Q UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES atbenauim press Series A BOOK OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS Selected and Edited with an Introduction by FELIX E. SCHELLING PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS Cbc Sttljeiurttm press 1899 Copyright, 1S99 By FELIX E. SCHELLING ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • • .** • *' *.* • .* * • ' • • • • k -r C , g ' * • • • i ^ . " •- ;.:: - t * 1 » * » - > 1 V CO PREFACE. This book is made up of English lyrics which fall between the years 1625 and 1700. The first quarter of the seven- teenth century is here unrepresented, because the lyrical poetry, like most other kinds of literature of that period, was produced under impulses and maintained by traditions almost wholly Elizabethan. The method pursued in the selection and arrangement of the poems constituting this book is much that of the editor's Elizabethan Lyrics. Some poems have been retained, the exclusion of which a stand- ard of the highest literary and poetic worth might demand. ^ This is justified by a recognition of the fact that a book such as this must be, to a certain extent, historically representa- tive. The same requirement has prompted a rigid adherence to chronological order in the arrangement of material and to the rule that no poem shall appear except in its completeness and in that form in which it may reasonably be supposed to have had its author's maturest revision. The term lyric has necessarily been interpreted with some liberality in the con- sideration of a period which tended, towards its close, to the conscious exercise of artifice and wit in poetry rather than to the spontaneous expression of emotion. If Mr. Henley's recent enunciation of the essential antithesis between the lyric and the epigram is to be accepted in its rigor, many of the poems of this collection must fall under his ban. 1 And 1 See the Introduction to Mr. Henley's collection of English Lyrics. 1 18 vi PREFACE. yet much might be said — were this the place for it — of the lyrical quality which frequently accompanies even the cynical gallantry and coxcombry of Suckling, Sedley, and Rochester. If poems such as many of theirs and of Dryden's be excluded from the category of the lyric on the score of artificiality or insincerity, they must assuredly be restored to their place for the power of music in them. The poems in this book have been selected, not only from the works of the individual poets represented, but from con- temporary poetical miscellanies and from the incidental lyr- ical verse contained in dramas, romances, and other works of the time. Care has been taken to make the text as correct as possible by a collation with authoritative sources ; and, wherever necessary, the sources of preferred readings will be found mentioned in the Notes. In the Introduction an attempt has been made to trace the course of English lyrical poetry during the period, to explain its relations to the pre- vious age, and to trace the influences which determined its development and its final change of character. It is hoped that the Notes and Indexes may furnish the reader with such help as he may reasonably demand, and encourage the stu- dent to a deeper study of a rich and interesting period in one of its most distinctive forms of artistic expression. In conclusion, I wish to record my recognition of a few amongst many favors. My acknowledgments are due here, as ever, to Dr. Horace Howard Furness for the loan of books and for much kind encouragement ; to Dr. Clarence G. Child, especially amongst my colleagues, for valuable suggestions and many services ; and above all to Professor Kittredge, one of the general editors of this series, whose wide learning and untiring care have been generously bestowed to better this book. FELIX E. SCHELLING. June 16, 1899. CONTENTS. 596-642. 2 Anderson's English Poets, V, 498-506. 3 See Grosart's ed. of Marvell. INTRODUCTION. lv efforts. The ode celebrating the nativity, which from its theme always partook of the pastoral nature, was to be sure, no new thing ; and Herrick, with others before him, had applied the pastoral to occasional verse. 1 Marvell's poems are different, and while didactic in intent, are yet distinctly artistic. Such poems are Clorinda and Damon, and A Dia- logue between Thyrsis and Dorinda? There remains one great name, that of Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, whose secular verse, published as early as 1646, was succeeded by long years of religious study and contempla- tion, and the production of many books in verse and prose, all devotional in cast. 3 Vaughan knew Randolph and Cart- wright and venerated the memory of Jonson, who died when Vaughan was a youth at Oxford ; under this influence he translated Juvenal and wrote some erotic poetry not above that of Randolph or Stanley. From the little we know of his life, it seems that Vaughan, like Herbert, had been of the world in his younger days, and that the chastening hand of adversity had fallen heavily upon him and led him away from earthly themes to the contemplative and devout life of a recluse. Without violence to the probable facts, we may conceive of Vaughan in his beautiful home in South Wales as we think of Wordsworth in later times in his beloved Lake Country, a lover of woods and hills and the life that makes them melodious, but a lover of them not merely for their beauty, but for the divine message which they bear to man, their revelation and ethical import. Vaughan's nature, like that of Wordsworth, is alike expansive and narrow. The expansiveness of the two poets is not unlike, and con- sists in a large-souled interpretation of the goodness of God 1 Cf. A Pastoral upon the Birth of Prince Charles, ed. Hale, p. 35. 2 Ed. Aitken, 1892, pp. 41 and 77 ; and below, pp. 152 and 154. 3 Grosart has collected the secular and devotional poetry of Vaughan in four volumes, 1868-1870. lvi INTRODUCTION. as revealed to man in his works, in a loving appreciation of the beauties of nature, in a revealing ethical insight, and in a " high seriousness " intent on worthy themes. On the other hand, both poets were narrow, though differing in their limitations. To Wordsworth doubts, fears, and the complex- ities of modern life were naught; they did not exist for him. Vaughan had put the world from him, although he had known it and still heard it from afar, like the hum of a great and wicked city, out of which his soul had been delivered. Wordsworth, with all his greatness, was narrowed by ego- tism, by didacticism, by pride ; Vaughan, far less — if at all — by any of these, than by his theology, which is often hard and formal, and at times unlovely. Vaughan was also lim- ited — and here the like is true of Wordsworth — by an imperfect artistic sense and a halting execution. Vaughan's " realism in detail," which is based not only upon a close observance of nature, but upon a sympathy and love extending to all living creatures, seems a heritage from a nobler age than his. In no one of his immediate con- temporaries do we find it in the same strength and imbued with the same tenderness; not in the grand descriptive elo- quence of Milton, in the homeliness of Marvell, nor in the sensuous delight of Herrick. It is thus that Vaughan addresses a bird : Hither thou com'st. The busy wind all night Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm, For which coarse man seems much the fitter born, Rained in thy bed And harmless head ; And now as fresh and cheerful as the light Thy little heart in early hymns doth sing Unto that Providence, whose unseen arm Curbed them, and clothed thee well and warm. 1 1 The Bird, Sacred Poems of Vaughan, ed. Lyte, 1891, p. 174. INTRODUCTION. lvii In Vaughan's mysticism we have a more general trait of the religious poet, a trait not more peculiar in this age to Vaughan than to Crashaw. Mysticism of symbol, whether it manifest itself in poetry or in philosophy and religion, is one of the most difficult subjects with which the critic has to deal, for it demands an ability to take the momentary subjective position of the author, and a complete reconstruc- tion of his mood. The religious mysticism of Vaughan is distinguishable from that of Crashaw chiefly in the fact that Vaughan is less ecstatic and more musingly meditative ; less purely emotional, although, when roused, stirred to the inner deeps of his nature. Not the least interesting quality of the poetry of Vaughan is its intellectuality, a quality which we are apt to think opposed to the spontaneity of emotion which inspires the highest forms of art and that naturalness or inevitability of expression in which the highest art is ever clothed. Yet intellectuality is alike the glory of Donne and of our own great contemporary, the late Robert Browning. Art is not to be regarded as a thing into which the rational processes enter very little as compared with the emotions ; but rather as a production in which such a proportion of the impelling emotion and the regulative reason is preserved as neither to degrade the product into mere sensuousness nor to change its nature from art, which is the presentation of the typified image, to philosophy, which is the rational dis- tinction of its actual properties. A wanton confusion of images which neither reveal and figure forth nor distinguish and make clear, is neither art nor philosophy, but a base product that fails utterly of the purposes of either. We have thus traversed a period of scarcely sixty years and found in it, alongside of a large amount of poetry dis- tinctly secular and often flippant in the worldliness of its tone, a body of devotional poetry of a quantity and a qual- ity for which we may look in vain in any other half-century lviii INTRODUCTIOX. of English literature. A superficial consideration of this century is apt to divide all England into the hostile camps of Roundhead and Cavalier ; to consider all the former as hypocrites, and all the latter as good loyal men ; or — as is more usual in our country — to believe all supporters of the king utterly misguided and to assume that the virtues flour- ished in the Puritan party alone. In the face of these vulgar prejudices, it is interesting to note that among the devotional poets of that age, Habington and Crashaw were Romanists, Wither, Milton, Marvell (though " no Roundhead," as his most recent editor puts it) were Puri- tans, and all the others were members of the Established Church. The spirit of devotion which sought utterance in verse rose superior to the narrowness of mere dogma, and the inspiration of poetry waited not on a favored sect alone. Indeed, nothing could better prove the strong religious feel- ing which continued to animate the average Englishman of the seventeenth century than the great popularity of books like those of Quarles and Herbert among the communicants of the Church of England. The Non-Conformists hacl their imaginative literature, too, and produced in this century a man who, if not a poet, is almost everything else that litera- ture can demand. Pilgrim s Progress is not much later than the latest work of Vaughan and marks a long step forward when compared with the contorted and mystical allegory of Quarles. In devotional literature, as in secular, the coming age was the age of prose, and in this immortal work the change was already complete. With the return of Charles and the exiles, the popularity of religious verse decreased, controversial prose coming more and more to take its place with devout readers. How- ever, some few lesser poets of conservative tastes, like John Norris of Bemerton, continued to cultivate ' divine poetry ' far into the last quarter of the century. Samson Agonistes INTRODUCTION. lix and the great epics of Milton do not concern us directly here, although they are the loftiest poetical utterances which the English Muse has devoted to religion. It is well known that contemporary influences contributed little to them, and that they were written upon a long-formed determination, and come as the late and crowning glory of a rich poetical past. The poems of Milton have lost somewhat in our day of rational thinking ; criticism shudders at a cosmogony in which Christian legend and pagan mythology are mingled in Titanic confusion. It is with Paradise Lost much as it is with the stately fugues of John Sebastian Bach, the father of modern music. We prefer something very different, foun- tains with a thousand jets, artificial cataracts lit up with electricity. But the great ocean of the immortal music of Bach and of the no less immortal poetry of Milton will roll in sonorous waves and unfathomable depths, when all the little tuneful waterworks of poetical and musical mimicry are dumb. VI. Poetry drooped with the death of King Charles I. Milton had already thrown himself heart and soul into the political struggle ; Marvell was soon to follow. Many of the Cavalier poets were dead ; those that survived were either silent in the miseries of poverty with Lovelace, boisterously carolling drinking songs with Alexander Brome and Charles Cotton, or keeping up the unequal struggle in satire, ribald and hoarse with abuse, like Clieveland's. Stanley had turned to the consolations of philosophical study. Montrose, the last of that goodly line of English noblemen whose highly tempered mettle expressed itself unaffectedly in lyrical song, survived his sovereign but one year. If we except Vaughan, a few belated publications like those of Stanley, Sherburne, and King, and the posthumous volumes of Cartwright and Ix INTRODUCTION. Crashaw, the fifth decade of the century is singularly barren of poetry. The younger men, who were shortly to evolve new ideals, were as yet unknown, although it must not be forgotten that at the Restoration Cowley had been before the public as a poet for nearly thirty years, and Waller rather longer. 1 There are few subjects in the history of English literature attended with greater difficulty than the attempt to explain how the lapse of a century in time should have transformed the literature of England from the traits which characterized it in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to those which came to prevail under the rule of Queen Anne. The salient charac- teristics of the two ages are much too well known to call for a word here. Few readers, moreover, are unfamiliar with the more usual theories on this subject : how one critic believes that Edmund Waller invented the new poetry by a spontaneous exercise of his own cleverness 2 ; how another demands that this responsibility be fixed upon George Sandys 3 ; how some think that "classicism" was an impor- tation from France, which came into England in the luggage of the fascinating Frenchwoman who afterwards became the Duchess of Portsmouth ; and how still others suppose that the whole thing was really in the air to be caught by infection by any one who did not draw apart and live out of this lit- erary miasma, as did Milton. 4 The conservative reaction in literature which triumphed at the Restoration has been so hardly treated and so bitterly scorned that there is much temptation to attempt a justification. Imaginative literature did lose in the change, and enormously ; and as we are 1 See the poem of the text, p. 5. 2 Gosse, Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 2. 3 Professor Henry Wood, American Journal of Philology, XI, 73, and see p. 1, above. 4 Gosse, From Shakespeare to Pope, p. 19. INTRODUCTION. lxi engaged to a large extent in a consideration of imaginative products in treating of the lyric, it is to be expected that we shall find many things to deplore. But if the imagination, and with it the power which produces poetry, became for a time all but extinct, the understanding, or power which arranges, correlates, expounds, and explains, went through a course of development which has brought with it in the end nothing but gain to the literature considered as a whole. If the reader will consider the three great names, Ben Jonson, finishing his work about 1635, John Dryden, at the height of his fame fifty years later, and Alexander Pope, with nearly ten years of literary activity before him a century after Jonson 's death, he will notice certain marked differences in a general resemblance in the range, subject-matter, and dic- tion of the works of these three. The plays of Jonson, despite the restrictive character of his genius, exemplify nearly the whole spacious field of Elizabethan drama, with an added success in the development of the masque which is Jonson 's own. Jonson is the first poet that gave to occasional verse that variety of subject, that power and finish which made it for nearly two centuries the most important form of poetical expression. The works of Jonson are pervaded with satire, criticism, and translation, though all appear less in set form than as applied to original work. Finally, Jonson's lyrics maintain the diversity, beauty, and originality which distin- guish this species of poetry in his favored age. If we turn to Dryden, we still find a wide range in sub- ject, although limitations are discoverable in the character of his dramas and of his lyrics. If we except his operas and those pseudo-dramatic aberrations in which he adapted the work of Shakespeare and Milton, Dryden writes only two kinds of plays, the heroic drama and the comedy of man- ners, whilst his lyrics, excepting the two odes for Saint Cecilia's Day and some perfunctory religious poems, are lxii INTRODUCTION. wholly amatory in the narrow and vitiated sense in which that term was employed in the time of Charles II. The strongest element of Dryden's work is occasional verse ; and he makes a new departure, showing the tendency of the time in the development of what may be called occasional prose : the preface and dedicatory epistle. Satire takes form in the translation of Juvenal and in the author's own brilliant orid- nal satires ; translation becomes Dryden's most lucrative lit- erary employment ; and criticism is the very element in which he lives. Lastly, we turn to Pope. Here are no plays and very few lyrics, scarcely one which is not an applied poem. Occasional verse, satire, criticism, and translation have usurped the whole field. There was no need that Pope should write his criticism in prose, as did Dryden, for verse had become in his hands essentially a medium for the expression of that species of thought which we in this century associate with the prose form. The verse of Pope was a medium more happily fitted for the expression of the thought of Pope, where rhetorical brilliancy and telling antithesis, rather than precision of thought, were demanded, than any prose that could possibly have been devised. It has often been affirmed that England has the greater poetry, whilst France possesses the superior prose, and in the confusion or distinction of the two species of literature this difference has been explained. 1 Poetry must be governed by the imagination ; it must not only see and imitate nature, it must transform what it sees, converting the actual into the terms of the ideal ; if it does much beside, it is less poetry. On the other hand, prose is a matter of the understanding; it may call to its aid whatever other faculty you will, but it must be ruled by the intelligence alone, to the end that the object may be realized as it actually is. With this dis- 1 See, in general, Matthew Arnold's essay On the' Literary Influence of Academic's. INTRODUCTION. lxiii tinction before us, when passion, real or simulated, when imagination, genuine or forced, takes the reins from the understanding, the product may become poetry, or enthusi- asm, or rhapsody ; it certainly ceases to be prose, good, bad, or indifferent. So, likewise, when the understanding sup- plants imagination we have also a product, which, whatever its form or the wealth of rhetoric bestowed upon it, is alien to poetry. This is to be interpreted into no criticism of the many English literary products which have the power to run and to fly ; we could not spare one of the great pages of Carlyle or of Mr. Ruskin, and yet it may well be doubted if, on the whole, the French have not been the gainers from the care with which they have customarily, until lately, kept their prose and their poetry sundered. The real value of the age of repression consisted in its recognition of the place that the understanding must ever hold, not only in the production of prose, but in the produc- tion of every form of enduring art. It endeavored to estab- lish a standard by which to judge, and failed, less because of the inherent weakness of the restrictive ideal than because the very excesses of the imaginative age preceding drove the classicists to a greater recoil, and made them content with the correction of abuse instead of solicitous to found their reaction upon a sound basis. The essential cause of this great change in literature, above all mere questions of foreign origin, precocious inventiveness of individual poets, artificiality and "classical heroic couplets," lies in the grad- ual increase of the understanding as a regulative force in the newer literature, the consequent rise of a well-ordered prose, and the equally consequent suppression for several decades of that free play of the imagination which is the vitalizing atmosphere of poetry. Whilst the larger number of poets between 1640 and 1670, according to temperament or circumstances, held lxiv INTRODUCTION. either to the old manner, as did Milton and Marvell, or went over wholly to the new, as did Waller and Denham, a few were caught, so to speak, between the conflicting waves of the two movements and are of unusual historical interest on this account. Such was Davenant, whom Mr. Gosse has happily described as the Southey of the Restoration, 1 a man of strenuous endeavor, but, whatever value is attached to his epic and dramatic labors, far from a successful lyrist. Such, too, was Charles Cotton, who touches Izaak Walton on one side with his love of peaceful rural landscape and homely country life, and continues into the last quarter of the cen- tury the erotic lyrical vein of Carew, with native originality, but with inferior technical execution. Above either stands Abraham Cowley, the poet who, with Waller, enjoyed the greatest contemporary reputation in the interval between Jon son and Dryden, and who, take it all in all, fully deserved it. Much has been written on Cowley from the days of Sprat and Dr. Johnson to those of William Cullen Bryant and Mr. Gosse. It might be difficult, too, to find a poet of Cowley's rank who has been more variously estimated, a circumstance for which the eclecticism of his art may in a measure account. 2 Historically considered, Cowley is a son of Donne, in thought at times fantastic, in his wit often over-ingenious. He has an exasperating habit of dwelling on small matters, which deflect the stream of his thought and break it up into petty channels. None the less the lyrics of Cowley are estimable for their sincerity, for the gen- uine poetic worth of many whole poems and far more numerous passages, for their moral purity, for their honesty, 1 Shakespeare to Pope, p. 132. 2 Cf. the regularity of Cowley's couplets, especially in the Davideis, with the metrical and rhetorical looseness of the Pindarique Odes, Cowley's most lasting legacy to posterity, and traceable in their influ- ence down to Wordsworth and Lowell. INTRODUCTION. lxv humor, and originality, and for the pleasant cadence of their verse. George Sandys has already been mentioned amongst devo- tional poets and as one of those to whom the " improved versification " of the next period has been confidently attrib- uted. 1 I have endeavored elsewhere to show that as a matter of fact Sandys conforms more nearly to the type of this verse as used by Spenser and his school than to that of the eighteenth century, and that in versification, rhetoric, and general spirit the prototype of Dryden and Pope is Ben Jonson, and neither Sandys nor Waller. 2 Sandys was only one of many who contributed to the coming age of repres- sion. His contribution was in the self-control and reserve of his style and in the regularity of his verse. But neither of these qualities is peculiar to him even in his own age, and the more distinctive qualities of the Popean manner in style, rhetoric, and versification — its balance, antithesis, epigram- matic wit, rhetorical emphasis, split of the verse into two halves — are none of them Sandys'. It is of interest to note that the notion, still widely current, that Waller through Sandys is responsible for the restrictive form of the decasyllabic couplet as employed by the poets of the eighteenth century, is traceable to a manuscript outline plan for a history of English poetry which was found amongst the papers of Pope, scribbled on a scrap, as was his wont. Therein Cowley, Drayton, Overbury, Randolph, Cartwright, Crashaw, and some others appear under the heading "School of Donne"; whilst " Carew and T. Carey " are noted as " models to Waller in matter, G. Sandys in his Par\aphrase\ of Job and Fairfax " as Waller's models " in versification." 3 This is the 1 American Journal of Philology, XI, 73. 2 Ben Jonson and the Classical School, Publications of the Modern Language Association, XIII, No. 2. 3 This note was first printed by Owen Ruffhead in his Life of Pope, lxvi INTRODUCTION. source of the notion which, losing sight of his unquestionable worth as a poet and a translator, has assigned to Sandys an undue prominence in the history of English versification. Although we do Waller wrong to consider him the con- scious originator of that revolution in poetry which substi- tuted for the ideals of Spenser, Jonson or Donne those of Dryden and Pope, his age was right in declaring him the true exponent of the new " classicism," for it was in Waller, above all others, that the tendencies of conservatism in thought, diction, and versification at length became con- firmed into a system which gave laws to English poetry for a hundred and fifty years. Waller had practised the old man- ner with a greater freedom than was ever that of Sandys ; but the earlier part of Waller's career as a poet is difficult to make out, for when he had achieved success in the new and fashionable style, he became solicitous, like Malherbe, to have the world believe that his classicism began in his cradle. 1 In Waller we have a man the essence of whose character was time-serving, a man to whom ideals were nothing, but to whom immediate worldly success, whether in politics or letters, was much ; a man whose very unoriginality and easy adaptability made him precisely the person to fill what Mr. Gosse deftly calls the post of " coryphaeus of the long procession of the commonplace." The instinct of his followers was right in singling him out for that position of historical eminence ; not because, as a boy, he sat down and deliberately resolved on a new species of poetry, but because 1769. It has recently been used by Mr. Courthope in the preface of his History of English Poetry as a point of departure for the discussion of that interesting question, How should a history of English poetry be written ? 1 Cf. Ode d Louis XIII, partant pour la Rochelle, ed. Malherbe, Paris, 1823, p. 75 : Les puissantes faveurs, dont Parnasse m'honore Non loin de mon berceau commenc&rent leur cours. INTRODUCTION. lxvii he chose out with unerring precision just those qualities of thought, form, and diction which appealed to the people of his age, and wrote and rewrote his poetry in conformity there- with. In Carew, Waller found the quintessence of vers de societe and "reformed" it of its excessive laces and falling bands to congruity with the greater formality which governed the costume of the succeeding century. In Sandys, Fairfax, Drummond, and some others he found an increasing love of that regularity of rhythm which results from a general correspondence of length of phrase with length of measure, and he found, as well, a smoothness and sweetness of dic- tion, in which these poets departed measurably from their immediate contemporaries and preserved something of the mellifluousness of the Spenserians. Lastly, in Jonson and the Elizabethan satirists he found, amongst much with which he was in little sympathy, a minute attention to the niceties of expression, a kind of spruce antithetical diction, and a versification of a constructiveness suited to the epigrammatic form in which the thought was often cast. With almost feminine tact Waller applied these things to his unoriginal but cleverly chosen subject-matter, and in the union of the two he wrought his success. As we approach the end of the seventeenth century, the lyrists become fewer. The Elizabethan lyric, whose prov- ince was the whole world, which dignified great or petty themes alike with its fervid sincerity, has given place to a product more and more restricted to a conventional treat- ment of subjects within an ever-narrowing range. An occa- sional poet, absorbed in another art, like Thomas Flatman, a man of genuine poetic spirit, might neglect to learn the mannerisms of contemporary poetic craft ; or, living without the popular literary current, might sing, as did Norris of Bemerton, a slender, independent strain. But in the main the lyric had ceased to be an instrument for the expression lxviii INTRODUCTION. of literary thought, although it remained a plaything for the idle hours of writers whose business was with occasional verse, social satire, heroic drama, or the comedy of a " Utopia of gallantry." To Dorset, Sedley, Rochester, and Aphara Behn, a dissolute, cynical, godless rout of Comus — even to Dryden himself — a lyric is a love-song and nothing more. It may be languishing or disdainful, passionate or satirical ; whether frank or indirect in its animalism, the subject is ever love, or what went by that much-abused name in the reign of the Merry Monarch. Although the true note recurs occasionally in the faltering quavers of Anne, Marchioness of Wharton, or the stronger tones of Katherine Philips, John Wilson the dramatist, or John Oldmixon, it is not too much to say that the lyric had all but disappeared from English literature before the year 1700. A style the essence of which is surprise, which demands the snap of the cracker of wit in every couplet and yet maintains a rigid adherence to conventions in metre, phrase, and manner, is precisely the style to destroy the lyric, the soul of which is its simplicity, artistic freedom, and inevitability. Aside from an occa- sional instance in which the poetry which was in the heart of John Dryden asserted itself, despite his sophistication and venal following of the lower tastes of his age, and aside from a few sincere and dainty little lyrics that Matthew Prior threw off in the intervals of his supposedly more valu- able labors in epic and occasional verse, there is scarcely a lyric of the last quarter of the seventeenth century, from the hand of those poets who were in the prevailing mode, which rings unmistakably true. When Congreve, after repeating the hackneyed comparison of the rise of the sun with the rising of Sabrina, distinguishes the effects of these two luminaries upon mankind by exclaiming How many by his warmth will live ! How many will her coldness kill ! INTR OD UC TION. lx ix we are tickled with his wit, if we have not neard the thing too often. To be moved by the simple and beautiful expres- sion of an emotion which we are fain to repeat again and again because of the pleasure it gives us, is to be moved as poetry can move. To witness the pyrotechnics of the most consummate wit and ingenuity once is enough; the fuse and powder are consumed, and nothing but the dead design, sul- lied with smoke, is left. What is worse, we have not always the pyrotechnics of wit, but too commonly, in the lyric of this age, a false product written with the rhetorician's con- descension to what he feels an inferior species of litera- ture, a condescension like to nothing but the contemporary attitude towards the inferior capacity and understanding of "females," with its mingled air of flattery and gallantry, itself an affront. Thus after a sojourn with the Elizabethan and seventeenth-century lyrists it becomes difficult to sup- port the insipidity of this later literature of Chloe, Celia, and Uorinda, unless it be seasoned with the salt of cynicism, and then the product turns out to be something else, a some- thing, whatever its merit, forever untranslatable into the terms of true poetry. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. -OO^OO- Ben Jonson, Pan's Anniversary, 1631; acted before 1625. THE SHEPHERDS' HOLIDAY. Thus, thus begin the yearly rites Are due to Pan on these bright nights ; His morn now riseth and invites To sports, to dances, and delights : All envious and profane, away, This is the shepherds' holiday. Strew, strew the glad and smiling ground With every flower, yet not confound ; The primrose-drop, the spring's own spouse, Bright day's-eyes and the lips of cows, The garden-star, the queen of May, The rose, to crown the holiday. Drop, drop, you violets ; change your hues, Now red, now pale, as lovers use ; And in your death go out as well l S As when you lived unto the smell, That from your odor all may say, This is the shepherds' holiday. 10 2 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. HYMN TO PAN. Of Pan we sing, the best of singers, Pan, That taught us swains how first to tune our lays, And on the pipe more airs than Phcebus can. Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his praise. Of Pan we sing, the best of leaders, Pan, 5 That leads the Naiads and the Dryads forth ; And to their dances more than Hermes can. Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his worth. Of Pan we sing, the best of hunters, Pan, That drives the hart to seek unused ways, 1° And in the chase more than Silvanus can. Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his praise. Of Pan we sing, the best of shepherds, Pan, That keeps our flocks and us, and both leads forth To better pastures than great Pales can. 15 Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his worth ; And, while his powers and praises thus we sing, The valleys let rebound and all the rivers ring. Thomas Dekker, The Sun's Darling, 1656 ; written before 1625. COUNTRY GLEE. Haymakers, rakers, reapers, and mowers, Wait on your summer-queen ; Dress up with musk-rose her eglantine bowers, Daffodils strew the green ; THOMAS DEKKER. 3 Sing, dance, and play, 5 'T is holiday ; The sun does bravely shine On our ears of corn. Rich as a pearl Comes every girl : 10 This is mine ! this is mine ! this is mine! Let us die, ere away they be borne. Bow to the sun, to our queen, and that fair one Come to behold our sports : Each bonny lass here is counted a rare one, J 5 As those in princes' courts. These and we With country glee, Will teach the woods to resound, And the hills with echo's holloa : 20 Skipping lambs Their bleating dams, 'Mongst kids shall trip it round ; For joy thus our wenches we follow. Wind, jolly huntsmen, your neat bugles shrilly, 25 Hounds make a lusty cry ; Spring up, you falconers, the partridges freely, Then let your brave hawks fly. Horses amain, Over ridge, over plain, 3° The dogs have the stag in chase : 'T is a sport to content a king. So ho ho ! through the skies How the proud bird flies, And sousing kills with a grace ! 35 Now the deer falls ; hark, how they ring ! SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. CAST AWAY CARE. Cast away care, he that loves sorrow Lengthens not a day, nor can buy to-morrow ; Money is trash ; and he that will spend it, Let him drink merrily, Fortune will send it. Merrily, merrily, merrily, O ho ! 5 Play it off stiffly, we may not part so. Wine is a charm, it heats the blood too, Cowards it will arm, if the wine be good too ; Quickens the wit, and makes the back able, Scorns to submit to the watch or constable. 10 Merrily, merrily, merrily, O ho ! Play it off stiffly, we may not part so. Pots fly about, give us more liquor, Brothers of a rout, our brains will flow quicker ; Empty the cask ; score up, we care not ; 15 Fill all the pots again ; drink on and spare not. Merrily, merrily, merrily, O ho ! Play it off stiffly, we may not part so. From Christ Church MS. I. 4. 78 ; date uncertain. TO TIME. Victorious Time, whose winged feet do fly More swift than eagles in the azure sky, Haste to thy prey, why art thou tardy now When all things to thy powerful fate do bow ? O give an end to cares and killing fears, Shake thy dull sand, unravel those few years THOMAS MAY. Are yet untold, since nought but discontents Clouds all our earthly joys with sad laments, That, when thy nimble hours shall cease to be, We may be crowned with blest eternity. 10 Thomas May, The Old Couple, 1658 ; acted 1625. LOVE'S PRIME. Dear, do not your fair beauty wrong In thinking still you are too young ; The rose and lily in your cheek Flourish, and no more ripening seek ; Those flaming beams shot from your eye 5 Do show love's midsummer is nigh ; Your cherry-lip, red, soft, and sweet, Proclaims such fruit for taste is meet ; Love is still young, a buxom boy, And younglings are allowed to toy ; IO Then lose no time, for Love hath wings And flies away from aged things. Edmund Waller, Poems, 1645; written 1627. SONG. Stay, Phoebus, stay ! The world to which you fly so fast, Conveying day From us to them, can pay your haste With no such object, nor salute your rise With no such wonder as De Mornay's eyes. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Well does this prove The error of those antique books Which made you move About the world : her charming looks 10 Would fix your beams, and make it ever day, Did not the rolling earth snatch her away. James Shirley, The Witty Fair One, 1633; acted 1628. LOVE'S HUE AND CRY. In Love's name you are charged hereby To make a speedy hue and cry After a face, who t' other day, Came and stole my heart away. For your directions in brief 5 These are best marks to know the thief : Her hair a net of beams would prove Strong enough to captive Jove Playing the eagle ; her clear brow Is a comely field of snow ; 10 A sparkling eye, so pure a gray As when it shines it needs no day ; Ivory dwelleth on her nose ; Lilies, married to the rose, Have made her cheek the nuptial bed ; 15 [Her] lips betray their virgin's weed, As they only blushed for this, That they one another kiss. But observe, beside the rest, You shall know this felon best 20 JOHN FOKD. 7 By her tongue ; for if your ear Shall once a heavenly music hear, Such as neither gods nor men But from that voice shall hear again, That, that is she, O take her t'ye, -S None can rock heaven asleep but she. John Ford, The Lover's Melan- choly, 1629; acted 1628. FLY HENCE, SHADOWS. Fly hence, shadows, that do keep Watchful sorrows charmed in sleep. Though the eyes be overtaken, Yet the heart doth ever waken Thoughts, chained up in busy snares 5 Of continual woes and cares : Love and griefs are so exprest As they rather sigh than rest. Fly hence, shadows, that do keep Watchful sorrows charmed in sleep. 10 John Ford, The Broken Heart, 1633 ; acted about 1629. A BRIDAL SONG. Comforts lasting, loves increasing, Like soft hours never ceasing ; Plenty's pleasure, peace complying, Without jars, or tongues envying ; Hearts by holy union wedded, 5 More than theirs by custom bedded ; SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Fruitful issues ; life so graced, Not by age to be defaced ; Budding as the year ensu'th, Every spring another youth : 10 All what thought can add beside. Crown this bridegroom and this bride. SONG. O, no more, no more, too late Sighs are spent; the burning tapers Of a life as chaste as Fate, Pure as are unwritten papers, Are burnt out ; no heat, no light 5 Now remains; 't is ever night. Love is dead ; let lovers' eyes, Locked in endless dreams, Th' extremes of all extremes, Ope no more, for now Love dies. 10 Now Love dies — implying Love's martyrs must be ever, ever dying. DIRGE. Glories, pleasures, pomps, delights, and ease Can but please Outward senses, when the mind Is untroubled or by peace refined. Crowns may flourish and decay, 5 Beauties shine, but fade away. Youth may revel, yet it must Lie down in a bed of dust. Earthly honors flow and waste, Time alone doth change and last. 10 THOMAS GOFFE. 