VI. King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid. .................................................................
This story is often alluded to by our old dramatic writers. Shakspeare, in his
Romeo and Juliet, act. ii. sc. 1, makes Mercutio say,
"-- Her (Venus's) purblind son and heir,
Young Adam[1] Cupid, he that shot so true,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."
As the thirteenth line of the following ballad seems here particularly alluded
to, it is not improbable that Shakspeare wrote itshot so trim, which the players or
printers, not perceiving the allusion, might alter totrue. The former, as being the more
humorous expression, seems most likely to have come from the mouth of
Mercutio.[2]
In the Second Part ofHen. IV.act v. 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, which are not now extant, or even mentioned in any list.[3] 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," act iii. 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'sCrown Garland of Goulden Roses, 1612, 12mo.
(where it is intitled simplyA Song of a Beggar and a King): corrected by another
copy.
I READ that once in Affrica
A princely wight did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine:
From natures lawes he did decline,
For sure he was not of my mind.
He cared not for women-kinde,
But did them all disdaine.
But marke what hapened on a day,
As he out of his window lay,
He saw a beggar all in gray,
The which did cause his paine.
The blinded boy, that shootes so trim,
From heaven downe did hie;
He drew a dart and shot at him,
In place where he did lye:
Which soone did pierse him to the quicke,