.** Found 
 only in *' The Paflionate Pilgrime."
 
 viii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 [vin.J 
 " If Mujicke andfzueet Poetrie agree.'' This Sonnet 
 is taken from a fmall colledion of poems by Richard 
 Barnfield, entitled *' The Encomion of Lady Pecunia," 
 printed in 1598. It occurs in the latter portion, 
 called " Poems : in diuers humors," with the following 
 heading: *' To his friend Maifter R. L. In praife of 
 Mulique and Poetrie," but is omitted in the fecond 
 edition in 1605, entitled *' Lady Pecunia." 
 
 [.X.] 
 
 *' Faire was the morne, when the /aire ^eene of 
 hue.'' Occurs only in " The Paffionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [X.] 
 
 " Szueet Rofe, faire fewer, vntimely pluckt, foon 
 vaded.'' This likewife occurs only in " The Paffionate 
 Pilgrime." 
 
 [IX.] 
 
 " Venus, with Adonis fitting by her." This fonnet, 
 with fome variations, including the following lines (9 
 to 14) which are fubllituted for thofe in "The Paf- 
 fionate Pilgrime," occurs in B. Griffin's rare colledlion 
 of feventy-two fonnets, printed under the title of 
 "Fideira,"in 1596:— 
 
 " But he a wayward boy refufde her offer. 
 
 And ran away, the beautious Queene negledting : 
 
 Shewing both folly to abufe her proffer, 
 And all his fex of cowardife detefting. 
 
 Oh that I had my miftris at that bay. 
 
 To kiffe and clippe me till I ranne away ! " 
 
 But the Rev. R. Greene, of Lichfield, in a commu- 
 nication to " Notes and Queries," vol. x. i[\ fer. con- 
 tends, with much plaufibility, that the authorfhip fhould 
 be given to Shakefpearc-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 [x...] 
 
 *' Crabbed age and youth cannot live together," Al- 
 though the verfion in "The Paffionate Pilgrime " is the 
 firft. with which we are acquainted, yet it is probable 
 that it made its appearance earlier, in Deioney's "Gar- 
 land of Good Will," which was printed in or about i 596 ; 
 but as no edition of fo early a date is extant, it is impof- 
 lible to fpeak with certainty. At any rate, it is included, 
 with variations, in feveral fubfequent impreffions of that 
 popular work. 
 
 [xiii.] 
 
 *' Beauty is but a vaine and doubtfull good. ^^ Occurs 
 only in " The Paffionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [xiv.] 
 " Good night, good reft, ah neither be my Jharey 
 Occurs only in " The Paffionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [XV.] 
 
 " Lord hozve mine eies throw gazes to the eaj}.^^ 
 Occurs only in ** The Paffionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [xvi.] 
 '' It was a lording* s daughter, the fairejl one of 
 three '^ Occurs only in "The Paffionate Pilgrime." 
 
 [xvii.] 
 " On a day alack the day.^^ This poem is printed in 
 "Love's Labour's Loft," 1598. It occurs alfo in *" Eng- 
 land's Helicon," (a mifcellany of poetry, firft publifhed 
 in 1600,) with Shakefpeare's name appended to it. Both 
 in the latter and in ''The Paffionate Pilgrime," the fol- 
 lowing two lines, forming the laft couplet but one, are 
 omitted : — 
 
 "Thou for whom Jove would fwear 
 
 J'jno but an Ethiop were."
 
 X EDITOR'S PREFJCE. 
 
 [xviii.] 
 
 '^ My flocks feed not^ This poem had, two years 
 before, in 1597. vvith flight variations, appeared anony- 
 moufly, with the mufic, in a coliedlion oF Madrigals, 
 by Thomas Weelkes. It is printed alfo, withcorredions, — 
 fuch as moa?i for woe in the laft line but three, — in 
 " England's Helicon," 1600, being there entitled *' The 
 unknowne Sheepheard's Complaint," and fubfcribed. 
 Ignoto, a proof that Bodenham, the editor, was then 
 unacquainted with the name of the author, but difin- 
 clined to attribute it to Shakefpeare, as had been done 
 in *' The Paffionate Pilgrime," the year before, or to 
 Weelkes, in whofe colledion it firil appeared. 
 
 [XIX.] 
 
 ** When as thine ete hath choje the dame.'' Occurs 
 only in " The Paffionate Pilgrime." But Mr. Halliwell. 
 in his folio Shakefpeare, vol. 16. p. 466-7, fays, ** A 
 very early manufcript copy of this poem, with many 
 variations, is preferved in a poetical mifcellany, com- 
 piled, I believe, fome years before the appearance of 
 'The Paffionate Pilgrime.'" 
 
 [XX.] 
 
 *' Live with me and be my love." This poem is 
 affigned by name to Chriftopher Marlowe in " Eng- 
 land's Helicon," 1600, and what is called ''Love's 
 Anfwere" appears in the fame colleflion, under the 
 name of IgnotOy a fignature fometimes adopted by Sir 
 Walter Raleigh. They are, befides, attributed to thefe 
 authors in Walton's "Angler," under the titles of 
 "The Milk-maid's Song," and "The Milk-maid's 
 Mother's Anfwer." Both, however, as printed in 
 " The Paffionate Pilgrime," and in " England's Heli- 
 con," are incomplete, but they are printed at length in 
 Percy's " Reliques."
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xi 
 
 [xxi.] 
 *' Js it fell upon a day.'' This ode, like No. 8, is 
 printed as Barnfield's, among his "Poems: in diuers 
 humors," 1598. It alfo appears in '* England's Helicon," 
 1600, following *' My flocks feed not," and is entitled 
 " Another of the fame Sheepheardes." From this 
 latter obfervation, and his figning both Ignoto, the 
 editor, Bodenham, not only avows his inability to 
 point out the real authors, but difallows the claims 
 equally of Barnfieid, Shakefpeare, and Weelkes, under 
 whofe refpedive names they had been publifhed fo 
 fhort a time before ; another proof of the laxity of 
 editing and publifliing in thofe days. 
 
 [xxi*.] 
 
 " Whiljl as fickle fortune fmiled:' Mr. Collier, in 
 his firft edition of Shakefpeare, 1843, vol. 8, note, 
 pp. 577-8, thus remarks on this poem : " It is a fepa- 
 rate produdion, both in fubjed and place, with a 
 divifion between it and Barnfield's poem which pre- 
 cedes it ; neverthelefs they have been incautioufly 
 coupled in fome modern editions." In his fecond 
 edition, 1858, vol. 6, p. 692, note, publifhed after he 
 had changed his previous opinion that Barnfieid was 
 the rightful owner, he thus varies his didlum : " It is a 
 feparate produdlion, both in fubjed and place, with a 
 flight divifion (but no heading) between it and the 
 poem which precedes it : neverthelefs they have been 
 coupled in fome modern editions, moft likely becaufe 
 they are found erroneoufly united in Barnfield's 
 ' Encomion,' 1598." 
 
 So far from thefe being two feparate produflions, my 
 impreflion is that they were originally intended for one,
 
 xu EDITOR'S PREFACE, 
 
 and cannot otherwife be confidered without a dire6l 
 violation of propriety. If we refer to Barnficld's " En- 
 comion " of 1598, we find that the lines beginning 
 "As it fell vpon a Day," down to "Faithful! friend, 
 from flatt'ring foe," form one continuous poem, without 
 any break or any interruption of the fenfe, extending over 
 three pages, and bearing the general title '' An Ode." 
 Had they been intended for two poems, they could 
 eafily have been arranged fo ; there is not only plenty of 
 room for the purpofe, but the book throughout is printed 
 with fuch accuracy as to induce afuppofition that it was 
 produced under the author's own infpeftion. On the 
 other hand, no certain inference that they fhould form 
 two poems inilead of one can be drawn from the 
 manner in which they appear in " The Paflionate Pil- 
 grime ;" for in this work, as we fee, there is no heading 
 to any of the pieces, and the printer has ufed his own 
 difcretion in the arrangement of each page; confe- 
 quently it is only by the context that we can determine 
 where one piece ends and another begins. Applying 
 this tell to the prefent cafe, I think we cannot avoid 
 the conclufion that the author wrote thefe lines as one 
 ode, and that by dividing it into two, as Mr. Collier 
 does, we deftroy the whole fequence and moral, making 
 the firft portion end with as much unintelligible abrupt- 
 nefs as the fecond begins. The poet's objedl being 
 to fhow the fimilarity of his griefs to thofe of the 
 nightingale, he devotes the lines terminating with the 
 word " forrowing " to the bird ; he then takes up his 
 own woes with the line beginning " Whilft as fickle 
 fortune fmiled,'' and enlarges upon them to the end of 
 the ode. This view is confirmed by the fucceeding 
 line, *' Thou and I were both beguiled," which, on any
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xiii 
 
 other hypothefis would be, as I have already faid, un- 
 intelligible. It is moreover more logical to put faith in 
 what has evidently been prepared with care than in a 
 reprint which is confefTedly an unauthorized and fraudu- 
 lent impreffion. It fhould be noticed that Mr. Halli- 
 well, in his folio Shakefpeare, prints them as two poems, 
 but Mr. Knight as one. 
 
