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Sim. Marry, fir, the city-ward, the park-ward, every way; old Windfor way, and every way but the town way. Eva. I most fehemently defire you, you will also look that way.

Sim. I will, fir.

Eva. 'Plefs my foul! how full of cholers I am, and trempling of mind!-I fhall be glad, if he have deceived me :how melancholies I am!-I will knog his urinals about his knave's coftard, when I have good opportunities for the 'ork:-'plefs my foul! [Sings.

To fhallow rivers, to whofe falls
Melodious birds fing madrigals;

There

have been the office of the aim-crier, to give notice to the archer when he was within a proper distance of his mark, or in a direct line with it, and to point out why he failed to ftrike it. STEEVENS.

8 The old editions read- -the Pittie-ward, the modern editors the Pitty-wary. There is now no place that answers to either name at Windfor. The author might poffibly have written (as I have printed) the City-ward, i. e. towards London.

In the Itinerarium, however, of William de Worcestre, p. 251. the fol lowing account of diftances in the City of Bristol occurs. Via de Pyttey a Pyrtey yate, porta vocata Nether Pyttey, ufque antiquam portam Pyttey ufque viam ducentem ad Wynch-ftrete continet 140 greffus," &c. &c. The word-Pittey, therefore, which feems unintelligible to us, might anciently have had an obvious meaning. STEEVENS.

9 This is part of a beautiful little poem of the author's; which poem, and the answer to it, the reader will not be difpleafed to find here.

The Paffionate Shepherd to his Love.

"Come live with me, and be my love,
"And we will all the pleafures prove
"That hills and vallies, dale and field,
"And all the craggy mountains yield.
<< There will we fit upon the rocks,

And fee the thepherds feed their flocks,
"By fhallow rivers, by whofe falls

Melodious birds fing madrigals:
"There will I make thee beds of rofes
With a thoufand fragrant pofies,
"A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
"Imbroider'd all with leaves of myrtle;
"A gown made of the fineft wool,

• Which from our pretty lambs we pull;

There will we make our peds of rfesz
And a thousand fragrant pofies.
To shallow

"Fair lined flippers for the cold,
"With buckles of the pureft gold;
"A belt of straw, and ivy buds,
"With coral clafps, and amber ftuds:
"And if these pleasures may thee move,
"Come live with me, and be my love.
"Thy filver dishes for thy meat,
"As precious as the gods do eat,
"Shall on an ivory table be

"Prepar'd each day for thee and me.
"The shepherd fwains fhall dance and fing
"For thy delight each May morning:
"If thefe delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love."

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd..
"If that the world and love were young,
"And truth in every fhepherd's tongue,

Thefe pretty pleasures might me move "To live with thee, and be thy love. "But time drives flocks from field to fold, "When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold, "And Philomel becometh dumb, "And all complain of cares to come : "The flowers do fade, and wanton fields. To wayward winter reckoning yields.. "A honey tongue, a heart of gall, "Is fancy's fpring, but forrow's fall. "Thy gowns, thy fhoes, thy beds of roses, "Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy pofies, "Soon break, foon wither, foon forgotten,. "In folly ripe, in reafon rotten. "Thy belt of ftraw, and ivy buds,

Thy coral clafps, and amber ftuds; "All these in me no means can move "To come to thee, and be thy love. "What fhould we talk of dainties then,, "Of better meat than's fit for men? "Thefe are but vain that's only good "Which God hath blefs'd, and fent for food? "But could youth laft, and love still breed, "Had joys no date, and age no need; "Then thefe delights my mind might move "To live with thee, and be thy love." 4.6.

'Mercy

Thefe

>Mercy on me! I have a great difpofitions to cry.
Melodious birds fing madrigals ;—
When as I fat in Pabylon,2-

And a thoufandvagram poefies.
To shallow

Simp. Yonder he is coming, this way, fir Hugh.

Eva. He's welcome :

To fhallow rivers, to whofe falls

Heaven profper the right!-What weapons is he?

Sim. No weapons, fir: There comes my mafter, mafler Shallow, and another gentleman from Frogmore, over the ftile, this way.

Eva. Pray you, give me my gown; or elfe keep it in

your arms.

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER.

Shal. How now, mafter parfon? Good-morrow, good fir Hugh. Keep a gamefter from the dice, and a good ftudent from his book, and it is wonderful.

Slen.

