XXVII. Corydon's Doleful Knell...............................................................................
This little simple elegy is given, with some corrections, from two copies, one
of which is inThe golden Garland of princely Delights.
The burthen of the song, DING DONG, &c. is at present appropriated to
burlesque subjects, and therefore may excite only ludicrous ideas in a modern reader;
but in the time of our poet it usually accompanied the most solemn and mournful
strains. Of this kind is that fine aerial dirge in Shakspeare's Tempest:
"Full fadom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are corrall made;
Those are pearles that were his eyes:
Nothing of him, that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange:
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Hark; now I heare them, Ding dong bell."
"Burthen, Ding, dong."
I make no doubt but the poet intended to conclude the above air in a manner
the most solemn and expressive of melancholy.
MY Phillida, adieu love!
For evermore farewel!
Ay me! I've lost my true love,
And thus I ring her knell,
Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong,
My Phillida is dead!
I'll stick a branch of willow
At my fair Phillis' head.
For my fair Phillida
Our bridal bed was made:
But 'stead of silkes so gay,
She in her shroud is laid.
Ding, &c.
Her corpse shall be attended
By maides in fair array,
Till the obsequies are ended,
And she is wrapt in clay.
Ding, &c.
Her herse it shall be carried
By youths, that do excell;
And when that she is buried,
I thus will ring her knell,
Ding, &c.
A garland shall be framed
By art and natures skill,
Of sundry-colour'd flowers,
In token of good-will.[1]
Ding, &c.