 Another curious circumftance occurs with regard to 
 this ode. The reprint of it in " England's Helicon,'* 
 1600, interpolates, after the line " Carelefs of thy for- 
 rowing," the following couplet : 
 
 " Even fo, poore bird like thee, 
 None a-live will pitty mee." 
 
 And thus the poem, in that publication, terminates, 
 although the lines are fo appropriate to the fubjed, and 
 fo well adapted to fupply a miffing link of connexion 
 between the firil and fecond portions of the ode, that 
 we might almoft afTume they had been introduced for 
 this purpofe. But as this is not the cafe, we are driven 
 to the conclufion that the editor of "England's Heli- 
 con," inftead of following Barnfield's publication, where 
 he would have found the ode complete, made ufe of 
 that in " The PafTionate Pilgrime," imagining that it 
 terminated, as there printed, at the bottom of the page. 
 But feeling, like mod readers, probably, that this ending 
 was too abrupt for the fubjed, and falling into the fame 
 error as Mr. Collier, that the lines on the next page 
 began a new ode, he added the couplet in quellion as a 
 more appropriate termination, experiencing as little 
 compundion in the matter as Bifhop Percy did in " im- 
 proving" the old balladsin his "Reliques." Although 
 Mr. Dyce, Mr. Collier, Mr. C. Knight, and other
 
 xiv EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 able editors, point out this interpolation, they do nor 
 feem to think it worthy the attention which I believe 
 it deferves. This couplet does not appear in "The 
 Paffionate Pilgrime " of 1612. 
 
 It appears, therefore, from the above enumeration, 
 that only five out of the twenty-one pieces forming 
 ** The Paffionate Pilgrime" poiTefs anything like direft 
 evidence of being from Shakefpeare's hand, and this 
 confifts in their firll appearance in his acknowledged 
 works, in their general refemblance to his other com- 
 pofitions, and in the abfence of other claimants. Though 
 eleven of the others are printed in •* The Paffionate 
 Pilgrime," for, as far as we yet know, the firll time, 
 there is no ground whatever beyond the aflertion on its 
 title-page for attributing them to Shakefpeare, while 
 the flender merit of feveral of them decidedly negatives 
 this afTumption ; the authorfhip of thefe, confequently, 
 is ftill uncertain; while as to the remaining five, if any 
 weight is to be allowed to fuch ftrong claims as thofe 
 founded on priority of publication by competent living 
 authors, three muft be affigned, as heretofore, to Barn- 
 field and Griffin ; one is no doubt, as is generally 
 alTumed, the work of Marlowe, and the lart, which is 
 quite unworthy of Shakefpeare, was probably an anony- 
 mous piece, merely fet to niufic by Weelkes. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the claims of the other 
 poets to their refpe^live pieces, thofe of Barnfield to the 
 authorfhip of ** If Mufique and fweet Poetrie agree," 
 and " As it fell upon a day,'' have been recently ftrongly 
 contefled by Mr. Collier, and the honour affigned to 
 Shakefpeare, notwithftanding that in his firll edition of 
 our great bard, he believes in Barnfield's own aflertion 
 of parentage, and difagrees with Bofwell, who had fug-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xv 
 
 gelled that John Jaggard, in 1598, might have ftolen 
 Shakefpeare*s verfes, and attribured them to Barnfield. 
 His reafons for this change of opinion feem to me To 
 infufEcient, and fo derogatory to the honefty as well as 
 to the common fenfe of Barnfield, that I think it only 
 fair to the latter to give them a little confideration ; 
 while, on the other hand, to do no injuftice to Mr. 
 Collier, I will firft quote his own lateft words on the 
 fubjedl, as they ftand in his valuable "Bibliographical 
 and Critical Account of the Rareil Books in theEnglifh 
 Language," 2 vols. 8vo. 1865 : 
 
 " It is no fmall tribute to Barnfield that two poems 
 printed by him, or for him, in 1598, having in the 
 next year been inferted in Shakefpeare's 'Paffionate Pil- 
 grim,' were long thought by many to be the property of 
 Barnfield, on account of his priority of claim. In 1598 
 the fine fonnet in praife of Dowland and Spenfer, ' H 
 mufic and fweet poetry agree,' and the beautiful lyric, M-^'l' 
 ^Xs it fell upon a day,' 'were firft publifhed as Barn- }'^,^- f- 
 field's, in a work which then bore the following title : 
 
 "*The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, or The praife 
 of Money. — quarenda pecunia primum efi, virtus poji 
 nummos. — London, Printed by G. S. for lohn laggard, 
 and are to be folde at his fhoppe neere Temple-barre, 
 at the Signe of the Hand & ftarre. 1598.' (4to.) 
 
 ** John Jaggard, who publifhed the above, was brother 
 [or fon] to W. Jaggard, who publifhed Shakefpeare's 
 * PafTionate Pilgrim,' and in fome unexplained manner 
 the two poems we have defignated, ' If mufic and fweet 
 poetry agree/ and 'As it fell upon a day,' the authorfhip 
 of our great dramatift, found their way out of the hands 
 of W. Jaggard into thofe of John Jaggard, who, we may 
 fuppofe, was in 1598 on the point of publifhing Barn-
 
 XVI 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 field's * Encomion of Lady Pecunia : ' there he inferted 
 them ; but they, neverthelefs, made their appearance in 
 1599 in * The Paffionate Pilgrim,' by which it was 
 made to feem as if W. Jaggard had llolen the poems 
 from J. Jaggard, becaufe the latter had printed them as 
 Barnfield's in the year preceding. The reverfe was, 
 however, the fad ; and the matter flood thus doubt- 
 fully until the year 1605, when Barnfield (perhaps 
 partly on this account) putting forth a new impreffion 
 of his * Encomion* under a different title, and with 
 many important changes, exprefsly excluded from that 
 re-impreffion the two poems, which he knew did not 
 belong to him, and which he prefumed were the pro- 
 perty of Shakefpeare. 
 
 ** Hence the efpecial value of the fecond edition of 
 the * Encomion,' fince it may be faid to afcertain that 
 John Jaggard, wifliing to fwell Barnfield's fmall volume 
 in 1598, did fo by inferting in it two pieces that did 
 not belong to the author of the reil. The fecond edi- 
 tion of Barnfield's " Encomion,' under the title of * Lady 
 Pecunia, or the praife of Money/ was not known at all 
 until a comparatively recent date; and rtill more re- 
 cently it was difcovered that it did not contain the 
 poems to which Barnfield feemed to have the earlieft 
 title. In 1605 Barnfield was too honert to retain what 
 had been improperly attributed to him in 1598. The 
 Sonnet and the Poem are therefore not to be traced in 
 the volume in our hands, which forms part of the 
 library of Bridgewater Houfe." 
 
 Surely no poet was ever deprived of his rightful pro- 
 perty on lighter grounds than are here adduced by Mr. 
 Collier for this fummary fpoliation of Barnfield. It is 
 not that he confiders Barnfield unequal to the compo-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xvii 
 
 i'irion of the two pieces in queftion, for in a fubfequent 
 paragraph he defignates the " Encomion of Lady Pe- 
 cunia" as ^' a very clever poem/' and admits that ** it is 
 not furprifing that it was popular;" but, folely becauie 
 he finds that a hitherto unknown edition of Barnfield's 
 Poem?, printed feven years after the firft, omits two 
 pieces which are contained in the firft impreffion, he 
 comes to the hafty conclufion that thefe were not written 
 by Barnfield, but relinquifhed in a fit of repentance as 
 quietly as, in the firft inftance, he had wrongfully appro- 
 priated them. As to the aflertion that John Jaggard ftole 
 from his relative in order to fvvell Barnfield's volume 
 which he was about to pubhfh, this is mere conje6lure; 
 on the contrary, an infpedion of the two original vo- 
 lumes would fhow the greater probability of William 
 Jaggard having been the fpoiler, for the purpofe of fwelling 
 the proportions of" The Paffionate Pilgrime," which is 
 fo fmall in bulk that to eke it out a great part is printed 
 only on one fide of the leaf. 
 
 If Barnfield be really the appropriator of another 
 man's works, the way in which he introduces his ftolen 
 goods is certainly remarkable, for on the back of the 
 title-page appears the following dedication : — 
 
 " To the learned, ard accomplijht Gentleman, Maijier Nicholas 
 Blackleech, of Grayes Innc. 
 
 " To you, that know the tuch of true Conceal ; 
 (Whole many gifts I neede not to repeat) 
 I write thefe Lines: fruits of vnriper yeares } 
 Wherein my Mufe no harder Cenfure feares : 
 Hoping in gentle Worth, you will them take j 
 Not for the gift, but for the giuers fake." 
 
 Here in the moft unequivocal terms Barnfield claims 
 the whole of the poems as his own ; but with becoming 
 b
 
 xviii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 modefly he excufes them as being the fruits of his early 
 years, for he was even at this time only twenty-four 
 years old. And as a further confirmation of the truth 
 of his afTertion, one of the difputed pieces, which is the 
 very firft in the book, is openly addreffed to a friend, 
 R. L., prefumed to be Richard Linch, author of 
 " Diella," 1596, andfome Sonnets inferted in Drayton's 
 *' Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy," and in the 
 fame poet's *' Matilda." 
 
