P. 201 - HOLD OUT, MY HEART! At first thought a rhyme seems wanted to fie; but I would rather conclude that it was wilfully omitted by the author. Only transposing say and cry would give the rhyme; but is not the ear better satisfied with the recurring sounds within the lines? His full rewarding, i.e. his love's. Weelkes was organist of Chichester Cathedral. P. 205 - A MISTRESS DESCRIBED appears to be founded on, and more than the thought borrowed from, Heywood, p. 3. P. 206 SINCE FIRST I SAW YOUR FACE. Of this the first and third stanzas are often sung as a Madrigal," but Hullah (who gives the fourth in brackets, as if doubtful) writing of such music says · "The vocal compositions of John Dowland, often incorrectly called madrigals, are for the most part songs with accompaniment for the Lute, or for three other voices. Though a contemporary of the great English madrigal writers, Dowland was not one of them. His compositions, like those of Forde, belong rather to the school of which, in England, Henry Lawes (Milton's friend) was the most accomplished master." [Notes to Hullah's Song Book, pp. 354-5.] Excellent the music, and yet more note-worthy the perfect accord of words and music, of this, the choicest of madrigals or songs. I would fain believe that Forde wrote both, though there is only the internal evidence of its likelihood. P. 207 THE Right of BEAUTY. Words, as well as music, of this and other pieces have always been given to Campion, on the ground of their appearing as his in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody. Campion, says Ellis, was a physician, and also, adds Nicolas, famous for musical and poetical talent. And he is spoken of in connection with Watson as a good Latin poet. Two Books of Airs were composed by him. Four poems are set down as his in the Rhapsody. Probably these composers (he likeliest) did sometimes write words for their own music, but what really belongs to them as poets remains uncertain. P. 208 — DEUTEROMELIA is the first, PAMMELIA the second, and MELISMATA the third, in a series of "Pleasant Roundelays, Delightful Catches, Freemen's Songs," &c., put forth by Thomas Ravenscroft. Was our THREE POOR MARINERS the original, or an imitation, of the better known song in the same collection ?— We be Soldiers three: Tardona moy, je vous an pree! Lately come forth of the Low Countrie, Pp. 208-9-THe Three Ravens. Words and music, says Chappell, as early as Henry the eighth. In the Twa Corbies, a Scottish version of this (which is the elder ?), copied from Ritson in Scott's Border Minstrelsy, hound, hawk, and lover forsake the dead knight. Is earthen lake the grave; or is it Spenser's "lethe" or "limbo lake,” which is under the earth? Leman is lady-love. The burthen, or refrain, With a down, &c., follows every two lines. ENGLAND'S HELICON Or The Muses' Harmony: the first edition in 1600 with 150, the second in 1614 with 159 pieces, by the best Elizabethan poets: the richest and most varied of all the early collections. Here are the poems signed Ignoto, too hastily supposed to be by Raleigh. I have already taken of its contents. P. 210 PHILLIDA AND CORYDON. In the Helicon entitled Phillida's Love-call to her Corydon and his Replying. Say, in French saie, is a thin kind of serge. P. 212- - BEAUTY SAT BATHING. To Colin Clout in Helicon; Shepherd Tonie is guessed to be Anthony Munday. DAVISON'S POETICAL RHAPSODY Pp. 213-17 — A. W. has baulked all inquirers. Not meaning disrespect to any, one can hardly refrain from observing that A. W. might hide Anonymous Writer. The first edition of the Rhapsody appeared in 1602; it was enlarged in 1608, and again in 1611; and re-arranged in 1621. Reprinted in 1814, at Lee Priory, by Sir Egerton Brydges. See Davison, p. 240. P. 218-IF WRONG BY FORCE. In Sir Harris Nicolas' reprint in 1826, he remarks that in the third edition a stanza omitted from the earlier editions had been added to The Anatomy of Love. Plainly not belonging to that, he removes it to a note. Further consideration would have shown him that, it is part (misplaced, I think, in making up the pages) of the following poem IF WRONG BY FORCE. I give it as the third stanza. Pp. 219, 20- - ON A BEAUTIFUL VIRGIN. last triplet; and calls it A Pagan Epitaph. P. 221 Trench omits the Agen - again. PHILLADA. Author and date not known: but the air is referred to as "a new tune" in The Crown Garland of Roses, 1612. In Walton's Complete Angler we find Milkwoman! what song was it? I pray. 66 Was it "Come, at noon Dulcina Chevy Chase," or My version mainly adheres to Ellis, who refers to a poetical miscellany, Wit Restored, published in 1658. Ritson copies from another miscellany, The Theatre of Compliments, 1689. The two versions differ materially. My and Ellis' stanzas 4 and 6 stand in Ritson as 8 and 7, Ritson inserting another, I think spurious, as 4, between Ellis' 3 and 4: as follows. She did them all disdain, And threw them back again : Therefore 'tis flat and plain Phillida flouts me. Besides this addition, I note the following as most important differences in the two versions. Ellis' copy seems to have a more original flavour; Ritson's to be more corrupt, yet sometimes correcting Ellis. In our stanza 2 Ritson has Dick had her to the Vine. No! Will had her with him (so Ellis) all the dinner through, to the wine, when the men were left to themselves. Stanza 4 Ritson gives as under. But if she frowns on me, She ne'er shall wear it; Stanza 7, Ritson again Which way soe'er I go, She still torments me; And whatsoe'er I do, Here Ellis (Wit Restored- the earlier copy) reads I 'gin to pine away With grief and sorrow, Penn'd in a meadow. Neither reading can be right, the alternate rhymes elsewhere regularly maintained. I correct with diffidence. Stanza 3: guedes (goods in both Ritson and Ellis) — things. See Glossary to Scott's Sir Tristrem. Look also in Littré's French Dictionary. Stanza 4: clout—a kerchief; coventry, some fabric made at Coventry, or perhaps a kind of thread for embroidery. The blue is Ritson; Ellis has good. In stanza 5 I venture on crudded (clouted or clotted) cream against both Ritson and Ellis, who have curds and cream. Whig is sour buttermilk, something between pure milk and whey: whence the name of the English Whig politician, as being neither one thing nor the other, like the Bat in the Fable. Drayton has — With green cheese, clouted cream, with flawns and custards stored, Whig, cider, and with whey, I domineer a lord. And Warner in his Albion's England Of whig and whey we have good store. I may not leave unnoticed one line in Ritson, surely corrupt: Swigg whey till thou burst, which Ellis but partly mends with Whig and whey whilst thou burst. Ramble-berry (Ellis) looks like the original of bramble-berry, the blackberry. In this same stanza Ritson has And Ellis Thin as a weather's skin, Thin as a weaver's skin. Wether might go for weather, if a sheepskin could be called thin. For weaver, unless weavers too are exceptionally thinskinned, I would read weevil, a small delicate wheat-eating caterpillar (not the weevil beetle). In stanza 6 Ritson has — What pretty toys are those! After all I can but make patch-work. The texts are evidently very corrupt, perhaps written from memory; and emendation is little more than guessing. Not four hundred years old is |