9 Sorrows mingled with contents prepare Rest for care ; Love only reigns in death ; though art Can find no comfort for a broken heart. Thomas Goffe, The Careless Shepherdess, 1656; written before 1629. SYLVIA'S BOWER. Come, shepherds, come, impale your brows With garlands of the choicest flowers The time allows ; Come, nymphs, decked in your dangling hair, And unto Sylvia's shady bower 5 With haste repair ; Where you shall see chaste turtles play, And nightingales make lasting May, As if old Time his useful mind To one delighted season had confined. 10 Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648 ; written before 1629. TO DIANEME. Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes, Which, star-like, sparkle in their skies ; Nor be you proud that you can see All hearts your captives, yours yet free ; 10 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Be you not proud of that rich hair, 5 Which wantons with the love-sick air; Whenas that ruby which you wear, Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, Will last to be a precious stone, When all your world of beauty 's gone. T o CORINNA'S GOING A-MAYING. Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted colors through the air ! Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see 5 The dew bespangling herb and tree. Each flower has wept, and bowed toward the east, Above an hour since ; yet you not drest, Nay ! not so much as out of bed? When all the birds have matins said, J o And sung their thankful hymns ; 't is sin, Nay, profanation to keep in, Whenas a thousand virgins on this day Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in May. Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seen 15 To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green And sweet as Flora. Take no care For jewels for your gown or hair ; Fear not, the leaves will strew Gems in abundance upon you ; • 2 ° Besides, the childhood of the day has kept, Against you come, some orient pearls unwept ; Come, and receive them while the light Hangs on the dew-locks of the night, ROBERT HERRICK. 11 And Titan on the eastern hill 25 Retires himself, or else stands still Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying : Few beads are best, when once we go a-Maying. Come, my Corinna, come ; and coming mark How each field turns a street, each street a park 3° Made green, and trimmed with trees ; see how Devotion gives each house a bough Or branch ; each porch, each door, ere this An ark, a tabernacle is, Made up of white-thorn neatly enterwove, 35 As if here were those cooler shades of love. Can such delights be in the street And open fields, and we not see 't? Come, we '11 abroad, and let 's obey The proclamation made for May, 4° And sin no more, as we have done, by staying ; But, my Corinna, come, let 's go a-Maying. There 's not a budding boy or girl, this day, But is got up and gone to bring in May. A deal of youth, ere this, is come 45 Back, and with white-thorn laden home. Some have dispatched their cakes and cream, Before that we have left to dream ; And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth, And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth. 5° Many a green-gown has been given ; Many a kiss, both odd and even ; Many a glance too has been sent From out the eye, love's firmament ; Many a jest told of the key's betraying 55 This night, and locks picked, yet w' are not a-Maying. 12 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Come, let us go, while we are in our prime, And take the harmless folly of the time. We shall grow old apace and die Before we know our liberty. 6o Our life is short, and our days run As fast away as does the sun, And as a vapor, or a drop of rain, Once lost can ne'er be found again ; So when or you or I are made 65 A fable, song, or fleeting shade, All love, all liking, all delight, Lies drown'd with us in endless night. Then while time serves, and we are but decaying ; Come, my Corinna, come, let 's go a-Maying. 7° NIGHT PIECE, TO JULIA. Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting stars attend thee, And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 5 No will-o'-th'-wisp mislight thee ; Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee ; But on, on thy way, Not making a stay, Since ghost there 's none to affright thee. 10 Let not the dark thee cumber; What though the moon does slumber ; The stars of the night Will lend thee their light, Like tapers clear without number. 15 ROBERT HER RICK. 13 Then Julia, let me woo thee, Thus, thus to come unto me: And when I shall meet Thy silv'ry feet, My soul I '11 pour into thee. 20 TO ELECTRA. I dare not ask a kiss, I dare not beg a smile, Lest having that, or this, I might grow proud the while. No, no, the utmost share 5 Of my desire shall be Only to kiss that air, That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick, in Wifs Rec- reations, ed. 1 64 1 ; written be- fore 1629. A HYMN TO LOVE. I will confess With cheerfulness, Love is a thing so likes me, That, let her lay On me all day, I'll kiss the hand that strikes me. I will not, I, Now blubb'ring cry : 14 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. ' It, ah ! too late repents me That I did fall 10 To love at all, Since love so much contents me.' No, no, I '11 be In fetters free ; While others they sit wringing 15 Their hands for pain, I '11 entertain The wounds of love with singing. With flowers and wine, And cakes divine, 2 ° To strike me I will tempt thee; Which done, no more I '11 come before Thee and thine altars empty. Thomas Dekker, London's Tempe, 1629. SONG OF THE CYCLOPS. Brave iron, brave hammer, from your sound The art of music has her ground ; On the anvil thou keep'st time, Thy knick-a-knock is a smith's best chime. Yet thwick-a-thwack, thwick, thwack-a-thwack, thwack, 5 Make our brawny sinews crack : Then pit-a-pat, pat, pit-a-pat, pat, Till thickest bars be beaten flat. THOMAS DEKKER. 15 We shoe the horses of the sun, Harness the dragons of the moon ; IO Forge Cupid's quiver, bow, and arrows, And our dame's coach that 's drawn with sparrows. Till thwick-a-thwack, etc. Jove's roaring cannons and his rammers We beat out with our Lemnian hammers ; l 5 Mars his gauntlet, helm, and spear, And Gorgon shield are all made here. Till thwick-a-thwack, etc. The grate which, shut, the day outbars, Those golden studs which nail the stars, 2 ° The globe's case and the axle-tree, Who can hammer these but we ? Till thwick-a-thwack, etc. A warming-pan to heat earth's bed, Lying i' th' frozen zone half-dead ; 2 5 Hob-nails to serve the man i' th' moon, And sparrowbills to clout Pan's shoon, Whose work but ours ? Till thwick-a-thwack, etc. Venus' kettles, pots, and pans 3° We make, or else she brawls and bans ; Tongs, shovels, andirons have their places, Else she scratches all our faces. Till thwick-a-thwack, thwick, thwack-a-thwack, thwack, Make our brawny sinews crack : 35 Then pit-a-pat, pat, pit-a-pat, pat, Till thickest bars be beaten flat. 16 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Ben Jonson, The New Inn, 1631; acted 1629. PERFECT BEAUTY. It was a beauty that I saw So pure, so perfect, as the frame Of all the universe was lame To that one figure, could I draw, Or give least line of it a law. 5 A skein of silk without a knot, A fair march made without a halt, A curious form without a fault, A printed book without a blot, All beauty, and without a spot. 10 From Dr. John Wilson's Cheer- ful Airs or Ballads, 1660 ; writ- ten before 1630. THE EXPOSTULATION. Greedy lover, pause awhile, And remember that a smile Heretofore Would have made thy hopes a feast ; Which is more 5 Since thy diet was increased, Than both looks and language too, Or the face itself, can do. Such a province is my hand As, if it thou couldst command 10 Heretofore, There thy lips would seem to dwell; JOHN WILSON. U Which is more, Ever since they sped so well, Than they can be brought to do 1 S By my neck and bosom too. If the centre of my breast, A dominion unpossessed Heretofore, May thy wandering thoughts suffice, 2 ° Seek no more, And my heart shall be thy prize : So thou keep above the line, All the hemisphere is thine. If the flames of love were pure 2 5 Which by oath thou didst assure Heretofore, Gold that goes into the clear Shines the more When it leaves again the fire : 3° Let not then those looks of thine Blemish what they should refine. I have cast into the fire Almost all thou couldst desire Heretofore; 35 But I see thou art to crave More and more. Should I cast in all I have, So that I were ne'er so free, Thou wouldst burn, though not for me. 4° 18 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. LOVE'S IDOLATRY. When I behold my mistress' face, Where beauty hath her dwelling-place, And see those seeing stars her eyes, In whom love's fire for ever lies, And hear her witty, charming words Her sweet tongue to mine ear affords, Methinks he wants wit, ears, and eyes Whom love makes not idolatrise. LOVE WITH EYES AND HEART. When on mine eyes her eyes first shone, I all amazed Steadily gazed, And she to make me more amazed, So caught, so wove, four eyes in one 5 As who had with advisement seen us Would have admired love's equal force between us. But treason in those friend-like eyes, My heart first charming And then disarming, 10 So maimed it, e'er it dreamed of harming, As at her mercy now it lies, And shews me, to my endless smart, She loved but with her eyes, I with my heart. ANONYMOUS. 19 From Egerton MS., 2013; author and date unknown. WE MUST NOT PART AS OTHERS DO. We must not part as others do, With sighs and tears as we were two. Though with these outward forms we part, We keep each other in our heart. What search hath found a being, where 5 I am not, if that thou be there ? True Love hath wings, and can as soon Survey the world, as sun and moon ; And everywhere our triumphs keep Over absence, which makes others weep: 1° By which alone a power is given To live on earth, as they in heaven. STAY, STAY, OLD TIME. Stay, stay, old Time ! repose thy restless wings, Pity thyself, though thou obdurate be, And wilfully wear'st out all other things. Stay, and behold a face, which, but to see, Will make thee shake off half a world of days, 5 And wearied pinions feather with new plumes. Lay down thy sandy glass, that never stays, And cruel crooked scythe, that all consumes, To gaze on her, more lovely than Apollo. Renew thyself, continue still her youth, 10 O, stay with her, (and him no longer follow) That is as beauteous as thy darling Truth. 20 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Robert Herrick, in Wit's Recrea- tion, ed. 1 64 1 ; written before 1630. UPON A MAID. Here she lies, in bed of spice, Fair as Eve in Paradise ; For her beauty, it was such Poets could not praise too much. Virgins, come, and in a ring Her supremest requiem sing ; Then depart, but see ye tread Lightly, lightly o'er the dead. John Milton, Poems both Eng- lish and Latin, 1645; written 1629-31. ON TIME. TO BE SET ON A CLOCK-CASE. Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race ! Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours, Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace, And glut thyself with what thy womb devours, Which is no more than what is false and vain 5 And merely mortal dross ; So little is our loss, So little is thy gain ! For whenas each thing bad thou hast entombed, And, last of all, thy greedy self consumed, 10 Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss With an individual kiss. JOHN MILTON. 21 And joy shall overtake us as a flood, When everything that is sincerely good And perfectly divine, '5 With Truth, and Peace, and Love, shall ever shine About the supreme throne Of him, t' whose happy-making sight alone When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb Then, all this earthly grossness quit, 2 o Attired with stars we shall for ever sit, Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time ! SONG ON MAY MORNING. Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire 5 Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ; Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale both boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long. io John Milton, in Mr. William Shakespeare 's Comedies, Histo- ries, and Tragedies, ed. 1632 ; written 1630. AN EPITAPH ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATIC POET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. What need my Shakespeare for his honored bones The labor of an age in piled stones ? Or that his hallowed relics should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid ? 22 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 5 What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name ? Thou in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a livelong monument. For whilst to the shame of slow-endeavoring art Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart 10 Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book Those Delphic lines with deep impression took ; Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, Dost make us marble with too much conceiving; And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie, 15 That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. John Milton, Poems both English and Latin, 1645; written 1630-31. SONNETS. I. TO THE NIGHTINGALE. O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still ; Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill, While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May. Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, 5 First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love ; O, if Jove's will Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay, Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh; 10 As thou from year to year hast sung too late For my relief, yet hadst no reason why: Whether the Muse, or Love, call thee his mate, Both them I serve, and of their train am I. PHILIP MASSINGEK. 23 II. ON HIS BEING ARRIVED TO THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year ! My hasting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, 5 That I to manhood am arrived so near ; And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even I0 To that same lot, however mean or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the will of heaven : All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye. Philip Massinger, The Emperor of the East, 1632; acted 1631. DEATH INVOKED. Why art thou slow, thou rest of trouble, Death, To stop a wretch's breath, That calls on thee, and offers her sad heart A prey unto thy dart ? I am nor young nor fair ; be, therefore, bold : Sorrow hath made me old, Deformed, and wrinkled ; all that I can crave Is quiet in my grave. 24 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Such as live happy, hold long life a jewel ; But to me thou art cruel 10 If thou end not my tedious misery And I soon cease to be. Strike, and strike home, then ! pity unto me, In one short hour's delay, is tyranny. Richard Brome, The A T orthern Lass, 1632; written 1631. HUMILITY. Nor Love nor Fate dare I accuse For that my love did me refuse, But O ! mine own unworthiness That durst presume so mickle bliss. It was too much for me to love 5 A man so like the gods above : An angel's shape, a saint-like voice, Are too divine for human choice. had I wisely given my heart For to have loved him but in part; 10 Sought only to enjoy his face, Or any one peculiar grace Of foot, of hand, of lip, or eye, — 1 might have lived where now I die : But I, presuming all to choose, 15 Am now condemned all to lose. RICHARD BRATHWAITE. 25 Richard Brathwaite, The Eng- lish Gentlewoman, 1 631. MOUNTING HYPERBOLES. Skin more pure than Ida's snow, Whiter far than Moorish milk, Sweeter than ambrosia too, Softer than the Paphian silk, Indian plumes or thistle-down, 5 Or May-blossoms newly blown, Is my mistress rosy-pale, Adding beauty to her veil. James Mabbe, Celestina, 1631. NOW SLEEP, AND TAKE THY REST. Now sleep, and take thy rest, Once grieved and pained wight, Since she now loves thee best Who is thy heart's delight. Let joy be thy soul's guest, And care be banished quite, Since she hath thee expressed To be her favourite. WAITING. You birds whose warblings prove Aurora draweth near, Go fly and tell my love That I expect him here. 26 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. The night doth posting move, Yet comes he not again : God grant some other love Do not my love detain. Aurelian Townsend, Albion's Triumph, 1631-32. MERCURY COMPLAINING. Mercury. What makes me so unnimbly rise, That did descend so fleet ? There is no uphill in the skies, Clouds stay not feathered feet. Chorus. Thy wings are singed, and thou canst fly 5 But slowly now, swift Mercury. Mercury. Some lady here is sure to blame, That from Love's starry skies Hath shot some beam or sent some flame Like lightning from her eyes. IO Chorus. Tax not the stars with what the sun, Too near approached, incensed, hath done. Mercury. I '11 roll me in Aurora's dew Or lie in Tethys' bed, WALTER PORTER. 27 Or from cool Iris beg a few J 5 Pure opal showers new shed. Chorus. Nor dew, nor showers, nor sea can slake Thy quenchless heat, but Lethe's lake. From Walter Porter's Madri- gals and Airs, 1632. LOVE LJV THY YOUTH. Love in thy youth, fair maid ; be wise, Old Time will make thee colder, And though each morning new arise Yet we each day grow older. Thou as heaven art fair and young, 5 Thine eyes like twin stars shining : But ere another day be sprung, All these will be declining ; Then winter comes with all his fears, And all thy sweets shall borrow; 10 Too late then wilt thou shower thy tears, And I too late shall sorrow. DISDAIN RETURNED. He that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires, Or from starlike eyes doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires ; As old Time makes these decay, 5 So his flames must waste away. 28 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts and calm desires, Hearts with equal love combined, Kindle never-dying fires. 10 Where these are not, I despise Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes. No tears, Celia, now shall win My resolved heart to return; I have searched thy soul within, 15 And find naught but pride and scorn; I have learned thy arts, and now Can disdain as much as thou. Some power, in my revenge, convey That love to her I cast away. 20 Peter Hausted, The Rival Friends, 1632. HAVE PITY, GRIEF. Have pity, Grief ; I cannot pay The tribute which I owe thee, tears; Alas those fountains are grown dry, And 't is in vain to hope supply From others' eyes ; for each man bears 5 Enough about him of his own To spend his stock of tears upon. Woo then the heavens, gentle Love, To melt a cloud for my relief, Or woo the deep, or woo the grave; 10 Woo what thou wilt, so I may have WILLIAM HABINGTON. 29 Wherewith to pay my debt, for Grief Has vowed, unless I quickly pay, To take both life and love away. William Habington, Castara, Part I, ed. 1634; written about 1632. TO ROSES IN THE BOSOM OF CASTARA. Ye blushing virgins happy are In the chaste nunn'ry of her breasts, For he 'd prophane so chaste a fair Who e'er should call them Cupid's nests. Transplanted thus, how bright ye grow, 5 How rich a perfume do ye yield ! In some close garden, cowslips so Are sweeter than i' th' open field. In those white cloisters live secure From the rude blasts of wanton breath, 10 Each hour more innocent and pure, Till you shall wither into death. Then that which living gave you room Your glorious sepulchre shall be. There wants no marble for a tomb, 15 Whose breast hath marble been to me. 30 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. UPON CASTARA'S DEPARTURE. Vows are vain; no suppliant breath Stays the speed of swift-heeled Death. Life with her is gone and I Learn but a new way to die. See the flowers condole, and all 5 Wither in my funeral. The bright lily, as if day, Parted with her, fades away; Violets hang their heads and lose All their beauty ; that the rose J ° A sad part in sorrow bears, Witness all those dewy tears, Which as pearl, or diamond like, Swell upon her blushing cheek. All things mourn ; but O behold J 5 How the withered marigold Closeth up now she is gone, Judging her the setting sun. Castara, Part II, ed. 1634. TO CASTARA IN A TRANCE. Forsake me not so soon ; Castara stay, And as I break the prison of my clay, I '11 fill the canvas with m' expiring breath And with thee sail o'er the vast main of death. Some cherubim thus as we pass shall play: 5 ' Go happy twins of love '; the courteous sea Shall smooth her wrinkled brow; the winds shall sleep Or only whisper music to the deep. Every ungentle rock shall melt away, The sirens sing to please, not to betray, I0 WILLIAM HABINGTON. 31 Th' indulgent sky shall smile; each starry choir Contend which shall afford the brighter fire; While Love, the pilot, steers his course so even, Ne'er to cast anchor till we reach at heaven. AGAINST THEM THAT LAY UNCHASTITY TO THE SEX OF WOMAN. They meet with but unwholesome springs And summers which infectious are, They hear but when the mermaid sings, And only see the falling star, Who ever dare 5 Affirm no woman chaste and fair. Go cure your fevers, and you '11 say The dog-days scorch not all the year; In copper mines no longer stay But travel to the west and there 10 The right ones see, And grant all gold 's not alchemy. What madman 'cause the glow-worm's flame Is cold, swears there 's no warmth in fire ? 'Cause some make forfeit of their name 1 S And slave themselves to man's desire, Shall the sex, free From guilt, damned to bondage be ? Nor grieve, Castara, though 't were frail, Thy virtue then would brighter shine, 2 ° When thy example should prevail And every woman's faith be thine : And were there none, 'T is majesty to rule alone. 32 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. George Herbert, The Temple, 1633; written between 1630 and 1633- THE ALTAR. A broken altar, Lord, thy servant rears, Made of a heart, and cemented with tears, Whose parts are as thy hand did frame; No workman's tool hath touched the same. A heart alone 5 Is such a stone, As nothing but Thy power doth cut. Wherefore each part Of my hard heart 10 Meets in this frame, To praise thy name : That if I chance to hold my peace These stones to praise thee may not cease. O, let thy blessed sacrifice be mine, 15 And sanctify this altar to, be thine! EASTER WINGS. Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poor : 5 With thee O let me rise, As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day thy victories: Then shall the fall further the flight in me. 10 GEORGE HERBERT. 33 My tender age in sorrow did begin ; And still with sicknesses and shame Thou didst so punish sin, That I became Most thin. *S With thee Let me combine, And feel this day thy victory; For if I imp my wing on thine, Affliction shall advance the flight in me. 2 ° EMPLOYMENT. If as a flower doth spread and die, Thou wouldst extend me to some good, Before I were by frost's extremity Nipt in the bud; The sweetness and the praise were thine ; But the extension and the room Which in thy garland I should fill, were mine At thy great doom. 10 For as thou dost impart thy grace The greater shall our glory be. The measure of our joys is in this place, The stuff with thee. Let me not languish then, and spend A life as barren to thy praise As is the dust, to which that life doth tend, *5 But with delays. 34 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. All things are busy; only I Neither bring honey with the bees, Nor flowers to make that, nor the husbandry To water these. 20 I am no link of thy great chain, But all my company is a weed. Lord, place me in thy consort ; give one strain To my poor reed. VIRTUE. Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky ; The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; For thou must die. Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, 5 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye; Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie; 10 My music shows ye have your closes, And all must die. Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like seasoned timber, never gives ; But, though the whole world turn to coal, 15 Then chiefly lives. THE QUIP. The merry World did on a day With his train-bands and mates agree GEORGE HERBERT. 35 To meet together where I lay, And all in sport to jeer at me. First, Beauty crept into a rose, 5 Which when I pluckt not, ' Sir,' said she, 1 Tell me, I pray, whose hands are those ? ' But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. Then Money came, and chinking still, ' What tune is this, poor man ? ' said he; i° ' I heard in music you had skill : ' But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. Then came brave Glory, puffing by In silks that whistled, who but he ? He scarce allowed me half an eye: 15 But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. Then came quick Wit and Conversation, And he would needs a comfort be, And, to be short, make an oration: But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. 20 Yet when the hour of thy design To answer these fine things shall come, Speak not at large, say, I am thine, And then they have their answer home. FRAILTY. Lord, in my silence how do I despise What upon trust Is styled honor, riches, or fair eyes, But is fair dust ! 36 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. I surname them gilded clay, 5 Dear earth, fine grass or hay ; In all, I think my foot doth ever tread Upon their head. But when I view abroad both regiments, The world's and thine, 10 Thine clad with simpleness and sad events, The other fine, Full of glory and gay weeds, Brave language, braver deeds, That which was dust before doth quickly rise, 15 And prick mine eyes. O, brook not this, lest if what even now My foot did tread Affront those joys wherewith thou didst endow And long since wed 20 My poor soul, even sick of love, — It may a Babel prove, Commodious to conquer heaven and thee, Planted in me. William Habington, Castara, Part I, ed. 1635; written about *633- TO THE WORLD. THE PERFECTION OF LOVE. You who are earth and cannot rise Above your sense, Boasting the envied wealth which lies Bright in your mistress' lips or eyes, Betray a pitied eloquence. WILLIAM HABINGTON. 37 That which doth join our souls, so light And quick doth move, That like the eagle in his flight It doth transcend all human sight, Lost in the element of love. . J ° You poets reach not this, who sing The praise of dust But kneaded, when by theft you bring The rose and lily from the spring T' adorn the wrinkled face of Lust. 15 When we speak love, nor art nor wit We gloss upon; Our souls engender, and beget Ideas which you counterfeit In your dull propagation. 2 ° While Time seven ages shall disperse We '11 talk of love, And when our tongues hold no commerce Our thoughts shall mutually converse, And yet the blood no rebel prove. 2 5 And though we be of several kind, Fit for offence, Yet are we so by love refined From impure dross we are all mind: Death could not more have conquered sense. 3° How suddenly those flames expire Which scorch our clay ! Prometheus-like when we steal fire From heaven, 't is endless and entire, It may know age, but not decay. 35 178118 38 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. John Milton, Arcades, or the Arcadians, 1645; written 1634. SONG II. O'er the smooth enamelled green, Where no print of step hath been, Follow me, as I sing And touch the warbled string, Under the shady roof 5 Of branching elm, star-proof, Follow me: I will bring you where she sits Clad in splendor as befits Her deity. 10 Such a rural queen All Arcadia hath not seen. SONG III. Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more By sandy Ladon's lilied banks; On old Lycaeus, or Cyllene hoar, Trip no more in twilight ranks; Though Erymanth your loss deplore, 5 A better soil shall give ye thanks. From the stony Masnalus Bring your flocks, and live with us; Here ye shall have greater grace, To serve the Lady of this place. 10 Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. Such a rural queen All Arcadia hath not seen. JOHN MILTON. 39 A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634. SONG. Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen Within thy airy shell, By slow Meander's margent green, And in the violet-embroidered vale Where the love-lorn nightingale 5 Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well : Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy Narcissus are ? O, if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave, 10 Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere ! So mayst thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies. SONG. Spirit. Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knitting The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; 5 Listen, for dear honor's sake, Goddess of the silver lake, Listen, and save. Listen, and appear to us, In name of great Oceanus; 10 By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, And Tethys' grave majestic pace; By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, 40 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And the Carpathian wizard's hook ; By scaly Triton's winding shell, 15 And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell ; By Leucothea's lovely hands, And her son that rules the strands; By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, And the songs of Sirens sweet ; 20 By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, And fair Ligea's golden comb, Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks, Sleeking her soft alluring locks ; By all the nymphs that nightly dance 25 Upon thy streams with wily glance : Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head From thy coral-paven bed, And bridle in thy headlong wave, Till thou our summons answered have. 30 Listen and save. Sabrina rises, attended by Water-Nymphs, and sings. By the rushy-fringed bank, Where grows the willow and the osier dank, My sliding chariot stays, Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen 35 Of turkis blue, and emerald green, That in the channel strays ; Whilst from off the waters fleet Thus I set my printless feet O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 40 That bends not as I tread. Gentle swain, at thy request I am here ! Spirit. Goddess dear, We implore thy powerful hand 45 To undo the charmed band JOHN MIL TON. 41 Of true virgin here distressed Through the force, and through the wile Of unblest enchanter vile. Sabrina. Shepherd, 't is my office best 50 To help ensnared chastity. Brightest Lady, look on me: Thus I sprinkle on thy breast Drops that from my fountain pure I have kept of precious cure; 55 Thrice upon thy finger's tip, Thrice upon thy rubied lip: Next this marbled venomed seat, Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 60 Now the spell hath lost his hold ; And I must haste ere morning hour To wait in Amphitrite's bower. Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat. Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, Sprung of old Anchises' line, 65 May thy brimmed waves for this Their full tribute never miss From a thousand petty rills That tumble down the snowy hills: Summer drouth or singed air 7° Never scorch thy tresses fair, Nor wet October's torrent flood Thy molten crystal fill with mud; May thy billows roll ashore The beryl and the golden ore; 75 May thy lofty head be crowned With many a tower and terrace round, And here and there thy banks upon With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 42 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. THE SPIRITS EPILOGUE. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad fields of the sky. There I suck the liquid air, 5 All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree. Along the crisped shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 10 The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours Thither all their bounties bring. There eternal summer dwells, And west-winds with musky wing About the cedarn alleys fling 15 Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can shew, 20 And drenches with Elysian dew (List, mortals, if your ears be true) Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where young Adonis oft reposes, Waxing well of his deep wound, 25 In slumber soft, and on the ground Sadly sits th' Assyrian queen. But far above in spangled sheen, Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced, Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced 30 After her wandering labors long, Till free consent the gods among THOMAS CAREW. 43 Make her his eternal bride, And from her fair unspotted side Two blissful twins are to be born, 35 Youth and Joy : so Jove hath sworn. But now my task is smoothly done: I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, 4° And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon. Mortals, that would follow me, Love Virtue : she alone is free; She can teach ye how to climb 45 Higher than the sphery chime; Or, if Virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her. Thomas Carew, Poems, 1640; written 1634. THE MARIGOLD. Mark how the bashful morn, in vain, Courts the amorous marigold, With sighing blasts, and weeping rain; Yet she refuses to unfold. But when the planet of the day 5 Approacheth with his powerful ray, Then she spreads, then she receives His warmer beams into her virgin leaves. So shalt thou thrive in love, fond boy ; If thy tears and sighs discover J ° 44 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Thy grief, thou never shalt enjoy The just reward of a bold lover. But when, with moving accents, thou Shalt constant faith and service vow, Thy Celia shall receive those charms 15 With open ears and with unfolded arms. Thomas Randolph, Poems, with the Muses' Looking Glass, 1 638 ; written before 1634-35. AN ODE TO MASTER ANTHONY STAFFORD TO HASTEN HIM INTO THE COUNTRY. Come, spur away, I have no patience for a longer stay, But must go down, And leave the charge'ble noise of this great town. I will the country see, 5 Where old simplicity, Though hid in gray, Doth look more gay Than foppery in plush and scarlet clad. Farewell, you city wits, that are IO Almost at civil war ; 'Tis time that I grow wise, when all the world grows mad. More of my days I will not spend to gain an idiot's praise ; Or to make sport J 5 For some slight puisne of the Inns-of-Court. THOMAS RANDOLPH. 45 Then, worthy Stafford, say, How shall we spend the day ? With what delights Shorten the nights ? 20 When from this tumult we are got secure, Where mirth with all her freedom goes, Yet shall no finger lose ; Where every word is thought, and every thought is pure. There from the tree 25 We '11 cherries pluck, and pick the strawberry. And every day Go see the wholesome country girls make hay, Whose brown hath lovelier grace Than any painted face, 30 That I do know Hyde Park can show. Where I had rather gain a kiss than meet (Though some of them in greater state Might court my love with plate) 35 The beauties of the Cheap, and wives of Lombard Street. But think upon Some other pleasures : these to me are none. Why do I prate Of women, that are things against my fate ? 40 I never mean to wed That torture to my bed; My Muse is she My love shall be. Let clowns get wealth and heirs; when I am gone, 45 And the great bugbear, grisly Death, Shall take this idle breath, If I a poem leave, that poem is my son. 46 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Of this no more ; We'll rather taste the bright Pomona's store. 5° No fruit shall 'scape Our palates, from the damson to the grape. Then, full, we '11 seek a shade, And hear what music 's made; How Philomel 55 Her tale doth tell, And how the other birds do fill the choir : The thrush and blackbird lend their throats, Warbling melodious notes; We will all sports enjoy which others but desire. 6o Ours is the sky, Where at what fowl we please our hawk shall fly; Nor will we spare To hunt the crafty fox or timorous hare ; But let our hounds run loose 6 5 In any ground they '11 choose, The buck shall fall, The stag, and all: Our pleasures must from their own warrants be, For to my Muse, if not to me, 7° I 'm sure all game is free : Heaven, earth, are all but parts of her great royalty. And when we mean To taste of Bacchus' blessings now and then, And drink by stealth 75 A cup or two to noble Barkley's health, I '11 take my .pipe and try The Phrygian melody; Which he that hears, Lets through his ears 8o THOMAS RANDOLPH. 47 A madness to distemper all the brain. Then I another pipe will take And Doric music make, To civilise with graver notes our wits again. TO ONE ADMIRING HERSELF IN A LOOKING-GLASS. Fair lady, when you see the grace Of beauty in your looking-glass: A stately forehead, smooth and high, And full of princely majesty: A sparkling eye, no gem so fair, 5 Whose lustre dims the Cyprian star: A glorious cheek divinely sweet, Wherein both roses kindly meet: A cherry lip that would entice Even gods to kiss at any price: 10 You think no beauty is so rare That with your shadow might compare ; That your reflection is alone The thing that men most dote upon. Madam, alas! your glass doth lie, 15 And you are much deceived; for I A beauty know of richer grace (Sweet, be not angry) — 't is your face. Hence then, O, learn more mild to be, And leave to lay your blame on me; 2 ° If me your real substance move, When you so much your shadow love, Wise Nature would not let your eye Look on her own bright majesty, Which had you once but gazed upon, 2 5 You could, except yourself, love none: 48 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. What then you cannot love, let me: That face I can, you cannot, see. Now you have what to love, you '11 say, What then is left for me, I pray ? 30 My face, sweetheart, if it please thee: That which you can, I cannot, see. So either love shall gain his due, Yours, sweet, in me, and mine in you. Richard Brathwaite, The Ar- cadian Princess, 1635. THEMISTA'S REPROOF. Like a top which runneth round And never winneth any ground ; Or th' dying scion of a vine That rather breaks than it will twine; Or th' sightless mole whose life is spent 5 Divided from her element; Or plants removed from Tagus' shore Who never bloom nor blossom more; Or dark Cimmerians who delight In shady shroud of pitchy night; 10 Or mopping apes who are possessed Their cubs are ever prettiest: So he who makes his own opinion To be his one and only minion, Nor will incline in any season 15 To th' weight of proof or strength of reason, But prefers will precipitate 'Fore judgment that 's deliberate; EDMUND WALLER. 49 He ne'er shall lodge within my roof Till, rectified by due reproof, 20 He labor to reform this ill By giving way to others' will. Edmund Waller, Poems, 1645 '> written about 1635. TO MY YOUNG LADY LUCY SIDNEY. Why came I so untimely forth Into a world which, wanting thee, Could entertain us with no worth, Or shadow of felicity, That time should me so far remove From that which I was born to love ? Yet, fairest blossom, do not slight That age which you may know too soon; The rosy morn resigns her light And milder glory to the noon; I0 And then what wonders shall you do, Whose dawning beauty warms us so! Hope waits upon the flowery prime ; And summer, though it be less gay Yet is not looked on as a time l 5 Of declination and decay; For with a full hand that does bring All that was promised by the spring. 