 His work begins with " Sonnet I. To his friend 
 Mailter R. L. In praife of Mufique and Poetrie." 
 Then follows, on the fame page ** Sonnet II. Againtt 
 the Difprayfers of Poetrie." On the reverfe is 
 ''A Remembrance of fome Englifh Poets," highly 
 laudatory of Spenfer, Daniel, • Drayton, and laftly 
 of Shakefpeare. Immediately following this is the other 
 difputed piece, entitled •* An Ode : As it fell upon a 
 Day," confiding of twenty-eight couplets : then lines 
 " Written, at the requeft of a Gentleman, vndera Gen- 
 tlewoman's Pidure ;" ** An Epitaph vpon the Death of 
 Sir Philip Sidney, Knight: Lord-gouernour of Vlif- 
 fing;" *' An Epitaph vpon the Death of his Aunt, 
 MillreiTe Elizabeth Skrymfher ;" concluding with, upon 
 the top of the reverfe of the fourth leaf, " A Compa- 
 rifon of the Life of Man." The above are fo varied 
 in ftyle as to bear out the intention of the colledion, 
 which was to confiil of " Poems in divers Humours." 
 
 Although in that age literary plagiarifm was freely 
 pradtifed, it is hardly likely that an author of repute 
 like Barnfield would be fo bold as to appropriate the 
 whole of two compofitions of peculiar merit written by 
 another; or aggravate a fraud liable to inftant detedion 
 by luch an unequivocal claim to their authorfhip as he 
 puts forth in his addrefs to Blackleech; and the im-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE, xix 
 
 probability is ftill greater when we confider that the 
 perfon whom he is accafed of robbing wcs not only 
 the moil noted writer of the time, but then aftually 
 living, and the objeft, in the very next page, of his 
 fervent eulogy. And that this good feeling was not 
 interrupted is evidenced by his reprinting the 
 fame eulogy in his fecond impreffion, which would 
 hardly have been the cafe had he, years before, 
 been guilty towards Shakefpeare of fo unblufliing 
 a wrong. Moreover, his difinclination to have the 
 labours of others affigned to him is fhown by his dif- 
 avowal in his earlier produdion, "Cynthia," printed 
 in 1595, of two books imputed to him (probably 
 Greene's " Funerals," i 594, and " Orpheus his Journey 
 to Hell," 1595), to which his initials R. B. feem to 
 have been fraudulently affixed. Nor is it the cafe of an 
 unknown or incapable poet robbing his neighbour of 
 that which he was himfelf unabie to produce, for fuffi- 
 cient poetic talent had already been ihown in his 
 "Affedionate Shepheard," publifhed in 1594, when 
 only twenty-one years old, and his fubfequent poems 
 fully fuftain this early promife. He has therefore the 
 moll eifentlal points in his favour, namely, capability of 
 produftion, diilindl affertion of authorfhip, and priority 
 of publication ; to fay nothing of the abfence of any 
 hofUle allufions by his contemporaries. 
 
 In his volume entitled " Cynthia" is anode fo much 
 refembling " As it fell upon a day," that it is almoft 
 impoffible to doubt that both proceeded from the fame 
 pen. It begins thus : 
 
 " Nights were fhort, & dales were long j 
 Bloflbms on the Hauthorn's hung : 
 Phdomcele (Night-Mufiques King) 
 Tolde the comming of the fpring."
 
 XX EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Mr. Collier, in a previous article on this fubjeft, in- 
 ferred in " Notes and Queries," 1856, thus fpeaks of 
 the fecond edition of Barnfield's Poems: 
 
 " My millaken notion, twelve years ago [he alludes 
 to the firil edition of his Shakefpeare] was, that Barn- 
 field, in 1605, had republifhed the whole of what had 
 nrft appeared in 1598. This is not fo. In 1605 he 
 prefixed a general title-page, mentioning only three of 
 the four divifions of his original work, viz. : — I. * Lady 
 Pecunia, or The Praife of Money.' 2. * A Combat be- 
 twixt Confcicncc and CovctoufnelTe ;' and 3. 'The 
 Complaint of Poetry, or [for] the Death of Liberality.* 
 He fays not one word about what had been his fourth 
 divifion in 1508 [1598], * Poems in divers humors;' 
 but ftill, on the very laft leaf of the impreflion of 1605, 
 Barnfield places * A Remembrance of fome Englifh 
 Poets,' which had appeared as one of the * Poems in 
 divers humors,' in 1598. * A Comparifon of the Life 
 of Man,' a feven-line ilanza, is alfo reprinted ; all the 
 reft he litems purpofely to have excluded as if they were 
 not his." 
 
 From the above ftatement it might be furmifed that 
 Barnfield had intended to exclude from his new edition 
 the whole of the** Poems in divers humours;" but 
 even were this the cafe, it would not have been occa- 
 fioned, 1 contend, by confcientious fcruples, but by 
 private reafons, which fometimes influence authors 
 even in the prefent day. A notable inftance of fuch 
 omiffions and alterations is to be found in Drayton's 
 work, entitled ** Jdea," firft printed in 1593. "This 
 edition," (it is Mr. Collier, in his 'Bibliographical 
 Account' before alluded to, who fpeaks) " deferves 
 efpecial remark, becaufe the work fubfequently un-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxi 
 
 dervvent numerous and important changes, and more 
 efpecially becaufe it contains feveral poems that were 
 never reprinted by the author : one of thefe is an elegy, 
 as it may be called, upon the death of Sir Philip 
 Sidney, whom Drayton celebrates as Elphin. It is 
 to be obferved alfo, that in pollerior impreffions the 
 arguments preceding the eclogues, and the mottos 
 by which they are concluded, were omitted." The 
 fame reafon which has been given by Mr. Collier 
 for Barnfield's excluding from the new impreiTion 
 the two difputed pieces, namely, that they were not 
 written by him, might be urged for the rejedion of the 
 '^ Epitaph upon the Death of his Aunt," or the lines 
 ** Written, at the requeft of a Gentleman, under a Gen- 
 tlewoman's Pidure," and the four other pieces; but 
 perhaps even he would hardly affert that thefe, any more 
 than Drayton's omitted pieces, were pirated articles, 
 and confequently excluded from the new imprefTion. 
 The true explanation of the re-appearance of the two 
 which are there reprinted feems to be that there exiiled 
 at the end of this volume, after the promife on the title- 
 page as to the intended contents had been fulfilled, the 
 whole of one blank page and part of another, which 
 thefe two pieces could fill up ; the ** Remembrance of 
 fome Englifh Poets" therefore conveniently occupies 
 with its eighteen lines the lafl page, and the '*Compa- 
 ; rifon of the Life of Man," which confifts of only feven 
 \ lines, the latter half of the laft page but one. The 
 ) feledion of the former, which introduces with great 
 I refped both Shakefpeare, whom he is accufed of robbing 
 I of his Sonnet, and Spenfer, the lubjed of it, would 
 \ hardly have been made had the author or the publifher 
 1 been confcious of fuch a crime ; while, curioufly enough,
 
 xxii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 its fecond line contains the fame epithet applied to 
 Spenfer, namely, *' deepe Conceit," which is ufed as a 
 charadieriftic of his genius in the difputed fonnet, ** In 
 praife of Mufique and Poetrie." 
 
 But if the authority of Mr. Collier as a Shakefpearian 
 critic has converted many admirers of our early poetry 
 to his own opinions, others whofe judgment is entitled 
 to refpedl have not been fo influenced. Among the dif- 
 fentients, Mr. Hallivvell, in his folio " Shakefpeare/' 
 adheres to the view in favour of Barnfield's claims 
 which he took in the preface to his reprint of *' The 
 AfFedionate Shepheard'' for the Percy Society, 1845 ' 
 and the Rev. W. E. Buckley, an enthufiartic ftudent of 
 our early literature, who was recently fortunate enough 
 to difcover, in the Bodleian, a fecond copy of the lecond 
 edition of Barnfield's poems, 1605, had his previous fuf- 
 picions of the unfoundnefs of Mr. Collier's theory con- 
 firmed by a rigid comparifon of the two impreflions, 
 with the ufe of which collations I have been favoured 
 for the purpofe of the preient work, and which would 
 have removed any doubts, if they had exilted in my 
 mind, of the injullice done to Barnfield. 
 
 Of Barnfield's life litt.'c is known. That he was the 
 ion of a StaiFordfhire gentleman, and was born in 
 1574; that he entered Brazen Nofe College, Ox- 
 ford, in Nov. 1589, and matriculated there, appears 
 from the univerfity records; and alfo, that he took a 
 degree, probably in 1593, is proved by the title-page 
 of his poems. In his •* Cynthia,'' Sonnet IV., he al- 
 ludes to his native county in the line, *' As much as Po 
 in clearenes pafleth Trent." He was a member of Gray's 
 Inn, and probably intended for the profeffion of the law. 
 No mention is made of him by Anthony a Wood, nor has
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxiii 
 
 the date of his death been difcovered. But, that he 
 was on good terms with fome of the moil worthy among 
 his contemporaries feems certain, judging from the 
 eulogies, apparently emanating from a warm perfonal 
 feeling, which appear in both editions of his poems, on 
 Spenfer, Daniel, Drayton, and Shakefpeare. So llrong, 
 indeed, is his veneration for eminent contemporary 
 poets, that, in his earlieft produdlion, '* The AfFedlionate 
 Shepheard," in addition to palpable imitations of them, 
 particularly of the addreffes of Venus to Adonis, he 
 goes out of his way to teftify his regard for Spenfer, 
 Sidney, Fraunce, and Drayton. He is addrefTing Love, 
 and fpeaks of thefe friends, under their poetical appel- 
 lations, in the following terms : 
 
 " By thee great Collin loft his libertie, 
 By thee fweet Aftrophel forwent his joy ; 
 
 By thee Amyntas wept inceflantly, 
 
 By thee good Rowland liv'd in great annoy." 
 
