Page images
PDF
EPUB

But no way could relieve his wants;
Yet if that he would stay

[blocks in formation]

Being glad to feed on beggars food,

That lately wore a crown.

[blocks in formation]

Which made him rend his milk-white locks,

And tresses from his head,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

And so to England came with speed,

To repossesse king Leir,

And drive his daughters from their thrones

By his Cordelia dear:

Where she, true-hearted noble queen,

Was in the battel slain :

Yet he good king, in his old days,

Possest his crown again.

But when he heard Cordelia's death,

Who died indeed for love

Of her dear father, in whose cause

She did this battle move;

He swooning fell upon her breast,
From whence he never parted:

But on her bosom left his life,

That was so truly hearted.

The lords and nobles when they saw

The end of these events,

165

170

175

The other sisters unto death

They doomed by consents;

And being dead, their crowns they left

Unto the next of kin :

Thus have you seen the fall of pride,
And disobedient sin.

180

XVI.

Youth and Age,

Is found in the little collection of Shakspeare's Sonnets, entitled the Passionate Pilgrime,* the greatest part of which seems to relate to the amours of Venus and Adonis, being little effusions of fancy, probably written while he was composing his larger Poem on that subject. The following seems intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged VulIn the Garland of Good-will it is reprinted, with the addition of four more such stanzas, but evidently written by a meaner pen.

can.

[blocks in formation]

Youth is nimble, Age is lame:
Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and Age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young:

Age, I do defie thee;

15

Oh sweet shepheard, hie thee,

For methinks thou stayst too long.

20

See Malone's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 325.

XVII.

The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's
Good Fortune.

The following ballad is upon the same subject as the Induction to Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew: whether it may be thought to have suggested the hint to the dramatic poet, or is not rather of later date, the reader must determine.

The story is told of Philip the Good,* Duke of Burgundy, and is thus related by an old English writer: "The said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugall, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnized in the deepe of winter; when as by reason of unseasonable weather he could neither hawke nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c., and such other domestick sports, or to see ladies dance; with some of his courtiers he would

* By Ludov. Vives in Epist, and by Pont. Heuter. Rerum Burgund, b. iv.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »