With all my heart, Gernutus fayd, Commaund it to your minde : In thinges of bigger waight then this He goes his way; the day once past Gernutus doth not flacke 75 To get a fergiant presently; And clapt him on the backe: 80 And layd him into prison strong, And when the judgement day was come, The marchants friends came thither faft, With many a weeping eye, For other means they could not find, But he that day must dye. THE SECOND PART, 85 "Of the Jews crueltie; letting foorth the mercifulneffe of the Judge towards the Marchant. To the tune of Blacke "and yellow." SOME offered for his hundred crownes SOM Five hundred for to pay ; And fome a thoufand, two or three, Yet ftill he did denay. And at the laft ten thousand crownes A pound of fleshe is my demand, To take the flesh from fuch a place, As yet you let him live: Do fo, and lo! an hundred crownes To thee here will I give. No: no: quoth he, no: judgment here: For this it shall be tride, For I will have my pound of fleshe From under his right side. It grieved all the companie His crueltie to fee, For neither friend nor foe could helpe See that thou fhed no drop of bloud, 35 For if thou doe, like murderer, No more than longes to thee: 40 For if thou take either more or leffe To the value of a mite, Thou shalt be hanged presently As is both law and right. Gernutus now waxt franticke mad, And wotes not what to say; Quoth he at laft, Ten thousand crownes, I will that he fhall pay ; And fo I graunt to fet him free. The judge doth anfwere make; You shall not have a penny given ; Your forfeyture now take. 45 50 At the laft he doth demaund But for to have his owne. No, quoth the judge, doe as you lift, Either take your pound of flesh, quoth he, Or cancell me your bond. O cruell judge, then quoth the Jew, That doth against me stand! And so with griping grieved mind He biddeth them fare-well. Then' all the people pray s'd the Lord, Good people, that doe heare this fong, For trueth I dare well fay, That many a wretch as ill as hee Doth live now at this day; 55 60 65 X THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. This beautiful fonnet is quoted in th MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, A. 3. fc. 1. and is afcribed (together with the REPLY) to Shakespeare himself by all the modern editors of bis fmaller poems. In Lintot's COLLECTION of them, Izmo (no date) is a copy of this fonnet containing only four ftanzas (the 4th. and 6th. being wanting), accompanied with the firft ftanza of the Anfwer. This edition has fome appearance of exactnef, and is affirmed to be reprinted from an ancient copy, containing "THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME, " and SONNETS TO SUNDRY NOTES OF MUSICKE, by "Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. LOND. printed for “W. JAGGARD. 1599.”- -If this may be relied on, then was this fonnet, &c. published, as Shakespeare's in his Life time. And yet there is good reafon to believe that (not ShakeSpeare, but) CHRISTOPHER MARLOW, wrote the fong, and Sir WALTER RALEGH the " Nymph's reply:" For So we are pofitively affured by Ifaac Walton, a writer of Jome credit, who has inferted them both in his COMPLEAT ANGLER, under the character of "that smooth fong, “which was made by Kit. Marlow, now at least fifty "years ago; and an Anfwer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days. . . . Oldfashioned poetry but choicely good." It also passed for Marlow's in the opinion of his contemporaries, for the editor of the "Mufes Library," has reprinted a poem from EN0 4 66 GLAND'S +Firft printed in the year 1653, but probably written fome ime before. |