 And again, in the fame produdlion, he alludes, thus 
 feelingly, to his poetical friend, Abraham Fraunce, 
 whofe poem, " The Lamentations of Amyntas for the 
 death of Phillis," dedicated to the Countels of Pem- 
 broke, to whofe family he was beholden for education 
 and advancement, was publifhed in 1587. 
 
 " And thou, my fweete Amintas, vertuous minde, 
 Should 1 forget thy learning or thy love, 
 
 Well might I be accounted but unkinde, 
 Whofe pure affedlion I i^o oft did prove, 
 Might my poore plaints hard ftones to pitty move I 
 
 His lofle fhould be lamented of each creature, 
 
 So great his name, fo gentle was his nature." 
 
 In the Addrefs to the Reader, in his " Cynthia," he 
 apologizes for it as " the iirll imitation of the verfe of that 
 excellent Poet, Maifter Spencer, in his Fayrie ^eeneP
 
 xxiv EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The date of Fraunce's death has not been afcer- 
 tained ; but the above lines prove that it muft have oc- 
 curred previous to 1594, in which year they firft ap- 
 peared. 
 
 Among the books found at Lamport was a fmall 
 volume, in manufcript, of unpublifhed poetry and 
 profe, evidently the production of Barnfield, as his 
 name, thus, Richard Barnfildy occurs on one of the 
 pages. 
 
 LIST OF EDITIONS. 
 
 THE PASSIONATE Pilgrime. B;^ W. Shake- 
 fpeare. AT LONDON Printed for W. laggard, 
 and are to be fold by W. Leake, at the Grey-hound 
 in Paules Churchyard. 1599. [l6mo. 30 leaves.] 
 
 This is fuppofed to be the firft edition. Only two copies arc 
 known ; one in the Capell collection in Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, which is very ditty from much ufe, and in which the date 
 to the Sonnets is cut oft ; and the other, bound up with the unique 
 " Venus and Adonis " of 1 599, and the " Epigrams and Elegies " of 
 Davies and Marlowe, which was found by the editor in September, 
 1867, among many precious books of old Englifli poetr)', in a 
 lumber-room at Lamport Hall, near Northampton, the leat of Sir 
 Charles Ifliam, Bart. This latter is in the cleaneft and moft beau- 
 tiful condition ; and meafures 4^ by 3J inches. 
 
 The Capell copy is bound up with the " Venus and Adonis "of 
 1620. It was once in the pofieflion of "honeft" Tom Martin of 
 Palgrave, and a MS. note informs us that the volume coft a 
 former owner " but 3 halfpence."
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME. or Certaine Amo- 
 rous Sonnets, betzveene Venus and Adouh, nezvly cor- 
 reded and aug-v^itxiit^. By W. Shakefpere. The 
 third Edition. Where-unto is newly added two 
 Loue-Epiftles, the firft from Paris to Hellen^ and 
 Hellens anfwere backe againe to Paris. Printed by 
 W. laggard. i6l2. [i6mo. 62 leaves.] 
 
 In the Bodleian copy of this edition Malone has written the 
 following note : " All the poems from Sig. D. 5 were written by 
 Thomas Hey wood, who was fo offended at Jaggatd for printing 
 them under tKe'name of Shakefpeare, that he has added a poft- 
 fcript to his * Apology for A£tors,' 4to. 1612, on this fubjeft, and 
 Jaggard, in confequence of it, appears to have printed a neu- title- 
 page to pleafe Heywood, without the name of Shakefpeare in it. 
 The former title-page was, no doubt, intended to be cancelled, but 
 by fome inadvertence they were both prefixed to this copy, and 1 
 have retained them as a curiofity." 
 
 The correfted title-page is, except in the ufe of italics and Roman 
 letters, and omitting " By W. Shakefpere,^' the fame as the firft. 
 This is called " The third Edition," but no other between 1599 
 and 1612 is known to exift. 
 
 III. 
 
 POEMS : Written by Wil. Shake-speare. Gent. 
 Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be fold 
 by lohn Benjon, dwelling in St. Dunftans Church- 
 yard. 1640. [i6mo. Prefixed is a portrait oF 
 Shakefpeare by W. Marfhall.] 
 
 This confifts of a number of the fonnets, together with fome 
 of the poems from "The Paflionate Pilgrim" and "A Lover's 
 Complaint," as well as fome tranflations from Ovid and other pieces 
 evidently not by Shakefpeare.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A CoUedion of Poems, in Two Volumes; Being all 
 the Mifcellanies of" Mr. William Sbake/peare, which 
 were Publifh a by himfelf in the year 1609. and now 
 corredlly Printed from thofe Editions. The Firll 
 Volume contains, I. Venus and Adonis. II. 
 The Rape of Lucrece. III. The Paffionate 
 Pilgrim. IV. Some Sonnets fet to fundry Notes of 
 Mufick. The Second Volume contains One Hun- 
 dred and Fifty Four Sonners, all of them in Praife 
 of his Millrefs. II. A Lover's Complaint of his 
 Angry Miflrefs. LONDON : Printed for Bernard 
 Lintott, at the Crofs-Keys, between the Two Tem- 
 ple-Gates in Fleet-Jlreet. [2 vols fm. 8vo. circa 
 
 1709-] 
 
 The leparate title-pages to the pieces in this colledion all bear 
 the fame date, 1609, which is that of the firft edition of the 
 Sonnets. But in the Bodleian copy of the firft volume the title 
 pages bear different dates, and are in other refpedts different. The 
 copy in the British Mufeum, in addition to the date of 1709 on 
 the general title, aifo bears different ones, that of Venus and 
 Adonis being 1630; Lucrece, 1632 j Paffionate Pilgrim, 1599; 
 Some Sonnets fet to Sundry Notes of Mufick, 1599. 
 
 Independent of the general queftion of the author- 
 pip of the pieces in '* The Paffionate Pilgrime," an 
 intereft of another nature attaches to the fecond part of 
 it, inafmuch as it is put forth not fo much as a literary 
 work, but as a colledion oi forinets which bad been Jet 
 to tnufic. Not only does this fad of poems of fuch 
 varied character being fo treated illullrate the extent to 
 which a tafte for mufic was then carried, but it is re-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxvii 
 
 markable on account of the mufic to all of them, with 
 the exception of two ('* My flocks feed not," and 
 '* Live with me and be my love") having utterly difap- 
 peared, or at leall not being at this time capable of 
 identification. (Oldys, in one of his manufcripts, fays 
 they were fet to mufic by John and Thomas Morley, 
 but he gives no proof of this). And in addition to thefe 
 confiderations we have to feek for an explanation of 
 the meaning of the title itfelf, which, in confequence 
 of there being no clue to it in the book, is fufficiently 
 enigmatical to leave us the choice of three hypothefes ; 
 namely, i. Whether the Mufic was compofed for Son- 
 nets already written ? 2. Whether the Sonnets, like the 
 melodies of Burns and Moore, were written to accom- 
 pany exifting Airs? or, 3. Whether the exifting Sonnets 
 were fung to Tunes already popular? On a review of 
 the evidence we find proofs of all thefe pradices having 
 been adopted. 
 
 I. As to the queftion. Whether it was the cuftom 
 to compofe Mufic for Sonnets already written, we find 
 proofs of it in numberlefs publications, among which 
 are thofe of Byrd, Dowland, Morley, Weelkes (in 
 whofe colledion of Madrigals, dated 1597, '* My flocks 
 feed not," firft appeared), Kirbye, Wilbye, etc., who 
 feem to have been indefatigable in procuring and col- 
 lefting lyric poetry for profeffional purpofes. 
 
 Another cafe is that of a work entitled "The Teares 
 or Lamentations of a forrowfull Soule ; by Sir William 
 Leighton, Knight, one of his Majefties Honourable 
 Band of Gentlemen Penfioners," which was printed in 
 a fmall volume in 161 3 ; but which the next year ap- 
 peared in folio, '* Compofed with Mufical Ayres and 
 Songs, both for Voyces and divers Inftruments. Set
 
 xxviii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 forth by Sir William Leighton," &c. Some of thefe 
 were fet by John Milton, the father of our great 
 poet, who, though a fcriverer by profcflion. was a 
 voluminous and excellent compofer. And ftill another 
 example of the fame appears in a work printed 
 in 1614, entitled, *' Ayres made by feverall Authors 
 and fung in the Mafke at the Marriage of the Right 
 Honourable Robert Earle of Somerfet, and the Right 
 Noble Lady Frances Howard. Set forth to the 
 Lute and Bafe Violl, and may be expreft by a fingle 
 voyce to eyther of thofe Inllruments." [4^0. London, 
 printed for Laurence Lifle.] Thefe "Ayres" are 
 fometimes found alone, but more frequently appended 
 to the " Defcription of a Mafke prefented in the Ban- 
 quetting roome at Whitehall, etc.'' [410. 161 4.] And 
 as a final illuftration I may mention the ** Ayres " of 
 Alfonfo Ferrabofco [folio ; London, printed by T. 
 Snodham {^/iasT. Efte), for John Brown, 1609], which 
 contains the mufic to many of Ben Jonfon's Plays and 
 Mafques. 
 
