about 1530; and his interludes, with one exception, were published in 1533.* His parable upon Queen Mary, called The Spider and the Fly, appeared in 1556, and his epigrams, by which he is best known to modern readers, in 1576.

The Play of Love, from which the following song is extracted, affords a fair sample of his dramatic system. The characters are mere abstractions-a Lover loving and not loved, a Woman loved and not loving, and a Vice who neither loves nor is loved. The dialogue draws out these metaphysical entities into a discourse which much more nearly resembles the application of the exhausting process to a very dull argument than the development of a passion. In the song taken from this play, Heywood adopts the vein of Skelton, who died in 1529, and who was not, as has been stated, one of his contemporaries. Heywood rarely displayed much tenderness of feeling, or an instinct of the beautiful; but more of these qualities will be found in this song, and in his verses on the Princess Mary,† than might be expected from the general character of his writings.]

*For an account of these interludes the reader may be referred to Mr. Fairholt's excellent introduction to Heywood's Dialogue on Wit and Folly, printed by the Percy Society, from the original MS. in the British Museum.

+ Harleian MS., No. 1703. This poem, entitled A Description of a most Noble Lady, was printed in Park's edition of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, and a modernized copy of it is given in Evans's Old Ballads; another and a different version, in which some stanzas are omitted, and others altered, was published in Tottel's Miscellany, amongst the contributions of Uncertain Authors,' and quoted in that form (with the exception of a single verse) in Ellis's Specimens. Tottel's version will be found complete amongst the specimens of minor poets contemporaneous with Surrey, in the volume of Surrey's Poems, Ann. Ed. p. 237. It is there inserted, as it had been previously copied by Ellis, amongst the 'Uncertain Authors,' and a conjecture hazarded from internal evidence that it might have been written by George Boleyn. There is no doubt, however, that the poem in the Harleian MS. was written by Heywood, and that the share which the uncertain author,' whoever he may have been, had in Tottel's version, consisted in imparting certain refinements to the original, by which the sweetness and beauty of the expression are much heightened.

THE PLAY OF LOVE.

IN PRAISE OF HIS LADY.

AND to begin

At setting in:

First was her skin
White, smooth and thin,
And every vein
So blue seen plain;
Her golden hair
To see her wear,
Her wearing gear,
Alas! I fear

To tell all to you,
I shall undo you.
Her eye so rolling
Each heart controlling;
Her nose not long,
Her stode not wrong:
Her finger tips
So clean she clips;
Her rosy lips,

Her cheeks gossips
So fair, so ruddy,
It axeth study

The whole to tell;
It did excel.

It was so made

That even the shade

At every glade

Would hearts invade:

The paps small,

And round withal;

The waist not mickle,

But it was tickle:*

In the sense of exciting. Tyckyll also meant unsteady, un

certain, doubtful.

A thing was tickle that did not stand firmly—

The thigh, the knee,
As they should be;
But such a leg,

A lover would beg

To set eye on,
But it is gone:

Then, sight of the foot
Rift hearts to the root.

[The four songs that follow are derived from another source. There is no evidence to show that they were written for the stage, although it is not improbable that some of them might have been sung in the interludes. Whether such a supposition may be considered sufficient to justify their insertion in this collection, I will not pretend to determine; but the reader who takes an interest in our early ballads will discover an ample reason for their introduction in the broad light they throw upon the lyrical poetry of the sixteenth century, and especially upon the peculiar style and manner of Heywood.

These four songs, together with many others, are contained in the same MS. with Redford's play of Wit and Science, which belonged to the late Mr. Bright, and was printed in 1848 by the Shakespeare Society, under the discriminating editorship of Mr. Halliwell. The collection of songs by John Heywood and others,' observes Mr. Halliwell, ‘is of considerable interest to the poetical antiquary; some are remarkably curious, and all of them belong to a period at which the reliques of that class of composition are exceedingly rare, and difficult to be met with."

The collection contains eight songs by Heywood. The four here selected are intrinsically the best, and the most characteristic of the manner of the writer.]

tickle weather was uncertain weather. ticklish-a ticklish case, a doubtful case.

Hence the modern phrase

THE SONG OF THE GREEN WILLOW.*

ALL a green willow, willow,

All a green willow is my garland.

Alas! by what means may I make ye to know
The unkindness for kindness that to me doth grow?
That one who most kind love on me should bestow,
Most unkind unkindness to me she doth show,

For all a green willow is my garland!

To have love and hold love, where love is so sped,
Oh! delicate food to the lover so fed!

From love won to love lost where lovers be led,
Oh! desperate dolor, the lover is dead!

For all a green willow is his garland!

She said she did love me, and would love me still,
She swore above all men I had her good will;
She said and she swore she would
my will fulfil;
The promise all good, the performance all ill;

For all a green willow is my garland!

The ballad, of which a fragment is sung by Desdemona, (Othello, Act iv. Scene iii.), derives its burthen from this song, which Mr. Halliwell observes is, perhaps, the oldest in our language with the willow burthen. There are many other songs with the same refrain of a later date. The following verse, or canto, is probably the earliest imitation of Heywood's song extant. It is extracted from an anonymous prose comedy, called Sir Gyles Goosecappe, presented by the children of the chapel, and printed in 1606. The canto winds up the piece, and the allusion to the willow bears upon a boasting Captain who is left without a bride in the end.

Willow, willow, willow,

Our captain goes down:
Willow, willow, willow,

His valour doth crown.

The rest with rosemary we grace,

O Hymen, light thy light,

With richest rays gild every face,
And feast hearts with delight.

Willow, willow, willow,

We chaunt to the skies:

And with black and yellow,

Give courtship the prize.

Now, woe with the willow, and woe with the wight
That windeth willow, willow garland to dight!
That dole dealt in allmys* is all amiss quite!
Where lovers are beggars for allmys in sight,

No lover doth beg for this willow garland!
Of this willow garland the burden seems small,
But my break-neck burden I may it well call;
Like the sow of lead on my head it doth fall!
Break head, and break neck, back, bones, brain, heart
All parts pressed in pieces!
[and all!
Too ill for her think I best things may be had,
Too good for me thinketh she things being most bad,
All I do present her that may make her glad,
All she doth present me that may make me sad;

This equity have I with this willow garland!

Could I forget thee, as thou canst forget me,
That were my sound fault, which cannot nor shall be;
Though thou, like the soaring hawk, every way flee,
I will be the turtle still steadfast to thee,

And patiently wear this willow garland!

All ye that have had love, and have my like wrong,
My like truth and patience plant still ye among;
When feminine fancies for new love do long,
Old love cannot hold them, new love is so strong,
For all.

BE MERRY, FRIENDS.†

E merry, friends, take ye no thought,

BE

For worldly cares care ye right nought;

*The allmys-dish, or alms-dish, was the dish in the old halls and country houses where bread was placed for the poor.

In the collection called A Book of Roxburghe Ballads, edited by Mr. Collier, there is a modernized version of this song, taken from a broadside printed soon after 1600. It contains some additional stanzas, which I have inserted in brackets to distinguish them from the version given by Mr. Halliwell.