[551:C] Fuller's Worthies, 1662, part ii. p. 75.

[551:D] See his Verses on Saccharissa, the Lady Dorothy Sidney.

[552:A] In his Essay on Poetry.

[552:B] In his Description of Arcadia in Greece, where he tells us that the Arcadia, "besides its excellent language, rare contrivances, and delectable stories, hath in it all the strains of poesy, comprehendeth the universal art of speaking, and to them who can discern and will observe, affordeth notable rules for demeanor both private and public."

[552:C] Park's edition of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 221. An excellent defence of the Arcadia against the decision of Lord Orford, who terms it "a tedious, lamentable, pedantic, pastoral romance," may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p. 57. See also Sir Egerton Brydges's edition of Phillip's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 134, et seq., and Zouch's Memoirs of Sidney, p. 155.

[552:D] Aikin's Annual Review, vol. iv. p. 547.

[553:A] Pennant's London, p. 103.

[554:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvi. p. 84., and Malone's note.

[554:B] Ibid. vol. xii. p. 213. Act v. sc. 1.

[554:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 472.

[556:A] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 56., the year 1573.

[556:B] See Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 2. Henry IV. Part I. act ii. sc. 3. Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 1. Love's Labour's Lost, act v. sc. 2. Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.

[556:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 124, 125. Act iii. sc. 4.

[557:A] Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. pp. liv. 285. 295.

[558:A] Wrest—the key with which the harp is tuned.

[559:A] Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.

[559:B] Kind Harts Dreame, sig. B. 2.

[560:A] Arte of English Poesie, reprint, p. 69.

[560:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 273. col. 1. Book iv. sat. 1.

[560:C] Malone's Supplement to Shakspeare's Plays, vol. i. p. 521.

[561:A] See Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës, vol. i. Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy, p. ccxxiv.

[562:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 144. Act iii. sc. 2.

[562:B] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 465.

[562:C] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 125.

[563:A] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 126, 127.

[563:B] Positions concerning the training up of Children, London, 1581 and 1587. 4to. chap. xxvi.

[564:A] The original, the Histoire de Huon de Bordeaux, was ushered into the world at the Fair of Troyes in Champagne, in the first century of printing.

[564:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 51. Act ii. sc. 1.

[564:C] Huon of Bourdeaux, chap. xvii.

[564:D] Chap. xlvi. edit. of 1601. Lord Berners's translation underwent three editions. The original has had the honour of giving birth to the Chef d'Oeuvre of Wieland—"the child of his genius," observe the Monthly Reviewers, "in moments of its purest converse with the all-beauteous forms of ideal excellence;—the darling of his fancy, born in the sweetest of her excursions amid the ambrosial bowers of fairy-land;—the Oberon,—an epic poem, popular beyond example, yet as dear to the philosopher as to the multitude; which, during the author's lifetime, has attained in its native country all the honours of a sacred book; and to the evolution of the beauties of which, a Professor in a distinguished university has repeatedly consecrated an entire course of patronized lectures." New Series, vol. xxiii. p. 576.

The beauties of Oberon are now accessible to the mere English scholar, through the medium of Mr. Sotheby's version, which, though strictly faithful to the German, has the spirit and harmony of an original poem.

[565:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xiii. p. 249. Act ii. sc. 3.

[565:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 189. col. 1.—Polyolbion, canto ii.

[566:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 475. Act iii. sc. 4.

[566:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii. p. xxiii.

[566:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 363. Act i. sc. 1.

[566:D] Ibid. p. 367. King John, act i. sc. 1.

[567:A] Vide Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. ii. p. 201., and Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. i.

[567:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 502. Act v. sc. 1.

[567:C] Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romancees, vol. iii. p. 344.

[567:D] Vide Garrick Collection in Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 400.

[567:E] Todd's Spenser, vol. v. p. 313. 367.

[567:F] This poet is conjectured to have thrown some ridicule on the Squire of Low Degree, in his rhyme of Sir Thopas; but Ritson remarks, that this romance "is never mentioned by any one writer before the sixteenth century; nor is it known to be extant in manuscript; and, in fact, the Museum copy is the onely one that exists in print." Romancees, vol. iii. p. 345.

[568:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 326. note.

[569:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 5., and Walton's Hist. of Poetry, vol. iii. p. 294.

[569:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 254.

[569:C] See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 201, 202., and Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 342.

[569:D] See Shakspeare Illustrated, by Mrs. Lennox, 3 vols. 12mo. 1754.

[570:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 191. Act i. sc. 2.

[570:B] Jarvis's Don Quixote, vol. i. part i. chap. 1. Sharpe's edit. p. 3.

[570:C] Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2661.

[571:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 173. Act iii. sc. 1.

[571:B] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 148.

[571:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.—Mr. Douce observes, that the "oldest (edition) we know of is that of 1649, printed by Robert Ibbitson. In 1586, The old book of Valentine and Orson was licensed to T. Purfoot." P. 240.

[572:A] British Bibliographer, No. V. p. 469.

[572:B] Ibid. p. 470.

[572:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.

[573:A] Arcadia, book i. p. 29. 7th edit.

[573:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 87. Act iii. sc. 2.

[573:C] Book ii. pp. 153, 154. edit. of 1629.

[574:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 305. 307, 308. Act ii. sc. 4.

[576:A] British Bibliographer, No. X. pp. 559, 560. This fragment, says Mr. Haslewood, "is in black letter, one sheet, and bears signature C."

[576:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. Act ii. sc. 1.

[576:C] Jacke of Dover, his quest of Inquirie, or his privy Search for the veriest Foole in England, 4to.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. note 4.

[577:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 64. and note by Steevens.