50 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. ON THE FRIENDSHIP BETWIXT SACCHARISSA AND AMORET. Tell me, lovely, loving pair, Why so kind and so severe ? Why so careless of our care, Only to yourselves so dear ? By this cunning change of hearts, 5 You the power of Love control ; While the boy's deluded darts Can arrive at neither soul. For in vain to either breast Still beguiled Love does come, 10 Where he finds a foreign guest : Neither of your hearts at home. Debtors thus with like design, When they never mean to pay, That they may the law decline, 15 To some friend make all away. Not the silver doves that fly, Yoked to Cytherea's car, Not the wings that lift so high And convey her son so far, 20 Are so lovely, sweet, and fair, Or do more ennoble love, Are so choicely matched a pair, Or with more consent do move. EDMUND WALLER. 51 TO AMORET. Fair ! that you may truly know, What you unto Thyrsis owe; I will tell you how I do Sacharissa love, and you. Joy salutes me when I set 5 My blest eyeson Amoret: But with wonder I am strook, While I on the other look. If sweet Amoret complains, I have sense of all her pains: I0 But for Sacharissa I Do not only grieve, but die. All that of myself is mine Lovely Amoret ! is thine. Sacharissa's captive fain l S Would untie his iron chain; And, those scorching beams to shun, To thy gentle shadow run. If the soul had free election To dispose of her affection ; 2 ° I would not thus long have borne Haughty Sacharissa's scorn; But 't is sure some power above Which controls our will in love! If not a love, a strong desire 2 5 To create and spread that fire In my breast, solicits me, Beauteous Amoret ! for thee. 'T is amazement, more than love, Which her radiant eyes do move : 3° If less splendor wait on thine, Yet they so benignly shine, 52 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. I would turn my dazzled sight To behold their milder light. But as hard 't is to destroy 35 That high flame, as to enjoy : Which how eas'ly I may do, Heaven (as eas'ly scaled) does know ! Amoret as sweet and good As the most delicious food, 4° Which, but tasted, does impart Life and gladness to the heart ; Sacharissa's beauty 's wine, Which to madness doth incline : Such a liquor, as no brain 45 That is mortal can sustain. Scarce can I to heaven excuse The devotion which I use Unto that adored dame : For 't is not unlike the same 5° Which I thither ought to send, So that if it could take end, 'T would to heaven itself be due, To succeed her, and not you, Who already have of me 55 All that 's not idolatry ; Which, though not so fierce a flame, Is longer like to be the same. Then smile on me, and I will prove Wonder is shorter-lived than love. 6o FRANCIS QUARLES. 53 Francis Quarles, Emblems, Di- vine and Moral, 1635. O WHITHER SHALL I FLY? O whither shall I fly? what path untrod Shall I seek out to scape the flaming rod Of my offended, of my angry God ? Where shall I sojourn ? what kind sea will hide My head from thunder ? where shall I abide, 5 Until his flames be quenched or laid aside ? What if my feet should take their hasty flight, And seek protection in the shades of night ? Alas, no shades can blind the God of Light. What if my soul should take the wings of day, IO And find some desert. If she spring away, The wings of vengeance clip as fast as they. What if some solid rock should entertain My frighted soul ? Can solid rocks restrain The stroke of Justice, and not cleave in twain ? * 5 Nor sea, nor shade, nor shield, nor rock, nor cave, Nor silent deserts, nor the sullen grave, Where flame-eyed Fury means to smite, can save. The seas will part, graves open, rocks will split, The shield will cleave, the frighted shadows flit ; Where Justice aims, her fiery darts must hit. No, no, if stern-browed Vengeance means to thunder, There is no place above, beneath, nor under, So close but will unlock or rive in sunder. 20 54 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. 'Tis vain to flee ; 'tis neither here nor there 25 Can scape that hand until that hand forbear. Ah me ! where is he not that 's everywhere ? 'T is vain to flee ; till gentle Mercy show Her better eye, the further off we go, The swing of Justice deals the mightier blow. 30 Th' ingenuous child, corrected, doth not fly His angry mother's hand, but clings more nigh, And quenches with his tears her flaming eye. Shadows are faithless, and the rocks are false ; No trust in brass, no trust in marble walls ; 35 Poor cots are even as safe as princes' halls. Great God, there is no safety here below ; Thou art my fortress, though thou seemst my foe ; 'T is thou that strik'st must guard the blow. to 1 Thou art my God ; by thee I fall or stand, 40 Thy grace hath given me courage to withstand All tortures, but my conscience and thy hand. I know thy justice is thyself; I know, Just God, thy very self is mercy too ; If not to thee, where ? whither should I go ? 45 Then work thy will ; if passion bid me flee, My reason shall obey; my wings shall be Stretched out no further than from thee to thee. FRANCIS QUARLES. 55 MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS. Ev'n like two little bank-dividing brooks, That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams, And having ranged and searched a thousand nooks, Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames, Where in a greater current they conjoin : 5 So I my best beloved's am, so he is mine. Ev'n so we met, and, after long pursuit, Ev'n so we joined, we both became entire; No need for either to renew a suit, For I was flax and he was flames of fire : i° Our firm united souls did more than twine, So I my best beloved's am, so he is mine. If all those glitt'ring monarchs that command The servile quarters of this earthly ball, Should tender in exchange their shares of land, 15 I would not change my fortunes for them all : Their wealth is but a counter to my coin, The world's but theirs-, but my beloved 's mine. Nay more, if the fair Thespian ladies all Should heap together their diviner treasure, 20 That treasure should be deemed a price too small To buy a minute's lease of half my pleasure : 'T is not the sacred wealth of all the mine Can buy my heart from his or his from being mine. Nor time, nor place, nor chance, nor death can bow 25 My least desires unto the least remove ; He's firmly mine by oath, I his by vow; He 's mine by faith, and I am his by love ; He 's mine by water, I am his by wine : Thus I my best beloved's am, thus he is mine. 3° 56 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. He is mine altar, I his holy place ; I am his guest, and he my living food •, I 'm his by penitence, he mine by grace ; I 'm his by purchase, he is mine by blood ; He's my supporting elm and I his vine : 35 Thus I my best beloved's am -, thus he is mine. He gives me wealth, I give him all my vows ; I give him songs, he gives me length of days ; With wreaths of grace he crowns my conquering brows, And I his temples with a crown of praise ; 40 Which he accepts as an everlasting sign That I my best beloved's am, that he is mine. George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David, 1636. DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO. O thou who all things hast of nothing made, Whose hand the radiant firmament displayed, With such an undiscerned swiftness hurled About the steadfast centre of the world ; Against whose rapid course the restless sun 5 And wandering flames in varied motions run, Which heat, life, light infuse ; time, night, and day Distinguish ; in our human bodies sway : That hung'st the solid earth in fleeting air, Veined with clear springs, which ambient seas repair. 10 In clouds the mountains wrap their hoary heads ; Luxurious valleys clothed with flowery meads ; Her trees yield fruit and shade ; with liberal breasts All creatures she, their common mother, feasts. GEORGE SANDYS. 57 Then man thy image mad'st ; in dignity, '5 In knowledge, and in beauty like to thee ; Placed in a heaven on earth ; without his toil The ever-flourishing and fruitful soil Unpurchased food produced ; all creatures were His subjects, serving more for love than fear. 20 He knew no lord but thee ; but when he fell From his obedience, all at once rebel, And in his ruin exercise their might ; Concurring elements against him fight ; Troops of unknown diseases, sorrow, age, 25 And death assail him with successive rage. Hell let forth all her furies ; none so great As man to man : — ambition, pride, deceit, Wrong armed with power, lust, rapine, slaughter reigned, And flattered vice the name of virtue gained. 3° Then hills beneath the swelling waters stood And all the globe of earth was but one flood, Yet could not cleanse their guilt. The following race Worse than their fathers, and their sons more base, Their god-like beauty lost ; sin's wretched thrall 35 No spark of their divine original Left unextinguished ; all enveloped With darkness, in their bold transgressions dead : When thou didst from the east a light display, Which rendered to the world a clearer day ; 40 Whose precepts from hell's jaws our steps withdraw, And whose example was a living law ; Who purged us with his blood, the way prepared To heaven, and these long chained-up doors unbarred. How infinite thy mercy ! which exceeds 45 The world thou mad'st, as well as our misdeeds ; Which greater reverence than thy justice wins, And still augments thy honor by our sins. 58 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. O who hath tasted of thy clemency In greater measure or more oft than I ! 50 My grateful verse thy goodness shall display, thou who went'st along in all my way, To where the morning with perfumed wings From the high mountains of Panchasa springs, To that new found-out world, where sober Night 55 Takes from the antipodes her silent flight ; To those dark seas where horrid Winter reigns, And binds the stubborn floods in icy chains ; To Libyan wastes, whose thirst no showers assuage, And where the swollen Nilus cools the lion's rage. 60 Thy wonders in the deep I have beheld ; Yet all by those on Judah's hill excelled, There, where the Virgin's son his doctrine taught, His miracles and our redemption wrought ; Where I, by thee inspired, his praises sung, 65 And on his sepulchre my offering hung. Which way soe'er I turn my face or feet, 1 see thy glory, and thy mercy meet ; Met on the Thracian shores, where in the strife Of frantic Simoans thou preservedst my life ; 70 So, when Arabian thieves belaid us round, And when, by all abandoned, thee I found. That false Sidonian wolf, whose craft put on A sheep's soft fleece, and me, Bellerophon, To ruin by his cruel letter sent, 75 Thou didst by thy protecting hand prevent. Thou savedst me from the bloody massacres Of faithless Indians ; from their treacherous wars ; From raging fevers, from the sultry breath Of tainted air, which cloyed the jaws of death ; 80 Preserved from swallowing seas, when towering waves Mixed with the clouds and opened their deep graves ; ABRAHAM COWLEY. 59 From barbarous pirates ransomed, by those taught, Successfully with Salian Moors we fought ; Then brought'st me home in safety, that this earth 85 Might bury me, which fed me from my birth ; Blest with a healthful age, a quiet mind, Content with little, to this work designed, Which I at length have finished by thy aid, And now my vows have at thy altar paid. 9° Abraham Cowley, Sylva, 1636. A VOTE. This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high. Some honor I would have, Not from great deeds, but good alone : Th' unknown are better than ill-known ; 5 Rumor can ope the grave. Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends Not on the number, but the choice of friends. Books should, not business, entertain the light ; And sleep, as undisturbed as death, the night. I0 My house a cottage, more Than palace, and should fitting be For all my use, no luxury. My garden painted o'er With Nature's hand, not Art's ; and pleasures yield 15 Horace might envy in his Sabine field. Thus would I double my life's fading space, For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. 60 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And in this true delight, These unbought sports, this happy state, 20 I would not fear nor wish my fate, But boldly say each night : To-morrow let my sun his beams display, Or in clouds hide them : I have lived to-day. ODE VI. UPON THE SHORTNESS OF MAN'S LIFE. Mark that swift arrow how it cuts the air, How it outruns thy hunting eye. Use all persuasions now and try If thou canst call it back or stay it there. That way it went, but thou shalt find 5 No track of 't left behind. Fool, 't is thy life, and the fond archer, thou ! Of all the time thou 'st shot away, I '11 bid thee fetch but yesterday, And it shall be too hard a task to do. 10 . Besides repentance, what canst find That it hath left behind ? Our life is carried with too strong a tide, A doubtful cloud our substance bears And is the horse of all our years ; 15 Each day doth on a winged whirlwind ride. We and our glass run out, and must Both render up our dust. But his past life who without grief can see, Who never thinks his end too near 20 But says to fame ' Thou art mine heir,' SIR JOHN SUCK'LrNG. 61 That man extends life's natural brevity : This is, this is the only way To outlive Nestor in a day. Sir John Suckling, Aglanra, 1638 ; acted 1637. WHY SO PALE AND WAN, FOND LOVER? Why so pale and wan, fond lover ? Prithee why so pale? Will, when looking well can't move her, Looking ill prevail ? Prithee why so pale ? 5 Why so dull and mute, young sinner ? Prithee why so mute ? Will, when speaking well can't win her, Saying nothing do 't ? Prithee why so mute ? 10 Quit, quit, for shame ! this will not move, This cannot take her ; If of herself she will not love, Nothing can make her : The devil take her ! 15 TRUE LOVE. No, no, fair heretic, it needs must be But an ill love in me, And worse for thee ; For were it in my power To love thee now this hour 62 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. More than I did the last ; 'T would then so fall, I might not love at all ; Love that can flow, and can admit increase, Admits as well an ebb, and may grow less. 10 True love is still the same ; the torrid zones And those more frigid ones, It must not know : For love grown cold or hot Is lust or friendship, not 1 5 The thing we have. For that 's a flame would die, Held down or up too high : Then think I love more than I can express, And would love more, could I but love thee less. 20 Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648; written after 1637. AN ODE FOR BEN JONSON Ah, Ben ! Say how, or when Shall we thy guests Meet at those lyric feasts, Made at the Sun, 5 The Dog, the Triple Tun ? Where we such clusters had, As made us nobly wild, not mad ; And yet each verse of thine Out-did the meat, out-did the frolic wine. J ° THOMAS CAREW. 63 My Ben ! Or come again : Or send to us, Thy wit's great over-plus; But teach us yet 15 Wisely to husband it ; Lest we that talent spend : And having once brought to an end That precious stock, the store Of such a wit the world should have no more. 20 Thomas Carew, Poems, 1640 ; written between 1630 and 1638. THE SPRING. Now that winter 's gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake and crystal stream. But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, 5 And makes it tender, gives a sacred birth To the dead swallow, wakes in hollow tree The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee. Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring, In triumph to the world, the youthful spring ; 10 The vallies, hills and woods, in rich array, Welcome the coming of the longed-for May. Now all things smile, only my love doth lower ; Nor hath the scalding noon-day sun the power To melt that marble ice which still doth hold l S Her heart congealed, and makes her pity cold. 64 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. The ox, which lately did for shelter fly Into the stall, doth now securely lie In open fields ; and love no more is made By the fire side ; but, in the cooler shade, 20 Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep Under a sycamore ; and all things keep Time with the season — only she doth carry June in her eyes, in her heart January. PERSUASIONS TO LOVE. Think not 'cause men flatt'ring say, Y' are fresh as April, sweet as May, Bright as is the morning star, That you are so ; or, though you are, Be not therefore proud, and deem 5 All men unworthy your esteem : For, being so, you lose the pleasure Of being fair, since that rich treasure Of rare beauty and sweet feature, Was bestowed on you by nature 10 To be enjoyed ; and 't were a sin There to be scarce, where she hath bin So prodigal of her best graces. Thus common beauties and mean faces Shall have more pastime, and enjoy. 15 The sport you lose by being coy. Did the thing for which I sue Only concern myself, not you — Were men so framed, as they alone Reaped all the pleasure, women none — 20 Then had you reason to be scant ; But 't were madness not to grant That which affords (if you consent) THOMAS CARE W. 65 To you the giver, more content Than me the beggar. O then be 25 Kind to yourself if not to me; Starve not yourself, because you may Thereby make me pine away ; Nor let brittle beauty make You your wiser thoughts forsake. 3° For that lovely face will fail, Beauty 's sweet, but beauty 's frail ; 'Tis sooner past, 'tis sooner done Than summer's rain or winter's sun ; Most fleeting when it is most dear — 35 'T is gone while we but say 't is here. These curious locks, so aptly twined, Whose every hair my soul doth bind, Will change their abron hue and grow White and cold as winter's snow. 4° That eye, which now is Cupid's nest, Will prove his grave, and all the rest Will follow ; in the cheek, chin, nose, Nor lily shall be found, nor rose : And what will then become of all 45 Those whom now you servants call ? Like swallows when your summer 's done, They '11 fly and seek some warmer sun. Then wisely choose one to your friend, Whose love may, when your beauties end, 5° Remain still firm ; be provident And think, before the summer 's spent, Of following winter ; like the ant In plenty hoard for time is scant. Cull out amongst the multitude 55 Of lovers, that seek to intrude Into your favor, one that may 66 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Love for an age, not for a day ; One that will quench your youthful fires, And feed in age your hot desires. 60 For when the storms of time have moved Waves on that cheek that was beloved, When a fair lady's face is pined, And yellow spread where red once shined, When beauty, youth, and all sweets leave her, 65 Love may return, but lover never : And old folks say there are no pains Like itch of love in aged veins. O love me then, and now begin it, Let us not lose the present minute ; 70 For time and age will work that wrack Which time or age shall ne'er call back. The snake each year fresh skin resumes, And eagles change their aged plumes ; The faded rose each spring receives 75 A fresh red tincture on her leaves : But if your beauty once decay, You never know a second May. O then be wise, and whilst your season Affords you days for sport, do reason ; So Spend not in vain your life's short hour, But crop in time your beauties' flower, Which will away, and doth together Both bud and fade, both blow and wither. A CRUEL MISTRESS. We read of kings and gods that kindly took A pitcher filled with water from the brook ; But I have daily tendered without thanks Rivers of tears that overflow their banks. THOMAS CAKEW. 67 A slaughtered bull will appease angry Jove, 5 A horse the sun, a lamb the god of love ; But she disdains the spotless sacrifice Of a pure heart that at her altar lies. Vesta is not displeased if her chaste urn Do with repaired fuel ever burn, 10 But my saint frowns, though to her honored name I consecrate a never-dying flame. The Assyrian king did none i' the furnace throw But those that to his image did not bow; With bended knees I daily worship her, 15 Yet she consumes her own idolater. Of such a goddess no times leave record, That burned the temple where she was adored. MEDIOCRITY IN LOVE REJECTED. Give me more love, or more disdain : The torrid, or the frozen zone Bring equal ease unto my pain ; The temperate affords me none : Either extreme, of love or hate, 5 Is sweeter than a calm estate. Give me a storm ; if it be love, Like Danae in that golden shower I swim in pleasure ; if it prove Disdain, that torrent will devour 10 My vulture-hopes ; and he 's possessed Of heaven that 's but from hell released. Then crown my joys, or cure my pain ; Give me more love, or more disdain. 68 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. TO MY INCONSTANT MISTRESS. When thou, poor excommunicate From all the joys of love, shalt see The full reward and glorious fate Which my strong faith shall purchase me, Then curse thine own inconstancy. 5 A fairer hand than thine shall cure That heart which thy false oaths did wound ; And to my soul, a soul more pure Than thine shall by love's hand be bound, And both with equal glory crowned. 10 Then shalt thou weep, entreat, complain To Love, as I did once to thee ; When all thy tears shall be as vain As mine were then, for thou shalt be Damned for thy false apostasy. 15 PERSUASIONS TO JOY. If the quick spirits in your eye Now languish, and anon must die ; If every sweet and every grace Must fly from that forsaken face : Then, Celia, let us reap our joys 5 Ere time such goodly fruit destroys. Or, if that golden fleece must grow For ever, free from aged snow ; If those bright suns must know no shade, Nor your fresh beauties ever fade ; 10 THOMAS CARE IV. 69 Then fear not, Celia, to bestow What still being gathered still must grow : Thus, either Time his sickle brings In vain, or else in vain his wings. A DEPOSITION FROM LOVE. I was foretold, your rebel sex Nor love nor pity knew, And with what scorn you use to vex Poor hearts that humbly sue ; Yet I believed to crown our pain, 5 Could we the fortress win, The happy lover sure should gain A paradise within. I thought love's plagues like dragons sate, Only to fright us at the gate. 10 But I did enter, and enjoy What happy lovers prove, For I could kiss, and sport, and toy, And taste those sweets of love Which, had they but a lasting state, 15 Or if in Celia's breast The force of love might not abate, Jove were too mean a guest. But now her breach of faith far more Afflicts than did her scorn before. 20 Hard fate ! to have been once possest, As victor, of a heart Achieved with labor and unrest, And then forced to depart ! If the stout foe will not resign 25 70 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. When I besiege a town, I lose but what was never mine ; But he that is cast down From enjoyed beauty, feels a woe Only deposed kings can know. 3° CELIA SINGING. You that think love can convey No other way But through the eyes, into the heart His fatal dart, Close up those casements, and but hear 5 This siren sing ; And on the wing Of her sweet voice it shall appear That love can enter at the ear. Then unveil your eyes, behold 10 The curious mould Where that voice dwells ; and as we know When the cocks crow We freely may Gaze on the day ; 15 So may you, when the music 's done Awake, and see the rising sun. TO T. H., A LADY RESEMBLING HIS MISTRESS. Fair copy of my Celia's face, Twin of my soul, thy perfect grace Claims in my love an equal place. THOMAS CAREW. 71 Disdain not a divided heart, Though all be hers, you shall have part ; 5 Love is not tied to rules of art. For as my soul first to her flew, It stayed with me ; so now 't is true It dwells with her, though fled to you. Then entertain this wand'ring guest, i° And if not love, allow it rest ; It left not, but mistook the nest. Nor think my love, or your fair eyes Cheaper 'cause from the sympathies You hold with her, these flames arise. 15 To lead, or brass, or some such bad Metal, a prince's stamp may add That value which it never had. But to pure refined ore, The stamp of kings imparts no more 20 Worth than the metal held before ; Only the image gives the rate To subjects, in a foreign state 'Tis prized as much for its own weight. So though all other hearts resign 2 5 To your pure worth, yet you have mine Only because you are her coin. 72 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. IN THE PERSON OF A LADY TO HER INCONSTANT SERVANT. When on the altar of my hand, (Bedewed with many a kiss and tear), Thy now revolted heart did stand An humble martyr, thou didst swear Thus (and the god of love did hear): 5 ' By those bright glances of thine eye, Unless thou pity me, I die.' When first those perjured lips of thine, Bepaled with blasting sighs, did seal Their violated faith on mine, 10 From the soft bosom that did heal Thee, thou my melting heart didst steal; My soul, enflamed with thy false breath, Poisoned with kisses, sucked in death. Yet I nor hand nor lip will move, 15 Revenge or mercy to procure From the offended god of love ; My curse is fatal, and my pure Love shall beyond thy scorn endure. If I implore the gods, they '11 find 20 Thee too ungrateful, me too kind. RED AND WHITE ROSES. Read in these roses the sad story Of my hard fate and your own glory : In the white you may discover The paleness of a fainting lover ; In the red, the flames still feeding 5 On my heart with fresh wounds bleeding. THOMAS CAREW. 73 The white will tell you how I languish, And the red express my anguish: The white my innocence displaying, The red my martyrdom betraying. 10 The frowns that on your brow resided, Have those roses thus divided; O ! let your smiles but clear the weather, And then they both shall grow together. EPITAPH ON LADY MARY WENTWORTH. And here the precious dust is laid, Whose purely-tempered clay was made So fine, that it the guest betrayed. Else the soul grew so fast within, It broke the outward shell of sin, 5 And so was hatched a cherubin. In height, it soared to God above, In depth, it did to knowledge move, And spread in breadth to general love. Before, a pious duty shined 10 To parents, courtesy behind, On either side an equal mind. Good to the poor, to kindred dear, To servants kind, to friendship clear, To nothing but herself severe. 15 So, though a virgin, yet a bride To every grace, she justified A chaste polygamy, and died. 74 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Learn from hence, reader, what small trust We owe this world, where virtue must, 20 Frail as our flesh, crumble to dust. A SONG. Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose ; For in your beauty's orient deep, These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither do stray 5 The golden atoms of the day; For, in pure love, heaven did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair. Ask me no more whither doth haste The nightingale, when May is past ; IO For in your sweet dividing throat She winters, and keeps warm her note. Ask me no more where those stars light, That downwards fall in dead of night; For in your eyes they sit, and there * 5 Fixed become, as in their sphere. Ask me no more if east or west, The phoenix builds her spicy nest; For unto you at last she flies, And in your fragrant bosom dies. ROBERT HERRICK. 75 MURDERING BEAUTY. I 'll gaze no more on that bewitched face, Since ruin harbors there in every place, For my enchanted soul alike she drowns, With calms and tempests of her smiles and frowns. I '11 love no more those cruel eyes of hers, 5 Which, pleased or angered, still are murderers ; For if she dart like lightning through the air Her beams of wrath, she kills me with despair; If she behold me with a pleasing eye, I surfeit with excess of joy, and die. I0 Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648; written between 1629 and 1640. DELIGHT IN DISORDER. A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness. A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction; An erring lace, which here and there 5 Enthralls the crimson stomacher; A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribbands to flow confusedly; A winning wave (deserving note) In the tempestuous petticoat ; 10 A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility; Do more bewitch me, than when art Is too precise in every part. 76 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. TO LAURELS. A funeral stone Or verse, I covet none ; But only crave Of you that I may have A sacred laurel springing from my grave ; 5 Which being seen Blest with perpetual green, May grow to be Not so much called a tree As the eternal monument of me. 10 TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying ; And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, 5 The higher he 's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he 's to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer ; 10 But being spent, the worse, and worst Times still succeed the former. Then be not coy, but use your time, And while ye may, go marry ; For having lost but once your prime, 15 You may forever tarry. ROBERT HER RICK. 77 TO THE WESTERN WIND. Sweet western wind, whose luck it is, Made rival with the air, To give Perenna's lip a kiss, And fan her wanton hair, Bring me but one, I '11 promise thee, Instead of common showers, Thy wings shall be embalmed by me, And all beset with flowers. TO PRIMROSES FILLED WITH MORNING DEW. Why do ye weep, sweet babes ? Can tears Speak grief in you, Who were but born Just as the modest morn Teemed her refreshing dew ? 5 Alas, you have not known that shower That mars a flower, Nor felt the unkind Breath of a blasting wind, Nor are ye worn with years, io Or warped, as we, Who think it strange to see Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young, To speak by tears before ye have a tongue. Speak, whimpering younglings, and make known 15 The reason why Ye droop and weep. Is it for want of sleep, Or childish lullaby? 78 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Or that ye have not seen as yet 20 The violet ? Or brought a kiss From that sweetheart to this? No, no, this sorrow shown By your tears shed 25 Would have this lecture read : That things of greatest, so of meanest worth, Conceived with grief are, and with tears brought forth. TO ANTHEA, WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANYTHING. Bid me to live, and I will live Thy protestant to be ; Or bid me love, and I will give A loving heart to thee. A heart as soft, a heart as kind, 5 A heart as sound and free, As in the whole world thou canst find, That heart I '11 give to thee. Bid that heart stay and it will stay, To honor thy decree; 10 Or bid it languish quite away, And 't shall do so for thee. Bid me to weep, and I will weep, While I have eyes to see; And having none, yet I will keep 15 A heart to weep for thee. Bid me despair, and I '11 despair, Under that cypress tree ; ROBERT HER RICK. 79 Or bid me die, and I will dare E'en death, to die for thee. 20 Thou art my life, my love, my heart, The very eyes of me, And hast command of every part To live and die for thee. TO MEADOWS. Ye have been fresh and green, Ye have been filled with flowers ; And ye the walks have been Where maids have spent their hours. You have beheld how they 5 With wicker arks did come, To kiss and bear away The richer cowslips home. Y 'ave heard them sweetly sing, And seen them in a round ; IO Each virgin, like a spring, With honeysuckles crowned. But now, we see none here, Whose silv'ry feet did tread, And with dishevelled hair J 5 Adorned this smoother mead. Like unthrifts, having spent Your stock, and needy grown, Y' are left here to lament Your poor estates, alone. 2 ° 80 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. TO DAFFODILS. Fair daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon ; As yet the early rising sun Has not attained his noon. Stay, stay, 5 Until the hasting day Has run But to the even-song ; And, having prayed together, we Will go with you along. 10 We have short time to stay, as you We have as short a spring ; As quick a growth to meet decay As you, or any thing. We die, 15 As your hours do, and dry Away, Like to the summer's rain ; Or as the pearls of morning's dew, Ne'er to be found again. 20 TO BLOSSOMS. Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, Why do ye fall so fast ? Your date is not so past But you may stay yet here a while, To blush and gently smile, 5 And go at last. ROBERT HERRICK. 81 What, were ye born to be An hour or half's delight, And so to bid good-night ? 'T was pity Nature brought ye forth, i° Merely to show your worth, And lose you quite. But you are lovely leaves, where we May read how soon things have Their end, though ne'er so brave ; r 5 And after they have shown their pride Like you awhile, they glide Into the grave. HIS GRANGE, OR PRIVATE WEALTH. Though clock, To tell how night draws hence, I 've none, A cock I have to sing how day draws on. I have 5 A maid, my Prue, by good luck sent, To save That little Fates me gave or lent. A hen I keep, which, creaking day by day, IO Tells when She goes her long white egg to lay. A goose I have, which, with a jealous ear, Lets loose ' 5 Her tongue to tell what danger 's near. A lamb I keep, tame, with my morsels fed, 82 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Whose dam An orphan left him, lately dead. 20 A cat I keep, that plays about my house, Grown fat With eating many a miching mouse ; To these 25 A Tracy I do keep, whereby I please The more my rural privacy : Which are But toys, to give my heart some ease. 30 Where care None is, slight things do lightly please. Robert Herrick, Noble Num- bers, 1647 J written between 1629 and 1640. TO DEATH. Thou bidd'st me come away, And I '11 no longer stay Than for to shed some tears For faults of former years, And to repent some crimes 5 Done in the present times ; And next, to take a bit Of bread, and wine with it ; To don my robes of love, Fit for the place above ; 10 To gird my loins about With charity throughout, And so to travel hence With feet of innocence : ROBERT HER RICK. 83 These done, I '11 only cry, 15 " God, mercy ! " and so die. A THANKSGIVING TO GOD FOR HIS HOUSE. Lord, thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell, A little house, whose humble roof Is weatherproof, Under the spars of which I lie 5 Both soft and dry ; Where thou, my chamber for to ward, Hast set a guard Of harmless thoughts, to watch and keep Me while I sleep. 10 Low is my porch, as is my fate, Both void of state ; And yet the threshold of my door Is worn by th' poor, Who thither come and freely get J 5 Good words or meat. Like as my parlor so my hall And kitchen 's small ; A little buttery, and therein A little bin, 20 Which keeps my little loaf of bread Unchipped, unfled ; Some brittle sticks of thorn or briar Make me a fire, Close by whose living coal I sit, 2 5 And glow like it. Lord, I confess too, when I dine, The pulse is thine, 84 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And all those other bits that be There placed by thee ; 3° The worts, the purslane, and the mess Of water-cress, Which of thy kindness thou hast sent ; And my content Makes those, and my beloved beet, 35 To be more sweet. 'T is thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth, And giv'st me wassail bowls to drink, Spiced to the brink. 4° Lord, 't is thy plenty-dropping hand That soils my land, And giv'st me, for my bushel sown, Twice ten for one ; Thou mak'st my teeming hen to lay 45 Her egg each day ; Besides my healthful ewes to bear Me twins each year; The while the conduits of my kine Run cream, for wine. 5° All these, and better thou dost send Me, to this end, That I should render, for my part, A thankful heart, Which, fired with incense, I resign, 55 As wholly thine ; But the acceptance, — that must be, My Christ, by thee. WILLIAM HABINGTON. 85 William Habington, Castara, Part III, 1639-40. NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCIENTIAM. When I survey the bright Celestial sphere, So rich with jewels hung, that night Doth like an Ethiop bride appear, My soul her wings doth spread, 5 And heavenward flies, The Almighty's mysteries to read In the large volume of the skies. For the bright firmament Shoots forth no flame 10 So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Contracts its light Into so small a character, 15 Removed far from our human sight, But, if we steadfast look, We shall discern In it, as in some holy book, How man may heavenly knowledge learn. 20 It tells the conqueror, That far-stretched power Which his proud dangers traffic for, Is but the triumph of an hour. 86 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. That from the farthest north 25 Some nation may, Yet undiscovered, issue forth, And o'er his new-got conquest sway. Some nation yet shut in With hills of ice 30 May be let out to scourge his sin, Till they shall equal him in vice. And then they likewise shall Their ruin have ; For as yourselves your empires fall, 35 And every kingdom hath a grave. Thus those celestial fires, Though seeming mute The fallacy of our desires And all the pride of life confute. 40 For they have watched since first The world had birth : And found sin in itself accursed, And nothing permanent on earth. William Habington, Cleodora, the Queen of Arrago?i, 1640. HIS MISTRESS FLOUTED. Fine young folly, though you were That fair beauty I did swear, Yet you ne'er could reach my heart; For we courtiers learn at school Only with your sex to fool ; You 're not worth the serious part. JAMES SHIRLEY. 87 When I sigh and kiss your hand, Cross my arms and wondering stand, Holding parley with your eye, Then dilate on my desires, I0 Swear the sun ne'er shot such fires — All is but a handsome lie. When I eye your curl or lace, Gentle soul, you think your face Straight some murder doth commit ; l S And your virtue both begin To grow scrupulous of my sin, When I talk to show my wit. Therefore, madam, wear no cloud, Nor to check my love grow proud ; 20 In sooth I much do doubt 'T is the powder in your hair, Not your breath, perfumes the air, And your clothes that set you out. Yet though truth has this confessed, 2 5 And I vow I love in jest, When I next begin to court, And protest an amorous flame, You will swear I in earnest am. Bedlam ! this is pretty sport. 3° James Shirley, The Imposture, 1652 ; acted 1640. PEACE RESTORED. You virgins, that did late despair To keep your wealth from cruel men, 88 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Tie up in silk your careless hair : Soft peace is come again. Now lovers' eyes may gently shoot 5 A flame that will not kill ; The drum was angry, but the lute Shall whisper what you will. Sing Io, Io ! for his sake, That hath restored your drooping heads; io With choice of sweetest flowers make A garden where he treads ; Whilst we whole groves of laurel bring, A petty triumph to his brow, Who is the master of our spring 15 And all the bloom we owe. SONG OF THE NUNS. O fly, my soul ! what hangs upon Thy drooping wings, And weighs them down With love of gaudy mortal things ? The sun is now i' the east ; each shade, 5 As he doth rise, Is shorter made, That earth may lessen to our eyes. O, be not careless then and play Until the star of peace 10 Hide all his beams in dark recess. Poor pilgrims needs must lose their way When all the shadows do increase. JAMES SHIRLEY. 