"From the snowy leg

And slender foot th' inverted silk she drew." p. 137.

"BEAUTIE Sate bathing by a Spring,

where fayrest shades did hide her.
The winds blew calme, the birds did sing,
the coole streames ran beside her.

My wanton thoughts entic'd mine eye, to see what was forbidden:
But better Memory said, fie, so vaine desire was chidden.

hey nonnie, nonnie, &c."

HE Swimming-Lady is on the opening page of the original Bagford Collection, vol. ii. Another copy of this broadside-ballad is in the Pepys Collection, iv. 20, Black-letter; and two copies in the Douce Collection, Oxford, iii. 86 verso, and iii. 87 verso; both Blackletter. It is also given, with the music, and under title of "The Surprised Nymph: A Song," in the 1699 edition of Pills to Purge Melancholy, i. 103; and in the 1719 edit., iii. 96. Again, in the Collection of Old Ballads, printed for J. Roberts, 1723, we find "The Swimming Lady" occupying a distinguished position. Illustrated by an enticing copper-plate, in vol. ii. on p. 133, it is the third in a group of "Merry Songs," specially introduced thus:-"One of the greatest Complaints made by the Ladies against the first volume of our Collection, and indeed the only one which has reached my ears, is the want of merry Songs. I believe I may give a pretty good guess at what they call Mirth, in such pieces as these, and shall endeavour to oblige them, tho' I have but very little room to spare" (p. 125). The two songs preceding it are Suckling's Ballad on a Wedding, "I tell thee, Dick, where I have been," written in 1637; which has been often imitated (by John Cleaveland, Robert Baron, and

BAGFORD.

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others), but never equalled: and Tom D'Urfey's Wanton Virgins Frightened, "You that delight in a Jocular Song," printed in 1707, and probably earlier: marked as "really old."

1.-The tune and burden mentioned, "I'll never love thee more," belong to a song beginning "My dear and only Love, take heed." These are chosen with singular appropriateness, as may be seen if we add here the first verse :—

My dear and only Love take heed,
How thou thy self expose;
And let not longing Lovers feed
On such like looks as those.

I'll marble wall thee round about,
Being built without a door;

But if my Love doth once break out,
I'll never love thee more, &c.

Of this song, the earliest printed copy known to us, dated, is in Wit and Drollery. edit. 1656, p. 33; but the tune is shown to have been popular much earlier, being mentioned on ballads printed about 1618 and before 1628 (see Chappell's Popular Music, p. 378). The Marquis of Montrose bears the credit of writing the later and superior words, commencing thus :—

My dear and only love, I pray,
That little world of thee
Be govern'd by no other sway
Than purest monarchy:
For if confusion have a part
Which virtuous souls abhor
And hold a Synod in thine heart,
I'll never love thee more, &c.

This song has many political allusions: to the Synod, established in 1643, to the Committee for ravaging the Royalists' estates, and the general state of anarchy. Indeed, the whole song may be interpreted as an address to his afflicted Country, instead of to an earthly Mistress. Some of the verses have the true ring of poetry :

He either fears his fate too much,

Or his deserts are small,

That dares not put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all.

But if thou wilt prove faithful, then,

And constant of thy word,

I'll make thee glorious by my pen,
And famous by my sword;

I'll serve thee in such noble ways
Was never heard before;

I'll crown and deck thee all with bays,

And love thee more and more.

2.-Independently of any literary merit possessed by the Swimming-Lady ballad, it has a strong claim on our attention. A connection exists, not hitherto investigated, between it and one of the most popular poems written by James Thomson, viz. "The Seasons." We can offer sufficient evidence to indicate the probability (not to put it, more forcibly) that for a celebrated passage in Thomson's " 'Summer," in its settled text, he was largely indebted to this very ballad. Such claim having never been hitherto advanced, to our knowledge, it may be expedient to furnish precise details.

The passage in question is the account of another Bathing Nymph, the fair Musidora, who is espied by her lover Damon, ardent and delighted; but we know Damon to have retreated from temptation, when accident exposed to him the unveiled charms of his Mistress (like the sedate gentleman described by Mr. Nicoll, in his "Modesty to Perfection "—"As Sylvia all extended lay," etc.; British Melody, 1739, p. 13). We are not wasting space in devoting a couple of pages to reproduce Thomson's own description, for the advantage of comparison: although one critic has designated it "the solemnly-ridiculous scene of the bathing!" Evidently he did not understand Damon's scruples, and for his own part would never have left the nymph unassailed. Like Lady Grizel, beholding the picture of undraped Potiphar's wife, he would have said, "What ailed the fellow at her?"

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It may here be noted, however, that the episode of Damon and Musidora does not appear in the earliest edition of "Summer," published separately, 1727. It is first found in the Subscription Quarto of 1730, pp. 110-112, lines 979 to 1036; but very differently treated there (and in 1735) from the later text, as we find it printed in 1744, and reproduce in our pages. Instead of coming alone, seeking the solitude of the wood and stream, Musidora is (in 1730 text) accompanied by two girls, Saccharissa and Amoret. The classic scene of the Judgment of Paris, on mount Ida, is recalled to memory, instead of the single figure of a Bathing Nymph such as Shepherd Tonie loved. (By the way, the artist W. Kent, in a pretty frontispiece, 1730, generously added a fourth damsel, as now copied.) By what he thus beholds, Damon is allured from his recluse habits and the study of philosophy. To him the Bathing Nymphs were strangers. The improvement in the transformed passage was great, when he was shown first as an unfavoured lover, who is suddenly befriended by Fortune, and who conquers temptation because he feels the sanctity of a pure affection.

The latent DAMON drew

Such draughts of love and beauty to the soul,

As put his harsh philosophy to flight,

The joyless search of long-deluded years;

And MUSIDORA fixing in his heart,

Inform'd and humaniz'd him into man.-Summer, edition 1730.

In "Summer," be it remembered, the lover sits musing and hidden, beside a forest stream:

This cool retreat his MUSIDORA sought:
Warm in her Cheek the sultry Season glow'd;
And, rob'd in loose array, she came to bathe
Her fervent Limbs in the refreshing Stream.
What shall he do? In sweet confusion lost,
And dubious flutterings, he a while remain'd.
A pure ingenuous Elegance of soul,
A delicate refinement known to few,
Perplex'd his breast, and urg'd him to retire:
But Love forbade. Ye Prudes in Virtue, say,
Say, ye severest, what would you have done?
Meantime, this fairer Nymph than ever blest
Arcadian Stream, with timid Eye around
The Banks surveying, strip'd her beauteous Limbs,
To taste the lucid Coolness of the Flood.