Mrs Mer. You will not have us starve here, will you, master Merrythought?

Jasp. Nay, good sir, be persuaded; she's my

mother:

If her offences have been great against you,
Let your own love remember she is yours,
And so forgive her.?

Luce. Good master Merrythought,

Let me entreat you; I will not be denied.

Mrs Mer. Why, master Merrythought, will you be a vex'd thing still?

Mer. Woman, I take you to my love again; but you shall sing before you enter; therefore dispatch your song, and so come in.

Mrs Mer. Well, you must have your will, when all's done :-Micke, what song canst thou sing, boy?

Mich. I can sing none forsooth, but A Lady's Daughter of Paris,' properly.

[Sings within.

It was a lady's daughter, &c.

ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. iii. p. 64, where it runs thus: "Then some they whistled, and some they sung, And some did loudlye saye, Whenever lord Barnardes horne it blewe, Away, Musgrave, away."

If her offences have been great against you,

Let your own love remember she is yours,

And so forgive her.] This may mean, "Let your self-loye tell

you that she is a part of yourself, and so forgive her." Yet I think it probable that we ought to read-" Let your old love"that is, your former affection.-Mason.

Enter Mrs MERRY THOUGHT and MICHAEL.

Mer. Come, you're welcome home again.

If such danger be in playing,

And jest must to earnest turn,
You shall go no more a-Maying

Vent. [Within.] Are you within, sir? master Merrythought!

Jasp. It is my master's voice; good sir, go hold

him

In talk whilst we convey ourselves into
Some inward room.

[Exit with Luce.

Mer. What are you? are you merry You must be very merry, if you enter. Vent. I am, sir.

Mer. Sing then.

Vent. Nay, good sir, open to me.

Mer. Sing, I say,

?

Or, by the merry heart, you come not in!

Vent. Well, sir, I'll sing.

[Sings.

Fortune my foe, &c.

Enter VENTERWELS.

Mer. You're welcome, sir, you're welcome! You see your entertainment; pray you be merry. Vent. Oh, master Merrythought, I'm come to

ask you

Fortune my foe.] See The Custom of the Country, vol. II. p. 279, where the first stanza of this highly popular song will be found. It is also alluded to in Brome's Antipodes, and in The Two Merry Milkmaids, by J. C.

Forgiveness for the wrongs I offer'd you,
And your most virtuous son; they are infinite,
Yet my contrition shall be more than they.
I do confess my hardness broke his heart,
For which just Heaven hath giv'n me punishment
More than my age can carry; his wand'ring spirit,
Not yet at rest, pursues me every where,
Crying, "I'll haunt thee for thy cruelty."
My daughter she is gone, I know not how,
Taken invisible, and whether living,

Or in the grave, 'tis yet uncertain to me.
Oh, master Merrythought, these are the weights
`Will sink me to my grave! Forgive me, sir.

Mer. Why, sir, I do forgive you; and be merry! And if the wag in's lifetime play'd the knave, Can you forgive him too?

Vent. With all my heart, sir.

Mer. Speak it again, and heartily.
Vent. I do, sir;

Now, by my soul, I do.

Mer. [Sings.] With that came out his paramour;

She was as white as the lily flower.

Hey troul, troly, loly!

Enter LUCE and JASPER.

With that came out her own dear knight,
He was as true as ever did fight, &c.

Sir, if you will forgive 'em, clap their hands together; there's no more to be said i' th' matter. Vent. I do, I do.

"Cit. I do not like this: Peace, boys! Hear me, one of you! every body's part is come to an end but Ralph's, and he's left out.

"Boy. 'Tis long of yourself, sir; we have no thing to do with his part.

"Cit. Ralph, come away! Make [an end] on him, as you have done of the rest, boys; come! "Wife. Now, good husband, let him come out and die.

"Cit. He shall, Nell.-Ralph, come away quickly, and die, boy.

66

Boy. 'Twill be very unfit he should die, sir, upon no occasion; and in a comedy too.

"Cit. Take you no care of that, Sir Boy; is not his part at an end, think you, when he's dead?Come away, Ralph!"

Enter RALPH, with a forked Arrow through his Head.

Ralph. When I was mortal, this my costive corps

Did lap up figs and raisins in the Strand ;
Where sitting, I espied a lovely dame,
Whose master wrought with lingell' and with awl,
And underground he vamped many a boot:
Straight did her love prick forth me, tender sprig,
To follow feats of arms in warlike wise,

9 Make on him.] The two words which we have added seem absolutely necessary to the completion of the sense.-Ed. 1778.

* When I was mortal, &c.] This speech is a parody on that of the Ghost of Andrea, at the beginning of the famous play of Jeronimo:

"When this eternal substance of my soul

Did live imprison'd in my wanton flesh," &c.-Reed. This speech is ridiculed in several old plays; among others in Albumazar.

Lingell.] A thread of hemp rubbed with rosin, &c. used by rustics for mending their shoes.-Percy.

Through Waltham-Desert; where I did perform
Many achievements, and did lay on ground
Huge Barbaroso, that insulting giant,
And all his captives soon set at liberty.
Then honour prick'd me from my native soil
Into Moldavia, where I gain'd the love
Of Pompiona, his beloved daughter;

But yet proved constant to the black-thumb'd maid,

Susan, and scorned Pompiona's love;
Yet liberal I was, and gave her pins,
And money for her father's officers.
I then returned home, and thrust myself
In action, and by all men chosen was
Lord of the May; where I did flourish it,
With scarfs and rings, and poesy in my hand.3
After this action I preferred was,

And chosen city-captain at Mile-End,

With hat and feather, and with leading staff,
And train❜d my men, and brought them all off clear,
Save one man that bewrayed him with the noise.
But all these things I Ralph did undertake,
Only for my beloved Susan's sake.

Then coming home, and sitting in my shop
With apron blue, Death came into my stall
To cheapen aquavita; but ere I

Could take the bottle down, and fill a taste,
Death caught a pound of pepper in his hand,
And sprinkled all my face and body o'er,
And in an instant vanished away.

"Cit. 'Tis a pretty fiction, i'faith!"

3 And poesy in my hand.] The orthography varied by Sympson to posie. Ed. 1778.

There is no occasion to vary the orthography. Poesy is continually used in the same sense as posy in old plays; but, in the present case, it refers to the rhymes which Ralph reads at the conclusion of the fourth act, standing as May-lord on the conduit. VOL. I.

S