With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st, 'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence :-
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.

So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none :
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
"Twixt the turtle and his queen :
But in them it were a wonder9.

So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the Phoenix' sight':
Either was the other's mine.

couth expression means, that the crow, or raven, continues its race by the breath it gives to them as its parent, and by that which it takes from other animals: i. e. by first producing its young from itself, and then providing for their support by depredation. Thus, in King John:

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66

and vast confusion waits

(As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast) "The imminent decay of wrested pomp."

This is the best I can make of the passage. STEEVENS.

9 BUT IN THEM it were a wonder.] So extraordinary a phænomenon as hearts remote, yet not asunder, &c. would have excited admiration, had it been found any where else except in these two birds. In them it was not wonderful. MALONE.

That the turtle saw his RIGHT

Flaming in the phoenix' sight:] I suppose we should read light: i. e. the turtle saw all the day he wanted, in the eyes of the phoenix. So, Antony speaking to Cleopatra:

O thou day o' the world,
my arm'd neck!"

2

Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same 2;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either neither 3
Simple were so well compounded;

That it cry'd, how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one 4!
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain 3.

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

"Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes,
"If you would walk in absence of the sun.

Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light."
STEEVENS.

I do not perceive any need of change. The turtle saw those qualities which were his right, which were peculiarly appropriated to him, in the phoenix.-Light certainly corresponds better with the word flaming in the next line; but Shakspeare seldom puts his comparisons on four feet. MALONE.

2 Property was thus appall'd,

That the self was not the same;] This communication of appropriated qualities alarmed the power that presides over property. Finding that the self was not the same, he began to fear that nothing would remain distinct and individual; that all things would become common. MALONE.

3 To themselves yet EITHER NEITHER, &c.] So, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 1596:

fire seem'd to be water, water flame,

"Either or neither, and yet both the same." MALONE. 4 That it cry'd, how true a TWAIN

Seemeth this CONCORDANT ONE!] So, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, quarto, 1596:

"Still in her breast his secret thoughts she beares,
"Nor can her tongue pronounce an I, but wee;
"Thus two in one, and one in two they bee;
"And as his soule possesseth head and heart,

"She's all in all, and all in every part." MALONE.

Whereupon it made this threne';
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragick scene.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

5 Love hath reason, reason none,

If what PARTS can so remain.] Love is reasonable, and reason is folly [has no reason], if two that are disunited from each other, can yet remain together and undivided. MALONE.

Whereupon it made this THRENE ;] This funeral song. So, in Kendal's poems, 1577:

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Of verses, threnes, and epitaphs,

"Full fraught with tears of teene."

A book entitled David's Threanes, by J. Heywood, was published in 1620. Two years afterwards it was reprinted under the title of David's Tears: the former title probably was discarded as obsolete. For this information I am indebted to Dr. Farmer.

MALONE.

By the kindness of my friend, Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, the possessor of this singularly rare volume, I was furnished with the opportunity of inspecting it, and ascertaining the accuracy with which these verses had been reprinted. BosWELL.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

WM. SHAKE-SPEARE.

1

MEMOIRS

OF

HENRY WRIOTHESLEY,

THE THIRD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON.

SHAKSPEARE'S selection of Lord Southampton from all his illustrious contemporaries, as the person under whose patronage the first productions of his muse were ushered to the publick, would have conferred celebrity on one less distinguished than this amiable and accomplished nobleman; his munificence to our great poet gives him an additional title to respect; but his best claim to our esteem and admiration, is founded on those excellent qualities and endowments, which in his own time rendered him the theme of unceasing eulogy, and will endear his name and memory to all future ages.

His great-grandfather, William Wriothesley, attained to no higher station than that of York Herald at Arms: being the second son of John Wriothesley, who had originally filled the office of Falcon Herald; and finally, in the eighteenth year of Edward the Fourth [1478], was constituted Herald of the Noble Order of the Garter, and Principal King at Arms. William's eldest son, Thomas, after passing through various offices', and having

It has been erroneously asserted (Chalmers's Apology, p. 132), that Lord Chancellor Southampton was originally Fauconherald, an office which was held by his grandfather, but which the Chancellor never possessed. In 27 Hen. VIII. [1535,] being