THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM'. I. WEET Cytherea, fitting by a brook, SWEE With young Adonis, lovely, fresh and green, Did court the lad with many a lovely look, Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen. She The Paffionate Pilgrim was firft published by William Jaggard in fmall octavo in 1599, with our authour's name. Two of the Sonnets inferted in that collection are alfo found (as has been already obferved) in the larger collection printed in quarto in 1609; which having been already laid before the reader, (fee before, Sonnet 138, and 144,) are here omitted. J. Jaggard in 1598 had printed a collection of Poems written by Richard Barnefield. Among thefe are found A Sonnet "addreffed to his friend Maifter R. L. in praife of mufique and poetrie," beginning with this line, "If mufique and freete poetrie agree," &c. and an Ode alfo written by Barnefielde, of which the first line is "As it fell upon a day- notwithstanding which, William Jaggard inferted thefe two pieces in the Paffionate Pilgrim as the productions of Shakspeare. In the year 161z he went ftill further, for he then added to the former mifcellany feveral pieces written by Thomas Heywood, and republished the collection under the following title. "THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME, or certaine Amorous Sonnets betweene Venus and Adonis, newly correlled and augmented. By W. Shakespeare. The third edition. Whereunto is newly added two love-epiftles, the first from Paris to Hellen, and Hellens anfwere backe againe to Paris.” Heywood, being much offended with this proceeding, appears to have infifted on the printer's cancelling the original title-page, and fubfituting another that fhould not afcribe the whole to Shakspeare. This I learn from my copy of thefe poems, in which the two titlepages by fome negligence of the binder have been preferved; one with, and the other without, the name of our authour. Heywood in his poftfcript to his Apology for Actors, printed in 1612, thus fpeaks of this tranfaction. "Here likewife I must neceffarily infert a manifest injury done to me in that worke, [Britaynes Troy,] by taking the two epiftles of Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a lefs volume under the name of another; which may put the world in opinion I might fteale them from him, and hee, to do himfelfe right, hath fince published them in his own name: but as I must acknowVole X. ledge Y She told him ftories to delight his ear; She show'd him favours to allure his eye; To win his heart, fhe touch'd him here and there: But whether unripe years did want conceit, But fmile and jeft at every gentle offer: Then fell fhe on her back, fair queen, and toward; ledge my lines not worthy his patronage under whom he hath published them, fo, the author, I know, much offended with Mr. Jaggard, that (altogether unknown to him,) prefumed to make fo bold with his name." In confequence of Jaggard's conduct the two poems of Barnefield have till the prefent edition been printed as Shakspeare's; and Heywood's tranflations from Ovid, notwithstanding the authour's remonftrance, were again republished in 1640, under the name of our poet : nor was the fallacy detected till the year 1766, when it was pointed out by Dr. Farmer in his very ingenious Effay on the learning of SbakSpeare. Befide the poems already enumerated, which the printer falfely afcribed to Shakspeare, he likewife inferted a celebrated Madrigal written by Marlowe, beginning with the words—“Come live with me, and be my love," which is now rejected. The title page above given fully fupports an obfervation I made fome years ago, that feveral of the fonnets in this collection feem to have been efiays of the authour when he first conceived the notion of writing a poem on the fubject of Venus and Adonis, and before the fcheme of his work was completely adjusted. Many of these little pieces bear the strongest mark of the hand of Shakspeare. I have not adhered to the order in which they stand in the old copy, having claffed all those which relate to Adonis together. MALONE. Why the prefent collection of Sonnets, &c. fhould be entitled The Paffionate Pilgrim, I cannot discover, as it is made up out of the loofe fragments of Shakspeare, together with pieces of other writers. Perhaps it was fo called by its firft editor William Jaggard the bookfeller. We may be almoft fure that our author never defigned the majority of thefe his unconnected fcraps for the publick. On the Stationers' books the following entry occurs: "Jan. 3, 1599, Amours by J. D. with certen Sonets by W. S." This entry is made by Eleazar Edgar. STEEVENS. 2 Touches fo foft ftill conquer chastity.] Thus, in Cymbeline : 66 a touch more rare "Subdues all pangs, all fears." STEEVENS. II. Scarce II. Scarce had the fun dried up the dewy morn3, A longing tarriance for Adonis made, A brook, where Adon us'd to cool his fpleen : He spying her, bounc'd'in, whereas he stood; III. Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love, Paler for forrow than her milk-white dove, 3 Scarce bad the fun dried up the dewy morn, &c.] Of this Sonnet the following translation was made by the late Mr. Vincent Bourne : Vix matutinum ebiberat de gramine rorem Umbrofa invitans Phœbus ad antra boves, Aftus erat gravis; at gravior fub pectore divæ Crudelem decepta dolum fraudemque fuperbum Non ipfa, o inquit Jupiter! unda fui! MALONE. 4 Paler for forrow than her milk-white dove,] The line preceding this is loft. MALONE. Her stand she takes upon a fteep-up hill 5: See, in my thigh, quoth fhe, here was the fore": IV. Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by her 7, She told the youngling how god Mars did try her, Even 5-upon a fleep-up-bill:] It has been fuggefted to me that this ought to be printed-upon a steep up-bill; but the other regulation is undoubtedly right. So, in a former fonnet: "And having climb’d the fleep-up heavenly bill,—”. MALONE. See, in my thigh, quoth she, bere was the fore, &c.] Rabelais hath fported with the fame thought in a chapter where he relateth the ftory of the Old Woman and the Lion. La Fontaine also indulgeth himself in Le Diable Papefiguiere, after a manner no whit more chastised : "Bref auffi tôt qu'il apperçut l'enorme "Solution de continuite, "Il demeura fi fort épouvanté, "Qu'il prit la fuite, et laiffa-la Perrette." The varlet Shakspeare, however. on this occafion might have remembered the ancient ballad of the Gelding of the Devil, which beginneth thus: "A merry jeft I will you tell," &c. And now 1 bethink me, fomewhat like the fame fancy occurreth in the Speculum Majus of Vincentius Bellovacenfis, otherwise Vincent de Beauvais. AMNER. 7 Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by ber,] The old copy reads: Venus with Adonis fitting by her. The defect of the metre shows that a word was omitted at the press. This remark I owe to Dr. Farmer. MALONE. She told the youngling bow god Mars did try ber,] See Venus and Adonis, ante, p. 18: |