 An additional proof of muficians being in the habit of 
 adapting mufic to verfes already in exiftence is appa- 
 rent in the following fad. 
 
 In a curious as well as very rare little volume, for it 
 was unknown both to Hawkins and Burney, entitled, *' A 
 Mufical Banquet, furnifhed with varietie of delicious 
 Ayres, colleded out of the beil Authors ; in Englifh, 
 French, Spanifh, and Italian, by Robert Douland [fon 
 of the famous John Dowland]. London: Printed for 
 Thomas Adams, 1610," [folio, and of which a reprint 
 with thewords," Twenty-fivecopiesonly printed''(<mall 
 8vo. Chifwick Prefs, 181 7), was edited by S. W. Singer], 
 we find fome fpirited and interelling verfes by the un-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxix 
 
 fortunate favourite of Elizabeth, the Earl of Eilex, Sir 
 Philip Sydney, the gallant Earl o^ Cumberland, Sir 
 Henry Lea, and others unknown. The following is 
 the commencement of Douland's addrefs " To the 
 Reader": ** Gentlemen : Finding myfelf not de- 
 ceived in the hope I had of your kinde entertayning 
 my colleftion of Lute Leflbns which I lately fet foorth, 
 I am further encouraged to publifh unto your cenfure 
 thefe Ayres, being colleded and gathered out of the 
 labours of the rareft and moil judicious Maimers of 
 Mufick that either now are or have lately lived in 
 Chriftendome, whereof fome I have purpofely forted 
 to the capacitie of young pradlitioners, the reil by 
 degrees are of greater depth and fkill, fo that like a 
 carefull confe<5lionary, as neere as might be I have fitted 
 my Banquet for all tafles ; if happily [haply] I fhall be 
 dillafted by any, let them know what is brought unto 
 them is drell after the Englifh, French, Spanifh, & 
 Italian manner," &c. The names of the compofers 
 are John Douland, Ant. Holborne, R. Martin, R. 
 Hales, D. Batchelar, TelTeir, Dominico Maria Megli, 
 Giulio Cacciori detto Romano. 
 
 IL It is, neverthelefs, beyond a doubt that Englifh 
 poets occafionally wrote words to accompany exiting 
 jnufic. as in the cafe of "Mufica Tranfalpina," in 
 which the Italian Madrigals were tranflated into 
 Englifh, and publilhed hy N. Yonge, in 1588 ; an ex- 
 ample followed by the eminent Sonnetteer, Thomas 
 Watfon, in his " Firft Set of Italian Madrigalls Eng- 
 lifhed," in which the poetry, though not the mufic, is 
 entirely original. [4to. London, Thomas Elle, 1590]. 
 It feems probable, indeed, from Orlando Gibbons' dedi- 
 cation of his " Firft Set of Madrigals and Mottets" to Sir
 
 XXX EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Chriftopher Hatton, dated 1612, that the courtiers of 
 that period fometimes employed themfelves in writing 
 lyrics for their domeftic Lutenifts. One of Watfon's 
 odes bears fo great a refemblance in its commencement 
 to that of Barnfield's poem, ** As it fell upon a day," 
 publifhed eight years afterwards, that I cannot refill the 
 temptation of calling attention to it. It is a Birthday 
 Ode to Queen Elizabeth, written probably in the May 
 of 1590 : — 
 
 " This fvveet and merry month of May, 
 
 While nature wantons in her pryme, 
 And byrds do fing, and beafts do play, 
 
 For pleafure of th^ joyful! time," &c. 
 
 A ftill more ilriking inftance of Sonnets being 
 written for exifting mufic is exemplified in a work 
 which is fo rare that only one copy, and that not per- 
 feft, is known to exift, entitled ** A Handefull of Plea- 
 fant Delites : Containing Sundrie new Sonets and 
 dele6table Hiftories in Diuers Kindes of Meeter. 
 Newly deuifed to the Neweil Tunes, that are now in 
 ufe to be fung. Euery Sonet orderly printed in his 
 proper tune. With New Additions of Certain Songs, 
 to Verie late deuifed Notes, not commonly knowen, nor 
 vfed heretofore. By Clement Robinfon and Diuers 
 Others. At London, Printed by Richard Ihones, 
 dwelling at the figne of the Rofe and Crowne near 
 Holburne Bridge. 1584." [8vo.] 
 
 To this volume Dr. Drake, in his '* Shakefpeare and 
 his Times," gives high praife. " It is," fays he, "■ in a 
 great meafure, formed of ballads and fongs, adapted to 
 well-known popular tunes; and, though its poets have 
 been arbitrarily confined in the ilrudlure of their verfc 
 by the precompofed mufic, yet many of their lyrics
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxxi 
 
 have a fmoothnefs and fweetnefs in the compofition of 
 their ftanzas, which may even arreft the attention of 
 a modern ear. . . . Thirty-two poems occupy 
 the pages of this pleafing little volume, among which, at 
 p. 23, is ' A New Courtly Sonet of the Lady Green- 
 fleeves, to the new tune of Greenfleeves,' alluded to by 
 Shakfpeare in the ' Merry Wives of Windfor,' A61 ii. 
 Sc. I., and which throws fome curious light on the 
 female drefs of the period." In addition to Robinfon, 
 the authors confiil of Leonard Gibfon, J. Tomfon, P. 
 Picks, Thomas Richardfon, and G. Mannington ; the 
 four latter being unknown elfewhere in the annals of 
 poetry. 
 
 Another cafe is that of Anthony Munday, who in 
 1588 publifhed his " Banqvet of Dainiie Conceits ; fur- 
 nifhed with verie delicate and choyfe inuentions, to 
 delight their mindes, who take pleafure in Mufique, 
 and there-withall to fing fweete Ditties, either to the 
 Lute, Bandora, Virginalles, or anie other Inllrument. 
 Publifhed at the defire of bothe Honorable and Wor- 
 ihipfull Perfonages, who haue had copies of diuers of 
 the Ditties heerein contained." Thefe are adapted, as 
 Munday aflerts, to pre-compofed tunes (chiefly popular 
 dance tunes), and he apologizes for their occafional im- 
 perfedions on account of the difficulty of the tafk. Of 
 this work only one copy is known. 
 
 in. As to the third hypothecs, Whether cxilling 
 Sonnets were fometimes fung to tunes already popular; 
 we have an important contemporary witnefs to fuch a 
 practice in William Webbe, who, not confining it to 
 Ballads only, extends it to the clafs of compofitions found 
 in " The PafTionate Pilgrime." In his '* Difcourfe of 
 Englifh Poetrie, together with the Author's Judgment
 
 xxxii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 touching the Reformation of our Englifh Verfe," [410. 
 London, 1586], he fpeaks of" the un-countable rabble 
 of ryminge ballet-makers and compylers of fenfelefs 
 Ibnnets;'' and adds, "there is not anie tune or ftroke 
 which may be fung or plaide on inilruments, which hath 
 not fome poetical ditties framed according to the num- 
 bers thereof: fome to ' Rogero/ fome to ^ Trenchmore,' 
 to * Downright Squire,' to galliardes, to pavines, to 
 jygges, to brawles, to ail manner of tunes; which every 
 fidier knows better than myfelf, Sc therefore I will 
 let them pafle." Here the clafs of mufic is named with 
 which old Englifh ditties were ufually coupled — dance 
 and ballad tunes. And it is worthy of remark that, as 
 before mentioned, with the exception of the ode entitled 
 " My flocks feed not," the only piece in " The Paffion- 
 ate Pilgrime " which has come down to us, of which the 
 mufic is known, is *' Live with me and be my love," 
 which being from the fimplicity of its didion fuited 
 to the comprehenfion of the vulgar, became fo popular 
 as to be fung to a common ballad tune. 
 
 On a review of all the circumllances, conjoined with 
 the pofiiive aiTertion on the title-page that the Sonnets 
 following had been fet to " Sundry Notes of Mufic,'* I 
 cannot refill the conclufion that there was once in ex- 
 illencean edition in which the Sonnets were accompanied 
 by the mufic, but which, like many other fmall books 
 of that period, has for the prefent, at leail, difappeared. 
 As a cafe in point, 1 may mention my finding among 
 the books at Lamport an hitherto unknown edition of 
 Deloney's ** Strange Hillorics," with the mufical notes, 
 dated 1602 — the earlieil one previoufly known being 
 1607; while one, quoted by Percy and Ritfon as of 1 
 the date of 1612, has hitherto, like an edition printed
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxxiii 
 
 as early as 1596, or thereabouts, eluded the moft 
 diligent fearch. And that this kind of lofs is much 
 greater than is generally fuppofed, is illuftrated again by 
 the library at Lamport, to which we owe the preferva- 
 tion of more than a dozen works, the very names of which 
 had not previoufly reached us. But that colledlions of 
 mufic were, from the conftant u(e to which they were 
 fubjeded, peculiarly liable to deftrudion, is eafily un- 
 derftood, and is proved by the cafe of the fix follow- 
 ing works, (to mention no more), of each of which 
 only a fingle copy is afcertained to furvive: — 
 
 I. " The Cittharn Schoole," by Antony Holborne. 
 [P. Short, 1597; 4to.] 
 
 II. A little tradl by John Farmer, entitled " Divers 
 and Sundry waies of two parts in one, to the number 
 of fortie, uppon one playn fong," etc. [T. Efte, 1591.] 
 
