Note 1. My bonny lass, thine eye. From The Phœnix’ Nest, 1593. “For the first time in miscellany literature,” Mr. Erskine writes in his Study of The Elizabethan Lyric (Ed. 1905): “complicated forms are used without disturbing the lightness of the song as in the lyric by Thomas Lodge, beginning, “My bonnie Lass,” etc. It is easy to recognize the theme of the love-plaint in this opening stanza, but the manner is quite new; the song-quality, lightness of word and imagery, has become more important than the subject-matter. This is the first example in the miscellanies of this Elizabethan trait—a joyous treatment of ostensibly unhappy themes, often practised by Shakespeare, as in ‘Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!’ The trait defies analysis, and later becomes familiar in the Cavalier lyrics.” [back]