[577:B] Ibid. p. 130. Act iii. sc. 3.

[577:C] Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 219. col. 1. Act iii. sc. 7.

[577:D] Custom of the Country, act i. sc. 1. The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act v.

[577:E] Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632. p. 576.

[577:F] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 131. note 8.

[577:G] Ibid. p. 110.

[578:A] England's Helicon, 3d edit., reprint of 1812. p. 214, 215.

[578:B] Compleat Angler, Bagster's edit. 1808. pp. 147, 148.

[578:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 293. Act ii. sc. 3.

[579:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 294-297. 299.

[579:B] Ibid. v. p. 296. note by Steevens.

[579:C] Vol. i. p. 220.

[579:D] Reliques, vol. i. p. 220.

[580:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 194.

[580:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 166.

[580:C] Ibid. p. 166. note.

[580:D] Ibid. vol. vii. p. 51. Act iii. sc. 1.

[580:E] Ibid. p. 82. Act iv. sc. 1.

[580:F] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 119. Act iii. sc. 3.

[580:G] Ibid. p. 144. Act iv. sc. 1.

[581:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 238-240. Act i. sc. 3.

[581:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 131. Act iv. sc. 1.—There appears to be allusions to two catches in this scene. Grumio exclaims "fire, fire; cast on no water," which Judge Blackstone traces to the following old catch in three parts:—

"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.
Fire, fire;——Fire, fire;
Cast on some more water."

Grumio a little afterwards calls out, "Why, Jack boy! ho boy!" the beginning, as Sir John Hawkins asserts, of an old round in three parts, of which he has given us the musical notes.

[581:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 244.

[581:D] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 131. note.

[581:E] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 132. Act iv. sc. 1.

[582:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 259.

[582:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 328. Act iv. sc. 2.

[582:C] Ibid. p. 346. Act iv. sc. 3.—We shall add, in this note, in order to complete the catalogue, all the fragments of ancient minstrelsy that have escaped our enumeration in the text.

In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, lamenting the approaching departure of Cressida, expresses his sorrow by quoting an old song beginning—

"O heart, o heart, o heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking."

Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 393.

Hamlet, bantering Polonius, quotes part of the first stanza of a ballad entitled, Jephtha, Judge of Israel. This has been published by Dr. Percy, retrieved, as he relates, from utter oblivion by a lady, who wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her father.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 142.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 189.

It is probable that Hamlet, who appears to have been well versed in ballad-lore, has again introduced two morsels from this source, in his dialogue with Horatio on the conduct of the king at the play: they strongly mark his triumph in the success of his plan for unmasking the crimes of his uncle:—

"Why let the strucken deer go weep," &c.
——
"For thou dost know, O Damon dear," &c.

Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. pp. 212. 214.

Iago in the drunken scene with Cassio, in the view of adding to his exhilaration, sings a portion of two songs; the first apparently a chorus,—

"And let me the canakin, clink, clink," &c.

the second,

"King Stephen was a worthy peer,"

from a humorous ballad of Scotch origin, preserved by Percy in his Reliques, vol. i. p. 204.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 334. 336.

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, in the following passage, alludes to two ballads of considerable notoriety:—

"Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid;"

the first line referring to the celebrated ballad of Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly, and the second to King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid; popular pieces which are again the objects of allusion in Much Ado about Nothing, act i.; and in the Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 77.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. pp. 154. 198.

The same play will afford us three or four additional references; Mercutio, ridiculing the old Nurse, gives us a ludicrous fragment commencing "An old hare hoar," vol. xx. p. 116.; and Peter, after calling for two songs called Heart's ease, and My heart is full of woe, attempts to puzzle the musicians by asking for an explanation of the epithet silver in the first stanza of A Song to the Lute in Musicke, written by Richard Edwards, in the "Paradise of Daintie Devises," and commencing,

"Where griping griefs the hart would wounde."

Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 220. 222.
and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 196.

[584:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 353-355. Act iv. sc. 3.

[584:B] Ibid. p. 403. Act v. sc. 2.

[585:A] Reliques, vol. i. p. 214.

[585:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 78.

[585:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 232. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:A] Dear is here to be remembered in its double sense.—Farmer.

[586:B] My wife's as all, that is, as all women are.—Steevens.

[586:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 232-236. Act v. sc. 3.

[586:D] Ibid. p. 237.

[586:E] Ibid. p. 241.

[586:F] This play was first printed in the year 1613.

[587:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 366, note.

[588:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 463, and 490, note. This finely descriptive line, Dr. Percy has interwoven in his ballad of The Friar of Orders Gray.

[588:B] Reed's Shakspeare vol. xvii. p. 472. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:C] Ibid. p. 478. Act iii. sc. 4.

[588:D] Ibid. p. 484. Act iii. sc. 6.

[588:E] Ibid. p. 485, note by Malone.

[589:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 486.

[589:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 278. note.

[589:C] Ibid. p. 278-280. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 281, 282. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 292. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:C] Ibid. p. 299. Act iv. sc. 5.

[590:D] Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and others. Cambridge edition, 1794, p. 70.

[591:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 293.

[591:B] Ibid. p. 298.

[591:C] Ibid. p. 294. note.

[591:D] Ibid. p. 322, note 4.

[591:E] Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 45.

[592:A] Namely in 1565, 1567, 1569, 1574, 1585, 1587, &c.

[592:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 27.

[592:C] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 186.

[592:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 472. Act iv. sc. 3.

[592:E] Vol. i. p. 208.

[593:A] To form a complete enumeration of the songs of the Elizabethan era, it would be necessary not only to consult all the dramatic writers of this age, but to acquire a perfect series of the very numerous Collections of Madrigals which were published during the same period.