 III. " Ay res for fourVoyces," by Michael Cavendifh, 
 [P. Short, 1599, folio]. 
 
 All thefe were till lately utterly unknown, even by 
 name, to mufical hiftorians and bibliographers. 
 
 IV. " Ultimum Vale, or the Third Book of Ayres of 
 I, 2, 4 Voyces," [folio, London, 1608.] 
 
 v. *' Private Muficke," by M. Peerfon, [4to. 1 620, 
 in the Douce Colledion, Oxford.] 
 
 VI. ** Varietie of Leflbns : viz. Fantafies, Pavins, 
 Galliards, Almaines, Corantoes, and Volts," etc. By 
 Robert Dowland : with a Treatife on Lute-playing by 
 J. Dowland, [folio, London, 1610.] 
 
 The following extra6ls from Chappell's '* Popular 
 Mufic of the Olden Time," feem too appropriate to 
 this fubjeft to require any apology for their infertion. 
 
 " During the long reign of Elizabeth," he obferves, 
 " mufic feems to have been in univerfal cultivation, as 
 c
 
 xxxiv EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 well as in univerfal efteem. Not only was it a neceflary 
 qualification for ladies and gentlemen, but even the city 
 of London advertifed the mufical abilities of boys 
 educated in Bridewell and Chrift's Hofpital, as a mode 
 of recommending them as fervants, apprentices, or 
 hufbandmen. . . . They had mufic at dinner; mufic at 
 fupper; mufic at weddings; mufic at funerals; mufic 
 at night ; mufic at dawn ; mufic at work ; and mufic 
 at play." 
 
 With a tafle for mufic thus generally difFufed among 
 all clafTes, both high and low, it might be fuppofed that 
 the number of works, publifhed either as inftrudions or 
 as original compofitions, muft have been proportionally 
 great. And that this was fo is plain from the quantity 
 publifhed in England alone during an interval of forty 
 years, between 1589 and 1627, for among thofe which 
 have come down to us are the clafTical produdions of 
 Byrd, Watfon, Dowland, Efle, Mundy, Yonge, Carlton, 
 Morley, Weelkes, Kirbye, Wilbye, Bennett, Holborne, 
 Farmer, Cavendifh, Pilkington, Robinfon, Batefon, Gib- 
 bons, Ward, Hilton and others. Yet amidfl all this flood 
 of mufic we feek in vain, with two exceptions, for the 
 notes of mufic to which the Sonnets in " The Paffionate 
 Pilgrime" were fung. But a pofTible explanation may 
 be found in the following obfervations of Mr. Chappell 
 in his work already quoted : — 
 
 " The fcholaflic mufic of that age,*' he fays, ** great 
 as it was, was fo entirely devoted to harmony, and that 
 harmony fo conflrudled upon old fcales, that fcarcely 
 
 anything like tune could be found in it No line 
 
 of demarcation could be more complete than that 
 between the mufic of the great compofers of the time 
 and what may be termed the mufic of the people.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFJCE. xxxv 
 
 Perhaps, the only inftance of a tune by a well-known 
 mufician of that age having been afterwards ufed as a 
 ballad tune, is that of * The Frog Galliard,' compofed 
 by Dowland. Muficians held ballads in contempt, and 
 the great poets rarely wrote in ballad metre." 
 
 But even with the mufic publifhed in England our 
 flock of native growth is not exhaufted, as is proved by 
 the following obfervations of Mr. Chappell, which are 
 of very confiderable importance as throwing light on 
 the feveral points we have been difcuffing : — 
 
 *' We are indebted," he fays, " to foreign countries 
 for the prefervation of many of the works of our beft 
 muficians of this age, as well as of our popular tunes. 
 Dr. Bull's mufic is chiefly to be found in foreign 
 manufcripts, in one of which is * God fave the King.' 
 Dowland tells us that ^ fome part of his poor labours ' 
 had been printed in eight cities beyond the feas, viz , 
 Paris, Antwerp, Cologne, Nuremburg, Frankfort, 
 Leipzig, Amfterdam, and Hamburg. Much of the 
 mufic printed in Holland in the feventeenth century 
 was alfo by Englifh compofers. The right of printing 
 mufic in England was a monopoly, generally in the 
 hands of one or two muficians, and therefore very 
 little, and only luch as t-hey chofe, could be printed. 
 Hence the fcarcity, as well as the frequent imperfe6lion, 
 of thefe early works. This monopoly was held by 
 Tallis and Byrd from 1575 to 1596, then by Morley 
 and his afljgnee." 
 
 But a fimilar monopoly did not extend to the litera- 
 ture, either in manufcript or in print, of that time, as 
 we fee by the pieces reprinted in the feveral poetical 
 mifcellanies then popular, and in mufical works, the 
 latter of which contain many fonnets and odes written
 
 xxxvi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 by authors of greater or lefs merit. To the mufical 
 colle6lions of the age of Elizabeth and James, indeed, 
 we are indebted for the prefervation of many moft 
 beautiful fpecimens of lyric poetry not elfewhere to 
 be met with, as well as for the means of completing 
 fome others of which only imperfe6l verfions had ap- 
 peared in the poetical mifcellanies of the period ; and 
 which, it is highly probable, without the care and 
 accompaniments of fuch enlightened and enthufiaflic 
 profeifors o^ mufic as thofe already mentioned, would 
 either have never been publifhed, or would have filently 
 difappeared. That thcfe compilations were made, 
 generally, without the connivance of the authors is 
 moll probable, as in very few cafes are their names 
 appended. We know to what an extent the pradlice 
 prevailed in thofe times of poetical compofitions being 
 circulated in manufcript, and as they were not, like 
 mufic, under the protection of the law, it was open to 
 any publifher to appropriate and print them. The 
 *' Sonnets" and *' Songs " of Shakefpeare in "The 
 Paffionate Pilgrime," the "■ Epigrammes " of Davies, and 
 other well-known works, are cafes in point. 
 
 This opinion, however, of the excellence of the lyric 
 poetry of that age is not fhared by our eminent mufical 
 hiftorian Dr. Burney, who, in his ** Hiftory of Mufic," 
 Ihows that whatever may be his merits as a mufician, 
 he pofTefTed little poetic tafte. " Indeed," he fays, " in 
 more than twenty fets, publifhed between the years 1588 
 and 1624, including almoft four hundred and fifty 
 Madrigals and Songs in parts, it would be difficult to 
 find any one, of which the words can be perufed with 
 pleafure. The fonnets of Spenfer and Shakfpeare, 
 many of which are worthy of their authors, were in-
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xxxvii 
 
 deed not publifhed till about the end of the fixteenth 
 century ; but afterwards, it is wonderful that none of 
 them were fet by our bell mufical compofers, except 
 one of Shakfpeare's." And in this concluding obferva- 
 tion moll readers will concur. 
 
 In more recent times, however, according to com- 
 munications from Mr. A. RofFe, in Notes and Queries, 
 vols. X. and xi., 2nd Sen, two of the Odes, namely, 
 " On a day alack the day," and " Crabbed Age and 
 Youth," have found feveral compofers. 
 
 The former (he fays) forms one of the Elegies by 
 Jackfon of Exeter, who has fet it very elegantly for three 
 male voices. It is fet as a folo by T. Chilcot of Bath, 
 about 1750 ; and as a duet by Sir H. Bilhop. Again, 
 within thefe few years, the poem has been ufed for a 
 prize glee, compofed for four male voices, by W. P. 
 Stevens. In this inflance the compofer omits the lafl 
 four lines, and clofes at the words, ** That I am for- 
 fworn for thee." The lafl fix lines of the poem, be- 
 ginning *' Do not call it fin in me," will be found fet as 
 a folo for Lyfander in J. C. Smith's *'•' Fairies"; and 
 thefe fame fix lines have alfo been fet by M. P. King, 
 as a duet for foprano (or tenor) and bafs. This com- 
 pofition has no accompaniment, and is in the old flyle 
 of continued imitation between the two voices. 
 
 As to the fecond ode ; ^' Crabbed Age and Youth," 
 this (fays Mr. RofFe) has been very beautifully fet by 
 R. J. Stevens as a glee for four male voices, and is a 
 well-known compofition. There are at leafl three other 
 fettings of thefe words : one of thefe, by Signor Giordani, 
 about 1780, is a duet, apparently either for fopranos or 
 tenors; the other two fettings are both by Sir H. Bifhop, — 
 the firil as a fong for Olivia in " Twelfth Night," and
 
 xxxviii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 the lecond, a totally different compofuion, is a dramatic 
 trio for Rofalind, Celia, and Touchftone, and was writ- 
 ten for a mufical revival of** As You Like It." 
 
