XII.

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

This beautiful sonnet is quoted in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii. sc. 1, and hath been usually ascribed (together with the _Reply_) to Shakespeare himself by the modern editors of his smaller poems. A copy of this madrigal, containing only four stanzas (the 4th and 6th being wanting), accompanied with the first stanza of the answer, being printed in "_The Passionate Pilgrime_, and _Sonnets to sundry notes of Musicke_, by Mr. _William Shakespeare, Lond._ printed for _W. Jaggard_, 1599." Thus was this sonnet, &c. published as Shakespeare's in his lifetime.

And yet there is good reason to believe that (not Shakespeare, but) _Christopher Marlow_ wrote the song, and _Sir Walter Raleigh_ the _Nymph's Reply_: For so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his _Compleat Angler_,[879] under the character of "that smooth song, which was made by Kit. Marlow, now at least fifty years ago; and ... an Answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days.... Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good."--It also passed for Marlow's in the opinion of his contemporaries; for in the old poetical miscellany, intitled _England's Helicon_, it is printed with the name of _Chr. Marlow_ subjoined to it; and the _Reply_ is subscribed _Ignoto_, which is known to have been a signature of Sir _Walter Raleigh_. With the same signature _Ignoto_, in that collection, is an imitation of Marlow's beginning thus:

"Come live with me, and be my dear, And we will revel all the year, In plains and groves, &c."

Upon the whole I am inclined to attribute them to _Marlow_, and _Raleigh_; notwithstanding the authority of Shakespeare's Book of Sonnets. For it is well known that as he took no care of his own compositions, so was he utterly regardless what spurious things were fathered upon him. Sir _John Oldcastle_, The _London Prodigal_, and The _Yorkshire Tragedy_, were printed with his name at full length in the title-pages, while he was living, which yet were afterwards rejected by his first editors _Heminge_ and _Condell_, who were his intimate friends (as he mentions both in his will), and therefore no doubt had good authority for setting them aside.[880]

The following sonnet appears to have been (as it deserved) a great favourite with our earlier poets: for, besides the imitation above-mentioned, another is to be found among _Donne's_ Poems, intitled _The Bait_, beginning thus:

"Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, &c."

As for _Chr. Marlow_, who was in high repute for his dramatic writings, he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the year 1593. See A. Wood, i. 138.

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[These exquisite poems by Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh at once became popular favourites, and were often reprinted. The earliest appearance of the first was in Marlowe's _Jew of Malta_. An imperfect copy was printed by W. Jaggard with the _Passionate Pilgrim_ in 1599, and the first stanza of the _Reply_ was then added to it. In the following year both poems were correctly printed in _England's Helicon_, the first being signed "Chr. Marlow" and the second "Ignoto." When Walton introduced the poems into his _Angler_ he attributed the _Reply_ to Raleigh, and printed an additional stanza to each as follows:--

_Passionate Shepherd_ (after verse 20).

"Thy silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the gods do eat Shall on an ivory table be Prepared each day for thee and me."

"What should we talk of dainties then Of better meat than's fit for men? These are but vain, that's only good Which God hath blest and sent for food."

In the Roxburghe Collection of Ballads (i. 205) is a street ballad in which these two songs are united and entitled _A most excellent ditty of the Lover's promises to his beloved_, with _the Lady's prudent answer to her Love_. The verses referred to above as added by Walton are here printed, but they take the place of verses 17 to 20 of each song respectively.

Mr. Chappell and Dr. Rimbault have both drawn attention to the proofs of the popularity of Marlowe's song to be found in out of the way places. In _Choice, Chance, and Change, or Conceits in their Colours_ (1606), Tidero being invited to live with his friend, replies, "Why, how now? do you take me for a woman, that you come upon me with a ballad of _Come live with me and be my love_?" In _The World's Folly_, 1609, there is the following passage: "But there sat he, hanging his head, lifting up the eyes, and with a deep sigh singing the ballad of _Come live with me and be my love_, to the tune of _Adew my deere_." Nicholas Breton refers to it in 1637 as "the old song," but Walton considered it fresh enough to insert in his _Angler_ in 1653, although Marlowe had then been dead sixty years.]

* * * * *

Come live with me, and be my love, And we wil all the pleasures prove That hils and vallies, dale and field, And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks, 5 And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses With a thousand fragrant posies, 10 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Imbrodered all with leaves of mirtle;

A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold; 15 With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw, and ivie buds, With coral clasps, and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Then live with me, and be my love. 20

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my love.

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THE NYMPH'S REPLY.

If that the World and Love were young, And truth in every shepherd's toung, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee, and be thy love.

But time drives flocks from field to fold, 5 When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb, And all complain of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yield: 10 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, 15 In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds, Thy coral clasps, and amber studs; All these in me no means can move To come to thee, and be thy love. 20

But could youth last, and love still breed, Had joyes no date, nor age no need; Then those delights my mind might move To live with thee, and be thy love.

FOOTNOTES:

[879] First printed in the year 1653, but probably written some time before.

[880] Since the above was written, Mr. _Malone_, with his usual discernment, hath rejected the stanzas in question from the other sonnets, &c. of Shakespeare, in his correct edition of the _Passionate_ _Pilgrim_, &c. See his _Shakesp._ vol. x. p. 340.