BOOK I

(1250-1625)

I

TRADITION assigns to this lively little lyric the honour of being the most ancient song, with or without the musical notes, in the English language. In all probability it was composed as early as 1250. It is preserved in the Harleian MS. No. 978, and was first published in Sir John Hawkins' History of Music.

II

This charming little song is from Harleian MS. No. 2253, and is printed by Ritson in his Ancient Songs and Ballads, vol. i. p. 58; it is also printed in Dr. Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253, pp. 168-171; and his text I adopt.

III

Printed in Wright's Songs and Carols from Sloane MS. No. 2593 in the British Museum.

IV

From Harleian MS. 2253; printed by Wright and Ritson, and by Dr. K. Böddeker in his Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253, p. 195. I give his text.

V

From the Egerton MS. No. 613, fol. 2, 20, of the thirteenth century. Printed in Wright's Reliqiuæ Antiquæ, vol. i. p. 89.

VI

It will be seen that the point of this graceful little poem turns on a pun between the herb "rew" and "rue" or pity. For William Dunbar see next note.

VII

William Dunbar, whom Sir Walter Scott pronounced to be "a poet unrivalled by any that Scotland has ever produced," was born some time about 1450 and died probably about 1530. Dunbar's fame has suffered from the obsolete language in which he wrote. There is a strange solemnity and power in many of his pieces. I only give a portion of the poem from which these stanzas are taken.

VIII

I have slightly modernised the spelling in this piece, which is to be found among Dunbar's miscellaneous poems.

IX

From the Garlande of Laurell. Skelton (1460?-1529) is chiefly known as the author of poems of a very different kind from this, but he had a versatile genius, and if he could revel in graceless ribaldry he could break out, as he does here, into charming song.

X

Sephestia's Song to her child in Menaphon. The middle stanza is omitted.

XI

From Patient Grissell, a comedy written in conjunction by Haughton, Chattle, and Dekker, 1600.

XII

From the Phonix Nest, 1593.

XIII

From Astrophel and Stella, the Eleventh Song.

XIV

From The Captain. As The Captain was written in conjunction by Beaumont and Fletcher it is impossible to assign this lyric certainly either to the one or to the other. It is the most pathetic in their plays. In the last line the folio reads "day."

XV

Printed in Observations on the Art of English Poetry, attributed to George Puttenham.

XVI

This has been attributed to Donne, but certainly belongs to Campion. For Campion see note on xliv.

XVII

From Britannia's Pastorals, the Third Song.

XVIII

From Blurt, Master Constable: or the Spaniard's Night Walke, 1602. Owe=possess “Phœbe here" etc.; this is somewhat awkwardly expressed, and Dyce proposes to read "Did Phoebe here one night lie," thus ruining the rhythm, but making the sense clear.

XIX

Lady Mary Wroth, to whom Ben Jonson dedicated the Alchemist, was the daughter of Robert, second Earl of Leicester, a younger brother of Sir Philip Sidney, and the wife of Sir Robert Wroth of Durant. The extract given is from her romance Urania, an imitation of her uncle's Arcadia, published in 1621.

XXI

From Rossiter's Consort Lessons, 1609. Chappell's Old English Popular Music, vol. i. p. 148.

XXII

From Wilbye's Second Set of Madrigales.

XXIII

From Robert Jones's The Muses' Garden of Delights-re printed in Beloes' Literary Anecdotes, vol. vi. p. 168, and by Mr. Bullen in his Lyrics from the Elizabethan Song-Books.

From Menaphon.

XXIV

XXV

From England's Helicon, where it is signed, like several other pieces in the same collection, "Shepheard Tonie." Sir Egerton Brydges, in his Introduction to his reprint of England's Helicon, conjectures that it might be a signature assumed by Anthony Munday. Munday's voluminous and varied writings show that he was certainly a very versatile genius, but nothing equal to this lyric, or to some of the others under this signature, is to be found in his acknowledged writings.

XXVI

In an old MS. formerly belonging to Sir John Cotton of Stratton in Huntingdonshire. This poem is attributed to Dr. Donne, among whose poems it is commonly printed. See Dr. Grosart's note in his edition of Donne's Poems, vol. ii. pp. 238, 239.

XXVII

This poem is generally attributed to Raleigh. In the Phonix Nest it appears without any signature, and in England's Helicon, where it is printed as a dialogue between Melibœus and Faustus, it is signed Ignoto. In a MS. list of Francis Davison's it is assigned to Raleigh. The "sauncing," or "saunce" bell, is said to be the small bell which is rung when the clergyman enters the church, and also at funerals.

XXVIII

First printed under the title of the Ploughman's Song in The Honourable Entertainment given to the Queen's Majesty in Progress at Elvetham in Hampshire by the Right Honourable the Earl of Hertford, 1591, and afterwards in England's Helicon.

XXIX

From The Rape of Lucrece.

XXX

From The Fair Maid of the Exchange. I have excised

one stanza.

XXXI

From The Faithful Shepherdess.

XXXII

From Valentinian. A mazer is a bowl or goblet.

XXXIII

From England's Helicon.

XXXIV

This charming lyric is from Captain Tobias Hume's First Part of Airs-French, Polish and others—together published in 1605. We owe its recovery to Mr. A. H. Bullen, who has printed it in his Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age.

XXXV

From Davison's Poetical Rhapsody.

XXXVI

From England's Helicon, where it appears as one of three poems taken from John Dowland's Book of Tablature for the Lute.

XXXVII

From A Handefull fo Pleasant Delites, etc., 1584. The