 It is fatisfadory to find that the reputation of Dow- 
 land, once fo great. Hill furvives. In the '' Athenaeum" 
 of April, 1868, we read : *' A madrigal, by Dowland, 
 was the other day fung at a concert of one of the vocal 
 focieties of Berlin. If we are not miflaken, our Englifli 
 unaccompanied vocal mufic has always ' held its own,' 
 even in the exclufive Sing-Akademie of the Pruffian 
 capital." 
 
 And the following extraff, relative to Dowland and 
 Shakefpeare, from Mr. J. P. Collier's '' Lyrical Poems, 
 feleded from Mufical Publications between the years 
 1589 and 1600," printed for the Percy Society, 1844, 
 feems, for feveral reafons, worthy of a place here : — 
 
 " A peculiar intereft attaches to one of the pieces, 
 [* To Cynthia: My thoughts are wing'd with hopes'] 
 in John Dowland's * Firft Book of Songs' (p. 57), on 
 account of the initials of ' W. S.' being appended to ir, 
 in a manufcript of the time preferved in the Hamburgh 
 City Library. It is inferted in * England's Helicon,' 
 4to. 1600, as from Dowland's Book of Tablature, 
 without any name or initials; and looking at the 
 charafter and language of the piece, it is at leall not 
 impoiTible that it was the work of our great dramatift. 
 .... If we were to take it for granted, that a fonnet 
 in * The Paffionate Pilgrim,' 1599, was by Shakefpeare, 
 becaufe it is there attributed to him, we might be fure 
 that he was a warm admirer of Dowland, 
 
 • whofe heavenly touch 
 Upon the lute doth ravifh human fenfe.' 
 
 However, it is more than likely, that the fonnet in
 
 EDITOR'S EREFACE. xxxix 
 
 which this pafTage is found was by Barnfield, and not 
 by Shakefpeare : it was printed by Barnfield in 1598, 
 and reprinted by him in 1605, notwithflanding the 
 intermediate appearance of it in ' The Paffionate 
 Pilgrim.'"
 
 1
 
 THE ISHJM REPRINTS. 
 
 EPIGRAMMES AND ELEGIES 
 
 BY DAVIES AND MARLOWE. 
 
 '^dSb:-
 
 This work is printed for fubfcribers only, and the impreflion 
 ftriftly limited to one hundred and thirty-one copies, of which 
 twenty-five are on large paper, and fix on vellum. Every 
 copy is numbered and figned by the editor. 
 
 Small Paper. N".
 
 EPIGRAMMES: 
 
 WRITTEN EY 
 
 SIR JOHN DAVIES; 
 
 AND 
 
 CERTAINE OF OVID'S ELEGIES 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 
 
 ACCURATELY REPRINTED FROM A RARE EARLY 
 EDITION IN THE POSSESSION OF 
 
 SIR CHARLES ISHAM, Bart. 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 BY CHARLES EDMONDS, 
 
 EDITOR OF THE POETRY OF THE 
 ANTI-JACOBIN. 
 
 r 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 
 1870.
 
 J
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 HESE two fmall works were the produftion 
 of two noted authors, whofe fame rells upon 
 more enduring foundations than thefe efFu- 
 fions, for the licenfe and coarfenefs of which 
 the only apology that can be made is that they were the 
 outpourings of hot impetuous youth, publiflied in an 
 age when plain fpeakingand indecent ribaldry too often 
 pafTed current for wit and mirth. That they pofTefs a 
 certain literary value at the prefent day is fhown by 
 their having been thought worthy of re-impreffions by 
 the Rev. A. Dyce and others, and thofe of Dayies more ^rft'B' 
 recently by the Rev. A. B. Grofarr, who Tias been .'^t/ 
 enabled to include in his complete edition of the works ' ^/ 
 of this author pieces not hitherto publifhed. 
 
 The author of the "Epigrammes" became diftin- 
 guifhed in after life as a ftatefman, and filled the offices 
 of Solicitor-General and Attorney-General in Ireland, 
 reprefented the boroughs of Corfe Caftle and Newcaftle- 
 under-Lyne, and was Lord Chief Jullice at the time of
 
 vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 his death in 1626. The verfatility of his mind is fhown 
 in works offuch different characters as " Nofce Teip- 
 fum," a poem on the nature and immortality of the 
 foul, firft printed in 1599; ** Orcheftra," a poem on 
 dancing, firft printed in 1596; in which art he is faid 
 to have been, like another legal dignitary. Sir Chriftopher 
 Hatton, a great proficient; "Hymns of Ailrasa,*' or 
 acroflic verfes in praife of Q^Elizabeth, 1 599 ; a tranfla- 
 tion of the firft fifty pfaims. and other fmaller pieces; 
 while his ability as a political and legal writer is evinced 
 in his *' Difcovery of the True Caufes why Ireland 
 was never entirely fubdued," a work offuch value as 
 to win the high praife of the Earl of Chatham ; and in 
 fome profeffional treatifes, which may ftill be referred 
 to with advantage. 
 
 Of the *' Epigrammes," Mr. Dyce obferves : **' Like 
 other colle6lions of the kind which came from the prefs a 
 little later, thefe Epigrams are for the moft part Satires 
 in miniature. They poffefs fome poignancy of ridi- 
 cule and fome vigour of expreffion, but hardly enough 
 to juftify the applaufes which they once called forth; 
 and they chiefly recommend themfelves to readers of 
 the prefent day as illuftrating the manners and '' humours" 
 which prevailed towards the clofe of Elizabeth's reign. 
 When Davies republifhed his Poems in 1622 he did 
 not admit a fingle Epigram into the volume'" 
 
 The ''Elegies'* were the juvenile production of 
 Chriftopher Marlowe, one of the greateft of our dra- 
 matic poets, who, after leading a life of great pro- 
 fligacy, met with a violent death, under difgraceful cir- 
 cumftances, in the year 1593, in the thirty-firft year of 
 his age. 
 
 Of thefe*' Elegies" Mr. Dyce thus fpeaks: ''Taken
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 altogether, this verfion does fo little credit either to Mar- 
 lowe's (kill as a tranflator or to his fcholarfhip, that one is 
 almoll tempted to believe it was never intended by him 
 to meet the eye of the world, but was made merely as a 
 literary exercife at an early period of life, when claffical 
 fludies chiefly engaged his attention. We look in vain 
 for the graces of Ovid. In many pafTages we fliould 
 be utterly puzzled to attach a definite meaning to the 
 words if we had not the original at hand ; and in 
 many others the Latin is erroneoufly rendered, the 
 miftranflations being fometimes extremely ludicrous. I 
 doubt if more can be faid in praife of this verfion than 
 that it is occalionally fpirited and flowing." 
 
 When thefe trads were publiflied cannot be afcer- 
 tained, none of the editions, of which there were feveral, 
 bearing dates or printers' name. Ritfon believes them 
 to have been firft printed in 1596 or 1597. Neither 
 is it known whether they were iflbed with the con- 
 nivance of Davies, for as it was the cuftom in thofe 
 days to circulate poems widely in manufcript before 
 their appearance in print, and they are mentioned in 
 Guilpin's "Skialetheia," 1598, where Davies is termed 
 " our Englifli Martiall ;" in Sir John Harington's " Meta- 
 morphofis of Ajax," 1 596 ; in Baftard's '* Chreftoleros," 
 1598, &c., and they all bear his initials I. D. ; the 
 I author's name could have been no fecret. Shakefpeare's 
 j ** Venus and Adonis," it may be remarked, was noticed 
 I by Lodge in his " Scillaes Metamorphofis," in J|^89, 
 ! which was four years before its publi:: appearance in 
 ; print. But there were perfedlly obvious reafons why 
 1 he would not like to openly avow himfelf the author 
 I of pieces, which, though they might increafe his reputa- 
 tion for wit and humour, would be confidered as highly
 
 viii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 indecorous in a young and rifing barrifter. It is figni- 
 ficant that when he brought out a new edition of his 
 Poems a few years before his death the Epigrammes 
 were omitted. What was thought of them by the 
 authorities was Oiown by that memorable event in the 
 annals of literature when, to ufe the words of Warton, 
 in his Hirtoryof Englifli Poetry," in the year 1599 the 
 Hall of the Stationers underwent as great a purgation 
 as was carried on in Don Quixote's library. Marfton's 
 'Pygmalion,' Marlowe's * Ovid,' the 'Satires of Hall 
 and Marllon,' the 'Epigrams' of Davies and others, 
 and the ' Caltha Poetarum,' were ordered for im- 
 mediate conflagration by the prelates Whitgift and 
 Bancroft," together with other works, that of Guilpin's, 
 named above, being one. Notwithftanding this inter- 
 didlion, feveral editions of both works were fecretly 
 printed, all of which, in confequence of the hafl:y and 
 furreptitious manner in which they were prepared, 
 abound with the grofleil errors. 
 
 LIST OF EDITIONS. 
 
 EPIGRAMMES AND ELEGIES. By I. D. and 
 
 CM. At Middleborough [n. d. i2mo. A — G 3, 
 
 in fours. 26 leaves.] — \_Sir C. IJham?\^ 
 
 This is the edition now reprinted, and though for reafons here- 
 after given it is not in my opinion the very earlieft impreflion, yet 
 to judge merely from its containing, like the one next to be de- 
 fcribed, only "Certaine of Ovids Elegies," it muft have preceded 
 all thofs which include the whole of his Three Books. Not\vith- 
 ftandlngits \m^\\n\. oi Middleborough^ there is as much probabilit)-,
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 if the charafter of the type and of the mifprints be evidence, thac 
 it iflued from the fame prefs as " The PafTionate Pilgrime," and 
 confequently a London one, as that the edition next defcribed was 
 printed abroad and by foreigners, 
 
 II. 
 
