¶ The passionate Shepheard to his Loue. +first printed anonymously and without title in ‘Sonnets to sundry notes of Musicke’, The Passionate Pilgrime (1599), sigs. D5-5v; the editor of England’s Helicon is the first to attribute it to Marlowe in print, add a title and two stanzas. For detailed discussion of the poem’s circulation, see Forsyth (1925). The first line of this lyric gives its name to a ballad tune and was printed as a broadside ballad, see see Ballad Tunes . Other copies are in: F: Z.e.28, 1599-1603, fol. 100v; O: Ashmole 1486, pt. 2, c. 1598, fol. 6v, in the hand of Simon Forman; O: Rawl poet 148, c. 1592-1602, fol. 96v; ROS: 1083/15, c. 1600, pp. 57-8; H: PML: Rulers of England, Elizabeth I, no. 48, c. 1600, s.sh; later texts: F:V.a.169, part 2, fols. 2-2v; NLW: Sotheby MS. B2, fols. 76-6v. Imitated by ‘Another of the same, made since.’ * Author: Christopher Marlowe. Structure (May/Ringler): 24: aa8
C Ome liue with mee, and be my Loue, And we will all the pleasures proueexperience, try , That Vallies, Groues, hills and fields, Woods, or steepie mountaines yeeldes.
(5) And wee will sit vpon the Rocks, Seeing the Shepheards feede their Flockes, By shallow Riuers, to whose falls, Melodious byrds sings Madrigallspart songs for several voices .
And I will make thee beds of Roses, (10) And a thousand fragrant poesies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtleouter petticoat Imbroydred all with leaues of Mirtle.
A gowne made of the finest wooll, Which from our pretty Lambs we pull,