89 James Shirley, The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, 1659 ; written about 1640. NO ARMOR AGAINST FATE. The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armor against fate ; Death lays his icy hand on kings : Sceptre and crown 5 Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade. Some men with swords may reap the field, And plant fresh laurels where they kill; 10 But their strong nerves at last must yield, They tame but one another still : Early or late They stoop to fate And must give up their murmuring breath 15 When they, pale captives, creep to death. The garlands wither on your brow, Then boast no more your mighty deeds ; Upon Death's purple altar now See where the victor-victim bleeds : 2 o Your heads must come To the cold tomb ; Only the actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust. 90 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648; written before 1641. HIS WINDING-SHEET. Come thou, who art the wine and wit Of all I 've writ ; The grace, the glory, and the best Piece of the rest ; Thou art of what I did intend 5 The all and end ; And what was made, was made to meet Thee, thee my sheet : Come then, and be to my chaste side Both bed and bride. i° We two, as relics left, will have One rest, one grave ; And, hugging close, we will not fear Lust entering here, Where all desires are dead or cold, 15 As is the mould ; And all affections are forgot, Or trouble not. Here, here the slaves and pris'ners be From shackles free, 20 And weeping widows, long oppressed, Do here find rest. The wronged client ends his laws Here, and his cause ; Here those long suits of Chancery lie 2 5 Quiet, or die, And all Star Chamber bills do cease, Or hold their peace. Here needs no Court for our Request, Where all are best, 3° GEORGE WITHER. 91 All wise, all equal, and all just Alike i' th' dust. Nor need we here to fear the frown Of court or crown : Where Fortune bears no sway o'er things, 35 There all are kings. In this securer place we '11 keep, As lulled asleep ; Or for a little time we '11 lie, As robes laid by, 4° To be another day re-worn, Turned, but not torn ; Or like old testaments engrossed, Locked up, not lost ; And for a while lie here concealed, 45 To be revealed Next, at that great Platonic Year, And then meet here. George Wither, Haleluiah, or Britain's Second Remembrancer, 1641. A ROCKING HYMN. Sweet baby sleep ! what ails my dear, What ails my darling thus to cry ? Be still, my child, and lend thine ear To hear me sing thy lullaby : My pretty lamb, forbear to weep, Be still my dear, sweet baby sleep. Thou blessed soul, what canst thou fear ? What thing to thee can mischief do ? 92 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Thy God is now thy father dear, His holy spouse, thy mother too : 10 Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. Though thy conception was in sin, A sacred bathing thou hast had ; And, though thy birth unclean hath been, 15 A blameless babe thou now art made : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my dear, sweet baby sleep. Whilst thus thy lullaby I sing, For thee great blessings ripening be ; 2 ° Thine eldest brother is a king, And hath a kingdom bought for thee: Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. Sweet baby sleep and nothing fear, 25 For whosoever thee offends, By thy protector threat'ned are, And God and angels are thy friends : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. 3° When God with us was dwelling here, In little babes he took delight ; Such innocents as thou, my dear, Are ever precious in his sight : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, 35 Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. A little infant once was he, And, strength in weakness, then was laid Upon his virgin-mother's knee, GEORGE WITHER. 93 That power to thee might be conveyed : 40 Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. In this, thy frailty and thy need, He friends and helpers doth prepare, Which thee shall cherish, clothe and feed, 45 For of thy weal they tender are : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. The king of kings, when he was born, Had not so much for outward ease ; 50 By him such dressings were not worn, Nor such like swaddling-clothes as these : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. Within a manger lodged thy lord 55 Where oxen lay and asses fed ; Warm rooms we do to thee afford, An easy cradle or a bed : Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. 60 The wants that he did then sustain Have purchased wealth, my babe, for thee ; And by his torments and his pain Thy rest and ease secured be : My baby, then forbear to weep, 65 Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. Thou hast (yet more) to perfect this A promise and an earnest got Of gaining everlasting bliss, 94 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Though thou, my babe, perceiv'st it not : 7° Sweet baby, then forbear to weep, Be still my babe, sweet baby sleep. William Cartwright, Comedies, Tragi- Come dies and Other Poems, 1651 ; written before 1641. TO CUPID. Thou who didst never see the light, Nor knowst the pleasure of the sight, But always blinded, canst not say Now it is night, or now 't is day, So captivate her sense, so blind her eye, 5 That still she love me, yet she ne'er know why. Thou who dost wound us with such art, We see no blood drop from the heart, And, subtly cruel, leav'st no sign To tell the blow or hand was thine, IO O gently, gently wound my fair, that she May thence believe the wound did come from me. VENUS. Venus, redress a wrong that 's done By that young sprightful boy, thy son, He wounds, and then laughs at the sore : Hatred itself can do no more. If I pursue, he 's small and light, 5 Both seen at once, and out of sight ; If I do fly, he 's wing'd, and then At the third step I 'm caught again : WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT. 95 Lest one day thou thyself mayst suffer so, Or clip the wanton's wings or break his bow. 10 TO CHLOE, WHO WISHED HERSELF YOUNG ENOUGH FOR ME. O Chloe, why wish you that your years Would backwards run till they meet mine, That perfect likeness, which endears Things unto things, might us combine ? Our ages so in date agree, 5 That twins do differ more than we. There are two births, the one when light First strikes the new awak'ned sense ; The other when two souls unite ; And we must count our life from thence : IO When you loved me and I loved you, Then both of us were born anew. Love then to us new souls did give, And in those souls did plant new powers ; Since when another life we live, L 5 The breath we breathe is his, not ours ; Love makes those young whom age doth chill, And whom he finds young, keeps young still. Love, like that angel that shall call Our bodies from the silent grave, 2 ° Unto one age doth raise us all, None too much, none too little have ; Nay, that the difference may be none, He makes two not alike, but one. 96 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And now, since you and I are such, 25 Tell me what 's yours, and what is mine ? Our eyes, our ears, our taste, smell, touch, Do — like our souls — in one combine ; So by this, I as well may be Too old for you, as you for me. 30 A VALEDICTION. Bid me not go where neither suns nor showers Do make or cherish flowers ; Where discontented things in sadness lie And Nature grieves as I ; When I am parted from those eyes, 5 From which my better day doth rise, Though some propitious power Should plant me in a bower, Where amongst happy lovers I might see How showers and sunbeams bring 10 One everlasting spring, Nor would those fall nor these shine forth to me : Nature to him is lost, Who loseth her he honors most. Then fairest to my parting view display 15 Your graces all in one full day, Whose blessed shapes I '11 snatch and keep, till when I do return and view again : So by this art fancy shall fortune cross, And lovers live by thinking on their loss. 20 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT. 97 LOVE BUT ONE. See these two little brooks that slowly creep In snaky windings through the plains, I knew them once one river, swift and deep, Blessing and blest by poets' strains. Then, touched with awe, we thought some god did pour 5 Those floods from out his sacred jar, Transforming every weed into a flower, And every flower into a star. But since it broke itself, and double glides, The naked banks no dress have worn, 10 And yon dry barren mountain now divides These valleys which lost glories mourn. O Chloris, think how this presents thy love, Which, when it ran but in one stream, We happy shepherds thence did thrive and prove, 15 And thou wast mine and all men's theme. But since 't hath been imparted to one more, And in two streams doth weakly creep, Our common Muse is thence grown low and poor, And mine as lean as these my sheep. 20 But think withal what honor thou hast lost, Which we did to thy full stream pay, Whiles now that swain that swears he loves thee most, Slakes but his thirst, and goes away. O in what narrow ways our minds must move ! 2 5 We may not hate, nor yet diffuse our love. 98 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. From Wifs Recreations, ed. 1641, author unknown. THE SAD LOVER. Why should I wrong my judgment so, As for to love where I do know There is no hold for to be taken ? For what her wish thirsts after most, If once of it her heart can boast, 5 Straight by her folly 't is forsaken. Thus, whilst I still pursue in vain, Methinks I turn a child again, And of my shadow am a-chasing. For all her favors are to me 10 Like apparitions which I see, But never can come near th' embracing. Oft had I wished that there had been Some almanac whereby to have seen, When love with heir had been in season. 15 But I perceive there is no art Can find the epact of the heart, That loves by chance, and not by reason. Yet will I not for this despair, For time her humor may prepare 20 To grace him who is now neglected. And what unto my constancy She now denies, one day may be From her inconstancy expected. RICHARD CRASHAW. 99 Richard Crash aw, Delights of the Muses, 1646; written before 1641. WISHES TO HIS SUPPOSED MISTRESS. Whoe'er she be, That not impossible she, That shall command my heart and me ; Where'er she lie, Locked up from mortal eye, 5 In shady leaves of destiny: Till that ripe birth Of studied fate stand forth And teach her fair steps tread our earth ; Till that divine 10 Idea take a shrine Of crystal flesh, through which to shine : Meet you her, my wishes, Bespeak her to my blisses, And be ye called, my absent kisses. . 15 I wish her beauty, That owes not all its duty To gaudy tire, or glist'ring shoe-tie. Something more than Taffeta or tissue can, 20 Or rampant feather, or rich fan. More than the spoil Of shop, or silkworm's toil, Or a bought blush, or a set smile. 100 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. A face that 's best 25 By its own beauty drest, And can alone commend the rest. A face made up Out of no other shop Than what Nature's white hand sets ope. 3° A cheek where youth And blood, with pen of truth, Write what the reader sweetly ru'th. A cheek where grows More than a morning rose : 35 Which to no box his being owes. Lips where all day A lover's kiss may play, Yet carry nothing thence away. Looks that oppress 4° Their richest tires, but dress Themselves in simple nakedness. Eyes that displace The neighbor diamond, and out-face That sunshine by their own sweet grace. 45 Tresses that wear Jewels, but to declare How much themselves more precious are. Whose native ray Can tame the wanton day 5° Of gems, that in their bright shades play. RICHARD CRASH AW. 101 Each ruby there, Or pearl that dares appear, Be its own blush, be its own tear. A well-tamed heart, 55 For whose more noble smart Love may be long choosing a dart. Eyes that bestow Full quivers on Love's bow ; Yet pay less arrows than they owe. 60 Smiles that can warm The blood, yet teach a charm, That chastity shall take no harm. Blushes that bin The burnish of no sin, 65 Nor flames of aught too hot within. Joys that confess Virtue their mistress, And have no other head to dress. Fears, fond and flight 7° As the coy bride's, when night First does the longing lover right. Tears, quickly fled, And vain, as those are shed For a dying maidenhead. 75 Days that need borrow No part of their good morrow, From a fore-spent night of sorrow. 102 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Days that in spite Of darkness, by the light 80 Of a clear mind are day all night. Nights, sweet as they, Made short by lovers' play, Yet long by th' absence of the day. Life that dares send 85 A challenge to his end, And when it comes, say, ' Welcome, friend.' Sydneian showers Of sweet discourse, whose powers Can crown old Winter's head with flowers. 90 Soft silken hours, Open suns, shady bowers, 'Bove all, nothing within that lowers. Whate'er delight Can make Day's forehead bright, 95 Or give down to the wings of Night. In her whole frame Have Nature all the name, Art and ornament the shame. Her flattery, i 00 Picture and poesy: Her counsel her own virtue be. I wish her store Of worth may leave her poor Of wishes; and I wish — no more. 105 RICHARD BROME. 103 Now, if Time knows That her, whose radiant brows Weave them a garland of my vows ; no Her whose just bays My future hopes can raise, A trophy to her present praise ; Her that dares be What these lines wish to see : I seek no further ; it is she. 'Tis she, and here IX 5 Lo ! I unclothe and clear My wishes' cloudy character. May she enjoy it, Whose merit dare apply it, But modesty dares still deny it. I2 ° Such worth as this is, Shall fix my flying wishes, And determine them to kisses. Let her full glory, My fancies, fly before ye: I2 5 Be ye my fictions, but her story. Richard Brome, The Jovial Crew, 1652 ; acted 1641. THE MERRY BEGGARS. Come, come ; away ! the spring, By every bird that can but sing, Or chirp a note, doth now invite Us forth to taste of his delight, 104 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. In field, in grove, on hill, in dale ; 5 But above all the nightingale, Who in her sweetness strives t' outdo The loudness of the hoarse cuckoo. ' Cuckoo,' cries he ; 'jug, jug, jug,' sings she ; From bush to bush, from tree to tree : 10 Why in one place then tarry we ? Come away ! why do we stay ? We have no debt or rent to pay ; No bargains or accounts to make, Nor land or lease to let or take : 15 Or if we had, should that remore us When all the world 's our own before us, And where we pass and make resort, It is our kingdom and our court. ' Cuckoo,' cries he ; ' jug, jug, jug,' sings she 20 From bush to bush, from tree to tree : Why in one place then tarry we ? Broad-sheet, 1641 ; author unknown. LORD STRAFFORD'S MEDITATIONS IN THE TOWER. Go empty joys, With all your noise, And leave me here alone, In sad, sweet silence to bemoan The fickle worldly height Whose danger none can see aright, Whilst your false splendors dim the sight. ANONYMOUS. 105 Go, and ensnare With your trim ware Some other worldly wight, J ° And cheat him with your flattering light ; Rain on his head a shower Of honor, greatness, wealth, and power ; Then snatch it from him in an hour. Fill his big mind J 5 With gallant wind Of insolent applause ; Let him not fear the curbing laws, Nor king, nor people's frown ; But dream of something like a crown, 20 Then, climbing upwards, tumble down. Let him appear In his bright sphere Like Cynthia in her pride, With starlike troops on every side ; 2 5 For number and clear light Such as may soon o'erwhelm quite, And blind them both in one dead night. Welcome, sad night, Grief's sole delight, 3° Thy mourning best agrees With honor's funeral obsequies. In Thetis' lap he lies, Mantled with soft securities, Whose too much sunlight dims his eyes. 35 Was he too bold Who needs would hold 106 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. With curbing reins the day, And make Sol's fiery steeds obey? Therefore as rash was I, 40 Who with Ambition's wings did fly In Charles's wain too loftily. I fall ! I fall ! Whom shall I call ? Alas, shall I be heard 45 Who now am neither loved nor feared ? You, who have vowed the ground To kiss where my blest steps were found, Come, catch me at my last rebound. How each admires 5° Heaven's twinkling fires Whilst from their glorious seat Their influence gives light and heat ; But O how few there are, Though danger from the act be far, 55 Will run to catch a falling star ! O were 't our fate To imitate Those lights whose pallidness Argues no guiltiness! 60 Their course is one way bent ; Which is the cause there 's no dissent In Heaven's High Court of Parliament. SIR JOHN SUCKLING. 107 Sir John Suckling, Fragmenta Aurea, 1646; written between 1632 and 1641. SONNET. Dost see how unregarded now That piece of beauty passes ? There was a time when I did vow To that alone ; But mark the fate of faces ; 5 The red and white works now no more on me, Than if it could not charm, or I not see. And yet the face continues good, And I have still desires, And still the self-same flesh and blood, 10 As apt to melt, And suffer from those fires ; O, some kind power unriddle where it lies : Whether my heart be faulty or her eyes ? She every day her man doth kill, 15 And I as often die ; Neither her power then or my will Can questioned be. What is the mystery ? Sure beauty's empire, like to greater states, 20 Have certain periods set, and hidden fates. SONG. I prithee spare me, gentle boy, Press me no more for that slight toy, That foolish trifle of an heart ; I swear it will not do its part, Though thou dost thine, employ'st thy power and art. 5 108 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. For through long custom it has known The little secrets, and is grown Sullen and wise, will have its will, And, like old hawks, pursues that still That makes least sport, flies only where 't can kill. 10 Some youth that has not made his story, Will think, perchance, the pain 's the glory; And mannerly sit out love's feast ; I shall be carving of the best, Rudely call for the last course 'fore the rest. 15 And, O, when once that course is past, How short a time the feast doth last ! Men rise away, and scarce say grace, Or civilly once thank the face That did invite; but seek another place. 20 THE SIEGE. 'Tis now since I sat down before That foolish fort, a heart, (Time strangely spent) a year or more, And still I did my part : Made my approaches, from her hand 5 Unto her lip did rise, And did already understand The language of her eyes. Proceeded on with no less art (My tongue was engineer) 10 I thought to undermine the heart By whispering in the ear. SIR JOHN SUCKIING. 109 When this did nothing, I brought down Great cannon-oaths, and shot A thousand thousand to the town, 15 And still it yielded not. I then resolved to starve the place By cutting off all kisses, Praying, and gazing on her face, And all such little blisses. 20 To draw her out, and from her strength, I drew all batteries in : And brought myself to lie, at length, As if no siege had been. When I had done what man could do, 25 And thought the place mine own, The enemy lay quiet too, And smiled at all was done. I sent to know from whence and where These hopes and this relief. 3° A spy informed, Honor was there, And did command in chief. 'March, march,' quoth I, 'the word straight give, Let 's lose no time, but leave her ; That giant upon air will live, 35 And hold it out for ever. To such a place our camp remove As will no siege abide ; I hate a fool that starves her love, Only to feed her pride.' 40 110 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. SONG. Honest lover whatsoever, If in all thy love there ever Was one wav'ring thought, if thy flame Were not still even, still the same : Know this, 5 Thou lov'st amiss, And, to love true, Thou must begin again, and love anew. If when she appears i' th' room, Thou dost not quake, and art struck dumb, 10 And in striving this to cover, Dost not speak thy words twice over : Know this, Thou lov'st amiss, And to love true, J 5 Thou must begin again, and love anew. If fondly thou dost not mistake, And all defects for graces take, Persuad'st thyself that jests are broken When she hath little or nothing spoken : 20 Know this, Thou lov'st amiss, And to love true, Thou must begin again, and love anew. If when thou appear'st to be within, 25 And lett'st not men ask and ask again ; And when thou answerest, if it be To what was asked thee, properly : Know this, Thou lov'st amiss, 3° SIX JOHN SUCKLING. Ill And to love true, Thou must begin again, and love anew. If when thy stomach calls to eat, Thou cutt'st not fingers 'stead of meat, And with much gazing on her face 35 Dost not rise hungry from the place : Know this, Thou lov'st amiss, And to love true, Thou must begin again, and love anew. 4° If by this thou dost discover That thou art no perfect lover, And desiring to love true, Thou dost begin to love anew : Know this, 45 Thou lov'st amiss, And to love true, Thou must begin again, and love anew. Sir John Suckling, Last Re- mains, 1659; written before 1642. CONSTANCY. Out upon it, I have loved Three whole days together ; And am like to love three more, If it prove fair weather. Time shall moult away his wings, 5 Ere he shall discover In the whole wide world again Such a constant lover. 112 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But the spite on 't is, no praise Is due at all to me: 10 Love with me had made no stays, Had it any been but she. Had it any been but she, And that very face, There had been at least ere this 15 A dozen dozen in her place. SONG. I prithee send me back my heart, Since I cannot have thine ; For if from yours you will not part, Why then shouldst thou have mine ? Yet, now I think on 't, let it lie ; 5 To find it were in vain, For th' hast a thief in either eye Would steal it back again. Why should two hearts in one breast lie, And yet not lodge together ? i O love, where is thy sympathy, If thus our breasts thou sever ? But love is such a mystery, I cannot find it out : For when, I think I 'm best resolv'd, 15 I then am most in doubt. Then farewell care, and farewell woe ! I will no longer pine ; For I '11 believe I have her heart As much as she hath mine. 20 JOHN MILTON. 113 John Milton, Poems, English and Latin, 1645; written 1642. SONNET. WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY. Captain or colonel, or knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, If deed of honor did thee ever please, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 5 That call fame on such gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower : The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 10 The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground ; and the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare. Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple, 1646; written before 1643. A HYMN OF THE NATIVITY, SUNG BY THE SHEPHERDS. Chorus. Come, we shepherds whose blest sight Hath met Love's noon in Nature's night, Come, lift we up our loftier song And wake the sun that lies too long. 114 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. To all our world of well-stol'n joy 5 He slept, and dreamt of no such thing, While we found out heaven's fairer eye, And kissed the cradle of our King ; Tell him he rises now too late To show us aught worth looking at. 10 Tell him we now can show him more Than he e'er showed to mortal sight, Than he himself e'er saw before, Which to be seen needs not his light : Tell him, Tityrus, where th' hast been, 15 Tell him, Thyrsis, what th' hast seen. Tityrus. Gloomy night embraced the place Where the noble infant lay : The babe looked up, and showed his face; In spite of darkness it was day. 20 It was thy day, sweet, and did rise, Not from the east but from thine eyes. Chorus. It was thy day, sweet, etc. Thyrsis. Winter chid aloud, and sent The angry North to wage his wars : -5 The North forgot his fierce intent, And left perfumes instead of scars. By those sweet eyes' persuasive powers, Where he meant frosts he scattered flowers. Chorus. By those sweet eyes, etc. 30 RICHARD CRASH AW. 115 Both. We saw thee in thy balmy nest, Young dawn of our eternal day; We saw thine eyes break from the east, And chase the trembling shades away : We saw thee, and we blest the sight, 35 We saw thee by thine own sweet light. Tityrus. Poor world, said I, what wilt thou do To entertain this starry stranger ? Is this the best thou canst bestow — A cold and not too cleanly manger ? 4° Contend, the powers of heaven and earth, To fit a bed for this huge birth. Chorus. Contend, the powers, etc. Thyrsis. Proud world, said I, cease your contest, And let the mighty babe alone, 45 The phoenix builds the phoenix' nest, Love's architecture is his own. The babe, whose birth embraves this morn, Made his own bed ere he was born. Chorus. The babe, whose birth, etc. 5° Tityrus. I saw the curled drops, soft and slow, Come hovering o'er the place's head, Offering their whitest sheets of snow, To furnish the fair infant's bed. Forbear, said I, be not too bold ; 55 Your fleece is white, but 't is too cold. Chorus. Forbear, said I, etc. 116 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Thyrsis. I saw the obsequious seraphim Their rosy fleece of fire bestow, For well they now can spare their wing, 60 Since heaven itself lies here below. Well done, said I ; but are you sure Your down, so warm, will pass for pure ? Chorus. Well done, said I, etc. Both. No, no, your King 's not yet to seek 65 Where to repose his royal head ; See, see how soon his new-bloomed cheek 'Twixt mother's breasts is gone to bed. Sweet choice, said we, no way but so Not to lie cold, yet sleep in snow ! 7° Chorus. Sweet choice, said we, etc. Full Chorus. Welcome all wonders in our sight ! Eternity shut in a span ! Summer in winter ! day in night ! Heaven in earth ! and God in man ! 75 Great little one, whose all-embracing birth Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth ! Welcome, though nor to gold nor silk, To more than Caesar's birthright is : Two sister seas of virgin's milk, 8o With many a rarely-temper'd kiss, That breathes at once both maid and mother, Warms in the one, cools in the other. RICHARD CRASHAW. 117 She sings thy tears asleep, and dips Her kisses in thy weeping eye ; 8 5 She spreads the red leaves of thy lips, That in their buds yet blushing lie. She 'gainst those mother diamonds tries The points of her young eagle's eyes. Welcome — though not to those gay flies, 9° Gilded V th' beams of earthly kings, Slippery souls in smiling eyes — But to poor shepherds' homespun things, Whose wealth 's their flocks, whose wit to be Well read in their simplicity. 95 Yet when young April's husband showers Shall bless the fruitful Maia's bed, We '11 bring the first-born of her flowers, To kiss thy feet, and crown thy head. To thee, dread Lamb ! whose love must keep ioo The shepherds while they feed their sheep. To thee, meek Majesty, soft King Of simple graces and sweet loves, Each of us his lamb will bring, Each his pair of silver doves ; io 5 Till burnt at last, in fire of thy fair eyes, Ourselves become our own best sacrifice. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. Hark ! she is called, the parting hour is come ; Take thy farewell, poor world. Heaven must go home. A piece of heavenly earth ; purer and brighter Than the chaste stars, whose choice lamps come to light her, 118 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Whilst through the crystal orbs, clearer than they, 5 She climbs, and makes a far more milky way. She 's called again ; hark how the dear immortal dove Sighs to his silver mate, ' Rise up, my love, Rise up, my fair, my spotless one, The winter 's past, the rain is gone ; 10 The spring is come, the flowers appear, No sweets, save thou, are wanting here. Come away, my love, Come away, my dove, Cast off delay; 15 The court of heaven is come To wait upon thee home ; Come away, come away ! The flowers appear, Or quickly would, wert thou once here. -o The spring is come, or if it stay 'T is to keep time with thy delay. The rain is gone, except so much as we Detain in needful tears to weep the want of thee. The winter 's past, 25 Or if he make less haste, His answer is, ' Why, she does so ; If summer come not, how can winter go ? Come away, come away ! The shrill winds chide, the waters weep thy stay, 30 The fountains murmur, and each loftiest tree Bows lowest his leafy top to look for thee. Come away, my love, Come away, my dove, Cast off delay; 35 The court of heaven is come To wait upon thee home ; Come, come away. ' RICHARD CRASH AW. 119 She 's called again. And will she go ? When heaven bids come, who can say no ? 4° Heaven calls her, and she must away, Heaven will not, and she cannot stay. Go then ; go, glorious on the golden wings Of the bright youth of heaven, that sings Under so sweet a burden. Go, 45 Since thy dread son will have it so. And while thou goest, our song and we Will, as we may, reach after thee. Hail, holy queen of humble hearts ! We in thy praise will have our parts. 5° And though thy dearest looks must now give light To none but the blest heavens, whose bright Beholders, lost in sweet delight, Feed for ever their fair sight With those divinest eyes, which we 55 And our dark world no more shall see ; Though our poor joys are parted so, Yet shall our lips never let go Thy gracious name, but to the last Our loving song shall hold it fast. 6o Thy precious name shall be Thyself to us, and we With holy care will keep it by us. We to the last Will hold it fast, 6 5 And no assumption shall deny us. All the sweetest showers Of our fairest flowers Will we strow upon it. Though our sweets cannot make 7° It sweeter, they can take Themselves new sweetness from it. 120 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Maria, men and angels sing, Maria, mother of our king. Live, rosy princess, live, and may the bright 75 Crown of a most incomparable light Embrace thy radiant brows ! O may the best Of everlasting joys bathe thy white breast. Live, our chaste love, the holy mirth Of heaven ; the humble pride of earth. 80 Live, crown of women ; queen of men ; Live, mistress of our song ; and when Our weak desires have done their best, Sweet angels come, and sing the rest. Richard Crashaw, The Delights of the A/uses, 1 646 ; written be- fore 1644. LOVE'S HOROSCOPE. Love, brave Virtue's younger brother, Erst hath made my heart a mother. She consults the conscious spheres, To calculate her young son's years ; She asks if sad or saving powers 5 Gave omen to his infant hours ; She asks each star that then stood by If poor Love shall live or die. Ah, my heart, is that the way? Are these the beams that rule the day ? 10 Thou knowst a face in whose each look Beauty lays ope Love's fortune-book, On whose fair revolutions wait The obsequious motions of man's fate. RICHARD CRASHAW. 121 Ah, my heart ! her eyes and she « 5 Have taught thee new astrology. Howe'er Love's native hours were set, Whatever starry synod met, 'T is in the mercy of her eye, If poor Love shall live or die. -o If those sharp rays, putting on Points of death, bid Love be gone ; Though the heavens in council sate To crown an uncontrolled fate, Though their best aspects twined upon 25 The kindest constellation, Cast amorous glances on his birth, And whispered the confederate earth To pave his paths with all the good That warms the bed of youth and blood — 3° Love has no plea against her eye ; Beauty frowns, and Love must die. But if her milder influence move, And gild the hopes of humble Love ; — Though heaven's inauspicious eye 35 Lay black on Love's nativity; Though every diamond in Jove's crown Fixed his forehead to a frown ; — Her eye a strong appeal can give, Beauty smiles, and Love shall live. 4° O, if Love shall live, O where But in her eye, or in her ear, In her breast, or in her breath, Shall I hide poor Love from death ? For in the life aught else can give, 45 Love shall die, although he live. 122 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Or, if Love shall die, O, where But in her eye, or in her ear, In her breath, or in her breast, Shall I build his funeral nest ? 5° While Love shall thus entombed lie Love shall live, although he die. John Milton, Poems, English and Latin, 1645 5 written 1644. SONNET. TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY. Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green, And with those few art eminently seen That labor up the hill of heavenly truth, The better part, with Mary and with Ruth, 5 Chosen thou hast ; and they that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen, No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth. Thy care is fixed, and zealously attends To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, l ° And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastful friends Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night, Hast gained thy entrance, virgin wise and pure. EDMUND WALLER. 123 Edmund Waller, Poems upon Several Occasions, 1645 ; date °^ writing uncertain. TO PHYLLIS. Phyllis, why should we delay, Pleasures shorter than the day ? Could we (which we never can) Stretch our lives beyond their span, Beauty like a shadow flies, 5 And our youth before us dies ; Or, would youth and beauty stay, Love hath wings, and will away. Love hath swifter wings than Time : Change in love to heaven does climb; IO Gods, that never change their state, Vary oft their love and hate. Phyllis, to this truth we owe All the love betwixt us two. Let not you and I enquire l S What has been our past desire; On what shepherds you have smiled, Or what nymphs I have beguiled; Leave it to the planets too, What we shall hereafter do : 2 ° For the joys we now may prove, Take advice of present love. ON A GIRDLE. That which her slender waist confined Shall now my joyful temples bind ; No monarch but would give his crown, His arms might do what this has done. 124 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. It was my heaven's extremest sphere, 5 The pale which held that lovely deer ; My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, Did all within this circle move. A narrow compass, and yet there Dwelt all that 's good and all that 's fair ; 10 Give me but what this ribband bound, Take all the rest the sun goes round ! TO FLAVIA. A SONG. 'T is not your beauty can engage My wary heart : The sun, in all his pride and rage, Has not that art ; And yet he shines as bright as you, 5 If brightness could our souls subdue. 'T is not the pretty things you say, Nor those you write, Which can make Thyrsis' heart your prey ; For that delight, io The graces of a well-taught mind, In some of our own sex we find. No, Flavia, 't is your love I fear ; Love's surest darts, Those which so seldom fail him, are 15 Headed with hearts ; Their very shadows make us yield ; Dissemble well, and win the field. JAMES SHIRLEY. 125 ON THE ROSE. Go, lovely rose, Tell her that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be. 5 Tell her that 's young, And shuns to have her graces spied, That had'st thou sprung In deserts where no men abide, Thou must have uncommended died. 10 Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired ; Bid her come forth, Suffer herself to be desired, And not blush so to be admired. 15 Then die, that she The common fate of all things rare May read in thee : How small a part of time they share, That are so wondrous sweet and fair. 20 James Shirley, Poems, 1646. GOOD MORROW. Good morrow unto her who in the night Shoots from her silver brow more light Than Cynthia, upon whose state All other servile stars of beauty wait. 126 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Good morrow unto her who gives the day, 5 Whose eyes preserve a clearer ray Than Phoebus, when in Thetis' streams He hath new bathed himself and washed his beams. The day and night are only thine, and we Were lost in darkness but for thee ; I0 For thee we live, all hearts are thine, But none so full of faith and flame as mine. FIE ON LOVE. Now fie on love ! it ill befits Or man or woman know it: Love was not meant for people in their wits, And they that fondly show it Betray their too much feathered brains, 5 And shall have only Bedlam for their pains. To love is to distract my sleep, And waking to wear fetters ; To love is but to go to school to weep ; I '11 leave it to my betters. I0 If single, love be such a curse, To marry is to make it ten times worse. Henry Vaughan, Poems, 1646. TO AMORET, GONE FROM HOME. Fancy and I last evening walked, And, Amoret, of thee we talked. The west just then had stol'n the sun, And his last blushes were begun. ABRAHAM COWLEY. 127 We sate, and marked how every thing 5 Did mourn his absence ; how the spring That smiled and curled about his beams, Whilst he was here, now checked her streams ; The wanton eddies of her face Were taught less noise and smoother grace ; IO And in a slow, sad channel went, Whisp'ring the banks their discontent. The careless banks of flowers that spread Their perfumed bosoms to his head, And with an open, free embrace, '5 Did entertain his beamy face, Like absent friends point to the west, And on that weak reflection feast. If creatures then that have no sense, But the loose tie of influence — 2 ° Though fate and time each day remove Those things that element their love — At such vast distance can agree, Why, Amoret, why should not we ? Abraham Cowley, The Mistress, 1647. THE INCONSTANT. I never yet could see that face Which had no dart for me ; From fifteen years, to fifty's space, They all victorious be. Love, thou 'rt a devil, if I may call thee one ; For sure in me thy name is Legion. 128 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Color or shape, good limbs or face, Goodness or wit, in all I find ; In motion or in speech a grace ; If all fail, yet 'tis womankind; 10 And I 'm so weak, the pistol need not be Double or treble charged to murder me. If tall, the name of ' proper ' slays ; If fair, she 's pleasant in the light ; If low, her prettiness does please; 15 If black, what lover loves not night ? If yellow-haired, I love lest it should be Th' excuse to others for not loving me. The fat, like plenty, fills my heart ; The lean, with love makes me too so; 20 If straight, her body 's Cupid's dart To me ; if crooked, 't is his bow : Nay, age itself does me to rage incline, And strength to women gives, as well as wine. Just half as large as Charity 25 My richly landed Love 's become ; And, judged aright, is Constancy, Though it take up a larger room : Him, who loves always one, why should they call More constant than the man loves always all ? 3° Thus with unwearied wings I flee Through all Love's gardens and his fields ; And, like the wise, industrious bee, No weed but honey to me yields ! Honey still spent this dil'gence still supplies, 35 Though I return not home with laden thighs. THOMAS STANLEY. 129 My soul at first indeed did prove Of pretty strength against a dart, Till I this habit got of love ; But my consumed and wasted heart, 4° Once burnt to tinder with a strong desire, Since that, by every spark is set on fire. Thomas Stanley, Poems and Translations, 1647. THE TOMB. When, cruel fair one, I am slain By thy disdain, And, as a trophy of thy scorn, To some old tomb am borne, Thy fetters must their power bequeath 5 To those of death ; Nor can thy flame immortal burn, Like monumental fires within an urn ; Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove There is more liberty in death than love. J ° And when forsaken lovers come To see my tomb, Take heed thou mix not with the crowd And, as a victor, proud To view the spoils thy beauty made l S Press near my shade, Lest thy too cruel breath or name Should fan my ashes back into a flame, And thou, devoured by this revengeful fire, His sacrifice, who died as thine, expire. 