This story, and it would appear this very ballad, is alluded to by Shakespeare and others of the dramatists. Thus, the 13th verse is partly quoted in _Romeo and Juliet_, A. ii. sc. 1: "Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid." Again in _Love's Labour's Lost_, (printed in 1598,) A. i. sc. 2. _Arm._ Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar? _Moth._ The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since, but, I think, now 'tis not to be found. See also _Henry Fourth_, P. ii. A. v. sc. 3, _Richard Second_, A. v. sc. 3, and Ben Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_, A. iii. sc. 4,--all these cited by Percy. In _A Collection of Old Ballads_, i. 138, is a _rifacimento_ of this piece, in a different stanza, but following the story closely and preserving much of the diction. It is also printed in Evans's _Old Ballads_, ii. 361. I read that once in Affrica A prince that there did raine, Who had to name Cophetua, As poets they did faine. From natures workes he did incline, 5 For sure he was not of my minde, He cared not for women-kind, But did them all disdain. But marke what happen'd by the way; As he out of his window lay, 10 He saw a beggar all in grey, Which did increase his paine. The blinded boy that shootes so trim From heaven downe so high, He drew a dart and shot at him, 15 In place where he did lye: Which soone did pierce him to the quick, For when he felt the arrow prick, Which in his tender heart did stick, He looketh as he would dye. 20 "What sudden change is this," quoth he, "That I to love must subject be, Which never thereto would agree, But still did it defie?" Then from his window he did come, 25 And laid him on his bed; A thousand heapes of care did runne Within his troubled head. For now he means to crave her love, And now he seeks which way to proove 30 How he his fancie might remove, And not this beggar wed. But Cupid had him so in snare, That this poore beggar must prepare A salve to cure him of his care, 35 Or els he would be dead. And as he musing thus did lie, He thought for to devise How he might have her company, That so did maze his eyes. 40 "In thee," quoth he, "doth rest my life; For surely thou shalt be my wife, Or else this hand with bloody knife, The gods shall sure suffice." Then from his bed he 'soon' arose, 45 And to his pallace gate he goes; Full little then this beggar knowes When she the king espies[L48].