Spring come to you, at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest!
Scarcity and want shall shun
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

you;

ARIEL SET FREE.

WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry;
On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily:

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

*

KING HENRY IV. PART II.

BE MERRY, BE MERRY.

Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
And praise Heaven for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,
And lusty lads roam here and there,
So merrily,

Be

And ever among so merrily.

merry, be merry, my wife has all,

For women are shrews, both short and tall;
"Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.

Be merry, be merry,

A
cup of wine that's brisk and fine,
And drink unto the leman mine;

And a merry heart lives long-a.

Fill the cup, and let it come,
I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.

&c.

* Robert Johnson also composed the music of this song.

If wishes would prevail with me,
My purpose should not fail with me,
But thither would I now;
And as duly,

But not as truly,

As bird doth sing on bough.*

KING HENRY VIII.

INFLUENCE OF MUSIC.

ORPHEUS with his lute made trees,

And the mountain-tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing:
To his music, plants and flowers,
Ever sprung; as sun, and showers

There had made a lasting spring.

*These fragments of ballads, sung by Pistol and the Boy (Act iii. Sc. 2), are taken in the form in which they are here given from the curious volume of MS. Notes and Emendations on the Folio of 1632, published by Mr. Collier. In all existing editions of Shakespeare the first line of the first stanza forms part of the dialogue, and it is here, with the two lines that immediately follow, thrown into verse by the emendator. In the third line of the second stanza the word hie, as printed in all the copies, is changed, with obvious propriety, into now. A comparison between the verses as they are given above, and as they are printed in the play, will enable the reader to trace the variances.

Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,

Hung their heads, and then lay by-
In sweet music is such art:
Killing care, and grief of heart,
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.

HOW

HAMLET.

OPHELIA'S SONGS.

I

should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

2

GOOD morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,

*

And dupped the chamber door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

The meaning is ex

*To do open, abbreviated into dup, or do up. plained by Dr. Nares:- Some gates and doors were opened by lifting up as port-cullises, and that kind of half-door swinging on two hinges at the top, which is still seen in some shops.'-Glossary. It also applies to doors with latches.

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fy for shame!

Young men will do it, if they come to it;
By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,

You promised me to wed:

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

3

AND will he not come again?

And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;
God 'a' mercy on his soul!

IN

GRAVE-DIGGER'S SONG.*

N youth when I did love, did love,
Methought, it was very sweet,

To contract, O, the time, for, ah! my behove
O, methought, there was nothing meet.

* These stanzas are from the poem of The Aged Lover renounceth Love, written by Lord Vaux.-See Surrey's Poems [Ann. Ed. p. 226]. In Shakespeare's time Lord Vaux's poem was one of the popular ballads of the day, and Shakespeare appears to have altered the verses to suit them the better to the character of the grave-digger; unless we are to suppose that corruptions had crept into the broad-sheet. The following are the original stanzas:

'I loathe that I did love

In youth that I thought sweet,
As time requires for my behove,
Methinks they are not meet.

But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath clawed me in his clutch,
And hath shipped me intil the land,
As if I had never been such.

A pickaxe, and a spade, a spade,
For and a shrouding sheet:
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.

CYMBELINE.

H

SERENADE.

ARK! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chaliced flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin their golden eyes;

To ope

With every thing that pretty bin :*
My lady sweet, arise;

Arise, arise.

FEAR

THE DIRGE OF IMOGEN.

EAR no more the heat o' the sun
Nor the furious winter's rages;

Thou thy wordly task hast done,
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

For Age with stealing steps

Hath clawed me with his clutch,
And lusty Life away she leaps

As there had been none such.

A pick-axe and a spade,

.

And eke a shrouding sheet,

A house of clay for to be made

For such a guest most meet.'

* Printed is in the folio, changed by Hanmer to bin.