2 ° 130 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But if cold earth or marble must Conceal my dust, Whilst hid in some dark ruins, I Dumb and forgotten lie, The pride of all thy victory 25 Will sleep with me ; And they who should attest thy glory, Will, or forget, or not believe this story, Then to increase thy triumph, let me rest, Since by thine eye slain, buried in thy breast. 30 THE RELAPSE. O turn away those cruel eyes, The stars of my undoing ; Or death in such a bright disguise May tempt a second wooing. Punish their blind and impious pride 5 Who dare contemn thy glory ; It was my fall that deified Thy name and sealed thy story. Yet no new suffering can prepare A higher praise to crown thee ; 10 Though my first death proclaim thee fair, My second will unthrone thee. Lovers will doubt thou can'st entice No other for thy fuel, And if thou burn one victim twice, 15 Both think thee poor and cruel. RICHARD LOVELACE. 131 CELIA SINGING. Roses in breathing forth their scent, Or stars their borrowed ornament, Nymphs in watery sphere that move, Or angels in their orbs above, The winged chariot of the light, 5 Or the slow, silent wheels of night, The shade which from the swifter sun Doth in a circular motion run, Or souls that their eternal rest do keep, Make far more noise than Celia's breath in sleep. 10 But if the angel, which inspires This subtle flame with active fires, Should mould his breath to words, and those Into a harmony dispose, The music of this heavenly sphere 15 Would steal each soul out at the ear, And into plants and stones infuse A life that cherubim would choose, And with new powers invert the laws of fate, Kill those that live, and dead things animate. 20 Richard Lovelace, Lucasta, Ep- odes, Odes, Sonnets, and Songs, 1649 ! written before 1648. TO LUCASTA, GOING BEYOND THE SEAS. If to be absent were to be Away from thee ; Or that when I am gone, You or I were alone ; 132 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Then my Lucasta might I crave 5 Pity from blust'ring wind or swallowing wave. But I '11 not sigh one blast or gale To swell my sail, Or pay a tear to 'suage The foaming blow-god's rage ; io For whether he will let me pass Or no, I 'm still as happy as I was. Though seas and land betwixt us both, Our faith and troth, Like separated souls, 15 All time and space controls: Above the highest sphere we meet, Unseen, unknown, and greet as angels greet. So then we do anticipate Our after-fate, 20 And are alive i' th' skies, If thus our lips and eyes Can speak like spirits unconfined In heaven, their earthly bodies left behind. SONG. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS. Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind To war and arms I fly. r True, a new mistress now I chase, 5 The first foe in the field ; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. RICHARD LOVELACE. 133 Yet this inconstancy is such As you too shall adore : 10 I could not love thee, dear, so much Loved I not honor more. SONG. Amarantha, sweet and fair, Ah braid no more that shining hair ; As my curious hand or eye, Hovering round thee, let it fly: Let it fly as unconfined 5 As its ravisher the wind, Who has left his darling east To wanton o'er this spicy nest. Every tress must be confessed But neatly tangled at the best, 10 Like a clew of golden thread, Most excellently ravelled, Do not then wind up that light In ribands, and o'ercloud the night; Like the sun in 's early ray, 15 But shake your head and scatter day. THE SCRUTINY. Why should'st thou swear I am forsworn, Since thine I vowed to be ? Lady, it is already morn, And 't was last night I swore to thee That fond impossibility. 5 Have I not loved thee much and long, A tedious twelve hours' space ? 134 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. I should all other beauties wrong, And rob thee of a new embrace, Should I still dote upon thy face. IO Not but all joy in thy brown hair By others may be found ; But I must search the black and fair, Like skilful min'ralists that sound For treasure in un-plowed-up ground. 15 Then if, when I have loved my round, Thou prov'st the pleasant she, With spoils of meaner beauties crowned, I laden will return to thee, E'en sated with variety. 2 ° TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON. When Love with unconfined wings, Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the grates ; When I lie tangled in her hair 5 And fettered to her eye, The gods that wanton in the air Know no such liberty. 10 When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with roses crowned, Our hearts with loyal flames ; When thirsty grief in wine we steep, When healths and draughts go free, Fishes that tipple in the deep l S Know no such liberty. THOMAS FORDE. 135 When, like committed linnets, I With shriller throat shall sing The sweetness, mercy, majesty, And glories of my king; 20 When I shall voice aloud how good He is, how great should be, Enlarged winds, that curl the flood, Know no such liberty. Stone walls do not a prison make, 2 5 Nor iron bars a cage ; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage : If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, 3° Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty. Thomas Forde, Love's Labyrinth, 1660; written before 1648. THE BUSY MAN IS FREE. Fond Love, no more Will I adore Thy feigned deity ; Go throw thy darts At simple hearts, And prove thy victory. Whilst I do keep My harmless sheep, Love hath no power on me : 136 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. 'T is idle souls i° Which he controls ; The busy man is free. Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648 ; written between 1640 and 1648. TO PERILLA. Ah, my Perilla ! dost thou grieve to see Me, day by day, to steal away from thee ? Age calls me hence, and my grey hairs bid come And haste away to mine eternal home ; 'T will not be long, Perilla, after this, 5 That I must give thee the supremest kiss. Dead when I am, first cast in salt, and bring Part of the cream from that religious spring, With which, Perilla, wash my hands and feet ; That done, then wind me in that very sheet 10 Which wrapped thy smooth limbs when thou didst implore The gods' protection but the night before ; Follow me weeping to my turf, and there Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear: Then lastly, let some weekly strewings be 15 Devoted to the memory of me ; Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep Still in the cool and silent shades of sleep. ROBERT HER RICK. 137 UPON THE LOSS OF HIS MISTRESSES. I have lost, and lately, these Many dainty mistresses ; Stately Julia, prime of all : Sappho next, a principal ; Smooth Anthea, for a skin 5 White and heaven-like crystalline ; Sweet Electra, and the choice Myrrha, for the lute and voice. Next, Corinna, for her wit, And the graceful use of it; 10 With Perilla : all are gone, Only Herrick 's left alone, For to number sorrow by Their departures hence, and die. HIS POETRY HIS PILLAR. Only a little more I have to write, Then I '11 give o'er, And bid the world good-night. 'Tis but a flying minute 5 That I must stay, Or linger in it ; And then I must away. O Time, that cut'st down all, And scarce leav'st here io Memorial Of any men that were ! 138 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. How many lie forgot In vaults beneath, And piecemeal rot J 5 Without a fame in death ! Behold this living stone I rear for me, Ne'er to be thrown Down, envious Time, by thee. 20 Pillars let some set up, If so they please, Here is my hope, And my pyramides. Jasper Mayne, The Amorous War, 1648. TIME IS THE FEATHERED THING. Time is the feathered thing, And, whilst I praise The sparklings of thy looks and call them rays, Takes wing, Leaving behind him as he flies 5 An unperceived dimness in thine eyes. His minutes whilst th' are told Do make us old ; And every sand of his fleet glass, Increasing age as it doth pass, IO Insensibly sows wrinkles there Where flowers and roses do appear. Whilst we do speak, our fire Doth into ice expire ; JASPER MAYNE. 139 Flames turn to frost, I 5 And ere we can Know how our crow turns swan, Or how a silver snow Springs there where jet did grow, Our fading spring is in dull winter lost. 20 Since then the night hath hurled Darkness, love's shade, Over its enemy the day, and made The world Just such a blind and shapeless thing 25 As 't was before light did from darkness spring, Let us employ its treasure And make shade pleasure ; Let 's number out the hours by blisses, And count the minutes by our kisses ; 3° Let the heavens new motions feel And by our embraces wheel ; And whilst we try the way By which love doth convey Soul into soul, 35 And mingling so Makes them such raptures know As makes them entranced lie In mutual ecstasy, Let the harmonious spheres in music roll. 40 140 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Richard Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, 1652 ; written before 1649. A SONG. Lord, when the sense of thy sweet grace Sends up my soul to seek thy face, Thy blessed eyes breed such desire I die in love's delicious fire. love, I am thy sacrifice, 5 Be still triumphant, blessed eyes ; Still shine on me, fair suns, that I Still may behold though still I die. Though still I die, I live again, Still longing so to be still slain; 10 So painful is such loss of breath, 1 die even in desire of death. Still live in me this loving strife Of living death and dying life: For while thou sweetly slayest me, 15 Dead to myself, I live in thee. James Graham, Marquess of Montrose; first printed in 171 1, written before 1650. MY DEAR AND ONLY LOVE. My dear and only love, I pray That little world of thee Be governed by no other sway Than purest monarchy ; MONTROSE. 141 For if confusion have a part, 5 Which virtuous souls abhor, And hold a synod in thy heart, I '11 never love thee more. As Alexander I will reign, And I will reign alone; 10 My thoughts did evermore disdain A rival on my throne. He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, 15 To gain or lose it all. But I will reign and govern still, And always give the law, And have each subject at my will, And all to stand in awe ; 20 But 'gainst my batteries if I find Thou kick, or vex me sore, As that thou set me up a blind, I '11 never love thee more. And in the empire of thine heart, 25 Where I should solely be, If others do pretend a part, Or dare to vie with me, Or if committees thou erect, And go on such a score, 30 I '11 laugh and sing at thy neglect, And never love thee more. But if thou wilt prove faithful, then, And constant of thy word, 142 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. I '11 make thee glorious by my pen, 35 And famous by my sword ; I '11 serve thee in such noble ways Was never heard before ; I '11 crown and deck thee all with bays, And love thee more and more. 4° Phineas Fletcher, A Father's Testament, 1 670; written before 1650 (?). TO THE SOUL. Fond soul is this Thy way to bliss ? Grasp both the Indies, let thy mighty hand The iron North and golden South command ; Transcend the moon, 5 Fasten thy throne Above the fixed stars ; above expressions, Above thy thought enlarge thy vast possessions : Fond soul, all this Can not make up thy bliss. I0 All these are vain, Full, but with pain ; All creatures have their ends to serve, not bless thee ; As servants they may help, as lords oppress thee ; They vex in getting J 5 Used, lost with fretting ; Can slaves advance ? shades fill ? can grief give rest ? That which was cursed for thee can't make thee blest: They all are vain And bring not bliss but pain. 2 ° HENRY VAUGHAN. 143 Fond soul, thy birth Is not of earth Or heaven ; thou earth and heaven itself survivest ; Though born in time, thou, dying, Time out-livest. They fail, deceive thee, 25 They age, die, leave thee; Soar up immortal spirit, and mounting fly Into the arms of great Eternity : Not heaven or earth, He, he thy end and birth. 30 Henry Vaughan, Silex ScintU- lans, Part I, 1650. THE RETREAT. Happy those early days, when I Shined in my angel-infancy, Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race, Or taught my soul to fancy ought 5 But a white, celestial thought ; When yet I had not walked above A mile or two from my first love, And looking back, at that short space, Could see a glimpse of his bright face; 10 When on some gilded cloud, or flower My gazing soul would dwell an hour, And in those weaker glories spy Some shadows of eternity ; Before I taught my tongue to wound 15 My conscience with a sinful sound, Or had the black art to dispense A sev'ral sin to ev'ry sense, 144 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But felt through all this fleshly dress Bright shoots of everlastingness. 20 O how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track ! That I might once more reach that plain Where first I left my glorious train ; From whence th' enlightened spirit sees 2 5 That shady City of palm-trees. But ah, my soul with too much stay Is drunk, and staggers in the way ! Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move; 3° And, when this dust falls to the urn, In that state I came, return. PEACE. My soul, there is a country Afar beyond the stars, Where stands a winged sentry All skilful in the wars. There, above noise and danger, 5 Sweet Peace sits crowned with smiles, And one born in a manger Commands the beauteous files. He is thy gracious friend And — O my soul, awake ! — IO Did in pure love descend To die here for thy sake. If thou canst get but thither, There grows the flower of peace, The rose that can not wither, l S Thy fortress and thy ease. Leave then thy foolish ranges; HENRY V AUG HAN. 145 For none can thee secure, But one, who never changes, Thy God, thy life, thy cure. 2 ° LOVE, AND DISCIPLINE. Since in a land not barren still — Because thou dost thy grace distil — My lot is fall'n, blest be thy will. And since these biting frosts but kill Some tares in me which choke or spill 5 That seed thou sow'st, blest be thy skill. Blest be thy dew, and blest thy frost, And happy I to be so crost, And cured by crosses at thy cost. The dew doth cheer what is distrest, 10 The frosts ill weeds nip and molest, In both thou work'st unto the best. Thus while thy several mercies plot, And work on me, now cold now hot, The work goes on and slacketh not; x 5 For as thy hand the weather steers, So thrive I best 'twixt joys and tears, And all the year have some green ears. THE WORLD. I saw Eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless light, All calm, as it was bright; And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years, 146 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Driv'n by the spheres, 5 Like a vast shadow moved, in which the world And all her train were hurled. The doating lover in his quaintest strain Did there complain ; Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights, 10 Wit's four delights, With gloves and knots, the silly snares of pleasure; Yet his dear treasure All scattered lay, while he his eyes did pour Upon a flower. 15 The darksome statesman, hung with weights and woe, Like a thick midnight-fog, moved there so slow He did nor stay nor go; Condemning thoughts, like sad eclipses, scowl Upon his soul, 20 And clouds of crying witnesses without Pursued him with one shout; Yet digged the mole, and, lest his ways be found, Worked under ground, Where he did clutch his prey. But one did see 25 That policy : Churches and altars fed him ; perjuries Were gnats and flies ; It rained about him blood and tears; but he Drank them as free. 30 The fearful miser on a heap of rust Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust His own hands with the dust ; Yet would not place one piece above, but lives In fear of thieves. 35 Thousands there were as frantic as himself And hugged each one his pelf; HENRY VAUGHAN. 147 The downright epicure placed heaven in sense, And scorned pretence ; While others, slipped into a wide excess, 4° Said little less ; The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave, Who think them brave ; And poor, despised Truth sate counting by Their victory. 45 Yet some, who all this time did weep and sing, And sing and weep, soared up into the ring ; But most would use no wing. fools, said I, thus to prefer dark night Before true light ! 5° To live in grots and caves, and hate the day Because it shows the way, The way, which from this dead and dark abode Leads up to God ; A way where you might tread the sun, and be 55 As bright as he ! But, as I did their madness so discuss, One whispered thus: "This ring the bridegroom did for none provide But for his bride." 6o THE HIDDEN FLOWER. 1 walked the other day to spend my hour Into a field Where I sometimes had seen the soil to yield A gallant flower ; But winter now had ruffled all the bower 5 And curious store I knew there heretofore. 148 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Yet I, whose search loved not to peep and peer I' th' face of things, Thought with myself, there might be other springs 10 Besides this here, Which, like cold friends, sees us but once a year ; And so the flower Might have some other bower. Then, taking up what I could nearest spy, 15 I digged about That place where I had seen him to grow out ; And by and by I saw the warm recluse alone to lie Where fresh and green 20 He lived of us unseen. Many a question intricate and rare Did I there strow ; But all I could extort was, that he now Did there repair 25 Such losses as befel him in this air, And would ere long Come forth most fair and young. This past, I threw the clothes quite o'er his head ; And, stung with fear 3° Of my own frailty, dropped down many a tear Upon his bed ; Then sighing whispered, ' Happy are the dead ! What peace doth now Rock him asleep below ! ' 35 And yet, how few believe such doctrine springs From a poor root, Which all the winter sleeps here under foot, HENRY V A UGH AN. 149 And hath no wings To raise it to the truth and light of things, 40 But is stiirtrod By every wand'ring clod. O Thou ! whose spirit did at first inflame And warm the dead, And by a sacred incubation fed 45 With life this frame, Which once had neither being, form, nor name, — Grant I may so Thy steps track here below, That in these masques and shadows I may see 5° Thy sacred way ; And by those hid ascents climb to that day, Which breaks from thee Who art in all things, though invisibly ! Show me thy peace, 55 Thy mercy, love, and ease ! And from this care, where dreams and sorrows reign, Lead me above, Where light, joy, leisure, and true comforts move Without all pain ; 6o There, hid in thee, show me his life again, At whose dumb urn Thus all the year I mourn. 150 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Andrew Marvell, Miscellane- ous Poems, 1 68 1 ; written before 1651. THE CORONET. When for the thorns with which I long, too long, With many a piercing wound, My Saviour's head have crowned, I seek with garlands to redress that wrong, — Through every garden, every mead, 5 I gather flowers (my fruits are only flowers), Dismantling all the fragrant towers That once adorned my shepherdess's head; And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive), 10 So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas ! I find the Serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold 15 With wreaths of fame and interest. Ah foolish man, that wouldst debase with them And mortal glory, heaven's diadem ! But thou who only couldst the Serpent tame, Either his slipp'ry knots at once untie, 20 And disentangle all his winding snare; Or shatter too with him my curious frame, And let these wither — so that he may die — Though set with skill, and chosen out with care : That they while thou on both their spoils dost tread, 25 May crown thy feet, that could not crown thy head. ANDREW MARVELL. 151 BERMUDAS. Where the remote Bermudas ride In the ocean's bosom unespied, From a small boat, that rowed along, The listening winds received this song : What should we do but sing his praise, 5 That led us through the watery maze, Unto an isle so long unknown, And yet far kinder than our own ? Where he the huge sea-monsters wracks, That lift the deep upon their backs, 10 He lands us on a grassy stage, Safe from the storms' and prelates' rage. He gave us this eternal spring, Which here enamels everything, And sends the fowls to us in care 15 On daily visits through the air; He hangs in shades the orange bright, Like golden lamps in a green night, And does in the pomegranates close Jewels more rich than Ormus shows; ~o He makes the figs our mouths to meet, And throws the melons at our feet ; But apples plants of such a price No tree could ever bear them twice ; With cedars chosen by his hand 25 From Lebanon, he stores the land, And makes the hollow seas, that roar, Proclaim the ambergris on shore; He cast (of which we rather boast) The gospel's pearl upon our coast, 3° And in these rocks for us did frame 152 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. A temple, where to sound his name. O let our voice his praise exalt, Till it arrive at heaven's vault, Which, thence (perhaps) rebounding may 35 Echo beyond the Mexique bay. Thus sung they in the English boat, A holy and a cheerful note ; And all the way to guide their chime With falling oars they kept the time. 40 CLORINDA AND DAMON. Clorinda. Damon, come drive thy flocks this way. Damon. No, 't is too late they went astray. Clorinda. I have a grassy scutcheon spied, Where Flora blazons all her pride ; The grass I aim to feast thy sheep, 5 The flowers I for thy temples keep. Damon. Grass withers, and the flowers too fade. Clorinda. Seize the short joys then, ere they vade. Seest thou that unfrequented cave ? Damon. That den ? 10 ANDREW MARVELL. 153 Clorinda. Love's shrine. Damon. But virtue's grave. Clorinda. In whose cool bosom we may lie, Safe from the sun. Damon. Not heaven's eye. Clorinda. Near this, a fountain's liquid bell Tinkles within the concave shell. Da7?i07i. Might a soul bathe there and be clean, 15 Or slake its drought ? Clorinda. What is 't you mean ? Damon. These once had been enticing things, Clorinda — pastures, caves, and springs. Clorinda. And what late change ? Damon. The other day Pan met me. 20 154 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Clorinda. What did great Pan say ? Damon. Words that transcend poor shepherd's skill ; But he e'er since my songs does fill, And his name swells my slender oat. Clorinda. Sweet must Pan sound in Damon's note. Damon. Clorinda's voice might make it sweet. 25 Clorinda. Who would not in Pan's praises meet ? Chorus. Of Pan the flowery pastures sing, Caves echo, and the fountains ring. Sing then while he doth us inspire ; For all the world is our Pan's choir. 3° A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THYRSIS AND DORINDA. Dorinda. When death shall snatch us from these kids, And shut up our divided lids, Tell me, Thyrsis, prithee do, Whither thou and I must go. ANDREW MAR FELL. 155 Thyrsis. To the Elysium. 5 Dorinda. O where is 't ? Thyrsis. A chaste soul can never miss 't. Dorinda. I know no way but one : our home Is our Elysium. Thyrsis. Cast thine eye to yonder sky ; There the milky way doth lie : I0 'T is a sure but rugged way That leads to everlasting day. Dorinda. There birds may nest, but how can I That have no wings and cannot fly ? Thyrsis. Do not sigh, fair nymph, for fire x 5 Hath no wings, yet doth aspire Till it hit against the pole : Heaven 's the centre of the soul. Dorinda. But in Elysium how do they Pass eternity away? 20 156 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Thyrsis. there 's neither hope nor fear ; There 's no wolf, no fox, no bear ; No need of dog to fetch our stray, Our Lightfoot we may give away ; And there most sweetly may thine ear 25 Feast with the music of the sphere. Dorinda. How I my future state By silent thinking antedate ! 1 prithee let us spend our time [to] come In talking of Elysium. 30 Thyrsis. Then I '11 go on : there, sheep are full Of softest grass and softest wool ; There birds sing consorts, garlands grow, Cool winds do whisper, springs do flow ; There always is a rising sun, 35 And day is ever but begun ; Shepherds there bear equal sway, And every nymph 's a queen of May. Dorinda. Ah me I ah me ! Thyrsis. Dorinda, why dost cry? Dorinda. I 'm sick, I 'm sick, and fain would die. 40 ANDREW MARVELL. 157 Thyrsis. Convince me now that this is true, By bidding with me all adieu. Dorinda. I cannot live without thee, I Will for thee, much more with thee, die. Thyrsis. Then let us give Corellia charge o' th' sheep, 45 And thou and I'll pick poppies, and them steep In wine, and drink on 't even till we weep : So shall we smoothly pass away in sleep. THE FAIR SINGER. To make a final conquest of all me, Love did compose so sweet an enemy, In whom both beauties to my death agree, Joining themselves in fatal harmony; That, while she with her eyes my heart does bind, 5 She with her voice might captivate my mind. I could have fled from one but singly fair ; My disentangled soul itself might save, Breaking the curled trammels of her hair ; But how should I avoid to be her slave I0 Whose subtle art invisibly can wreathe My fetters of the v.ery air I breathe ? It had been easy fighting in some plain, Where victory might hang in equal choice ; But all resistance against her is vain l S Who has th' advantage both of eyes and voice ; 158 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And all my forces needs must be undone, She having gained both the wind and sun. TO HIS COY MISTRESS. Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love's day. Thou by the Indian Ganges' side 5 Shouldst rubies find ; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the Flood ; And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. i° My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow ; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze ; Two hundred to adore each breast, 15 But thirty thousand to the rest ; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. 20 But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near ; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, 25 Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song ; then worms shall try That long preserved virginity; ANDREW MARVELL. 159 And your quaint honor turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust : 3° The grave 's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires 35 At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. 4° Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness up into one ball ; And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life : Thus, though we cannot make our sun 45 Stand still, yet we will make him run. THE PICTURE OF LITTLE T. C. IN A PROSPECT OF FLOWERS. See with what simplicity This nymph begins her golden days ! In the green grass she loves to lie, And there with her fair aspect tames The wilder flowers and gives them names, 5 But only with the roses plays, And them does tell What colors best become them and what smell. Who can foretell for what high cause, This darling of the gods was born ? io 160 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Yet this is she whose chaster laws The wanton Love shall one day fear, And, under her command severe, See his bow broke, and ensigns torn. Happy who can 15 Appease this virtuous enemy of man ! O then let me in time compound And parley with those conquering eyes, Ere they have tried their force to wound ; Ere with their glancing wheels they drive 20 In triumph over hearts that strive, And them that yield but more despise : Let me be laid, Where I may see the glories from some shade. Meantime, whilst every verdant thing 25 Itself does at thy beauty charm, Reform the errors of the spring ; Make that the tulips may have share Of sweetness, seeing they are fair; And roses of their thorns disarm ; 30 But most procure That violets may a longer age endure. But O, young beauty of the woods, Whom nature courts with fruit and flowers, Gather the flowers, but spare the buds, 35 Lest Flora, angry at thy crime To kill her infants in their prime, Do quickly make th' example yours ; And ere we see, Nip, in the blossom, all our hopes and thee. 40 ANDREW MARVELL. 161 THE MOWER TO THE GLOW-WORMS. Ye living lamps, by whose dear light The nightingale does sit so late, And studying all the summer night, Her matchless songs does meditate ; Ye country comets, that portend 5 No war nor prince's funeral, Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grass's fall ; Ye glow-worms, whose officious flame To wandering mowers shows the way, 10 That in the night have lost their aim, And after foolish fires do stray ; Your courteous lights in vain you waste, Since Juliana here is come ; For she my mind hath so displaced, l S That I shall never find my home. THE MOWER'S SONG. My mind was once the true survey Of all these meadows fresh and gay, And in the greenness of the grass Did see its hopes as in a glass ; When Juliana came, and she, 5 What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. But these, while I with sorrow pine, Grew more luxuriant still and fine, That not one blade of grass you spied But had a flower on either side ; IO When Juliana came, and she, What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 162 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Unthankful meadows, could you so A fellowship so true forego, And in your gaudy May-games meet, 15 While I lay trodden under feet — When Juliana came, and she, What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me ? But what you in compassion ought, Shall now by my revenge be wrought ; 20 And flowers, and grass, and I, and all, Will in one common ruin fall ; For Juliana comes, and she, What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. And thus, ye meadows, which have been 25 Companions of my thoughts more green, Shall now the heraldry become With which I shall adorn my tomb ; For Juliana came, and she, What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 30 MAKING HAY-ROPES. A met as. Think'st thou that this love can stand, Whilst thou still dost say me nay ? Love unpaid does soon disband : Love binds love as hay binds hay. Thestylis. Think'st thou that this rope would twine If we both should turn one way? Where both parties so combine, Neither love will twist nor hay. SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE. 163 Af/ietas. Thus you vain excuses find, Which yourself and us delay; 10 And love ties a woman's mind Looser than with ropes of hay. Thestylis. What you cannot constant hope Must be taken as you may. A7netas. Then let 's both lay by our rope 15 And go kiss within the hay. Sir Edward Sherburne, Sal- masis, Lyrian and Sylvia, 1651. THE VOW. By my life I vow, That my life art thou, By my heart and by my eyes ; But thy faith denies To my juster oath t' incline, 5 For thou say'st I swear by thine. By this sigh I swear, By this falling tear, By the undeserved pains My griev'd soul sustains : 1° Now thou may'st believe my moan, These are too too much my own. 164 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. WEEPING AND KISSING. A kiss I begged, but smiling she Denied it me ; When straight, her cheeks with tears o'erflown — Now kinder grown — What smiling she 'd not let one have 5 She weeping gave. Then you whom scornful beauties awe, Hope yet relief From Love, who tears from smiles can draw, Pleasure from grief. 10 NOVO INAMORAMENTO. And yet anew entangled, see Him who escaped the snare so late ! A truce, no league, thou mad'st with me, False love, which now is out of date : Fool, to believe the fire quite out, alas, 5 Which only laid asleep in embers was. The sickness not at first past cure, By this relapse despiseth art. Now, treacherous boy, thou hast me sure, Playing the wanton with my heart, to As foolish children that a bird have got Slacken the thread, but not untie the knot. THE SWEETMEAT. Thou gav'st me late to eat A sweet without, but within, bitter meat : As if thou would'st have said ' Here, taste in this What Celia is.' SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE. 165 But if there ought to be 5 A likeness, dearest, 'twixt thy gift and thee, Why first what 's sweet in thee should I not taste, The bitter last ? CHANGE DEFENDED. Leave, Chloris, leave ; I pray no more With want of love or lightness charge me. 'Cause thy looks captived me before, May not another's now enlarge me? He whose misguided zeal hath long 5 Paid homage to some pale star's light, Better informed, may without wrong Leave that t' adore the queen of night. Then if my heart, which long served thee, Will to Carintha now incline ; x ° Why termed inconstant should it be For bowing 'fore a richer shrine? Censure those lovers so, whose will Inferior objects can entice ; Who changes for the better still, J 5 Makes that a virtue, you call vice. THE FOUNTAIN. Stranger, whoe'er thou art, that stoop'st to taste These sweeter streams, let me arrest thy haste ; Nor of their fall The murmurs (though the lyre Less sweet be) stand to admire. 5 166 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But as you shall See from this marble tun The liquid crystal run, And mark withal How fixed the one abides, 10 How fast the other glides ; Instructed thus, the difference learn to see 'Twixt mortal life and immortality. John Milton, Letters of State, 1694, written 1652. SONNET. XVI. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL. Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud Not of war only, but detractions rude, Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed, And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 5 Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester's laureate wreath : yet much remains To conquer still ; peace hath her victories 10 No less renowned than war : new foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains. Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw. JAMES SHIRLEY. 167 James Shirley, Cupid and Death, l6 53- DEATH'S SUBTLE WAYS. Victorious men of earth, no more Proclaim how wide your empires are ; Though you bind in every shore And your triumphs reach as far As night or day, 5 Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey And mingle with forgotten ashes when Death calls ye to the crowd of common men. Devouring famine, plague, and war, Each able to undo mankind, 10 Death's servile emissaries are ; Nor to these alone confined, He hath at will More quaint and subtle ways to kill : A smile or kiss, as he will use the art, 15 Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart. John Milton, Poems upon Several Occasions, 1673; written 1655. SONNETS. XVIII. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 10 168 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Forget not : in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled Mother and infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow O'er all th' Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple Tyrant ; that from these may grow A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way, Early may fly the Babylonian woe. XIX. ON HIS BLINDNESS. When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5 My true account, lest he returning chide, ' Doth God exact day-labor, light denied ? ' I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, 'God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best i° Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly : thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; They also serve who only stand and wait.' HENRY VAUCHAN. 169 Henry Vaughan, Silex Scintil- lans, Part II, 1655. DEPARTED FRIENDS. They are all gone into the world of light, And I alone sit ling'ring here. Their very memory is fair and bright, And my sad thoughts doth clear. It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast 5 Like stars upon some gloomy grove, Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest After the sun's remove. I see them walking in an air of glory, Whose light doth trample on my days ; 10 My days, which are at best but dull and hoary, Mere glimmerings and decays. O holy hope ! and high humility ! High as the heavens above; These are your walks, and you have show'd them me, 15 To kindle my cold love. Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just, Shining nowhere but in the dark ; What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, Could man outlook that mark ! 20 He that hath found some fledged bird's nest may know At first sight if the bird be flown ; But what fair well or grove he sings in now, That is to him unknown. And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams 25 Call to the soul when man doth sleep, 170 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, And into glory peep. If a star were confined into a tomb, Her captive flames must needs burn there ; 3° But when the hand that locked her up gives room, She '11 shine through all the sphere. O Father of eternal life, and all Created glories under thee ! Resume thy spirit from this world of thrall 35 Into true liberty! Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill My perspective still as they pass ; Or else remove me hence unto that hill, Where I shall need no glass. 4° THE THRONE. When with these eyes, closed now by thee, But then restored, The great and white throne I shall see Of my dread Lord ; And lowly kneeling — for the most 5 Stiff then must kneel — Shall look on him at whose high cost, Unseen, such joys I feel ; Whatever arguments or skill Wise heads shall use, 10 Tears and my blushes still Will I produce. And should these speechless beggars fail, Which oft have won, Then, taught by thee, I will prevail 15 And say: "Thy will be done." CHARLES COTTON. 171 Charles Cotton, Poems on Several Occasions, 1689; written about 1655. ODE. The day is set did earth adorn, To drink the brewing of the main ; And, hot with travel, will ere morn Carouse it to an ebb again. Then let us drink, time to improve, 5 Secure of Cromwell and his spies ; Night will conceal our healths and love, For all her thousand thousand eyes. Chorus. Then let us drink, secure of spies, To Phoebus and his second rise. I0 Without the evening dew and showers The earth would be a barren place, Of trees and plants, of herbs and flowers, To crown her now enamelled face ; Nor can wit spring, nor fancies grow, r 5 Unless we dew our heads in wine, Plump autumn's wealthy overflow And sprightly issue of the vine. Chorus. Then let us drink, secure of spies, To Phoebus and his second rise. 20 Wine is the cure of cares and sloth, That rust the metal of the mind ; The juice that man to man does both In freedom and in friendship bind. This clears the monarch's cloudy brows, 2 5 172 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And cheers the hearts of sullen swains, To wearied souls repose allows, And makes slaves caper in their chains. Chorus. Then let us drink, secure of spies, To Phoebus and his second rise. 3° Wine, that distributes to each part Its heat and motion, is the spring, The poet's head, the subject's heart, 'T was wine made old Anacreon sing. Then let us quaff it while the night 35 Serves but to hide such guilty souls, As fly the beauty of the light Or dare not pledge our loyal bowls. Chorus. Then let us revel, quaff and sing, Health and his sceptre to the king. 40 ODE. Fair Isabel, if aught but thee I could, or would, or like, or love ; If other beauties but approve To sweeten my captivity : I might those passions be above, 5 Those powerful passions, that combine To make and keep me only thine. Or if for tempting treasure, I Of the world's god, prevailing gold, Could see thy love and my truth sold, 10 A greater, nobler treasury : My flame to thee might then grow cold, And I, like one whose love is sense, Exchange thee for convenience. ABRAHAM COWLEY. 