And how, like laggards, wild about they range, Who would not shake such buzzards from the fist, Yet, for our sport, we fawn and flatter both, The sweet content that gives such humour ease; And then we say, when we their follies try, "To play with fools, oh, what a fool was I!" MAY NEVER WAS THE MONTH OF LOVE. From MORLEY'S " Ballets," 1595. MAY never was the month of love, For May is full of flowers; But rather April, wet by kind, For love is full of showers. With soothing words enthralling souls, Her eye in silence hath a speech, Her little sweet hath many sours, Like winter rose and summer iee, Fair first-in fine unseemly. Plough not the seas, sow not the sands, Seek other mistress for your mind; Love's service is in vain. LOVE in my bosom, like a bee, Now with his wings he plays with me, Within mine eyes he makes his nest, And if I sleep, then pierceth he And makes his pillow of my knee The live-long night. Strike I the lute, he tunes the string; He music plays if I but sing; He lends me every lovely thing, Yet, cruel, he my heart doth sting: Ah, wanton, will you? Else I with roses every day And bind you when you long to play, I'll shut my eyes to keep you in, What if I beat the wanton boy He will repay me with annoy, Then sit thou softly on my knee, A CHARACTER OF LOVE. SAMUEL DANYELL, born 1562, died 1619. LOVE is a sickness full of woes, A plant that with most cutting grows, If we enjoy it, soon it dies ; Love is a torment of the mind, A heaven has made it of a kind If we enjoy it, soon it dies; SIGH NO MORE, LADIES. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, born 1564, died 1616. Set as a song or glee From Much Ado about Nothing," act ii. sc. 3. This song is sung by Balthazar, and affirmed by Don Pedro to be "By my troth, a good song." HARK, HARK! THE LARK. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Set as a glee by Dr. COOKE. HARK, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, As Phoebus 'gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs On chaliced flowers that lies; And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes, With every thing that pretty bin, My lady sweet, arise; Arise, arise. From "Cymbeline:" sung by Cloten's musicians under the windows of Imogen's chamber. TAKE, OH, TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY! WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Music by W. LINLEY. The song has also been set by M. Galliard, William Jackson, of Exeter, Mr. Frank Mori, and other composers. TAKE, oh, take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn; Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow There is some doubt as to the authorship of this song. The first stanza is quoted in "Measure for Measure." Both of the stanzas appear in the "Bloody Brother, or Rollo, Duke of Normandy," by Beaumont and Fletcher. It does not follow, however, that any part of it is Shakspeare's because it is introduced in one of his plays. A note on this passage in Knight's edition of Shakspeare's plays says, "The question arises, is this song to be attributed to Shakspeare or Fletcher? Malone justly observes, that all the songs introduced in our author's plays appear to have been his own composition. The idea in the line 'Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,' is found in the 142d Sonnet. The image is also repeated in 'Venus and Adonis.' Weber, the editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, is of opinion that the first stanza was Shakspeare's, and that Fletcher added the second. There is no evidence, we apprehend, internal or external, by which the question can be settled." THE FOLLY OF LOVE. From JOHN DOWLAND'S "Second Book of Songs," 1600. WHAT poor astronomers are they And set their thoughts in battle array, When, in the end, they shall approve |