Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lyrics From the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age

Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene (unlike Lyly) have no songs in their plays, but relieved the tedium of their romances by frequent lyrical interludes. Greene's romances and love-pamphlets are insipid reading but the poetry interspersed is frequently excellent. There is no sweeter cradle-song than Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee, which was written about the time when he cruelly deserted his wife and young children. The story of his miserable life is too well known. He died at thirty, worn out by his excesses. In his last sickness none of his boon companions came near him; but he was visited by a former mistress, the mother of his son Fortunatus. He lay in the squalid house of a poor shoemaker, near Dowgate and on the day before his death he wrote that most pathetic letter to the wife whom he had abandoned, Doll, I charge thee, by the love of our youth and by my soul's rest, that thou wilt see this man paid for if he and his wife had not succoured me, I had died in the streets. Robert Greene. His pious hostess.

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