These two poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakspeare, are, by writers nearer that time, disposed of, one to Marlow, the other to Raleigh. They are read in different copies with great variations. JOHNSON.

In England's Helicon, a collection of love-verfes printed in Shakspeare's life-time, viz. in quarto, 1600, the firft of them is given to Marlowe, the fecond to Ignoto; and Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, obferves, that there is good reafon to believe that (not Shakspeare, but) Chriftopher Marlowe wrote the fong, and Sir Walter Raleigh the Nymph's Reply.

In Shakspeare's fonnets, printed by Jaggard, 1599, this poem was imperfectly published, and attributed to Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

Evans in his panick mis-recites the lines, which in the original rus thus:

"There will we fit upon the rocks,

"And fee the fhepherds feed their flocks,
"By fhallow rivers, to whofe falls

Melodious birds fing madrigals:

"There will I make thee beds of rofes

"With a thousand fragrant pofies," &c.

-He

In the modern editions the verfes fung by Sir Hugh have been corrected, I think, improperly. His mif- recitals were certainly intended.Angs on the prefent occafion, to fhew that he is not afraid; MALONE.

A late

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Page. Save you, good fir Hugh!

Eva. 'Plefs you from his mercy fake, all of you!

Shal. What! the fword and the word! do you ftudy them both, mafter parfon ?

Page.

A late editor has obferved that Evans in his panick fings, like Bottom, to fhew he is not afraid. It is rather to keep up his fpirits: as he fings. in Simple's abfence, when he has a great difpofitions to cry."

RITSON. The tune to which the former was fung, I have lately difcovered in a MS. as old as Shakspeare's time, and it is as follows:

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SIR J. HAWKINS,

2 This line is from the old verfion of the 137th Pfalm:

"When we did fit in Babylon,

"The rivers round about,

"Then, in remembrance of Sion,

"The tears for grief burst out."

The word rivers, in the fecond line, may be fuppofed to have been brought to Sir Hugh's thoughts by the line of Marlowe's madrigal that he has just repeated; and in his fright he blends the facred and prophane fong together. The old quarto has" There lived a man in Babylon ;” › which was the first line of an old fong, mentioned in Twelfth Night :but the other line is more in character. MALONE.

Page. And youthful ftill, in your doublet and hofe, this raw rheumatick day?

Eva. There is reafons and causes for it.

Page, We are come to you, to do a good office, mafter parfon.

Eva. Fery well: What is it?

Page. Yonder is a moft reverend gentlemen, who belike, having received wrong by fome person, is at most odds with his own gravity and patience, that ever you faw.

Shal. I have lived fourfcore years, and upward ;3 I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, fo wide of his own refpect.

Eva. What is he?

Page. I think you know him; mafter doctor Caius, the renowned French phyfician.

Eva. Got's will, and his paffion of my heart! I had as lief you would tell me of a mefs of porridge.

Page

3 We muft certainly read-threefcore. In The Second Part of King Henry IV. during Falstaff's interview with Mafter Shallow, in his way to York, which Shakspeare has evidently chofen to fix in 1412, (though the Archbishop's infurrection actually happened in 1405,) Silence obferves that it was then fifty-five years fince the latter went to Clement's Inn; fo that, fuppofing him to have begun his ftudies at fixteen, he would be born in 1341, and, confequently, be a very few years older than John of Gaunt, who, we may recollect, broke his head in the tilt-yard. But, be fides this little difference in age, John of Gaunt at eighteen or nineteen would be above fix feet high, and poor Shallow, with all his apparel, might have been trufs'd into an celskin. Dr. Johnfon was of opinion that the prefent play ought to be read between the Firft and Second Part f Henry IV. an arrangement liable to objections which that learned and eminent critick would have found it very difficult, if not altogether im poffible to furmount. But, let it be placed where it may, the fcene is clearly laid between 1402, when Shallow would be fixty one, and 1412, when he had the meeting with Falftaff: Though one would not, to be fure, from what paffes upon that occafion, imagine the parties had been together fo lately at Windfor; much less that the Knight had ever beaten his worship's keepers, kii'd his deer, and broke open his lodge. The alteration now propofed, however, is at all events neceffary; and the rather fo, as Falstaff must be nearly of the fame age with Shallow, and fourfcore feems a little too late in life for a man of bis kidney to be making love to, and even fuppofing himself admired by, two at a time, travelling in a buck-basket, thrown into a river, going to the wars, and making prifoners. Indeed, he has luckily put the matter out of all doubt, by

telling

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