1 This will remind the reader of the livery and device of Charles Brandon, a private gentleman, who married the Queen-dowager of France, sister of Henry VIII. At a tournament which he held at his wedding, the trappings of his horse were half cloth of gold, and half frieze, with the following motto: "Cloth of Gold, do not despise, Tho' thou art matcht with Cloth of Frize; Tho' thou art matcht with Cloth of Gold." See Sir W. Temple's Misc. vol. iii. p. 356. XVIII. The Sweet Neglect. This little madrigal (extracted from Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, act i. sc. 1, first acted in 1609) is in imitation of a Latin poem printed at the end of the variorum edit. of Petronius, beginning, "Semper munditias, semper Basilissa, decoras," &c. See Whalley's Ben Jonson, vol. ii. p. 420. STILL to be neat, still to be drest, Though art's hid causes are not found, Give me a looke, give me a face That strike mine eyes, but not my heart. 5 10 XIX. The Children in the Wood. The subject of this very popular ballad (which has been set in so favourable a light by the Spectator, No. 85) seems to be taken from an old play, entitled, "Two lamentable Tragedies; the one of the murder of Maister Beech, a chandler in Thames-streete, &c. The other of a young child murthered in a wood by two ruffins, with the consent of his unkle. By Rob. Yarrington, 1601, 4to." Our balladmaker has strictly followed the play in the description of the father and mother's dying charge: in the uncle's promise to take care of their issue: his hiring two ruffians to destroy his ward, under pretence of sending him to school: their choosing a wood to perpetrate the murder in: one of the ruffians relenting, and a battle ensuing, &c. In other respects he has departed from the play. In the latter, the scene is laid in Padua: there is but one child, which is murdered by a sudden stab of the unrelenting ruffian: he is slain himself by his less VOL. II. Q |