173 But when I vow to thee I do 15 Love thee above or health or peace, Gold, joy, and all such toys as these, 'Bove happiness and honor too : Thou then must know, this love can cease Nor change, for all the glorious show 20 Wealth and discretion bribes us to. What such a love deserves, thou, sweet, As knowing best, mayst best reward ; I, for thy bounty well prepared, With open arms my blessing meet. 25 Then do not, dear, our joys detard ; But unto him propitious be That knows no love, nor life, but thee. Abraham Cowley, Miscellanies, 1656. THE CHRONICLE. A BALLAD. Margarita first possessed, If I remember well, my breast, Margarita first of all ; But when awhile the wanton maid With my restless heart had played, 5 Martha took the flying ball. Martha soon did it resign To the beauteous Catherine. Beauteous Catherine gave place (Though loth and angry she to part 10 With the possession of my heart) To Elisa's conquering face. 174 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Elisa till this hour might reign Had she not evil counsels ta'en. Fundamental laws she broke, 15 And still new favorites she chose, Till up in arms my passions rose, And cast away her yoke. Mary then and gentle Ann Both to reign at once began, 20 Alternately they swayed ; And sometimes Mary was the fair, And sometimes Ann the crown did wear ; And sometimes both I obeyed. Another Mary then arose 25 And did rigorous laws impose. A mighty tyrant she ! Long, alas, should I have been Under that iron-sceptred Queen, Had not Rebecca set me free. 30 When fair Rebecca set me free, 'Twas then a golden time with me, But soon those pleasures fled ; For the gracious princess died In her youth and beauty's pride, 35 And Judith reigned in her stead. One month, three days and half an hour Judith held the sovereign power, Wondrous beautiful her face ; But so small and weak her wit, 4° That she to govern was unfit, And so Susanna took her place. ABRAHAM COWLEY. 175 But when Isabella came Armed with a resistless flame And th' artillery of her eye ; 45 Whilst she proudly marched about Greater conquests to find out, She beat out Susan by the by. But in her place I then obeyed Black-eyed Bess, her viceroy-maid, 5° To whom ensued a vacancy. Thousand worse passions then possessed The interregnum of my breast. Bless me from such an anarchy ! Gentle Henrietta than 55 And a third Mary next began, Then Joan, and Jane, and Audria. And then a pretty Thomasine, And then another Catherine, And then a long et ccetera. 6o But should I now to you relate, The strength and riches of their state, The powder, patches, and the pins, The ribbands, jewels, and the rings, The lace, the paint, and warlike things 65 That make up all their magazines ; If I should tell the politic arts To take and keep men's hearts, The letters, embassies and spies, The frowns, and smiles, and flatteries, 7° The quarrels, tears and perjuries, Numberless, nameless mysteries ! 176 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And all the little lime-twigs laid By Matchavil, the waiting-maid ; I more voluminous should grow 75 (Chiefly if I like them should tell All change of weathers that befell) Than Holinshed or Stow. But I will briefer with them be, Since few of them were long with me. 80 An higher and a nobler strain My present Emperess does claim, Heleonora, first o' th' name ; Whom God grant long to reign ! ANACREONTIQUE II. DRINKING. The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again. The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair. The sea itself, which one would think 5 Should have but little need of drink, Drinks ten thousand rivers up, So filled that they o'erflow the cup. The busy sun — and one would guess By 's drunken fiery face no less — 10 Drinks up the sea, and when he has done, The moon and stars drink up the sun; They drink and dance by their own light, They drink and revel all the night. Nothing in nature 's sober found, > 5 But an eternal health goes round. HENRY KING. 177 Fill up the bowl then, fill it high ; Fill all the glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I — Why, men of morals, tell me why ? 2 ° Henry King, Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets, 1657. SONNET. Tell me no more how fair she is, I have no mind to hear The story of that distant bliss I never shall come near : By sad experience I have found 5 That her perfection is my wound. And tell me not how fond I am To tempt my daring fate, From whence no triumph ever came, But to repent too late: 10 There is some hope ere long I may In silence dote myself away. I ask no pity, Love, from thee, Nor will thy justice blame, So that thou wilt not envy me x 5 The glory of my flame, Which crowns my heart whene'er it dies, In that it falls her sacrifice. 178 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Henry Harrington, in Henry Lawe's Airs and Dialogues, 6' Third Book, 1658. SONG. Trust the form of airy things, Or a siren when she sings, Trust the sly hyena's voice, Or of all distrust make choice, — And believe these sooner than Truth in women, faith in men. John Milton, Poems on Several Occasions, 1673; written 1658. SONNET. XXIII. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE. Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint 5 Purification in the Old Law did save, And such as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in heaven without restraint, Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight 10 Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear as in no face with more delight. But, O ! as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. THOMAS FLATMAN. 179 Thomas Flatman, Poems and Songs, 1674; written 1659. FOR THOUGHTS. Thoughts ! what are they ? They are my constant friends, Who, when harsh Fate its dull brow bends, Uncloud me with a smiling ray, And in the depth of midnight force a day. 5 When I retire and flee The busy throngs of company To hug myself in privacy, O the discourse ! the pleasant talk 'Twixt us, my thoughts, along a lonely walk! 10 You (like the stupefying wine The dying malefactors sip With trembling lip, T' abate the rigor of their doom By a less troublous cut to their long home) 15 Make me slight crosses, though they piled up lie, All by the magic of an ecstasy. Do I desire to see The throne and awful majesty Of that proud one, 20 Brother and uncle to the stars and sun ? These can conduct me where such toys reside And waft me 'cross the main, sans wind and tide. Would I descry Those radiant mansions 'bove the sky, 2 5 Invisible to mortal eye, My thoughts can eas'ly lay 180 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. A shining track thereto, And nimbly flitting go; Through all th' eleven orbs can shove a way. 3° My thoughts like Jacob's ladder are A most angelic thoroughfare. The wealth that shines In th' oriental mines ; Those sparkling gems which Nature keeps 35 Within her cabinets, the deeps; The verdant fields, Those rarities the rich world yields, Huge structures, whose each gilded spire Glisters like lightning, which while men admire 4° They deem the neighboring sky on fire — These can I dwell upon and 'live mine eyes With millions of varieties. As on the front of Pisgah I Can th' Holy Land through these my optics spy. 45 Contemn we then The peevish rage of men, Whose violence can ne'er divorce Our mutual amity, Or lay so damned a curse 5° As non-addresses 'twixt my thoughts and me ; For though I sigh in irons, they Use their old freedom, readily obey, And, when my bosom friends desert me, stay. Come then, my darlings, I '11 embrace 55 My privilege ; make known The high prerogative I own, By making all allurements give you place, THOMAS FLATMAN. 181 Whose sweet society to me A sanctuary and a shield shall be 60 'Gainst the full quivers of my Destiny. A WISH. Not to the hills where cedars move Their cloudy heads; not to the grove Of myrtles in th' Elysian shade, Nor Tempe which the poets made, Not on the spicy mountains play, 5 Or travel to Arabia, I aim not at the careful throne Which Fortune's darlings sit upon : No, no, the best this fickle world can give Has but a little, little time to live. x ° But let me soar, O let me fly Beyond poor earth's benighted eye, Beyond the pitch swift eagles tower, Beyond the reach of human power, Above the clouds, above the way l 5 Whence the sun darts his piercing ray, O let me tread those courts that are So bright, so pure, so blest, so fair, As neither thou nor I must ever know On earth : 't is thither, thither would I go. 2 ° 182 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Alexander Brome, Songs and Other Poems, 1661 ; written be- fore 1660. THE RESOLVE. Tell me not of a face that 's fair, Nor lip and cheek that 's red, Nor of the tresses of her hair, Nor curls in order laid ; , Nor of a rare seraphic voice, 5 That like an angel sings ; Though, if I were to take my choice, I would have all these things. But if that thou wilt have me love, And it must be a she, 10 The only argument can move Is, that she will love me. The glories of your ladies be But metaphors of things, And but resemble what we see 15 Each common object brings. Roses out-red their lips and cheeks, Lilies their whiteness stain : What fool is he that shadows seeks, And may the substance gain ! 20 Then if thou 'It have me love a lass, Let it be one that 's kind, Else I 'm a servant to the glass That 's with Canary lined. A MOCK SONG. 'Tis true I never was in love ; But now I mean to be, SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT. 1S3 For there 's no art Can shield a heart From love's supremacy. 5 Though in my nonage I have seen A world of taking faces, I had not age or wit to ken Their several hidden graces. Those virtues which, though thinly set, 10 In others are admired, In thee are altogether met, Which make thee so desired ; That though I never was in love, Nor never meant to be, 15 Thyself and parts Above my arts Have drawn my heart to thee. Sir William Davenant, Poems on Several Occasions, 1672 ; written before 1660. SONG, AGAINST WOMAN'S PRIDE. Why dost thou seem to boast, vainglorious sun ? Why should thy bright complexion make thee proud ? Think but how often since thy race begun Thou wert eclipsed, then blush behind a cloud. Or why look you, fair Empress of the night, So big upon 't, when you at full appear ? Remember yours is but a borrowed light, Then shrink with paleness in your giddy sphere. 184 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. If neither sun nor moon can justify Their pride, how ill it women then befits <° That are on earth but ignes fatui That lead poor men to wander from their wits. SONG. The lark now leaves his wat'ry nest, And, climbing, shakes his dewy wings, He takes this window for the east, And to implore your light, he sings: Awake, awake, the morn will never rise 5 Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes. The merchant bows unto the seaman's star, The ploughman from the sun his season takes; But still the lover wonders what they are Who look for day before his mistress wakes. 10 Awake, awake, break through your veils of lawn, Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn. Katherine Philips, Poems by . . . the Matchless Orinda, 1667 ; written before 1664. AN ANSWER TO ANOTHER PERSUADING A LADY TO MARRIAGE. Forbear, bold youth; all's heaven here, And what do you aver, To others courtship may appear; 'T is sacrilege to her. She is a public deity, 5 And were 't not very odd SIR WILLIAM KILLEGREW. 185 She should depose herself to be A petty household god ? First make the sun in private shine And bid the world adieu, 10 That so he may his beams confine In compliment to you. But if of that you do despair, Think how you did amiss To strive to fix her beams, which are 15 More bright and large than his. Sir William Killegrew, Se- li?idra, 1665; acted 1664. SONG. Come, come, thou glorious object of my sight, O my joy, my life, my own delight ! May this glad minute be Blessed to eternity ! See how the glimmering tapers of the sky 5 Do gaze, and wonder at our constancy, How they crowd to behold What our arms do unfold ! How do all envy our felicities, And grudge the triumphs of Selindra's eyes ! 10 How Cynthia seeks to shroud Her crescent in yon cloud ! Where sad night puts her sable mantle on, Thy light mistaking, hasteth to be gone ; Her gloomy shades give way, 15 As at the approach of day ; 186 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. And all the planets shrink, in doubt to be Eclipsed by a brighter deity. Look, O look ! How the small 20 Lights do fall, And adore What before The heavens have not shown, Nor their godheads known ! 2 5 Such a faith, Such a love As may move From above To descend, and remain 3° Amongst mortals again. Sir George Etheridge, Love in a Tub, 1664. SONG. Ladies, though to your conquering eyes Love owes his chiefest victories, And borrows those bright arms from you With which he does the world subdue ; Yet you yourselves are not above The empire nor the griefs of love. Then rack not lovers with disdain, Lest love on you revenge their pain ; You are not free because you 're fair, The Boy did not his Mother spare. Beauty's but an offensive dart; It is no armor for the heart. 10 JOHN DRYDEN. 187 John Dryden, The Indian Queen, acted 1664. INCANTATION. You twice ten hundred deities, To whom we daily sacrifice ; You powers that dwell with fate below, And see what men are doomed to do, Where elements in discord dwell ; 5 Thou god of sleep, arise and tell Great Zempoalla what strange fate Must on her dismal vision wait ! By the croaking of the toad, In their caves that make abode ; J o Earthy, dun, that pants for breath, With her swelled sides full of death; By the crested adders' pride, That along the clifts do glide; By thy visage fierce and black; 15 By the death's head on thy back; By the twisted serpents placed For a girdle round thy waist ; By the hearts of gold that deck Thy breast, thy shoulders, and thy neck : 20 From thy sleepy mansion rise, And open thy unwilling eyes, While bubbling springs their music keep, That use to lull thee in thy sleep. 188 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. John Dryden, The Indian Em- peror, 1665. SONG. Ah, fading joy ! how quickly art thou past ! Yet we thy ruin haste. As if the cares of human life were few, We seek out new : And follow fate that does too fast pursue. 5 See how on every bough the birds express In their sweet notes their happiness. They all enjoy and nothing spare, But on their mother nature lay their care: Why then should man, the lord of all below, J ° Such troubles choose to know As none of all his subjects undergo? Hark, hark, the waters fall, fall, fall, And with a murmuring sound Dash, dash, upon the ground, 15 To gentle slumbers call. Sir Charles Sedley, The Mulberry Garden, 1668. TO A VERY YOUNG LADY. Ah, Chloris ! that I now could sit As unconcerned, as when Your infant beauty could beget No pleasure nor no pain. When I the dawn used to admire, And praised the coming day, I little thought the growing fire Must take my rest away. SIP CHARLES SEDLEY. 189 Your charms in harmless childhood lay, Like metals in the mine ; 10 Age from no face took more away, Than youth concealed in thine. But as your charms insensibly * To their perfections pressed, Fond love as unperceived did fly, 15 And in my bosom rest. My passion with your beauty grew, And Cupid at my heart, Still, as his mother favored you, Threw a new flaming dart. 20 Each gloried in their wanton part : To make a lover, he Employed the utmost of his art ; To make a beauty, she. Though now I slowly bend to love, 25 Uncertain of my fate, If your fair self my chains approve, I shall my freedom hate. Lovers, like dying men, may well At first disordered be ; 30 Since none alive can truly tell What fortune they might see. Sir Charles Sedley, Plays, Poems, Songs, etc., 1702; writ- ten between 1 668-1 687. SONG. Not, Celia, that I juster am Or better than the rest ; For I would change each hour like them, Were not my heart at rest. 190 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. But I am tied to very thee 5 By every thought I have ; Thy face I only care to see, Thy heart I only crave. All that in woman is adored In thy dear self I find ; 10 For the whole sex can but afford The handsome and the kind. Why then should I seek further store, And still make love anew? When change itself can give no more 15 'T is easy to be true. LOVE STILL HAS SOMETHING OF THE SEA. Love still has something of the sea, From whence his mother rose ; No time his slaves from love can free, Nor give their thoughts repose. They are becalmed in clearest days, 5 And in rough weather tossed ; They wither under cold delays, Or are in tempests lost. One while they seem to touch the port, Then straight into the main >o Some angry wind in cruel sport The vessel drives again. At first Disdain and Pride they fear, Which, if they chance to 'scape, Rivals and Falsehood soon appear 15 In a more dreadful shape. SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. 191 By such degrees to joy they come, And are so long withstood, So slowly they receive the sum, It hardly does them good. 2 ° 'T is cruel to prolong a pain, And to defer a joy, Believe me, gentle Celemene, Offends the winged boy. An hundred thousand oaths your fears 2 5 Perhaps would not remove, And if I gazed a thousand years I could no deeper love. PHYLLIS KNOTTING. " Hears not my Phyllis how the birds Their feathered mates salute ? They tell their passion in their words : Must I alone be mute ? " Phyllis, without frown or smile, 5 Sat and knotted all the while. " The god of love in thy bright eyes Does like a tyrant reign ; But in thy heart a child he lies Without his dart or flame." '° Phyllis, without frown or smile, Sat and knotted all the while. " So many months in silence past, And yet in raging love, Might well deserve one word at last I S My passion should approve." Phyllis, without frown or smile, Sat and knotted all the while. 192 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. " Must then your faithful swain expire And not one look obtain, 20 Which he to soothe his fond desire Might pleasingly explain ? " Phyllis, without frown or smile, Sat and knotted all the while ! PHYLLIS IS MY ONLY JOY. Phyllis is my only joy, Faithless as the winds or seas, Sometimes coming, sometimes coy, Yet she never fails to please ; If with a frown 5 I am cast down, Phyllis smiling And beguiling Makes me happier than before. Though alas ! too late I find 10 Nothing can her fancy fix, Yet the moment she is kind I forgive her all her tricks ; Which though I see, I can't get free. 15 She deceiving, I believing, What need lovers wish for more? A SONG. Phyllis, men say that all my vows Are to thy fortune paid : Alas ! my heart he little knows Who thinks my love a trade. JOHN DRYDEN. 193 Were I of all these woods the lord, 5 One berry from thy hand More real pleasure would afford Than all my large command. My humble love has learned to live On what the nicest maid, IO Without a conscious blush, may give Beneath the myrtle shade. John Dryden, Tyrannic Love, 1670; acted 1668-69. YOU PLEASING DREAMS OF LOVE. You pleasing dreams of love and sweet delight, Appear before this slumbering virgin's sight; Soft visions set her free From mournful piety. Let her sad thoughts from heaven retire, 5 And let the melancholy love Of those remoter joys above Give place to your more sprightly fire. Let purling streams be in her fancy seen, And flowery meads, and vales of cheerful green, 10 And in the midst of deathless groves Soft sighing wishes lie, And smiling hopes fast by, And just beyond them ever-laughing loves. 194 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. John Dryden, An Evening's Love, 1671. YOU CHARMED ME NOT WITH THAT FAIR FACE. You charmed me not with that fair face, Though it was all divine : To be another's is the grace That makes me wish you mine. The gods and fortune take their part 5 Who, like young monarchs, fight, And boldly dare invade that heart Which is another's right. First, mad with hope, we undertake To pull up every bar ; 10 But, once possessed, we faintly make A dull defensive war. Now, every friend is turned a foe, In hope to get our store : And passion makes us cowards grow, 15 Which made us brave before. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions, 1680; date of writing uncertain. A SONG. Absent from thee I languish still, Then ask me not, ' when I return ? ' The straying fool 't will plainly kill To wish all day, all night to mourn. ROCHESTER. 195 Dear, from thine arms then let me fly, 5 That my fantastic mind may prove The torments it deserves to try, That tears my fixed heart from my love. When, wearied with a world of woe, To thy safe bosom I retire, 10 Where love, and peace, and truth does flow, May I, contented, there expire. Lest once more wandering from that heaven, I fall on some base heart unblest, Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven, 15 And lose my everlasting rest. LOVE AND LIFE. All my past life is mine no more, The flying hours are gone, Like transitory dreams given o'er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. 5 The time that is to come is not : How can it then be mine ? The present moment 's all my lot, And that, as fast as it is got, Phyllis, is only thine. 10 Then talk not of inconstancy, False hearts, and broken vows, If I, by miracle, can be This live-long minute true to thee, 'Tis all that heaven allows. 15 196 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. UPON DRINKING IN A BOWL. Vulcan, contrive me such a cup As Nestor used of old ; Show all thy skill to trim it up, Damask it round with gold. Make it so large that, filled with sack 5 Up to the swelling brim, Vast toasts on the delicious lake, Like ships at sea may swim. Engrave not battle on his cheek, With war I 've naught to do : 10 I 'm none of those that took Maestrick, Nor Yarmouth leaguer knew. Let it no name of planets tell, Fixed stars or constellations ; For I am no Sir Sidrophel, 15 Nor none of his relations. But carve thereon a spreading vine, Then add two lovely boys ; Their limbs in amorous folds entwine, The type of future joys. 20 Cupid and Bacchus my saints are, May Drink and Love still reign ! With wine I wash away my care, And then to love again. ROCHESTER. 197 CONSTANCY. I cannot change, as others do, Though you unjustly scorn, Since that poor swain that sighs for you, For you alone was born ; No, Phyllis, no, your heart to move 5 A surer way I '11 try, And to revenge my slighted love, Will still love on, and die. When, killed with grief, Amyntas lies, And you to mind shall call io The sighs that now unpitied rise, The tears that vainly fall : That welcome hour that ends his smart, Will then begin your pain, For such a faithful tender heart 15 Can never break in vain. A SONG. My dear mistress has a heart Soft as those kind looks she gave me ; When with love's resistless art, And her eyes, she did enslave me. But her constancy's so weak 5 She 's so wild and apt to wander ; That my jealous heart would break, Should we live one day asunder. Melting joys about her move, Killing pleasures, wounding blisses ; IO She can dress her eyes in love, And her lips can arm with kisses. 198 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Angels listen when she speaks, She 's my delight, all mankind's wonder; But my jealous heart would break, J 5 Should we live one day asunder. Thomas Flatman, Toetns and Songs, 1674 ; date of writing uncertain. THE DEFIANCE. Be not too proud, imperious dame, Your charms are transitory things, May melt, while you at heaven aim, Like Icarus's waxen wings ; And you a part in his misfortune bear, 5 Drowned in a briny ocean of despair. You think your beauties are above The poet's brain and painter's hand, As if upon the throne of love You only should the world command : '5 Yet know, though you presume your title true, There are pretenders that will rival you. There 's an experienced rebel, Time, And in his squadron 's Poverty; There 's Age that brings along with him J 5 A terrible artillery : And if against all these thou keep'st thy crown, Th' usurper Death will make thee lay it down. S/R GEORGE ETHERIDGE. 199 Sir George Etheridge, A Col- lection of Poems, 1 701; written before 1675. TO A LADY, ASKING HOW LONG HE WOULD LOVE HER. It is not, Celia, in our power To say how long our love will last ; It may be we within this hour May lose those joys we now do taste : The blessed that immortal be, 5 From change in love are only free. Then since we mortal lovers are, Ask not how long our love may last ; But while it does, let us take care Each minute be with pleasure passed: 10 Were it not madness to deny To live because we 're sure to die? A SONG. Ye happy swains whose hearts are free From Love's imperial chain, Take warning and be taught by me T' avoid th' enchanting pain ; Fatal the wolves to trembling flocks, 5 Fierce winds to blossoms prove, To careless seamen, hidden rocks, To human quiet, love. Fly the fair sex, if bliss you prize ; The snake's beneath the flower: 10 200 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Whoever gazed on beauteous eyes, That tasted quiet more ? How faithless is the lovers' joy! How constant is their care The kind with falsehood to destroy, 15 The cruel, with despair ! Aphara Behn, Abdelazer, or the Moor's Revenge, 1677 ; acted 1676. SONG. Love in fantastic triumph sat, Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, For whom fresh pains he did create, And strange tyrannic power he showed ; From thy bright eyes he took his fires, 5 Which round about in sport he hurled ; But 't was from mine he took desires Enough t' undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, From thee his pride and cruelty ; 10 From me his languishments and fears, And every killing dart from thee : Thus thou and I the god have armed, And set him up a deity, But my poor heart alone is harmed, 15 Whilst thine the victor is, and free. JOHN DRYDEN 201 John Dryden, Troilus and Cressida, 1679. CAN LIFE BE A BLESSING? Can life be a blessing, Or worth the possessing, Can life be a blessing, if love were away ? Ah, no ! though our love all night keep us waking, And though he torment us with cares all the day, 5 Yet he sweetens, he sweetens our pains in the taking; There 's an hour at the last, there 's an hour to repay. In every possessing, The ravishing blessing, In every possessing, the fruit of our pain, 10 Poor lovers forget long ages of anguish, Whate'er they have suffered and done to obtain ; 'Tis a pleasure, a pleasure to sigh and to languish, When we hope, when we hope to be happy again. Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, A New Miscellany of Poems on Several Occasions, 1701 ; written before 1680. ON A LADY WHO FANCIED HERSELF A BEAUTY. Dorinda's sparkling wit and eyes, United cast too fierce a light, Which blazes high, but quickly dies, Pains not the heart, but hurts the sight. 202 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Love is a calmer, gentler joy, Smooth are his looks, and soft his pace Her Cupid is a blackguard boy, That runs his link full in your face. The same in Works of Celebrated Authors, 1750 ; written before 16S0. SONG. Phyllis, for shame ! let us improve A thousand different ways Those few short moments snatched by love From many tedious days. If you want courage to despise 5 The censure of the grave, Though Love's a tyrant in your eyes Your heart is but a slave. My love is full of noble pride, Nor can it e'er submit 10 To let that fop, Discretion, ride In triumph over it. False friends I have, as well as you, Who daily counsel me Fame and ambition to pursue, 15 And leave off loving thee. But when the least regard I show To fools who thus advise, May I be dull enough to grow Most miserably wise ! 20 JOHN DRYDEN. 203 John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, 1 68 1 . FAREWELL, UNGRATEFUL TRAITOR. Farewell, ungrateful traitor! Farewell, my perjured swain ! Let never injured creature Believe a man again. The pleasure of possessing 5 Surpasses all expressing, But 'tis too short a blessing, And love too long a pain. 'T is easy to deceive us, In pity of your pain ; I0 But when we love, you leave us To rail at you in vain. Before we have descried it, There is no bliss beside it, But she, that once has tried it, 15 Will never love again. The passion you pretended, Was only to obtain; But when the charm is ended, The charmer you disdain. 20 Your love by ours we measure, Till we have lost our treasure; But dying is a pleasure, When living is a pain. 204 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. John Dryden, The Duke of Guise, 1683; acted 16S2. SONG. BETWIXT A SHEPHERD AND A SHEPHERDESS. Shepherdess. Tell me, Thyrsis, tell your anguish, Why you sigh, and why you languish; When the nymph whom you adore Grants the blessing Of possessing, 5 What can love and I do more ? Shepherd. Think it 's love beyond all measure Makes me faint away with pleasure ; Strength of cordial may destroy, And the blessing 10 Of possessing Kills me with excess of joy. Shepherdess. Thyrsis, how can I believe you ? But confess, and I '11 forgive you : Men are false, and so are you. 15 Never Nature Framed a creature To enjoy, and yet be true. Shepherd. Mine 's a flame beyond expiring, Still possessing, still desiring, 20 JOHN NORRIS. 205 Fit for Love's imperial crown ; Ever shining And refining Still the more 't is melted down. Chor- us. Mine's a flame beyond expiring, 25 Still possessing, still desiring, Fit for Love's imperial crown ; Ever shining And refining Still the more 't is melted down. 30 John Norris, Poems and Dis- courses, 1684. HYMN TO DARKNESS. Hail, thou most sacred venerable thing! What Muse is worthy thee to sing ? Thee, from whose pregnant universal womb All things, even Light, thy rival, first did come. What dares he not attempt that sings of thee, 5 Thou first and greatest mystery ? Who can the secrets of thy essence tell ? Thou, like the light of God, art inaccessible. Before great Love this monument did raise, This ample theatre of praise; 10 Before the folding circles of the sky Were tuned by him who is all harmony; Before the morning stars their hymn began Before the council held for man ; 206 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Before the birth of either Time or Place 1 5 Thou reign'st unquestioned monarch in the empty space. Thy native lot thou didst to Light resign, But still half of the globe is thine. Here with a quiet, and yet awful hand, Like the best emperors, thou dost command. 2 ° To thee the stars above their brightness owe, And mortals their repose below. To thy protection Fear and Sorrow flee And those that weary are of light find rest in thee. Though light and glory be th' Almighty's throne, 25 Darkness is his pavilion. From that his radiant beauty, but from thee He has his terror and his majesty. Thus when he first proclaimed his sacred law, And would his rebel subjects awe, 3° Like princes on some great solemnity, H' appeared in 's robes of state and clad himself with thee. The blest above do thy sweet umbrage prize, When, cloyed with light, they veil their eyes ; The vision of the Deity is made 35 More sweet and beatific by thy shade. But we, poor tenants of this orb below Don't here thy excellencies know, Till death our understandings does improve, And then our wiser ghosts thy silent night-walks love. 4° But thee I now admire, thee would I choose For my religion, or my Muse. 'T is hard to tell whether thy reverend shade Has more good votaries or poets made, CHARLES COTTON. 207 From thy dark caves were inspirations given, 45 And from thick groves went vows to Heaven. Hail then, thou Muse's and devotion's spring ! Tis just we should adore, 't is just we should thee sing. Charles Cotton, Poems on Several Occasions, 1689; written before 1687. THE MORNING QUATRAINS. The cock has crowed an hour ago, 'Tis time we now dull sleep forgo; Tired nature is by sleep redressed And labor 's overcome by rest. We have out-done the work of night ; 5 'Tis time we rise t' attend the light, And ere he shall his beams display, To plot new business for the day. None but the slothful or unsound Are by the sun in feathers found, 10 Nor, without rising with the sun, Can the world's business e'er be done. Hark, hark ! the watchful chanticler Tells us the day's bright harbinger Peeps o'er the eastern hills, to awe 15 And warn night's sov'reign to withdraw. The morning curtains now are drawn, And now appears the blushing dawn ; Aurora has her roses shed, To strew the way Sol's steeds must tread. 20 20S SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Xanthus and ./Ethon harnessed are To roll away the burning car, And, snorting flame, impatient bear The dressing of the charioteer. The sable cheeks of sullen Night 25 Are streaked with rosy streams of light, Whilst she retires away in fear To shade the other hemisphere. The merry lark now takes her wings, And longed-for day's loud welcome sings, 3° Mounting her body out of sight, As if she meant to meet the light. Now doors and windows are unbarred, Each-where are cheerful voices heard, And round about " good-morrows " fly, 35 As if day taught humanity. The chimneys now to smoke begin, And the old wife sits down to spin, Whilst Kate, taking her pail, does trip Mull's swoll'n and straddling paps to strip. 40 Vulcan now makes his anvil ring, Dick whistles loud and Maud doth sing, And Silvio with his bugle horn Winds an imprime unto the morn. Now through the morning doors behold 45 Phoebus arrayed in burning gold, Lashing his fiery steeds, displays His warm and all-enlight'ning rays. CHARLES COTTON. 209 Now each one to his work repairs, All that have hands are laborers, 5° And manufactures of each trade By op'ning shops are open laid. Hob yokes his oxen to the team, The angler goes unto the stream, The woodman to the purlieus hies, 55 The lab'ring bees to load their thighs. Fair Amaryllis drives her flocks, All night safe folded from the fox, To flow'ry downs, where Colin stays To court her with his roundelays. 6o The traveller now leaves his inn A new day's journey to begin, As he would post it with the day, And early rising makes good way. The slick-faced schoolboy satchel takes, 65 And with slow pace small riddance makes; For why, the haste we make, you know, To knowledge and to virtue 's slow. The fore-horse jingles on the road, The waggoner lugs on his load, 7° The field with busy people snies, And city rings with various cries. The world is now a busy swarm, All doing good, or doing harm ; But let 's take heed our acts be true, 75 For heaven's eye sees all we do. 210 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. None can that piercing sight evade, It penetrates the darkest shade, And sin, though it should 'scape the eye, Would be discovered by the cry. 80 RONDEAU. Forbear, fair Phyllis, O forbear Those deadly killing frowns, and spare A heart so loving, and so true, By none to be subdued, but you, Who my poor life's sole princess are. 5 You only can create my care ; But offend you, I all things dare. Then, lest your cruelty you rue, Forbear ; And lest you kill that heart, beware, I0 To which there is some pity due, If but because I humbly sue. Your anger, therefore, sweetest fair, Though mercy in your sex is rare, Forbear. 15 SONG. Why, dearest, shouldst thou weep when I relate The story of my woe ? Let not the swarthy mists of my black fate O'ercast thy beauty so : For each rich pearl lost on that score, 5 Adds to mischance, and wounds your servant more. Quench not those stars that to my bliss should guide : O spare that precious tear ! CHARLES COTTON. 211 Nor let those drops unto a deluge tide, To drown your beauty there ; 10 That cloud of sorrow makes it night, You lose your lustre, but the world its light. LES AMOURS. She that I pursue, still flies me ; Her that follows me, I fly; She that I still court, denies me ; Her that courts me, I deny : Thus in one web we 're subtly wove, 5 And yet we mutiny in love. She that can save me, must not do it ; She that cannot, fain would do ; Her love is bound, yet I still woo it ; Hers by love is bound in woe : 10 Yet how can I of love complain, Since I have love for love again? -*•&' This is thy work, imperious Child, Thine 's this labyrinth of love, That thus hast our desires beguiled, 15 Nor seest how thine arrows rove. Then prithee, to compose this stir, Make her love me, or me love her. But, if irrevocable are Those keen shafts that wound us so, 20 Let me prevail with thee thus far, That thou once more take thy bow; Wound her hard heart, and by my troth, I '11 be content to take them both. 212 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. SONG. Join once again, my Celia, join Thy rosy lips to these of mine, Which, though they be not such, Are full as sensible of bliss, That is, as soon can taste a kiss, 5 As thine of softer touch. Each kiss of thine creates desire, Thy odorous breath inflames love's fire, And wakes the sleeping coal : Such a kiss to be I find 10 The conversation of the mind, And whisper of the soul. Thanks, sweetest, now thou 'rt perfect grown, For by this last kiss 1 'm undone ; Thou breathest silent darts, 15 Henceforth each little touch will prove A dangerous stratagem in love, And thou wilt blow up hearts. TO CELIA. ODE. When, Celia, must my old days set, And my young morning rise In beams of joy, so bright, as yet Ne'er blessed a lover's eyes ? My state is more advanced than when 5 I first attempted thee; I sued to be a servant then, But now to be made free. CHARLES COTTON. 213 I 've served my time, faithful and true, Expecting to be placed 10 In happy freedom, as my due, To all the joys thou hast : 111 husbandry in love is such A scandal to love's power, We ought not to mispend so much 15 As one poor short-lived hour. Yet think not, sweet, I 'm weary grown, That I pretend such haste, Since none to surfeit e'er was known Before he had a taste ; 20 My infant love could humbly wait, When young it scarce knew how To plead ; but grown to man's estate He is impatient now. LAURA SLEEPING. Winds, whisper gently whilst she sleeps, And fan her with your cooling wings, Whilst she her drops of beauty weeps From pure and yet unrivalled springs. Glide over beauty's field, her face, 5 To kiss her lip and cheek be bold, But with a calm and stealing pace, Neither too rude nor yet too cold. Play in her beams and crisp her hair With such a gale as wings soft love, 10 And with so sweet, so rich an air As breathes from the Arabian grove. 214 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. A breath as hushed as lover's sigh, Or that unfolds the morning door; Sweet as the winds that gently fly 15 To sweep the spring's enamelled floor. Murmur soft music to her dreams, That pure and unpolluted run, Like to the new-born crystal streams Under the bright enamoured sun. 20 But when she waking shall display Her light, retire within your bar. Her breath is life, her eyes are day, And all mankind her creatures are. Aphara Behn, The Lover's Watch, 1686. THE CHARM FOR CONSTANCY. Iris, to keep my soul entire and true, It thinks each moment of the day on you ; And when a charming face I see That does all other eyes incline, It has no influence on me : I think it e'en deformed to thine. My eyes, my soul, and sense regardless move To all but the dear object of my love. APHARA BE/IN. 215 Aphara Behn, The Lucky Chance, 1687. O LOVE THAT STRONGER ART THAN WINE. O love ! that stronger art than wine, Pleasing delusion, witchery divine, Wont to be prized above all wealth, Disease that has more joys than health : Though we blaspheme thee in our pain, 5 And of thy tyranny complain, We all are bettered by thy reign. What reason never can bestow We to this useful passion owe : Love wakes the dull from sluggish ease, 10 And learns a clown the art to please, Humbles the vain, kindles the cold, Makes misers free, and cowards bold ; 'T is he reforms the sot from drink, And teaches airy fops to think. 