 EPIGRAMMES AND ELEGIES. By I. D. and 
 C. M. At Middleborugh ; [no date, duodecimo. 
 A. 2 leaves. B — C in fours]. — [Briti/h Mujeum\. 
 
 This copy is deficient of one leaf (A 4), and was fold at Bind- 
 ley's fale for ^8 i8j. 6c/. It bears the following autograph note 
 by that eminent colle<ftor : " This is the original and genuine 
 edition: of extreme rarity ; printed abroad, and uncaftrated." 
 
 This opinion is, I think, only partially corredl. That the 
 Bindley impreflion was printed abroad is unqueftionable, but in- 
 ftead of the works firft iffuing from a foreign prefs, I believe that 
 we owe them to a London one ; for their groflhefs, though occa- 
 fionally remarkable, not being greater than that which charadter- 
 ifes many other works then openly circulated, they would not be 
 likely, in the opinion of the putters-forth, to incur the cenfure 
 of the authorities, and therefore no neceflity would exift for their 
 being printed elfewhere than in the metropolis. When, to cite 
 only one example, it was {ztn that Sir John Harington's tranflation 
 of the "Orlando Furiofo," 1596, though disfigured occafionally 
 by fuch unnecefTary groflhefs as would have fhocked Ariofto him- 
 felf, had been produced under the fpecial fandlion of the " maiden 
 queen," and was never interfered with, it might be difficult for 
 publifhers to guefs what would be fufficiently licentious to bring 
 down upon them the cenfure of the Church. And therefore 1 
 think that it was only fubfequent to their original publication in 
 London, and in confequence of their being included among the 
 books burnt at Stationers' Hall in June, 1599, that the expedient 
 of reprinting thefe Epigrammes and Elegies at Middleburgh, in 
 Holland, was firft reforted to. 
 
 That no copy with a London imprint is known to exift militates 
 nothing againft this fuppofition, my recent difcovery of fo manj 
 hitherto unknown editions as well as works encouraging us to hope 
 for future refufcitations of books of equal or even greater import- 
 ince.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 ALL OVID'S ELEGIES: 3 Bookes. By C. M. 
 EPIGRAMS by J. D. At Middlebourgh ; [n. d. 
 izmo. A — F, in eights, including title.] [48 leaves], 
 
 '* A later edition, which I have ufed, and which contains the 
 ' Elegies ' complete, with their more objcdlionable paflages rather 
 heightened than foftened down, is probably that which was burnt 
 at Stationers' Hall by order of the Archbifliop of Canterbury and 
 the Bifhop of London, in June, 1 599." Dyce 5 who refers to it as 
 edition B. A duplicate verfion of Eleg. XV. lib. i. is afcribed to 
 B. J., probably Ben Jonfon, and if To, it muft have been his earlieft 
 printed produ^on. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ALL OVID'S ELEGIES; 3 Bookes. By C. M. 
 EPIGRAMS by J. D. At Middlebovrgh ; [n. d. 
 I zmo.J [Referred to by Mr. Dyce as ed. C] 
 
 Editions of the two works continued to be printed together, 
 with MiddUburgh on the title, and without date, but probably in 
 London, as late as 1640. As to recent impreflions, both were in- 
 cluded by the Rev. A. Dyce, in his editions of " Marlowe's Works,' ' 
 in 1850 and 1865 ; and Mr. G. Robinfon, in his edition of" Mar- 
 lowe's Works," 3 vols. Pickering, 1826, has likewife inferted the 
 " Epigrammes " and both verfions of the *' Elegies." The " Epi- 
 grammes " alfo appear in the new edition of the " Complete 
 Works of Sir John Davies," now in courfe of publication by the 
 Rev. A. B. Grofart. An edition of the " Certaine " impreflion of 
 the Elegies, limited to twenty-five copies, was printed a few yean 
 fince, without date, by Mr. Maitland. 
 
 The " Middleburgh " here mentioned is the capital of the Ifle 
 of Walcheren, the firft incorporated cit\' of Holland and Zealand 
 that ever exifted, and once of confiderable importance to EngliA 
 commerce, as enjoying the exclufive right of dcpofit for the cloths 
 imported from London. Chaucer, in defcribing the Merchant in 
 the Canterbury Tales, alludes to the conftant traffic " Betwixcn 
 Middleburgh and Orewell," and Caxton is fuppofcd to have had 
 an agency here. It is alfo the city in which the telcfcope wai in- 
 
 ^J.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. xi 
 
 vented. On its capture from the Spaniards by the Dutch in 1574 
 they immediately aboliihed the Roman Catholic worfhip and efta- 
 blifhed a free prefs. In confequence it feems to have been felefted 
 as a convenient place for printing various Englifh books which 
 might have met with oppofition from the authorities in England. 
 As early as 15 82 Robert Brown's "Lives of all True Chriftians," 
 of which a copy is preferved in Trinity College, Dublin, was 
 printed here, as alfo were feveral other Englifh books before the clofe 
 of the fixteenth century j among them Dudley Fenner's"Song of 
 Songs," and fome pieces of that extraordinary charadler, Hugh 
 Broughton. In 1584 R. Schilders, who ftyles himfelf printer to 
 the States of Zealand, publifhed here a Dutch tranflation of Lord 
 Burleigh's celebrated tradt " On the Execution of Juftice in Eng- 
 land," &c., which had firft appeared about 1578 ; and in 1599 an 
 edition of John Rainolde's " Overthrow of Stage Playes," fome 
 copies of which bear the date of 1600.
 
 Now Ready. An accurate re-imprejjio?!., printed for 
 the Subjcribers only, of the following inter efling work, 
 of which only two copies are known : 
 
 Il3etoe0 out of Potole0 CburcfjpatDe* 
 
 iI5otD netnlp renueti anH amplifgeu accortiinc to tlje 
 accitient0 of ti)e prefent time, 1579, antJ otijer* 
 hjife entituleti fpr JI5ummu0* 2I2Hritten in (!EngIife 
 ^atpr0» SS^ijercin 10 reprooteli ejccefSue anti un- 
 fatofuU feeSing after rtcfjee, anti tfje euill fpenUing 
 of t^z fame* eiomppleti i? ©♦ ^* &zm* 
 3lmprinteti at Hontionbg J[of)ni2rf)arIetoootJ, ann lRici?arTi 
 3[i?one0» [8t3o» 33Iac6 Hetter,] 
 
 *^* The impreffion of this work is ftri6lly limited to 
 One Hundred and Twenty-nine Copies, namely : 
 One Hundred on Small Paper, price loj. 6d. each. 
 Twenty-five on Large Paper, price zu. 
 Four on Vellum, two of which are of the Larger 
 Size. 
 
 This curious and exceffively rare poetical work, by 
 Edward Hake, was found by the editor at Lamport 
 Hall on the fame occafion, in September, 1867, as 
 brought to light the hitherto unknown edition of 
 " Shakefpeare'5 Venus and Adonis," dated 1599, ^^ 
 well as many other rare and undefcribed produdlions of 
 the Elizabethan era. Till then only one copy was fup- 
 pofed to be in exiftence. 
 
 Its Rarity i however, is not its only recommendation, 
 for it throws much light on the manners and culloms 
 I of the time. It confifts of a fpirited dialogue (in eight 
 .Satyrs, as they are called,) between Bertulph and Paul
 
 as they walk in the aifle of St. Paul's Cathedral, then a 
 favourite refort both for bufinefs and pleafure. The 
 author, who was Under Steward of Windfor, and a de- 
 pendant of the great Earl of Leicefter, to whom he 
 dedicates this work, inveighs with much feverity on 
 the abufes in all branches of fociety, attacking the 
 rapacity and idlenefs of Church dignitaries, the cor- 
 ruption and partiality of judges and the greedinefs of 
 counfel and attorneys ; the tricks and pra6lifes of 
 phyficians, apothecaries and furgeons ; the unnecefTary 
 extravagance of living and confequent ruin of thought- 
 lefs perfons ; the wickednefs of bawds, ufurers, brokers. 
 Sec, and introducing allufions to unlawful fports, the 
 fumptuary laws then in force, &c. 
 
 Of its claims to notice Mr, Payne Collier thus 
 fpeaks in his recently publiflied " Bibliographical and 
 Critical Account of the rareil Books in the Englifh 
 Language" : — 
 
 " There is no more rare or more curious work than 
 this in our language. Only a fingle copy of it is known 
 (that we have ufed) ; and, although mentioned by 
 later bibliographers, it was unknown to Ritfon, and no- 
 body has yet pretended to give a notion of its contents. 
 We fhall do fo in more detail than ufual." And to this 
 purpofe he devotes no lefs than fix pages. 
 
 *«,* Subjcribers names can be jent to the fublijhen, Meffn. H. 
 Sotkeran & Co., 136, Strand, London ^ or to the editor, Mr. Chariet 
 Edmonds {Sackttt and Edmonds^, I I, Bull Street, Birmingham. 

 
 4 
 
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