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VI.
KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-MAID

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Is a story often alluded to by our old Dramatic Writers. Shakespeare, in his Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 1, makes Mercutio say,

----"Her (Venus's) purblind son and heir,

Young Adam813 Cupid, he that shot so true, When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."

As the 13th line of the following ballad seems here particularly alluded to, it is not improbable but Shakespeare wrote it shot so trim, which the players or printers, not perceiving the allusion, might alter to true. The former, as being the more humorous expression, seems most likely to have come from the mouth of Mercutio.814

In the 2d Part of Hen. IV. A. 5, Sc. 3, Falstaff is introduced affectedly saying to Pistoll,

"O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?

Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof."

These lines, Dr. Warburton thinks, were taken from an old bombast play of King Cophetua. No such play is, I believe, now to be found; but it does not therefore follow that it never existed. Many dramatic pieces are referred to by old writers,815 which are not now extant, or even mentioned in any list. In the infancy of the stage, plays were often exhibited that were never printed.

It is probably in allusion to the same play that Ben Jonson says, in his Comedy of Every Man in his Humour, A. 3, Sc. 4:

"I have not the heart to devour thee, an' I might be made as rich as King Cophetua."

At least there is no mention of King Cophetua's riches in the present ballad, which is the oldest I have met with on the subject.

It is printed from Rich. Johnson's Crown Garland of Goulden Roses, 1612,816 12mo. (where it is intitled simply A Song of a Beggar and a King:) corrected by another copy.

[In the Collection of Old Ballads, 1723 (vol. i. p. 138) there is a ballad on the same subject as the following popular one. It is entitled "Cupid's Revenge, or an account of a king who slighted all women, and at length was constrained to marry a beggar, who proved a fair and virtuous queen."]

I read that once in Affrica

A princely wight817 did raine, Who had to name Cophetua, As poets they did faine: From natures lawes he did decline,5 For sure he was not of my mind, He cared not for women-kinde, But did them all disdaine. But, marke, what hapned on a day, As he out of his window lay,10 He saw a beggar all in gray, The which did cause his paine.

The blinded boy, that shootes so trim,818 From heaven downe did hie; He drew a dart and shot at him,15 In place where he did lye: Which soone did pierse him to the quicke, And when he felt the arrow pricke, Which in his tender heart did sticke, He looketh as he would dye.20 What sudden chance is this, quoth he, That I to love must subject be, Which never thereto would agree, But still did it defie?

Then from the 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 meanes to crave her love,

And now he seekes which way to proove30

How he his fancie might remoove,

And not this beggar wed.

But Cupid had him so in snare,

That this poor begger must prepare

A salve to cure him of his care,35

Or els he would be dead.

And, as he musing thus did lye,

He thought for to devise

How he might have her companye,

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 begger knowes

When she the king espies.

The gods preserve your majesty,

The beggers all gan cry:50

Vouchsafe to give your charity

Our childrens food to buy.

The king to them his pursse did cast,

And they to part it made great haste;

This silly woman was the last55

That after them did hye.

The king he cal'd her back againe,

And unto her he gave his chaine;

And said, With us you shal remaine

Till such time as we dye:60

For thou, quoth he, shalt be my wife,

And honoured for my queene;

With thee I meane to lead my life,

As shortly shall be seene:

Our wedding shall appointed be,65

And every thing in its degree:

Come on, quoth he, and follow me,

Thou shalt go shift thee cleane.

What is thy name, faire maid? quoth he.

Penelophon,819 O king, quoth she:70 With that she made a lowe courtsèy; A trim one as I weene.

Thus hand in hand along they walke

Unto the king's pallàce:

The king with courteous comly talke75

This begger doth imbrace:

The begger blusheth scarlet red,

And straight againe as pale as lead,

But not a word at all she said,

She was in such amaze.80

At last she spake with trembling voyce,

And said, O king, I doe rejoyce

That you wil take me for your choyce,

And my degree's so base.

And when the wedding day was come,85

The king commanded strait

The noblemen both all and some

Upon the queene to wait.

And she behaved herself that day,

As if she had never walkt the way;82090 She had forgot her gowne of gray, Which she did weare of late. The proverbe old is come to passe, The priest, when he begins his masse, Forgets that ever clerke he was;95 He knowth not his estate.

Here you may read, Cophetua,

Though long time fancie-fed,

Compelled by the blinded boy

The begger for to wed:100

He that did lovers lookes disdaine,

To do the same was glad and faine,

Or else he would himselfe have slaine,

In storie, as we read.

Disdaine no whit, O lady deere,821105 But pitty now thy servant heere, Least that it hap to thee this yeare, As to that king it did.

And thus they led a quiet life

During their princely raigne;110

And in a tombe were buried both,

As writers sheweth plaine.822 The lords they tooke it grievously, The ladies tooke it heavily, The commons cryed pitiously,115 Their death to them was paine, Their fame did sound so passingly, That it did pierce the starry sky, And throughout all the world did flye To every princes realme.823120

FOOTNOTES:

813. See above, Preface to Song I. Book II. of this vol.

814. Since this conjecture first occurred, it has been discovered that shot so trim was the genuine reading.

815. See Meres Wits Treas. f. 283; Arte of Eng. Poes. 1589, p. 51, 111, 143, 169.

816. [Reprinted by the Percy Society in the sixth volume of their publications.]

817. [man.]

818. [exact.]

819. Shakespeare (who alludes to this ballad in his Love's Labour's Lost, act iv. sc. 1.) gives the beggar's name Zenelophon, according to all the old editions: but this seems to be a corruption; for Penelophon, in the text, sounds more like the name of a woman.—The story of the King and the Beggar is also alluded to in K. Rich. II act v, sc. 3.

820. Ver. 90. i.e. tramped the streets.

821. Ver. 105. Here the poet addresses himself to his mistress.

822. V. 112. Sheweth was anciently the plur. numb.

823. An ingenious friend thinks the two last stanzas should change place.