15 When full brute appetite is fed, And choked the glutton lies and dead, Thou new spirits dost dispense And finest the gross delights of sense : Virtue's unconquerable aid 20 That against Nature can persuade, And makes a roving mind retire Within the bounds of just desire ; Cheerer of age, youth's kind unrest, And half the heaven of the blest ! 25 216 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Edmund Waller, The Second Part of Mr. Waller's Poems, 1690 ; written after 16S6. OF THE LAST VERSES IN THE BOOK. When we for age could neither read nor write, The subject made us able to indite ; The soul, with nobler resolutions decked, The body stooping, does herself erect. No mortal parts are requisite to raise 5 Her that, unbodied, can her Maker praise. The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; So, calm are we when passions are no more ! For then we know how vain it was to boast Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost. 10 Clouds of affection from our younger eyes Conceal that emptiness which age descries. The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made; Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, 15 As they draw near to their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. John Dryden, Poems on Various Occasions, 1701. A SONG. for saint Cecilia's day, 1687. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : When nature underneath a heap JOHN DRY DEN. 217 Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, 5 The tuneful voice was heard from high, 'Arise, ye more than dead.' Then cold, and hot and moist, and dry, , In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. 10 From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man. 15 What passion cannot music raise and quell? When Jubal struck the chorded shell, His listening brethren stood around, And, wondering, on their faces fell To worship that celestial sound. 20 Less than a god they thought there could not dwell Within the hollow of that shell That spoke so sweetly and so well. What passion cannot music raise and quell? The trumpet's loud clangor 25 Excites us to arms, With shrill notes of anger And mortal alarms. The double, double, double beat Of the thundering drum, 30 Cries, hark ! the foes come : Charge, charge ! 't is too late to retreat. The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers 21S SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. The woes of hopeless lovers, 35 Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute. Sharp violins proclaim Their jealous pangs and desperation, Fury, frantic indignation, Depths of pains and height of passion 4° For the fair, disdainful dame. But, O ! what art can teach, What human voice can reach The sacred organ's praise ? Notes inspiring holy love, 45 Notes that wing their heavenly ways To mend the choirs above. Orpheus could lead the savage race, And trees unrooted left their place Sequacious to the lyre : 5° But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher; When to her organ vocal breath was given, An angel heard, and straight appeared Mistaking earth for heaven. Grand Chorus. As from the power of sacred lays 55 The spheres began to move, And sung the great Creator's praise To all the bless'd above; So when the last and dreadful hour This crumbling pageant shall devour, 60 The trumpet shall be heard on high, The dead shall live, the living die, And Music shall untune the sky. JOHN DRYDEN. 1Y) John Dryden, King Arthur., 1691. FAIREST ISLE, ALL ISLES EXCELLING. Fairest isle, all isles excelling, Seat of pleasures and of loves ; Venus here will choose her dwelling, And forsake her Cyprian groves. Cupid from his favorite nation 5 Care and envy will remove ; Jealousy, that poisons passion, And despair, that dies for love. Gentle murmurs, sweet complaining, Sighs that blow the fire of love ; 10 Soft repulses, kind disdaining, Shall be all the pains you prove. Every swain shall pay his duty, Grateful every nymph shall prove ; And as these excel in beauty, *5 Those shall be renowned for love. John Dryden, Cleomenes, 1692. NO, NO, POOR SUFFERING HEART. No, no, poor suffering heart, no change endeavor ; Choose to sustain the smart, rather than leave her. My ravished eyes behold such charms about her, I can die with her, but not live without her ; One tender sigh of hers to see me languish, Will more than pay the price of my past anguish. 220 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. Beware, O cruel fair, how you smile on me, 'T was a kind look of yours that has undone me. Love has in store for me one happy minute, And she will end my pain who did begin it ; 10 Then no day void of bliss or pleasure leaving, Ages shall slide away without perceiving : Cupid shall guard the door, the more to please us, And keep out Time and Death, when they would seize us: Time and Death shall depart, and say, in flying, 15 Love has found out a way to live by dying. John Dryden, Third Miscellany, 1693. A SONG. TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY GOING OUT OF TOWN IN SPRING. Ask not the cause why sullen spring So long delays her flowers to bear ; Why warbling birds forget to sing, And winter storms invert the year : Chloris is gone, and Fate provides 5 To make it spring where she resides. Chloris is gone, the cruel fair ; She cast not back a pitying eye, But left her lover in despair, To sigh, to languish, and to die. 10 Ah, how can those fair eyes endure, To give the wounds they will not cure ? Great god of love, why hast thou made A face that can all hearts command, MATTHEW PRIOR. 221 That all religions can invade, 15 And change the laws of every land ? Where thou hadst placed such power before, Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. When Chloris to the temple comes, Adoring crowds before her fall ; 2 ° She can restore the dead from tombs, And every life but mine recall. I only am by love designed To be the victim for mankind. Matthew Prior, Poems on Sev- eral Occasions, 1709; written about 1693. A SONG. In vain you tell your parting lover You wish fair winds may waft him over. Alas ! what winds can happy prove That bear me far from what I love ? Alas ! what dangers on the main 5 Can equal those that I sustain From slighted vows and cold disdain ? Be gentle, and in pity choose To wish the wildest tempests loose ; That, thrown again upon the coast 10 Where first my shipwrecked heart was lost, I may once more repeat my pain, Once more in dying notes complain Of slighted vows and cold disdain. 222 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. John Dryden, Love Trium- phant, 1693-94. SONG OF JEALOUSY. What state of life can be so blest As love, that warms a lover's breast ? Two souls in one, the same desire To grant the bliss, and to require. But if in heaven a hell we find, 5 'T is all from thee, O Jealousy ! 'Tis all from thee, O Jealousy ! Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, 10 Thou tyrant of the mind. All other ills, though sharp they prove, Serve to refine and perfect love : In absence, or unkind disdain, Sweet hope relieves the lover's pain. 15 But, ah ! no cure but death we find, To set us free From Jealousy : O Jealousy ! Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, 20 Thou tyrant of the mind. False in thy glass all objects are, Some set too near, and some too far; Thou art the fire of endless night, The fire that burns, and gives no light. 25 All torments of the damned we find In only thee, MATTHEW PRIOR. 223 O Jealousy ! Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, Thou tyrant of the mind. 3° Matthew Prior, Poems on Sev- eral Occasions, 1709; written about 1695-96. AN ODE. The merchant, to secure his treasure, Conveys it in a borrowed name : Euphelia serves to grace my measure, But Chloe is my real flame. My softest verse, my darling lyre 5 Upon Euphelia's toilet lay, When Chloe noted her desire That I should sing, that I should play. My lyre I tune, my voice I raise ; But with my numbers mix my sighs ; 10 And whilst I sing Euphelia's praise, I fix my soul on Chloe's eyes. Fair Chloe blushed, Euphelia frowned, I sung and gazed, I played and trembled : And Venus to the Loves around l S Remarked how ill we all dissembled. TO CHLOE WEEPING. See, whilst thou weep'st, fair Chloe, see The world in sympathy with thee ! 224 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. The cheerful birds no longer sing, Each droops his head, and hangs his wing ; The clouds have bent their bosom lower, 5 And shed their sorrows in a shower ; The brooks beyond their limits flow, And louder murmurs speak their woe. The nymphs and swains adopt thy cares, They heave thy sighs and weep thy tears. 10 Fantastic nymph, that grief should move Thy heart obdurate against love ! Strange tears, whose power can soften all But that dear breast on which they fall ! A SONG. If wine and music have the power To ease the sickness of the soul, Let Phoebus every string explore, And Bacchus fill the sprightly bowl. Let them their friendly aid employ 5 To make my Chloe's absence light, And seek for pleasure to destroy The sorrows of this live-long night. But she to-morrow will return. Venus be thou to-morrow great, 10 Thy myrtles strew, thy odors burn, And meet thy favorite nymph in state. Kind goddess, to no other powers Let us to-morrow's blessings own ; Thy darling loves shall guide the hours, 15 And all the day be thine alone. GEORGE GRANVILLE. 225 George Granville, Lord Lans- DOWNE, A Collection of Poems, 1 70 1 ; written before 1689. SONG. The happiest mortals once were we, I loved Myra, Myra me ; Each desirous of the blessing, Nothing wanting but possessing ; I loved Myra, Myra me : 5 The happiest mortals once were we. But since cruel fates dissever, Torn from love, and torn forever, Tortures end me, Death befriend me ! 10 Of all pain, the greatest pain Is to love, and love in vain. William Congreve, Works, 1710; written before 1700. SONG. See, see, she wakes, Sabina wakes ! And now the sun begins to rise ; Less glorious is the morn that breaks From his bright beams, than her fair eyes. With light united, day they give, But different fates ere night fulfil ; How many by his warmth will live ! How many will her coldness kill ! 226 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LYRICS. AMORET. Fair Amoret is gone astray : Pursue and seek her, every lover ! I '11 tell the signs by which you may The wandering shepherdess discover. Coquet and coy at once her air, 5 Both studied, though both seem neglected ; Careless she is, with artful care, Affecting to seem unaffected. With skill her eyes dart every glance, Yet change so soon you 'd ne'er suspect them ; io For she 'd persuade they wound by chance, Though certain aim and art direct them. She likes herself, yet others hates For that which in herself she prizes ; And while she laughs at them, forgets 15 She is the thing that she despises. John Dryden, The Secular Masque, 1700. HUNTING SONG. Diana. With horns and hounds, I waken the day, And hie to the woodland walks away ; I tuck up my robe, and am buskined soon, And tie to my forehead a wexing moon ; JOHN DRYDEN 111 I course the fleet stag, and unkennel the fox, 5 And chase the wild goats o'er the summits of rocks ; With shouting and hooting we pierce through the sky, And Echo turns hunter and doubles the cry. Chorus. With shouting and hooting we pierce through the sky, And Echo turns hunter and doubles the cry. 10 NOTES. 1. Pan's Anniversary. The title of this masque, as printed in the folio of 1631-1641, bears : " As it was presented at Court before King James, 1625." James died in March of that year, and as this masque is more appropriate to summer, Nichols has assigned it to the summer of 1624, Mr. Fleay to June 19, 1623. This was one of the masques in which Inigo Jones, the famous architect, assisted Jonson. As to Jonson, see the editor's Elizabethan Lyrics, Athenaeum Press Series, pp. xxxi, lxvi, and 259. 1. The Shepherds' Holiday. In the original the three stanzas are assigned to successive " nymphs," young women of marriageable age. 1 l. Rites Are due. Note the omission of the relative. See Abbott's Shakespeare Grammar, § 244, and cf. below, pp. 4 3, 9 2, IS 5, 94 9, 107 4. 1 9. Primrose-drop. Appropriately so called from the appearance of the blossoms as placed on separate peduncles. 1 10. Day's-eyes and the lips of cows. Daisies and cowslips. 1 11. Garden-star. Probably the flower popularly known as the star-of-Bethlehem. 2. Hymn, To Pan. Here, too, the stanzas in the original are assigned to successive nymphs, the refrain being in chorus. 2 3. Can. Knows, is able to perform. Cf. 99 20. 2 7. Hermes would appropriately lead the dance, from the lightness of his winged feet. 2 18. Rebound. Echo back, resound, a not uncommon meaning. Cf. Child, Ballads, ed. 187 1, III, 340, and, especially, The Spanish Tragedy, i. 1. 30: Both raising dreadful clamors to the sky, That valleys, hills and rivers made rebound. 2. Thomas Dekker. See Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 232. 2. The Sun's Darling is described as " a moral masque," and is the work of Dekker and Ford. These two vigorous songs are assur- edly Dekker's. 229 230 NOTES. 2. Country Glee. The title is Mr. Bullen's. 2 7. Bravely. Finely, beautifully. 3 16. Princes' courts. Mr. Bullen, on I know not what authority, reads a prince's courts. The ed. of Ford, 1840, and the reprint of Dekker read as in the text. 3 20. Echo's holloa. Ed. 1870 reads echo's hollow. 3 27. Spring up . . . the partridges. Start, raise. 3 35. Sousing. Swooping down, a term in falconry. 4. Cast away Care. This lively drinking song is put into the mouth of the character Folly. 4 6. Play it off. A term in the old jargon of boon-companionship. Cf. 1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 18. 4 9. Cf. Falstaff's praise of sack, 2 Henry IV, iv. 3. 92. 4. Christ Church MS. This poem was first printed by Mr. Bullen in his More Lyrics from Elizabethan Song Books, 18S8, p. 125. 4 6. Years Are yet untold. Note the omission of the relative and cf. 1 2. 5. Thomas May, the historian of the Long Parliament, wrote several plays in his youth. Mr. Fleay places the composition of The Old Cotiple before The Heir, which was acted in 1620. The poem in the text appears also in Porter's Madrigals and Airs, 1632. 5. Love's Prime. Mr. Bullen {More Lyrics, p. 153) doubts whether May wrote this song. The title is that given in Wifs Recreations, ed. 1 641 (not 1640, if I read the Preface to Park's reprint of that inter- esting work, p. ix, aright). This poem was also printed in John Cot- grave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655, and in Stafford Smith's Mnsica Antigua, of about the same date. Both of these versions exhibit several variant readings of minor importance. 5 5. Flaming beams. This is the reading of Wifs Recreations ; Bullen reads inflaming beams, etc. 5 9. Still young. Ever young. Cf. 33 12. 5 9 10. These lines are omitted in the version of Wit's Recreations. 5. Edmund Waller, in the Biographica Britannica, ed. 1766, start- lingly described as " the most celebrated lyric poet that England ever produced," has of late been almost as perversely dignified by Mr. Gosse (in his From Shakespeare to Pope) as the absolute founder of the classic school of poetry. I would commend a consideration of this little lyric of Waller's (which his first editor, Fenton, assigns to the year 1627, and which is wholly in the old, free manner) to those who believe that Waller's " earliest verses . . . possess the formal character, the precise prosody without irregularity or overflow, which we find in NOTES. 231 the ordinary verse of Dryden, Pope or Darwin " {Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 3). 5 1. Stay, Phoebus, stay! Cotton begins a poem with the same words {Poems, ed. 1689, p. 339). 5 6. De Mornay. Probably one of Queen Henrietta's attendants, who upon the misbehavior of Monseigneur Saint George and the Bishop of Mende quitted England (Fenton). 6 7. Well does this prove. The same excellent commentator remarks: "The latter stanza of these verses . . . alludes to the Copernican system, in which the earth is supposed to be a planet, and to move on its own axis around the sun, the center of the universe. Dr. Donne and Mr. Cowley industriously affected to entertain the fair sex with such philosophical allusions, which in his riper age Mr. Waller as industriously avoided." Cf. with this stanza Wordsworth's Poemt, ed. Dowden, p. 54 : No motion has she now, no force ; She neither hears nor sees ; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course With rocks, and stones, and trees. Or more poetically Tennyson's beautiful lines beginning (Poems, ed. 1830, p. 377) : Move eastward, happy earth, and leave Yon orange sunset. 6. Love's Hue and Cry. This poem appears in several places, — first in Shirley's Witty Fair One, published in 1633, in the Poems of Carew, 1640, and in Shirley's octavo volume of 1646. The versions differ considerably. I have preferred the first — that of the play — which seems to me, barring the conclusion, the simplest and the best. The title is that of Shirley's octavo, in which the poem is thus con- cluded : That, that is she ; O straight surprise And bring her unto Love's assize ; But lose no time, for fear that she Ruin all mankind, like me, Fate and philosophy control, And leave the world without a soul. The question of authorship is not easily decided and is rendered the more difficult as this is not the only poem in which there is a con- fusion of authorship between Shirley and Carew. Shirley edited his 232 NOTES. poems in 1646 with greater care than was usual in his age. In a Post- script to the Reader he says in excuse for setting forth his volume : " When I observed most of these copies [of his verses] corrupted in their transcripts, and the rest fleeting from me, which were by some indiscreet collector, not acquainted with distributive justice, mingled with other men's (some eminent) conceptions in print, I thought myself concerned to use some vindication " ( Works of Shirley, ed. Gifford and Dyce, VI, 461). On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that the poetry of Carew was not only printed but prepared for the press after the poet's death. Dyce in his notes on Shirley's poems does not venture an opinion ; Hazlitt claims the poem for the poet he happens to be editing; includes a well-known poem of Drayton's, from its similar title, in his collection, claiming it also for Carew ; says that Dyce did not know of the insertion of the Hue and Cry in the works of Carew ; and, happening upon Dyce's notes before his own ed. of Carew appeared, concludes by retracting his own words in his Index of Names. (See Hazlitt's Carew, pp. 128, and 244 under Shirley .) Such external evidence as we have at hand, then, would assign the authorship of this poem, together with the two others mentioned below, to Shirley rather than to Carew. When we consider the style of the poems, this view is substantiated. Love's Hue and Cry is an imitation, though not a slavish one, of Drayton's Crier (see Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 195), whilst To his Mistress Confined is decidedly Donnian, and the Song, " Would you know what is soft?" a variation on the third stanza of Jonson's Triumph of Charis. Now such imitations, adaptations, or reminiscences of the literature of the past are characteristics of the dramatic work of Shirley, characteristics, by the way, which take less from his praise than might be supposed. (See Ward's estimate, .History of the English Drama, first edition, II, 334.) Reminiscence is emphatically not a trait of the undoubted poetry of Carew, whose delicately wrought and finely polished lyrics elude the paternity of both Jonson and Donne, and sparkle with an originality their own. 6 12. As. That. Cf. 7 8. 6 16. Weed. Garment. This is the reading of the original ed. Gifford reads red. 6 17. As. As if. But see Shakespeare Grammar, % 107. 7. John Ford, the famous dramatist, tried his hand at other forms of literature, even moral treatises. Of his life little is known save that he was matriculated at Oxford and was later admitted a member of the Middle Temple. He does not seem to have depended upon the stage for a livelihood, and most of his work is characterized by elaborated NOTES. 233 care in conception and in diction. Ford retained not a little of the great lyrical touch of the previous age. 7. The Lover's Melancholy was the first play that Ford printed, although many preceded it on the stage. 7 8. As. That. Cf. 6 12. 7. The Broken Heart. There is no account of the first appearance of this famous play. 7 2. Hours. Dissyllabic, as generally. 7 4. Envying. Accent on the penult. Cf. Campion's Song, " Silly boy 'tis full moon yet," Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 187 : He that holds his sweetheart true unto his day of dying, Lives, of all that ever breathed, most worthy the envying. 8 7. So graced, not, etc. So graced as not, etc. See Shakespeare Grammar, § 281, and cf. Merchant of Venice, hi. 3. 9. 9. Thomas Goffe was a clergyman, who, in his youth, wrote several plays, some of them performed by the students of his own college, Christ Church, Oxford. The Careless Shepherdess was acted before the king and queen, apparently after Goffe's death. This may possibly not be Goffe's own. 9 1. Impale. Encircle, surround. Cf. j S/enry VI, iii. 2. 171. 9 2. Flowers the time allows. Cf. 1 2, 4 3. 9. Hesperides. The title of Herrick's collected poetry. The chro- nology of Herrick is attended with peculiar difficulties, as there is little attempt at order or arrangement in either of the divisions of his work that he has left us. He began to write in the twenties, perhaps earlier ; and we have nothing certainly his after 1649. Some of his poems, many of his epigrams — more it is likely than appear in his accredited work — strayed into publications like Wit's Recreations (a hodge-podge of everything the bookseller could lay his hands on), whether before publication elsewhere or not, it is often not easy to determine. In the arrangement of Herrick's poems in this volume I have followed Pro- fessor Hale. See his Dissertation, Die Chronologische Anordnung der Dichtungen Robert Herricks, Halle, 1892. 10. Corinna 's Going A-Maying. Mr. Palgrave says of this poem : " A lyric more faultless and sweet than this cannot be found in any lit- erature. Keeping with profound instinctive art within the limits of the key chosen, Herrick has reached a perfection very rare at any period of literature in the tones of playfulness, natural description, passion, and seriousness which introduce and follow each other, like the motives in 234 NOTES. a sonata by Weber or Beethoven, throughout this little masterpiece of music without notes" (Ed. Herrick, Golden Treasury, p. 190). 10 2. God unshorn. Apollo. 10 4. Fresh-quilted colors. Here referable to the bright and varie- gated colors of sunrise. Cf. Milton's tissued clouds, Ode on the Morning of C/irist's Nativity, v. 146. 10 5. Slug-a-bed. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 2. 11 25. Titan. The sun. 11 28. Beads. Prayers. 11 33. Each porch, etc. It is an ancient custom, still observed in Devonshire and Cornwall, to deck the porches of houses with boughs of sycamore and hawthorn on May-day (Grosart). 11 40. Proclamation made for May. Probably some local cere- monial preceding the May revels, for an account of which latter see Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. 18 13, I, 179. 11 45. Deal of youth. A goodly number of youth. 12 57. Come, let us go. Nott refers to Catullus, Carmen v, for a parallel to this passage. 12. To Julia. A larger number of Herrick's verses are addressed to Julia than to any other of his " many dainty mistresses." 12 3. And the elves also. Cf. Herrick's fairy poetry, ed. Hale, Athenaeum Press Series, pp. 38-48. 12 7. Slow-worm. A harmless species of lizard, but popularly supposed to be very venomous; also called a blind worm. 12 11. Cumber. Trouble, perplex. 13. A Hymn to Love. This poem occurs in Wit's Recreations, from its position probably in an early ed., that of 1641 or 1645. 13 3. Likes me. This impersonal use of like was very common. 13 8. Blubb'ring. Weeping. Not formerly a vulgar or ludicrous word. Cf. Prior's The Better Answer : Dear Chloe, how blubbered is that pretty face. 14. London's Tempe, or The Field of Happiness was composed for the Mayor's festival of 1629, while Dekker was city poet. 14 l. Hammer, from your sound, etc. In allusion to the Jewish legend of later times which associates Tubal-cain, " a furbisher of every cutting instrument of copper and iron," with his father Lamech's song. 15 10. Dragons of the moon. Cf. " Night's swift dragons," A/id- summer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 379, and // Penseroso, v. 59. NOTES. 235 15 15. Lemnian hammers. The island of Lemnos was sacred to Hephaestus as the place on which he fell when hurled from Heaven. 15 27. Sparrowbills. Sparable, a headless nail used in soling shoes. The form sparable occurs in Merrick's Upon Cob., ed. Hazlitt, I, 242. 15 30. Venus' . . . brawls and bans. Bans, curses. As to Venus' brawls with her husband, Vulcan, see Valerius Flaccus, ArgonauHca, II, 98, 175, 312, et passim. 16. The New Inn was so complete a failure that it was not even heard to a conclusion. Two years later Jonson, who did not include it in the folio then printing, put it forth with this title : The New Inn : or the Light Heart, a Comedy. As it was never acted, but most negligently played by some, the King's servants ; and more squeamishly beheld and censured by others, the King's subjects. . . . Now at last set at liberty to the readers, his Majesty's servants and subjects, to be judged of. The most interesting outcome of the failure of this play and the consequent attacks on its author was Jonson's vigorous Ode, To Himself, beginning : "Come leave the loathed stage," and the answers which it inspired among such " sons of Ben " as Randolph, Carew, and others. See Cunningham's Jonson, V, p. 415 f. 16. Dr. John Wilson's Cheerful Airs was not published until 1660, but the spirit of the poetry is almost wholly Elizabethan and Jacobean, a spirit which continued into the earlier part of the reign of Charles. 17 28. That goes into the clear. Probably clear equals the light, blaze of the furnace or refiner's fire. 18 5. Witty. Wise. Cf. 35 17. 18 5. Words her sweet tongue. Cf. 1 2, 4 3, 9 2. 18 5. So wove, four eyes in one. Cf. Donne's The Ecstacy, ed. 1650, p. 42 : Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes upon one double string. 19. Egerton MS., 2013. This MS. contains songs, the music of which was written by Dr. John Wilson (1 594-1673) ; and by John Hil- ton, who died in 1657. Save for some small matters of punctuation, I follow the text of Arber's English Garner, III, 395-397. 20. Upon a Maid. This epitaph is found in Wit's Recreations, ed. Park, p. 245. From its position before several of the epitaphs on Hobson, the Cambridge carrier, by Milton and several lesser poets in 1630, I have no hesitation in placing it early. 20 l. In bed of spice. Cf. The Dirge of Jephtha's Daughter, Her- rick, ed. Hale, 147 61. 236 NOTES. 20. On Time. The words " To be set on a clock-case " are found following this title in Milton's MS. in his own hand (Warton). 20 2. Leaden-stepping. Cf. Carew's A Pastoral Dialogue, where the hours are said to " move with leaden feet." Reprint 1824, p. 56 (Dyce). 20 12. Individual. Inseparable. Cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 486 : "An individual solace dear"; and also ibid. v. 610 (Warton). 21 18. Happy-making sight. The plain English of beatific vision (Newton). 21. Song on May Morning. This little lyric is usually assigned to May 1, 1630. 21 3. Flowery May, etc. Cf. the Faery Queen, Of Mutability, vii. 34 : Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground, Decked all with dainties of her season's pride, And throwing flowers out of her lap around. 21. An Epitaph. These commendatory verses were prefixed to the second folio of Shakespeare. " Milton's couplets, however," as the late Mr. Mark Pattison remarks, " differ from these pieces [others, pre- fixed] in not having been written to order, but being the spontaneous outcome of his own admiration for Shakespeare" (Milton's Sonnets, p. 78). 21 1. Need. The Shakespeare folio reads neede. See Shakespeare Grammar, § 297, and cf. Much Ado, i. 1. 318 : What need the bridge much broader than the flood ? 21 4. Star-ypointing. The prefix y answers to the Old English ^v and " is etymologically equivalent to Latin con, cum. It is usually pre- fixed to past participles, but also to past tenses, present tenses, adjectives and adverbs" (Skeat, Etymological Dictionary, s.v.). 22 10. Heart. The folio reads part. 22 11. Unvalued, invaluable. Cf. unexpressive, inexpressible, Ode on the Nativity, 116, Lycidas, 176, and Shelley's A rethusa : over heaps of unvalued (i.e., valueless) stones. I am indebted for this and many other notes and parallels to Pattison's excellent edition of Milton's Sonnets. 22 15. And, so sepulchred, etc. Pattison refers this ' conceit ' to the funeral oration of Pericles, Thucydides, ii. 43 ; and calls attention to Pope's imitation of it in his Epitaph on Gay. Sepulchred is the usual accent in Shakespeare ; cf. Richard II, i. 3. 195. NOTES. 237 22 16. That kings, etc. Cf. Donne's Letters, ed. 1651, p. 244 : " No prince would be loth to die that were assured of so fair a tomb to pre- serve his memory." 22. To the Nightingale. This title is not found in either the edition of 1645 or tnat °^ : ^73- " ^ n tn i s sonnet an d the Shakespeare epitaph," says Pattison, " Milton had not yet shaken himself free from the trick of contriving concetti, as was the fashion of the previous age, and especially of his models, the Italians. After these two juvenile pieces his sense of reality asserted itself, and he never again, in the sonnets, lapses into frigid and far-fetched ingenuities" {Milton's Sonnets, p. 84). 22 4. Jolly. Festive or almost in the sense of the French joli, pleasing, pretty. Cf . The Faery Queen, Of Mutability, vii. 29 : " Then came the jolly summer," and ibid. 35, where the same adjectiveis applied to June. Cf. Milton's poem In Adventum Veris, 25, 26, and Gray's Ode to Spring. 22 5. Close the eye of day. Cf. Comics, 978, and Crashaw, To the Morning, ed. Trumbull, p. 113 (Todd). 22 6. First heard, etc. Cf. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, 51-56: But as I lay this other night waking, I thought how lovers had a tokening, And among hem it was a commune tale That it would good to hear the nightingale Rather than the leud cuckoo sing. Pattison calls this whole sonnet " only an amplification of this stanza." 22 9. Rude bird of hate. The cuckoo, from its habit of leaving its eggs in the nests of other birds and deserting its offspring, became in all literatures the type of the enemy of love. Cf. Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. 1813, II, 114. 22 13. His mate. His agreeing with Love in gender. 23 1. How soon hath Time. This sonnet has every appearance of having been written on Milton's twenty-third birthday, Dec. 9, 1631, although the heading of the text is not found in either of the editions printed during the poet's lifetime. The sonnet appears to have been prompted by a friend's expostulation that Milton do something better than study. See Masson's Milton, I, 289, where this letter is quoted entire. 23 1. The subtle thief of youth. Cf. Pope's Sat. VI, 76. 238 NOTES. 23 2. Stolen on his wing. Cf. Pope's Trans/, of Martial's Epigram on Antonins Primus, X, 23: While Time with still career Wafts on his gentle wing his eightieth year. 23 5. My semblance. In allusion to his youthful face and figure. It is said that when forty Milton was taken for thirty. 23 8. Endu'th. Endoweth. 23 9. It. I.e., inward ripeness, v. 7. 23 10. It shall be still in strictest measure even. " Nothing in Milton's life is more noteworthy than his deliberate intention to be a great poet, and the preparation he made with that intention from the earliest period. Here we have a solemn record of self-dedication, with- out specification of the nature of the performance" (Pattison, Milton's Sonnets, p. 9S). 23 10 11. Even to. Conformable with. 23 14. Taskmaster's eye. An allusion to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, Matthew XX. 23. Philip Massinger was sometime page in the household of the Earl of Pembroke. The limits and extent of his dramatic labors are difficult to define, owing to his habit of collaboration. A close friend- ship existed between him and Fletcher. He is said to have become a convert to Roman Catholicism in middle life. This play is one of the fifteen in which Massinger is supposed to have been unaided by others. 23. Death Invoked. This is Mr. Bullen's title. The song is sung, in the play, by the empress Eudocia. 24. Richard Brome was in early life a servant and later a protege of Ben Jonson. The Northern Lass was his most successful play. 24 4. Mickle. This form, later confined chiefly to the north, was not uncommon in Elizabethan English. 25. Richard Brathwaite was a voluminous author in his clay, his works ranging through the usual popular and trivial subjects of the pamphleteer in verse and prose. He appears to have written for pleasure, as he was a man of substantial wealth and position. His best-known work is his Barnabae Itinerarium or Barnabee's Journal, an account of a journey in English and Latin doggerel verses of con- siderable spirit. The English Gentleman and The English Gentle- woman are made up of " sundry excellent rules and exquisite observations, tending to direction of every gentleman of selecter rank and quality, how to demean, or accommodate himself in the manage- ment of public and private affairs." NOTES. 239 25. Celestina, or the tragi-comedy of Calisto and Melibea, a dramatic romance in dialogue, is regarded by historians of Spanish literature as the source of their national drama. The work was com- pleted about the year 1492, by Fernando de Rojas, by the addition of twenty acts to the first, which was ascribed to Rodrigo Cota. James Mabbe, who translated his own name into Don Diego Puer-de-ser on the title, was the first to translate the story into English, although the plot had been more than once previously employed in the drama. Though no more than translations, the first from the thirteenth act, the second from the nineteenth, these two little lyrics have a grace of manner and a poetical spirit which I think justifies their reappearance here. The former reads thus in the original {La Celestina, Barcelona, 1883, p. 228) : Duerme y descansa, penado. Desde azora ; Pues te ama tu senora De su grado ; Venza placer al cuidado, Y no le vea, Pues te ha hecho su privado Melibea. Mr. Bullen, who is apparently not aware that these lyrics are transla- tions, finds a more remote resemblance in one of the fragments of Sappho. 26. Albion's Triumph. This masque was " presented by the King and his lords, Sunday after Twelfth Night." Inigo Jones contrived it and procured Townsend to write it. The flattery of royalty by obvious classical allusion needs no explanation here. 27. Love in thy Youth. There is a MS. copy of this poem, Ash- mole MS. 38, No. 188. 28. Peter Hausted, a Cambridge clergyman, " was killed on the ramparts of Banbury, while the Roundheads were vigorously besieging it " (Gosse). The Rival Friends is described on the title as " cried down by boys, faction, envy and confident ignorance ; approved by the judicious, and now exposed to public censure by the author"; and dedicated " To the Right Honourable, Right Reverend, Right Worship- ful, or whatever he be, or shall be, whom I hereafter may call patron." 29. William Habington, says Anthony a Wood, "was educated at S. Omers and Paris ; in the first of which he was earnestly invited to take upon him the habit of the Jesuits, but by excuses, got free and left them. After his return from Paris, being at man's estate, 240 NOTES. he was instructed at home in matters of history by his father, and became an accomplished gentleman" (Athenae Oxon., ed. 1S17, III, 223). Wood relates further that Ilabington, during the Commonwealth, "did run with the times, and was not unknown to Oliver the Usurper." Besides Castara, Habington wrote a play and some Observations upon History. 29. Castara. The text is from Professor Arber's reprint of the ed. 1 634- 1 640. Castara was Lady Lucy Herbert, daughter of Lord Fowis, whom the poet married between 1630 and 1633. The poems are largely autobiographical, and smack strongly of the characteristics of the Elizabethan sonnet sequences, though few of them are in anything even approaching the sonnet form. Professor Masson assigns the earlier poems of Castara to the year 1632; the later ones were written after Habington's marriage {Life of Milton, I, 454). 29 2. In the chaste nunn'ry of her breasts. Cf. Lovelace's use of the same figure below, — To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars, 132 2. 29 5. Transplanted thus, how bright ye grow. Cf. Carew, On a Damask Rose, sticking upon a Lady's Breast. 29 7. Close. Walled in, protected. 29 14. Your glorious sepulchre shall be. Cf. with this verse and the whole poem, Herrick's lines Upon the Roses in Julia's Bosom : Thrice happy roses, so much graced, to have Within the bosom of my love your grave ! Die when ye will, your sepulchre is known, Your grave her bosom is, the lawn the stone. 30 16. The withered marigold. In allusion to the popular belief that the marigold closes its petals with the setting of the sun. Cf. Carew, The Marigold, below, p. 43. 30 5. Some cherubim. Often used as a singular in Shakespeare's day and later. Cf. Tempest, i. 2. 152, and 73 6, below. 31. Against them that lay Unchastity to the Sex of Woman. This poem is written in direct answer to Donne's Song, " Go and catch a falling star." See Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 97. 31 3. They hear but when the mermaid sings. Donne: "Teach me to hear mermaid's singing." 31 5. Who ever dare affirm. Donne : And swear Nowhere Lives a woman true and fair. NOTES. 241 31 11. Right ones. True ones, real ones. 32. George Herbert enjoyed a distinguished career at Cambridge, procuring in 1619 the public oratorship of the University. This, with the high position of his family, brought him into contact with the court, where he was held in high favor by James, and enjoyed the personal friendship of Bacon and Dr. Donne. Having entered the church, in 1630 he became rector of Fuggelstone, after which he survived only three years. His life was pure and saint-like and has been beautifully told by Isaak Walton. 32. The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations is the title of Herbert's volume of devotional poetry. This title appears to have been given the work after Herbert's death by his friend and literary executor, Nicholas Ferrar. One of the two extant MSS. of The Temple, that in the Williams Library, London, bears the title, The Church, the later title having been given the work from Psalm XXIX, " In his Temple doth every man speak of his honor," which appears in the printed title. The book enjoyed from the first a great popularity, a second edition following in the same year, with no less than eleven successors up to 1709. 32. The Altar, Easter Wings. Both of these poems were printed in the original editions to shape their titles. A chapter, interesting to the curious, might be written on these shaped verses. Puttenham in his The Art of English Poesie devotes considerable space to a grave dis- cussion of " the lozange, fuzie, tricquet, pillaster, piramis " ; and derives their invention from " the Courts of the great princes of China and Tartary." Such devices, with acrostics, anagrams, and other exer- cises of ingenuity, were very popular in the days of Elizabeth and James (see Sylvester, ed. Grosart, I, 4, 15; II, 321, etc., Wither, Arber's English Gamer, IV, 476-478, and Musarum Deliciae, II, 295, et passim), but were ridiculed by such men as Jonson and Nashe. See the editor's Poetic and Verse Criticism of the Reign of Elizabeth, pp. 54, 55, for a fuller account of this fashion. 