Note 1. This Reply to Marlowe’s ditty appeared in England’s Helicon, 1600, signed “Ignoto,” and the evidence that Raleigh wrote it is contained in a famous passage in the Complete Angler: “As I left this place, and entered into the next field, a second pleasure entertained me. ’Twas a handsome milkmaid, that had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to load her mind with any fears of many things that will never be, as too many men too often do; but she cast away all care, and sung like a nightingale; her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for it; it was that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago; and the milkmaid’s mother sung an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days.” In the second edition of the Angler Walton inserted—probably from a broad-sheet—an extra penultimate stanza in both Song and Reply. [back]
