IX.

THE STURDY ROCK.

This poem, fubfcribed M. T. [perhaps invertedly for T. Marfball is preferved in The Paradife of daintie devifes, quoted above in page 138-The two firft ftanzas may be found accompanied with mufical notes in " An bowres recreation in muficke, &c. by Richard Alison, Lond. 1606. 4to. :" usually bound up with 3 or 4 Jets of drigals fet to mufic by Tho. Weelkes, Lond. 1597. 1600. 1608, 4to." One of these madrigals is fo compleat an example of the Bathos, that I cannot forbear presenting it to the

reader.

Thule, the period of cofmographie,

"Ma

Doth vaunt of Hecla, whofe fulphurious fire Doth melt the frozen clime, and thaw the fkie, Trinacrian Etna's flames afcend not hier : Thefe things feeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I, Whofe heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry.

The Andelufian merchant, that returnes.

Laden with cutchinele and china dishes,
Reports in Spaine, bow ftrangely Fogo burnes
Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes:

Thefe things feeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whofe heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry.

Mr. Weelkes feems to have been of opinion with many of his brethren of later times, that nonfenfe was beft adapted to difplay the powers of mufical compofure.

Vid. Athen. Oxon. p. 152. 316.

THE

Vol. I. M. ( Copy of Vol. 243

ANCIENT POEMS.

THE sturdy rock for all his strength

By raging feas is rent in twaine :
The, marble ftone is pearft at length,

With little drops of drizling rain:
The oxe doth yeeld unto the yoke,
The fteele obeyeth the hammer ftroke.

The ftately flagge, that feemes fo ftout,
By yalping hounds at bay is fet:
The swifteft bird, that flies about,

Is caught at length in fowlers net:
The greatest fifh, in deepest brooke,
Is foone deceived by fubtill hooke.

Yea man himselfe, unto whofe will
All things are bounden to obey,

For all his wit and worthie skill,

Doth fade at length, and fall away.

There is nothing but time doeth wafte;
The heavens, the earth confume at laft.

But vertue fits triumphing ftill

Upon the throne of glorious fame :
Though spiteful death mans body kill,
Yet hurts he not his vertuous name:
By life or death what fo betides,
The ftate of vertue never flides.

VOL. II.

M

For the drift

X. THE

X.

THE BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BEDNALLGREEN.

This popular old ballad was written in the reign of Elizabeth, as appears not only from ver. 23. where the arms of England are called the " Queenes armes ;" but from its tune's being quoted in other old pieces, written in her time. See the ballad on MARY AMBREE in this volume.-The late Mr. GUTHRIE affured the Editor, that he had formerly feen another old fong on the fame fubject, composed in a different measure from this; which was truly beautiful, if we may judge from the only ftanza he remembered: in this it was faid of the old beggar, that “down his neck

his reverend lockes

In comelye curles did wave;
And on his aged temples grewe

The bloffomes of the grave."

The following ballad is chiefly given from the Editor's folio MS. compared with two ancient printed copies: the concluding ftanzas, which contain the old Beggar's difcovery of himself, are not however given from any of thefe, being very different from thofe of the vulgar ballad. y avons communicated to the Editor in manufcript; but be will not anfaver fox their being genuine : he rather thinks them the, madorn-production of fome perfon, cube was offended at thy abfurdities and inconfiftencies, which fu remarkably prevailed in this part of the fong, as it stood before: whereas by the alteration of a few lines, the story is rendered much more affecting, and is reconciled to probability and true. biftory. For this informs us, that at the decifive battle of

Evesham,

/ Nor yet does the Editor offer them as

imadur

genuina, but her as an attempt

to remove the