Produced by Bethanne M. Simms, Nigel Blower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) CENTRE for REFORMATION and RENAISSANCE STUDIES VICTORIA UNIVERSITY TORONTO LYRICS FROM THE SONG-BOOKS OF THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. NOTE.--_Two hundred and fifty copies of this large paper edition printed, each of which is numbered._ _No. 221._ LYRICS FROM THE SONG-BOOKS OF THE ELIZABETHAN AGE: Edited by A.H. BULLEN. LONDON: JOHN C. NIMMO, 14, King William Street, Strand, W.C. 1887. CHISWICK PRESS:--C. Whittingham and Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. PREFACE. The present Anthology is intended to serve as a companion volume to the Poetical Miscellanies published in England at the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. A few of the lyrics here collected are, it is true, included in "England's Helicon," Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," and "The Ph[oe]nix' Nest"; and some are to be found in the modern collections of Oliphant, Collier, Rimbault, Mr. W.J. Linton, Canon Hannah, and Professor Arber. But many of the poems in the present volume are, I have every reason to believe, unknown even to those who have made a special study of Elizabethan poetry. I have gone carefully through all the old song-books preserved in the library of the British Museum, and I have given extracts from two books of which there is no copy in our national library. A first attempt of this kind must necessarily be imperfect. Were I to go over the ground again I should enlarge the collection, and I should hope to gain tidings of some song-books (mentioned by bibliographers) which I have hitherto been unable to trace. In Elizabeth's days composers were not content to regard the words of a song as a mere peg on which to hang the music, but sought the services of true-born lyrists. It is not too much to say that, for delicate perfection of form, some of the Elizabethan songs can compare with the choicest epigrams in the Greek Anthology. At least one composer, Thomas Campion, wrote both the words and the music of his songs; and there are no sweeter lyrics in English poetry than are to be found in Campion's song-books. But it may be assumed that, as a rule, the composers are responsible only for the music.