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dates of the original editions are attached to each of the plays from which the following selections have been made.]

ALEXANDER AND CAMPASPE.

1584.

CUPID

CUPID AND CAMPASPE.

UPID and my Campaspe played
At cards for kisses-Cupid paid;
He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how),
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin;
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes,
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?*

THE SONGS OF BIRDS.

WHAT bird so sings, yet so does wail?

O'tis the ravished nightingale.

‘Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu,' she cries,
And still her woes at midnight rise.
Brave prick song! who is't now we hear?
None but the lark so shrill and clear;
Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,t
The morn not waking till she sings.

*This exquisite little song is printed in Percy's Reliques.

† Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings.

Ye birds

SHAKESPEARE.

That singing up to heaven's gate ascend.

MILTON.

Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat,
Poor robin red breast tunes his note;
Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing,
Cuckoo to welcome in the spring!
Cuckoo to welcome in the spring!*

SAPPHO AND PHAON. 1584.

VULCAN'S SONG.

MY shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply

Our Lemnian hammers lustily.
By my wife's sparrows,

I swear these arrows,
Shall singing fly

Through many a wanton's eye.

These headed are with golden blisses,
These silver ones feathered with kisses;
But this of lead

Strikes a clown dead,
When in a dance

He falls in a trance,

To see his black-brown lass not buss him,
And then whines out for death to untruss him.

COMPLAINT AGAINST LOVE.

0 CRUEL Love, on thee I lay

My curse, which shall strike blind the day;

Never may sleep with velvet hand

Charm these eyes with sacred wand;

Thy jailors shall be hopes and fears,

Thy prison mates groans, sighs, and tears,
Thy play to wear out weary times,
Fantastic passions, vows, and rhymes.

An imitation, or rather an alteration, of this song occurs in the Sun's Darling. It will be found amongst the selections from Ford

and Dekker.

Thy bread be frowns, thy drink be gall,
Such as when you Phaon call;

Thy sleep fond dreams, thy dreams long care.
Hope, like thy fool at thy bed's head,

Mock thee till madness strike thee dead,
As Phaon thou dost me with thy proud eyes,
In thee poor Sappho lives, for thee she dies.

ENDY MION. 1591.

A NIGHT CATCH.

The Pages and the Constables.

Watch. STAND! who goes there?
We charge you appear

'Fore our constable here,

In the name of the man in the moon.

To us billmen* relate,

Why you stagger so late,

And how you came drunk so soon.

Pages. What are ye, scabs?

Watch. The watch:

This the constable.

Pages. A patch.

Const. Knock 'em down unless they all stand;

If any run away,

"Tis the old watchman's play,

To reach them a bill of his hand.

Pages. O gentlemen, hold,

Your gowns freeze with cold,

And your rotten teeth dance in
Wine nothing shall cost ye;
Nor huge fires to roast ye;

Then soberly let us be led.

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Const. Come, my brown bills, we'll roar,
Bounce loud at tavern door.

Omnes. And in the morning steal all to bed.

*The watchmen were so called from the pole they carried with a blade at the top of it, resembling a bill or halbert. Davenant (1636) uses the term in his play of the Wits.

SONG OF THE FAIRIES.

Omnes. PINCH him, pinch him, black and blue,

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Saucy mortals must not view

What the queen of stars is doing,
Nor pry into our fairy wooing.
Pinch him blue-

And pinch him black

Let him not lack

Sharp nails to pinch him blue and red,
Till sleep has rocked his addlehead.
4 Fairy. For the trespass he hath done,
Spots o'er all his flesh shall run.
Kiss Endymion, kiss his eyes,
Then to our midnight heidegyes.*

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CUPID BOUND.

YES, O yes, if any maid

Whom leering Cupid has betrayed
To powers of spite, to eyes of scorn,
And would in madness now see torn
The boy in pieces, let her come
Hither, and lay on him her doom.

O yes, O yes, has any lost

A heart which many a sigh hath cost?
If any cozened of a tear

Which as a pearl disdain does wear?

Here stands the thief; let her but come

Hither, and lay on him her doom.

Is any one undone by fire,
And turned to ashes by desire?
Did ever any lady weep,

Being cheated of her golden sleep

* Sports, dances, pastimes.

Stolen by sick thoughts?-the pirate's found,
And in her tears he shall be drowned.
Read his indictment, let him hear
What he's to trust to. Boy, give ear!

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APOLLO'S SONG OF DAPHNE.

MY Daphne's hair is twisted gold,
Bright stars a-piece her

eyes do hold,
My Daphne's brow enthrones the graces,
My Daphne's beauty stains all faces,
On Daphne's cheek grow rose and cherry,
But Daphne's lip a sweeter berry;
Daphne's snowy hand but touched does melt,
And then no heavenlier warmth is felt;
My Daphne's voice tunes all the spheres,
My Daphne's music charms all ears;
Fond am I thus to sing her praise,
These glories now are turned to bays.

PAN'S SONG OF SYRINX.

PAN'S Syrinx was a girl indeed,

Though now she's turned into a reed;
From that dear reed Pan's pipe does come,
A pipe that strikes Apollo dumb;
Nor flute, nor lute, nor gittern can
So chant it as the pipe of Pan:
Cross-gartered swains and dairy girls,
With faces smug and round as pearls,
When Pan's shrill pipe begins to play,
With dancing wear out night and day;
The bagpipe's drone his hum lays by,
When Pan sounds up his minstrelsy;
His minstrelsy, O base! This quill,
Which at my mouth with wind I fill,
Puts me in mind, though her I miss,
That still my Syrinx' lips I kiss.

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