but no Autolycus brings
these to us in his basket. Even the miracle plays had not despised
folk-song; unfortunately the writers are content to mention the songs,
like our Acts of Congress, only by title. In the "comedy" called 'The
Longer Thou Livest the More Foole Thou Art,' there are snatches of
such songs; and a famous list, known to all scholars, is given by
Laneham in a letter from Kenilworth in 1575, where he tells of certain
songs, "all ancient," owned by one Captain Cox. Again, nobody ever
praised songs of the people more sincerely than Shakespeare has
praised them; and we may be certain that he used them for the stage.
Such is the 'Willow Song' that Desdemona sings,--an "old thing," she
calls it; and such perhaps the song in 'As You Like It,'--'It Was a
Lover and His Lass.' Nash is credited with the use of folk-songs in
his 'Summer's Last Will and Testament'; but while the pretty verses
about spring and the tripping lines, 'A-Maying,' have such a note,
nothing could be further from the quality of folk-song than the solemn
and beautiful 'Adieu, Farewell, Earth's Bliss.' In Beaumont and
Fletcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle,' however, Merrythought sings
some undoubted snatches of popular lyric, just as he sings stanzas
from the traditional ballad; for example, his--

Go from my window, love, go;
Go from my window, my dear;
The wind and the rain
Will drive you back again,
You cannot be lodged here,--

is quoted with variations in other plays, and was a favorite of the
time,[30] and like many a ballad appears in religious parody. A modern
variant, due to tradition, comes from Norwich; the third and fourth
lines ran:--

For the wind is in the west,
And the cuckoo's in his nest.

[30] The music in Chappell, page 141.

From the time of Henry VIII. a pretty song is preserved of this same
class:--

Westron wynde, when wyll thou blow!
The smalle rain downe doth rayne;
Oh if my love were in my armys,
Or I in my bed agayne!

This sort of song between the lovers, one without and one within,
occurs in French and German at a very early date, and is probably much
older than any records of it; as serenade, it found great favor with
poets of the city and the court, and is represented in English by
Sidney's beautiful lines, admirable for purposes of comparison with
the folk-song:--

"Who is it that this dark night
Underneath my window plaineth?"
"It is one who, from