Titian, The Concert, 1509¹

About the Poem: This page will get you acquainted with the first known printing of Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.”

The Passionate Pilgrim

The earliest version we have of Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is the 1599 print in The Passionate Pilgrim by W. Shakespeare. The Passionate Pilgrim is an anthology of 20 poems collected and published by William Jaggard, an Elizabethan and Jacobean printer and publisher, and is attributed to William Shakespeare. Only a few of the poems were actually written by Shakespeare. The book was published in octavo—a book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets on which 16 pages of text are printed, which are then folded three times to produce eight leaves.

The printing of the poem in The Passionate Pilgrim is without title but is referred to by its first line “Live With Me and Be My Love.” This printing only has 4 stanzas and 1 additional “Loves Answer” stanza. The last stanza, or “Loves Answer,” matches the first stanza of “The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd,” attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh. The “full reply” by Raleigh is then printed in the England’s Helicon along with Marlowe’s—it and the version of Marlowe’s poem in the Helicon both have 6 stanzas.

We might ask whether the version in The Passionate Pilgrim is the complete poem that Marlowe wrote and whether the last stanza in that version was his as well, or whether it is a shorter version edited by William Jaggard, who mistakenly added the first stanza of Raleigh’s to the end.  However, as William Jaggard believed that all these were by William Shakespeare, it is fair to assume that he did believe that the poem and the “Loves Answer” were written by the same man. It was common form at the time to have a “Loves Answer” response to a pastoral love lyric such as this.

The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599 Live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and fields, And all the craggy mountains yield. There will we sit upon the rocks,                         5 And see the Shepherds feed their flock, By shallow Rivers, by whose falls Melodious birds sing Madrigals. There will I make thee a bed of Roses, With a thousand fragrant poses,                          10 A cap of flowers, and a Kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle. A belt of straw and Yuye buds, With Coral Clasps and amber studs, And if there pleasures may thee move,                15 Then live with me, and be my Love.  Loves answer. IF that the World and Love were young And truth in every shepherds tongue, There pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee and be my Love.                       20

The Passionate Pilgrim2

¹ Titian, The Concert, 1509. © Le Concert Champetre (Open-Air Concert), c.1510 (oil on canvas), Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (c.1488-1576) / Louvre, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images, number: XIR267673.
² Shakespeare, William. The Passionate Pilgrim. London, 1599, Early English Books Online.

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