Where her faith was firmly fix'd in love,
There a nay is plac'd without remove.
One silly cross

Wrought all my loss;

O frowning fortune, cursed, fickle dame! For now I see

Inconstancy

More in women than in men remain.

In black mourn I5,

All fears scorn I,

Love hath forlorn me,

Living in thrall:

Heart is bleeding,

All help needing,
(O cruel speeding!)
Fraughted with gall!

My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal',

composition. So, in Russy d' Ambois, a tragedy by Chapman,

1607:

""Tis one of the best jigs that ever was acted." MALONE. Jigs, as the word is commonly used, would do as well in this passage. I cannot help wishing that such jigs or metrical compositions had been quite forgot, rather than that they should have been attributed to Shakspeare. BOSWELL.

4 There A NAY-] So The Passionate Pilgrim. Annoy, Weelkes's Madrigals. MALONE.

5 In black MOURN 1,] Jaggard's copy has-morne. The reading of the text was supplied by England's Helicon. MALONE.

6 Love HATH forlorn ME;] As the metre as well as rhyme in this passage is defective, I suspect some corruption, and would read:

"Love forlorn I,"

i. e. I love-forlorn, i. e. deserted, forsaken, &c. STEEVENS. All the copies agree in the reading of the text. The metre is the same as in the corresponding line:

"O cruel speeding."

To the exactness of rhyme the author appears to have paid little attention. We have just had dame and remain. MALONE. 7 My shepherd's pipe can sound no DEAL,] i. e. in no degree, more or less. Thus Fairfax :

"This charge some deal thee haply honour may." STEEVENS.

My wether's bell rings doleful knell;
My curtail dog that wont to have play'd,
Plays not at all, but seems afraid;
My sighs so deep,

Procure to weep,

In howling-wise, to see my doleful plight. How sighs resound

Through harkless ground,

Like a thousand vanquish'd men in bloody fight!

My sighs so deep,] Jaggard's copy and England's Helicon read-With sighs, &c. I some years ago conjectured that Shakspeare wrote-My sighs; and the copy in Weelkes's Madrigals which I have lately seen, confirms my conjecture. After the word procure, him, or the dog, must be understood. Malone. The verb procure is used with great laxity by Shakspeare in Romeo and Juliet :

66

it is my lady mother:

"What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?"

STEEVENS.

through HARKLESS ground.] This is the reading furnished by Weelkes's copy. The other old editions have heartless ground. If heartless ground be the true reading, it means, I think, uncultivated, desolated ground, corresponding in its appearance with the unhappy state of its owner. An hypercritick will perhaps ask, how can the ground be harkless, if sighs resound? The answer is, that no other noise is heard but that of sighs: "The birds do not sing, the bells ring not," &c. MAlone. .

'Loud bells ring not

Cheerfully;] Thus Weelkes's copy. The others have: "Green plants bring not

"Forth: they die." MALONE.

All our pleasure known to us poor swains,
All our merry meetings on the plains,
All our evening sport from us is fled,
All our love is lost, for love is dead.
Farewell, sweet lass

Thy like ne'er was

3

For a sweet content, the cause of all my moan*: Poor Coridon

Must live alone,

Other help for him I see that there is none 3.

XVI.

When as thine eye hath chose the dame,
And stall'd the deer that thou would'st strike",
Let reason rule things worthy blame,

As well as fancy, partial tike 1:

Take counsel of some wiser head,

Neither too young, nor yet unwed.

2-back CREEPING-] So Weelkes. England's Helicon, and Passionate Pilgrim-peeping. MALONE.

3 Farewell, sweet LASS,] The Passionate Pilgrim and England's Helicon, read-Farewell, sweet love. When I printed this poem in 1780, I proposed to read-sweet lass, and such I now find is the reading in Weelkes's Madrigal. MALONE.

4 For a sweet content, the cause of all my MOAN:] This reading was furnished by the copy printed in England's Helicon. The rhyme shows it to be the true one. The Passionate Pilgrim and Weelkes's copy have

the cause of all my woe."

Perhaps we ought to read-thou cause, &c. MALONE.

5 Other help for him I see that there is none.] Is it possible that Shakspeare could have written this strange farrago; or what is, if possible, still worse-" It was a lording's daughter?"

BOSWELL.

6 And stall'd the deer that thou would'st strike,] So, in Cymbeline:

66

when thou hast ta'en thy stand,

"The elected deer before thee." MALONE.

7 As well as FANCY, partial TIKE:] Fancy here means love. So, in The Rape of Lucrece :

"A martial man to be soft fancy's slave!"

And when thou com'st thy tale to tell,
Smooth not thy tongue with filed talk',
Lest she some subtle practice swell;
(A cripple soon can find a halt:)

But plainly say thou lov'st her well,
And set thy person forth to sell.

And to her will frame all thy ways;
Spare not to spend,-and chiefly there
Where thy desert may merit praise,
By ringing always in her ear:

The strongest castle, tower, and town,
The golden bullet beats it down '.

The old copy reads-partial might. Mr. Steevens some years ago proposed to read-partial tike; a term of contempt (as he observed,) employed by Shakspeare and our old writers: and a manuscript copy of this poem, of the age of Shakspeare, in the possession of Samuel Lysons, Esq. which has-partial like, adds such support to his conjecture, that I have adopted it. MALONE. 7- with FILED talk,] With studied or polished language. So, in Ben Jonson's Verses on our author :

"In his well-torned and true-filed lines." MALone. And set thy person forth to SELL.] The old copy has

"And set her person forth to sale."

It like

Mr. Steevens conjectured that sell was the author's word, and such is the reading of the manuscript above mentioned. wise furnished the true reading in a former part of the line.

MALONE.

9 And to her will, &c.] This stanza and the next in the Passionate Pilgrim follow the two stanzas which now succeed them. The present arrangement, which seems preferable, is that of the manuscript already mentioned. MALONE.

Spare not to spend,

The strongest castle, tower, and town,

The golden bullet beats it down.] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Win her with gifts, if she respect not words;

"Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind,

"More than quick words do move a woman's mind."

A line of this stanza

"The strongest castle, tower, and town,"

And two in a succeeding stanza,

Serve always with assured trust,
And in thy suit be humble, true;
Unless thy lady prove unjust,

Seek never thou to choose anew:

When time shall serve, be thou not slack
To proffer, though she put thee back.

What though her frowning brows be bent,
Her cloudy looks will clear' ere night;
And then too late she will repent
That she dissembled her delight;
And twice desire, ere it be day,
That with such scorn she put away.

What though she strive to try her strength,
And ban and brawl, and say thee nay,
Her feeble force will yield at length,
When craft hath taught her thus to say,-
Had women been so strong as men,
In faith you had not had it then.

"What though she strive to try her strength,
“ And ban and brawl, and say thee nay,

remind us of the following verses in The Historie of Graunde Amoure [sign. I 2.], written by Stephen Hawes, near a century before those of Shakspeare:

"Forsake her not, though that she saye nay;

"A womans guise is evermore delay.
"No castell can be of so great a strength,
"If that there be a sure siege to it layed,
"It must yelde up, or els be won at length,

"Though that 'to-fore it hath bene long delayed;
"So continuance may you right well ayde:
"Some womans harte can not so harded be,
"But busy labour may make it agree." MALONE.

See

2 Her cloudy looks will CLEAR-] So the manuscript copy; instead of which the Passionate Pilgrim reads—“ will calm." the 148th Sonnet :

"The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears." 3 And BAN and brawl,-] To ban is to curse. Richard III. :

MALONE. So, in King

"You bade me ban, and will you have me leave?" MALONE. VOL. XX.

2 E