Almost as wide of the mark is Mr. Swinburne's description of the
volume as "worthless." It contains twenty-one numbers, besides that
lofty dirge, so unapproachably solemn, _The Phoenix and the Turtle_.
Of these, five are undoubtedly by Shakespeare. A sixth (_Crabbed age
and youth_), if not by Shakespeare, is one of the loveliest lyrics in
the language, and I for my part could give it to no other man. Note
also that but for Jaggard's enterprise this jewel had been irrevocably
lost to us, since it is known only through _The Passionate Pilgrim_.
Marlowe's _Live with me and be my love_, and Barnefield's _As it fell
upon a day_, make numbers seven and eight. And I imagine that even Mr.
Swinburne cannot afford to scorn _Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely
pluck'd, soon vaded_--which again only occurs in _The Passionate
Pilgrim_. These nine numbers, with _The Phoenix and the Turtle_, make
up more than half the book. Among the rest we have the pretty and
respectable lyrics, _If music and sweet poetry agree; Good night, good
rest; Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east. When as thine eye
hath chose the dame_, and the gay little song, _It was a Lording's
daughter_. There remain the _Venus and Adonis_ sonnets and _My flocks
feed not_. Mr. Swinburne may call these "dirty and dreary doggrel," an
he list, with no more risk than of being held a somewhat over-anxious
moralist. But to call the whole book worthless is mere abuse of words.

It is true, nevertheless, that one of the only two copies existing of
the first edition was bought for three halfpence.




SHAKESPEARE'S LYRICS