32 2. Cemented. Accent on the first syllable. 32 10. The fall further the flight, i.e., " So shall the fall of man give me an opportunity for a longer and higher flight than would other- wise have been possible." 33 12. Still. Ever. Cf. 5 9. 33 19. Imp. In falconry, to mend or extend a deficient wing by the insertion of a feather. Cf. Carew's Ingrateful Beauty Threatened, v. 6. 33 5. The sweetness (of the flower) and the praise (for the act of grace). 242 NOTES. 33 14. To thy praise. With respect to ; we should say " in thy praise." Cf. Shakespeare Grammar, § 186. 34 19. That. The honey. These. The flowers. 34 22. All my company. " All the company or companionship that I furnish is that of a weed among flowers." I am indebted for this note and that on 32 10 to Professor Kittredge. 34 23. Consort. Cf. a consort of music, an orchestra, with a plry on the meaning, — those that live in agreement and harmony with thee. 34 2. Bridal. Bridal day. This word was originally bride ale, bride's feast, and had not yet lost its etymological meaning in Herbert's day. 34 5. Angry. Red, the color of anger. 34 5. Brave. Beautiful, here perhaps gaudy. Cf. 81 15. 34 11. Closes. In music the end of a strain or cadence. Cf. Dry- den's Flower and the Leaf, 197. 34 2. Train-bands. Citizen soldiers of London. 35 11. I heard in music you had skill. Herbert is reported to have been an excellent musician, " not only singing, but playing on the lute and viol." 35 17. Wit. In the usual contemporary meaning, mind, under- standing. Cf. witty, 18 5. 36 9. Regiments. Rules, governments. Cf. the title of John Knox's book, First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regi- ment of Women. 36 13. Weeds. Garments. 36 2. Your sense. Your senses in modern English. Cf. 37 30, 94 5, and 127 19. 37 20. Propagation. The termination dissyllabic, as usual. Cf. 75 4. 37 23. Commerce. So accentuated by Shakespeare ; see 'Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 105 : " Peaceful commerce from dividable shores." 38. Arcades. " Part of an entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield by some noble persons of her family, who appear on the scene in pastoral habit." This was Milton's first masque. He seems to have been invited to write it by his friend, Henry Lawes, the famous musician. The piece, as we have it, is not complete, the prose parts being probably not Milton's. 38 l. Enamelled. A favorite word of the age. Bright, variegated is a secondary and probably later sense. 38 2. Print of step. Cf. Comus, 897 : " printless feet." 3S 4. Warbled. Tuneful. Cf. Comus, 854. NOTES. 243 38 6. Star-proof elm. Cf. Faery Queen, i. i. 7. This is one of several of Milton's trivial inaccuracies in the observation of nature, as the foliage of the elm is notably light. 38 2. Sandy Ladon. Ladon, a river in Arcadia. Cf. Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, ii. 4. 38 2. Lilied. Cf. Sylvester, Bethulia's Rescue, ed. Grosart, II, 194. 38 3. Lycaeus. A mountain of Arcadia sacred to Zeus and to Pan. Cyllene was the highest mountain of the Peloponnesus. 38 5. Erymanth. Probably here neither particularly the stream nor mountain of that name, but the region in which both are situated. 38 7. Msenalus. Also a mountain in Arcadia, especially sacred to Pan. 38 9. Have greater grace. Meet with greater favor. 38 11. Syrinx. The story of this Arcadian nymph, pursued by Pan and turned into a reed, is a familiar classical fable. 39. A Masque. This is the title of Lawes' edition of 1637, of Milton's first edition of his poems, and his second edition of 1673. Thomas Warton in his excellent ed. of Milton, 1785, says : " I have ventured to insert this title [Comus], which has the full sanction of use." The original music of the songs of Comus, written by Lawes, who was himself one of the performers at its presentation, is preserved in the British Museum, Add. MS. 115-118. The music of the Song, " Sweet Echo," is printed in Hawkins' History of Music, IV, 53. 39 2. Airy shell. Vault or convex of the heavens. Cf. Ode on the Nativity, stanza x, where a similar expression is applied to the moon's sphere : Nature that heard such sound, Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling. 39 3. Margent. A doublet of margin. 39 4. Violet-embroidered. Compounds such as these were less common among the poets of Milton's day than a generation earlier. 39 5. Love-lorn. Deprived of her mate. Cf. Tempest, iv. 1. 68: " lass-lorn." 39 7. A gentle pair. Warton directs our attention to these very words in The Faithful Shepherdess, i. 1, as one instance of many "which prove Milton's intimate familiarity with Fletcher's play." 39 14. Give resounding grace, i.e., the grace of an echo. Warton 244 A T OTES. notes Lawes' 'professional alteration' of this verse to "And hold a counterpoint to all heaven's harmonies." 39 l. Sabrina fair. Cf. line 824, above: There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream : Sabrina is her name : a virgin pure ; Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, That had the sceptre from his father Brute. She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, Commended her fair innocence to the flood That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. See Mr. Swinburne's fine tragedy on this old theme. 39 3. Glassy . . . wave. Cf. Hamlet, iv. 7. 168. 39 5. Amber-dropping. The water dripping from her hair, partak- ing its color by reflection. Todd gives the following parallel from Nashe's Terrors of the Night, 1594: "Their hair they wear loose unrowled about their shoulders, whose dangling amber trammells reach- ing down beneath their knees, seem to drop baulm on their delicious bodies." Milton is very fond of the word amber. Cf. L 'Allegro, 61, Paradise Lost, iii. 359, Paradise Regained, iii. 28S, and Comus, 333. 39 10-21. Great Oceanus. Hesiod, Theog. 20 ; repeated again and again by such English poets as Drayton in the Polyolbion, and Jonson in the Queen's Masque. See Warton's note. In the lines following we have a long list of the ancient deities of the sea : Tethys, the aged wife of Oceanus; Nereus, the old man of the sea, who sits at the bottom in ooze and slime; the prophetic (wizard) Proteus, called the Carpathian, from the island Carpathos, in which, according to one of the legends, he was supposed to have been born, with the shepherd's crook (hook) with which he tended his flocks of seals ; the merman Triton, with his conch ; Glaucus, the immortal fisherman, god of mariners ; Leucothea, otherwise Ino, who, like Sappho, jumped into the sea, and, like Arion, was rescued by a dolphin ; Thetis, the Nereid, mother of Achilles ; the Sirens, Ligea and Parthenope, whose tomb was adored at Naples. Milton fairly revels in allusions such as these, and his poetry is full of like passages. Warton gives several parallels from previous poets in the use of these myths and the epithets with which they are described. It may be noted that Drummond and Campion show, with Spenser before them and Browne after them, a like skill in the interweaving of classical allusion and proper names in their verse. NOTES. 245 40 33. Where grows the willow, etc. Cf. The Faithful Shep- herdess, iii. I, where the river god speaks thus : I am this fountain's god : below, My waters to a river grow, And twixt two banks with osiers set, That only prosper in the wet, Through the meadows do they glide. 40 34. My sliding chariot, etc. This idea of Sabrina's chariot seems suggested by Drayton's Polyolbion, Song, v. i, ed. Hooper, I, 129 : Now Sabrine, as a queen, miraculously fair, Is absolutely placed in her imperial chair Of crystal richly wrought, that gloriously did shine. Cf. the two passages at length. 40 35. Azurn. Italian azzurrino, suggests Todd. Cf. cedarn below, 42 15. 40 36. Turkis. Turquoise. 40 39. Printless feet. Cf. Tempest, v. I. 34: "And ye that on the sands with printless feet do chase the ebbing Neptune " (Warton). 41 49. Enchanter vile. Cf. Faery Qjieen, iii. 12. 31 (Todd). 41 53. Thus I sprinkle. Cf. with this removal of the charm various like passages in The Faithful Shepherdess, collected and quoted by Warton. 41 63. Amphitrite's bower. Drayton uses the same expression, Polyolbion, Song, xxviii. 41 64. Daughter of Locrine. Cf. above, p. 39. The old genealogy derives the descent of Brute or Brutus, father of Locrine, from ^Eneas and Anchises. 41 66. Brimmed. Rising to the brim or margin. Cf Lucretius, ii. 362 : " Fluminaque ilia queunt, summis labentia ripis." 41 75. Beryl . . . golden ore . . . groves of myrrh and cinnamon. The fanciful beauty of these charges invoked to bless an English stream is in the best vein of that poetical mythology which is one of the charms of the poetry of Michael Drayton. 42 1. To the ocean now I fly, etc. These four lines are in the very rhythm and rhyme of the first four in Ariel's song in the Tempest, v. 1 : Where the bee sucks, there lurk I (Masson). 42 4. Broad fields of the sky. Cf. ^Lneid, vi. 887 : "Aeris in cam- pis latis " (Warton). 246 MOTES. 42 7. Hesperus, and his daughters. It was in the garden of the Hesperides that the golden apples, given Juno as a marriage gift, were watched by the dragon Ladon. 42 15. Cedarn. Cf. the similar form azurn, 40 35, possibly both of them due to their Italian forms azzurrino and cedrino. 42 18. Blow. Cause to blow. Cf. Shakespeare Grammar, § 291. 42 19. Flowers. Dissyllabic. Cf. 88 11. 42 20. Purfled. Fringed, embroidered with colors or gold (Fr. pourfiler). Cf. Faery Queen, i. 2. 33: "Purfled with gold." 42 27. Th' Assyrian queen. Astarte, identified with Venus, as her lover, Thammuz, was identified with Adonis. Cf. Paradise Lost, i. 446, and Ezekiel, VIII, 12-14. See Masson's Milton, iii. 434, for an elaborate note on this passage in its relation to the entire poem of Co mus. 43 42. Corners of the moon. Cf. Macbeth, iii. 5. 23 (Warton). 43 46. Sphery chime. Cf. Arcades, 63-73, and Masson's note thereon, III, 392. 43. Thomas Carew is described as a somewhat indolent student while at Oxford, " roving after hounds and hawks," later in the diplo- matic service, and finally, on attracting the notice of Charles I, sewer (i.e., cupbearer) in ordinary and gentleman of the privy chamber to that monarch. Carew's intimate literary friends were Suckling and Davenant. The text of Carew is from the reprint of the ed. of 1640, Edinburgh, 1824, collated with Hazlitt's unsatisfactory ed. of 1S70. 43. The Marigold. This poem is referable to the Wyburd MS., written about 1634 (Hazlitt's Carew, p. xv) and there given this title. In the ed. of 1640 it appears with the title Boldness in Love. "4. Thomas Randolph, after an honorable career as a student pen- sioner at Trinity, Cambridge, went up to London and was adopted one of the "sons of Ben." Randolph died young, more reputed for his promise than for actual achievement. Anthony Stafford, to whom this poem is addressed, was a notable prose writer in his day. His most important book was Stafford's Heavenly Dog, or the Life and Death of the Cynic Diogenes, 161 5. Stafford's Niobe, or his Age of Tears, 161 1, and Stafford's Niobe dissolved into a Nilns were earlier works, both of them "a general invective against vice and a laudation of virtue." See Collier's Rarest Books in the English Language, IV, 90, for a fur- ther account of Stafford's work. I take the text of Randolph's poems from the original quarto, Oxford, 1638. 44 4. Charge'ble. Expensive and burdensome. 44 16. Puisne of the Inns-of-Court. A junior student in the law NOTES. 247 courts, a freshman. Cf. Cowley, A Poetical Revenge, Sylva, ed. Grosart, p. 26 : "A semi-gentleman of the Inns of Court." 45 23. No finger lose. An allusion to the poet's loss of a finger in a fray. See his Epigram, ed. Hazlitt, p. 553. 45 32. Hyde Park, originally a game preserve, became a fashionable promenade in the reign of Charles II. See Shirley's play Hyde Park. 45 36. The beauties, etc. The Cheap, now Cheapside, was the principal retail street of old London. Lombard Street contained the financial wealth of the city and the homes of some of the most substan- tial citizens. 46 76. Barkley's health. Possibly capable of indentification with Sir John Berkley, Governor of Exeter, to whom Herrick addresses spirited lines, ed. Grosart, II, 250. 46 78. Phrygian melody. The text sufficiently suggests the con- trast between the wild and orgiastic music of Phrygia and the sombre and dignified Doric. 47 20. Leave. Cease. Cf. Drayton, " To his Coy Mistress," Eliza- bethan Lyrics, p. 196. 48. The Arcadian Princess, a prose romance, " was translated," says Mr. Bullen, "from the Italian of Mariano Silesio, a Florentine, who died in 1368." 48. Themista's reproof. This piling up of similitudes is a device common to a large group of verses of this time. Among the earliest is the poem beginning " Like to the falling of a star," attributed to Beau- mont, for which see Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 170. The lines of the text are scarcely more than a mock lyric, and yet some of the similitudes are so apt and the whole thing is so characteristic that I should hesitate to omit it. 48 11. Mopping. Doating; a mop was a fool. 48 14. Minion. Darling. 49. Poems, 1645. There are three editions of Waller's poems bearing this date : (1) that " printed for Thomas Walkley " and entitled The Works of Edtnond Waller, denounced in the advertisement which appears in both (2) and (3) as an " adulterate copy, surreptitiously and illegally imprinted to the derogation of the author and the abuse of the buyer " ; (2) that printed for H. Moseley by I. N. ; and (3) that printed for the same publisher by T. W. Mr. G. Thorn Drury, the most recent editor of Waller, states that (1) is "full of misprints," and that (3) con- sists "of the sheets of (1) bound up with a fresh title and the addition of the last seven poems contained in (3)." He is further of the opinion that none of these editions " had the countenance of the author " 248 NOTES. (Drury's Waller, p. 277). In 1664 appeared the poet's own authoritative edition. Waller's popularity had by this time become very great. 49. Lady Lucy Sidney was a younger sister of the more famous Lady Dorothea, Waller's Saccharissa. The title is found in the first ed. of 1645. I assign the probable composition of this and the follow- ing two poems to 1635, when the Lady Dorothea was some eighteen years of age. Fenton's date, 1632, is too early. 49 8. May know too soon. This is Fenton's reading; Drury reads so soon. 49 13. Hope waits upon the flowery prime. Cf. Cicero, De Senec- tute, 70. 50. Saccharissa and Amoret. Saccharissa was Lady Dorothea Sidney, eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester and grand niece to Sir Philip Sidney. Amoret has been identified by the diligence of Fenton as Lady Sophia Murray. Waller is generally supposed to have begun the stately courtship of his Saccharissa about the year 1632. Drury places this later, "towards the end of the year 1635." The episode was at an end in July, 1639, when Lady Sidney became Lady Spencer. The poems that connect the names of Waller and Saccharissa are very few in number, and more has been made of them than seems at all warranted by the circumstances. The genuineness of the poet's passion does not concern us ; his verses warrant the assumption that the matter was not very serious. See Drury, Poems of Waller, Introduction, and Mr. Gosse's From Shakespeare to Pope on this subject. 50 8. Neither. Ed. of 1645 reads neither 's. 50 10. Still beguiled. Ever beguiled. Cf. 5 9, 33 12. 50 15. Decline. Avoid. 52 39. Amoret as sweet. Drury punctuates : " Amoret ! as sweet," etc. " Amoret['s] as sweet," etc., may be conjectured as possibly the right reading. Professor Kittredge suggests: "Amoret is sweet," etc., the ordinary ellipsis of as. 53. Francis Quarles. " This voluminous saint," as Campbell calls him, was successively cupbearer to the queen of Bohemia, chronologer to the city of London, and secretary in Ireland to Archbishop Usher. Despite his diffuseness, extravagant hunting of conceit, and inequality, Quarles is not un visited at moments by the fancy of a true poet, and there is an ingenuousness and fervor about him that goes far to account for his all but unexampled contemporary popularity. Quarles wrote much prose besides his extensive verse, all of which Dr. Grosart has reprinted in his edition in the Chertsey Worthies' 1 Library, 18S1. 53. Emblems is a series of five books of quasi-allegorical devotional NOTES. 249 poems, in which a scriptural text is taken as the subject — or at least the point of departure. A fitting quotation from some one of the saints or fathers of the church follows, and a short epigram concludes. This work is modelled, if not largely borrowed, from Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria Emblematibus, Elegiis et Affectibus SS. Patrum Illustrata, Antwerp, 1624, and illustrated by extraordinary allegorical cuts, also of Dutch origin. This poem is the third of the fifth book. The text is from Canticles, II, 16. 53. whither shall I fly ? Job, XIV, 13. From the third book of Emblems, No. XII. 53 12. Clip. Move swiftly, a favorite word with Quarles. Cf. Emblems, v. 13, 17, and 34. 53 13. Entertain. Harbor. 54 31. Ingenuous is Grosart's reading ; other editions read ingenious. 55 l. Ev'n like two little bank-dividing brooks. Cf. two very diverse uses of the same figure of a stream in Cartwright's poem, Love but One, below, p. 97, and Jean Ingelow's verses entitled Divided. 55 5. Conjoin . . . mine. A perfect rhyme in Quarles' time and long after. Cf. coin and mine, below, vv. 17, 18; and see the same rhyme in Carew, below, 71 27. 55 18. The world 's but theirs, etc. Note that this line alone of those concluding each stanza fails of the required Alexandrine length. The verse of Quarles, like that of Wither, shows not infrequent evi- dence of a fatal facility. Professor Kittredge suggests regarding theirs as dissyllabic and inserting best before beloved's in conformity with the other concluding lines. 55 19. Thespian ladies. From Thespise, the native town of Phryne, where was preserved the celebrated statue of Eros by Praxiteles. 56. George Sandys was much admired in his own day for his devo- tional poetry, although few of his verses were more than translations, such as the Psalms of David, A Paraphrase of the Book of Job, Eccle- siastes. Son of an archbishop, Sandys received the best education which Oxford, the court, and foreign travel could give. Of his travels, which were very extensive, he published an account upon his return in 161 5, and the book enjoyed a great popularity. While in the colony of Vir- ginia, 1623, as the Company's treasurer, he translated Ovid's Metamor- phoses. Sandys was a personal friend of Charles I and highly esteemed by that king. He was held in great respect by the critics of the days of Dryden and Pope. 56. Deo Optimo Maximo. This poem concludes the volume of Sandys' poems published in 164 1, and displays his versification at its best. 250 NOTES. 56 4. Steadfast centre of the world. Sandys had evidently not accepted the Copernican system; Bacon never did. Cf. v. 9, below, and Waller's figure, above, 6 12. 57 26. Successive. Uninterrupted. 58 54. Panchcea. District in the neighborhood of Mecca, men- tioned with a reference to Ovid, Meta. i. 10, in the Travels, fourth ed., 1670, p. 97. Sandys does not seem to have been nearer to Mecca than Cairo. 5S 55. New found-out world. Virginia. See note on Sandys, above. 5S 62. Judah's hill. The third book of the Travels is devoted to his journeyings in the Holy Land, including his visit to the Temple of Christ's sepulchre. The allusions of the succeeding lines are not trace- able in the Travels, which are written very impersonally. 59 83. Pirates. A very real peril in 1610. 59. Abraham Cowley. A poet in print at fifteen, Cowley witnessed the third edition of his Poetical Blossoms before he had been a year at college. Ejected from Cambridge for his royalist leanings, after a short stay at Oxford he entered the service of Queen Henrietta Maria, retir- ing with her to Paris on the surrender of the king. There it was that he found his college intimate, Crashaw, in penury and sent him with a royal introduction to Rome. Cowley, whose life was cleanly, religious, and somewhat austere, was neglected by Charles at the Restoration, but was repaid at his death by a royal ton mot. If Cowley's poetry was soon eclipsed by a new, dominant mode, and his loyalty interpreted largely a matter of sentiment, his honesty, his unaffected love of litera- ture, and his genuine scholarship deserve a respectful remembrance. 59. A Vote. An ardent wish, a vow. This is the title of this poem in Sylva, an early volume of Cowley's verse. The stanzas here given are only the last three, which the author himself selected for quotation in his Several Discourses by way of Essays in Verse and Prose, 1 661. I have given the later readings, which improve the text in two or three small particulars. Cowley says : " The beginning of it is boyish, but of this which I here set down (if a very little were cor- rected) I should hardly now be much ashamed " (Several Discourses, ed. 1680, p. 143). 59 5. Unknown. Sylva version reads ignote. 59 7. Have. Sylva, hug. 59 15. And pleasures yield. And my garden should yield pleasures which Horace might envy. 59 17. Thus would I double, etc. " You may see by it," says Cowley, " I was even then acquainted with the poets, for the conclusion NOTES. 251 is taken out of Horace." Cf. Several Discourses, p. 144. Indeed, the whole tone of these delightful essays is that of a gracious Epicureanism. Again and again does Cowley return to the pleasant theme, paraphras- ing Horace or Claudian's Old Man of Verona. 60 6. Track. Tract is the reading of Sylva, ed. Grosart ; tract and track were commonly confused. 60 7. Fond. Foolish. 60 15. Horse. Pack-horse. 61. Sir John Suckling inherited wealth and high social position when but eighteen years of age. He soon plunged into the gayest and wildest of lives, and became no less famous for his verses and his wit than notorious for his lavish extravagance, inveterate gaming, and dis- solute life. Suckling was not conspicuous for his bravery either in the field against the Scotch or in private life. A loyalist by right of his birth, he was accused of scheming to save Strafford, and fled the realm, cutting the thread of an ill-spent life by his awn hand in Paris when less than thirty-five years old. As a writer of vers de societe, delightful, dar- ing and cynical, perfectly well-bred, and at times of the highest artistic merit, Suckling at his best was unexcelled in his age. See Lord de Tabley's fine poem, " On a Portrait of Sir John Suckling " (Poems Dra- matic and Lyrical, 1893), in which Suckling is perversely, though poet- ically, glorified as the ideal soldier and gentleman, as well as the typical poet of an age which Lord de Tabley appears to believe was far better than ours. 61. Aglaura was acted at Blackfriars. Suckling bestowed eight or ten new suits on the players upon the occasion, an unheard-of liberality. 61. Why so pale. This is the very perfection of the bantering, satirical lyric, in which the age of Charles excelled. Cf. Cotton's poem, Advice. In a school edition of " The Cavalier Poets," a prudent American Bowdler has expunged the last line of this poem, lest the infant mind be polluted by the wicked freedom of old Sir John's Muse. 61. True Love. This poem exhibits the direct influence of Donne. Cf. Love's Growth : I scarce believe my love to be so pure As I had thought it was, Because it doth endure Vicissitude and season as the grass ; Methinks I lied all winter when I swore, My love was infinite, if spring make it more. 252 NOTES. 62 1. Ah Ben. Herrick left Cambridge in 1620; he went to Dean Prior in 1629. In this interval, and perhaps before, he must have enjoyed the convivial circle of Jonson and have taken him for his master. Cf. with the spirit of this poem, A Lyric to Mirth, To live merrily, and to trust to good verses, An Ode to Sir Clipseby Crew, etc., Selections from Herrick, by Professor Hale, Athenaeum Press Series, pp. 19, 31, and 92, whose assignment of date I follow. 62 5. The Sun, the Dog, the Triple Tun. Names of London taverns of the day. The Sun was in Fish Street Hill and continued noted up to the time of Pepys ; the Dog was in the vicinity of White- hall and Westminster Hall, and much frequented by the Tribe of Ben ; the Three Tuns was in Guildhall Yard, and was famous later as the tavern at which General Monk lodged in 1660 {London Past and Present, s.v.). 63 3. Candies the grass. Cf. Drayton's Quest of Cinthia, Bullen's Selections, 1883, p. 109: Since when those frosts that winter brings Which candies every green. Cf. also Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, I, p. 4 (Fry). 63 6. A sacred birth to the dead swallow. Sacred is the reading of the reprint of the edition of 1640, Edinburgh, 1824, and of the two other editions which I have consulted. It may be suspected that Carew wrote a second birth in allusion to the popular superstition concerning the hibernation of swallows, by which they are supposed to hang in caves or lie in clinging masses, plunged in water under the ice to revive with the return of spring or by means of artificial heat. See Timbs' Popular Errors Explained and Azotes and Queries, Series I, XII, 512, and Series III, VI, 539, 403. 64 24. June in her eyes, in her heart January. Cf. with this fine conceit Greene's lines in Perimedes the Blacksmith, ed. Grosart, VII, 90: Fair is my love for April in her face, Her lovely breasts September claims his part, And lordly July in her eyes takes place, But cold December dwelleth in her heart. Another version is found in Morley's First Book of Madrigals, 1594. Oliphant suggests an Italian origin. 64. Persuasions to Love. This poem is addressed to A. L. in the original. Mr. Saintsbury declares that it is " an unwearying delight " to read it. See the rest of his appreciative comment on Carew {Eliza- bethan Literature, p. 361). NOTES. 253 64 2. Fresh as April. MS. reads " Fair as Helen, fresh as May" (Hazlitt). 65 39. Abron. A variant of auburn. 65 49. To your friend. For, or as, your friend. See Shakespeare Grammar, § 189. 65 51. Still. Ever. Cf. 5 9, 33 12, 50 10. 66 63. Pined. Wasted away. Cf. Fletcher's The Sea Voyage, ii. 2 : I left in yonder desert A virgin almost pined. 66 80. Do reason. Act reasonably. 67 13. The Assyrian king. Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, III, 5, 6. 68 l. Quick. Living. 69 6. Fortress. Cf. this and the third stanza below with Suckling's verses, The Siege, below, p. 108. 70. Celia Singing. Cf. with this Song, Campion's Of Corinnd's Singing and Marvell's The Fair Singer, below, p. 157. 70 l. Fair copy. Cf. an imitation of this poem in Holbnr7i-Drollery, 1673, P- 2 5- 71 20. The stamp of kings imparts no more. Cf. Burns : The rank is but the guinea's stamp, A man 's a man for a' that. I notice that Mr. Richard Le Gallienne, following a correspondent of Notes and Queries, Series II, VII, 184, mentions this parallel in his appreciative little review of Carew {Retrospective Reviews, II, 80). 73. Epitaph. Carew wrote several epitaphs of much grace, espe- cially the three on the Lady Mary Villiers. I have preferred this on Lady Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Wentworth, as more character- istic, if fuller of conceits. 73 6. A cherubin. Cf. 30 5. 74 3. Beauty's orient deep. This is the reading of the reprint of 1640, the word being spelled beautie's. The apostrophe was, of course, not in the original, and might be placed so as to read beauties'. Mr. Saintsbury reads For hi your beauties, orient deep. 74 11. Dividing. Performing music, especially with divisions or variations. 74 18. Phcenix. The allusions to this famous myth throughout the literature of this and the previous century are legion. The story seems to have been introduced into the literatures of Western Europe in the Elegia de Phcenice, a poem of the third century, usually attributed to 254 NOTES. Lactantius. Lactantius had as his chief source the version of the legend by Manilius, which is now lost, but was extant in the fourteenth cen- tury. See in later literature The Phoenix and the Turtle, 1601 ; Browne's Song of the Sirens ; and Herrick's Nuptial Song to Sir Clipseby Crew. 75. Murdering Beauty. This poem appears also in Wit's Recreations. 75 6. Murderers. Cannon loaded with scattering missiles, and so called from their infliction of superfluous death. 75. Delight in Disorder and the poem immediately following are assigned to the earlier part of Herrick's vicarage at Dean Prior. In 1640 he was probably in London, arranging for the publication of his poems, for in that year there is a stationer's register of The Several Poems written by Master Robert Her rick. The book does not appear to have come to press. 75 l. A sweet disorder, etc. Cf. Upon Julia's Clothes and Upon Julia's Ribband, Herrick, ed. Hale, pp. 112 and 20. See also Jonson's Simplex Munditiis, Herrick's probable original, and the dainty verses beginning : " My love in her attire doth show her wit," in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody {Elizabethan Lyrics, pp. 151 and 127). 75 2. Wantonness. Sportiveness. 75 4. Distractibn. Confusion. Cf. 37 20. 75 5. Erring. In its original signification, wandering. 75 12. Civility. Good breeding. 75 13. Do more bewitch me, etc. Cf. Jonson : Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all th' adulteries of art ; and Herrick's own charming lines : Whenas in silks my Julia goes, Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows, That liquefaction of her clothes. Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see That brave vibration each way free ; Oh, how that glittering taketh me ! 76. To the Virgins. This song was early set to music by Lawes and enjoyed great popularity. It appears in an early ed. of Wit's Recreations. 77 5. Teemed. Poured out. 78 2. Protestant. Queried protester by Dr. Grosart. To which Professor Hale adds : "His Protestation to Perilla gives us the prob- able meaning. He will live to assert his devotion to her." NOTES. 255 79. To Meadows. Cf. Vaughan's The Hidden Flower, below, p. 147. 79 6. Wicker arks. Baskets. 79 8. Richer. More golden in color. 79 10. In a round. Dancing. Cf. the poet's The Country Life: " Tripping the homely country round." 79 20. Estates. Conditions. 81 15. Brave. Cf. 34 5. 81 6. My Prue. Prudence Baldwin, immortalized for her fidelity by her master in this and in other verses: These summer birds did with thy master stay The times of warmth, but then they flew away, Leaving their poet, being now grown old, Expos'd to all the coming winter's cold. But thou, kind Prue, did'st with my fates abide As well the winter's as the summer's tide ; For which thy love, live with thy master here, Not one, but all the seasons of the year. 81 10. Creaking. Cackling. Harrison says of geese : " It is ridicu- lous to see how they will peep under the doors, and never leave off creaking and gaggling, etc. {Elizabethan England, ed. Camelot, p. 163). 82 24. Miching. Skulking. 82 26. Tracy. Herrick's dog, of which he writes : Now thou art dead, no eye shall ever see, For shape and service, spaniel like to thee. 83 7. Ward. Protect. 83 22. Unfled. Undamaged by mould. A Shropshire word, accord- ing to Halliwell. 83 28. Pulse. Peas or beans. 84 31. The worts, the purslane. Wort is an old generic term for vegetable ; purslane was formerly used in salads and for garnishing. 84 39. Wassail bowls. The wassail bowl was compounded of spiced ale and drunk amongst friends and neighbors on New Year's Eve in good fellowship and for the drowning of former animosity. The custom continued long in the greatest popularity. See Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. 18 13, I, 1. 84 42. Soils. Manures, makes fruitful. 85. Nox Nocti, etc. Cf. Psalms, XIX. " The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork." This verse forms the text of the whole poem. 256 NOTES. 85 3. So rich with jewels hung, etc. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, i. v. 47 : It seems she hangs upon the cheek of Night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear. 85 5. My soul her wings. Cf. Isaiah, XL, 31. S5 8. In the large volume of the skies. Cf. Drummond's " fair volume of the world " in the sonnet entitled The Book of the World, Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 205, and note thereon. 85 9. For the bright firmament. Cf. Psalm, XIX, 1. 8625. That from the farthest north. Cf. Jeremiah, I, 14, i$,et passim, and Daniel, XI, 13-15. 86. Cleodora was performed at Whitehall before the king and queen by the Earl of Pembroke's own servants, the scenes and cos- tumes being very rich and curious. 87. The Imposture. I assign this play, with Mr. Fleay, Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, II, 246, to 1640, because of the line of the Prologue : " He has been stranger long to the English scene." Shirley returned permanently from Ireland between February and June, 1640. 88 11. Flowers. Dissyllabic. 88 16. Owe. Own. Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 79. 88 5. Each shade, etc. As the sun rises the shadows of the earth, here identified with earthly things, become short, and our attention is turned to the radiance of heaven. If we wait until " the star of peace" sets, we must lose our way in earthly shadow. S9. The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. This masque "was represented by young men of quality at a private entertainment." 89 1. The glories of our blood. This one song should preserve Shirley immortal. 90. His Winding-Sheet. I follow Professor Hale in placing this poem before 1641, in which year the Star Chamber alluded to was abolished. Professor Hale calls this "of all Herrick's more serious pieces, the chief," and notes the remarkable absence in it of " any Christian thought on immortality." 90 19. Ci. Job, III, 18, 19. 90 29. The Court of Requests was also abolished in 1641. 91 47. The Platonic Year is that wherein everything shall return to its original state, the year in which the cycles of the seven planets are fulfilled on the same day. Cf. Plato, Timceus, cap. 33 (Hale). 91. George Wither. As to this fertile and worthy pamphleteer in verse and prose, see Elizabethan Lyrics, p. 281. Although Wither's NOTES. 251 devotional verse began with The Hymns and Songs of the Church, 1623, his best work of the kind is to be found in the three parts of Haleluiah. Wither's simplicity of diction and freedom from adorn- ment seem better suited to the subject of the poem in the text than to some of his more ambitious efforts. No one who knows The Shep- herd's Hunting and Fair Virtue can for a moment deny the poet in Wither. To him there was a greater mistress than art; but instead of enlisting art in the service of religion, he felt that her ornaments and gauds were to be discarded as among the deceitful appearances which lure men from the straight and narrow way. Though kindly, Wither is thus in his devotional poetry always didactic. 91. A Rocking Hymn. The text is from the reprint of the Spenser Society, 1879. The following quaint note precedes the verses : " Nurses usually sing their children asleep and, through want of pertinent matter, they oft make use of unprofitable (if not worse) songs. This was there- fore prepared that it might help acquaint them and their nurse-children with the loving care and kindness of their Heavenly Father." 94. William Cartwright was one of the "sons of Ben," a writer of plays in his youth while at Oxford, a priest in orders after 1638. His works, posthumously published, are preceded by more than fifty pages of commendatory verse amongst the writers of which are James Howell, Sherburne, Jasper Mayne, and Alexander Brome. Ben Jonson is reported in the preface to have said, " my son, Cartwright, writes like a man." Cartwright exhibited great promise in his poetry, and not inconsider- able achievement in his dramas. It is not easy to select many poems which are entirely good from Cartwright, though many separate stanzas or lesser passages display unusual merit. The text is from the first edi- tion, as indicated ; 1641 is the latest date assigned to any poem in the vol- ume. These erotic songs were doubtless written several years earlier. 94 5. Sense. Cf. 36 2. 94 7. Art we see. Note the omission of that and cf. Shakespeare Gra?n??iar, § 281. 96. A Valediction. Few poems could better show the influence of Donne's subtle intellectual refinements than this and the previous one. Cartwright at his best, as here, seems to me to preserve also much of Donne's sincerity. 96 12. Nor would those (the showers) fall nor these (the sun- beams) shine forth to me. 96 15. Parting view. My eyes as I part with you. 96 17. Snatch and keep. Take eagerly to myself and preserve in memory. 258 NOTES. 96 19. Fancy. Imagination. 97 l. See these two little brooks. Cf. one of the best of Quarles' Emble?ns, v. 3, above, p. 55, and Jean Ingelow's Divided, in which the idea is fully expanded. 97 13. Presents. Represents. 98. The Sad Lover. I do not succeed in finding this poem else- where. The original edd. of Wit's Recreations are not accessible to me. From the reprint of Park, 1817, it appears that the section en- titled " Fancies and Fantastics," in which this poem and the follow- ing are found, was not in the first ed. of 1640. I may state that even the enumeration of edd. in the preface of this unsatisfactory book is incorrect. 98 6. Straight. Suddenly. Cf. 164 3. 98 17. Epact. The epact is " the excess of a solar over a lunar year or month." The figure is here applied to the difference between what seems to be the seasonable moment in which to court and what is really that seasonable moment. See the stanza above, where the lover longs for " some almanac," etc. Donne is the parent of the metaphysics and the physics of all such passages. 99. Richard Crashaw was a precocious student and poet while at Cambridge. In 1643 Crashaw (with five others, fellows of Peterhouse) lost his fellowship because he refused to take the oath of the Solemn League and Covenant. Entering the priesthood of the Roman Cath- olic Church he was recommended to Rome by Queen Henrietta, but died soon after as beneficiary or sub-canon of the Basilica church of Our Lady of Loreto. 99. Wishes to his Supposed Mistress. I have given the text of the Harleian MS. of this poem. The vastly inferior version in Wit's Recreations shows that the poem was well known in 1641. How much earlier it may have been written, or whether the revision came after that date, it is impossible to say. 99 2. She. The common use of the pronoun for the noun. Cf. 134 17, 182 10, and Shakespeare Grammar, § 224. 99 18. Tire. Attire, dress. 99 20. Taffeta or tissue. Taffeta was a fine, smooth silk fabric ; tissue, a cloth interwoven with gold or silver. 99 20. Can. Cf. a like usage of this verb, 2 3. 100 25. A face that 's best by its own beauty drest. Cf. Ilerrick's Delight in Disorder, p. 75, and the note thereon. 100 30. Ope. Open. 100 33. Writes what the reader sweetly ru'th. " Depict that NOTES. 259 beauty which makes the beholder suffer the sweet sorrow of love " (Kittredge). 100 36. His. Its. Formerly neuter as well as masculine. See Shakespeare Grammar, § 228, and cf. 99 17, above. 100 40. Looks that. I.e., looks that oppress, overpower the richest apparel which decks them, which clothe and dress up the barest costume. 100 43. Eyes that displace . . . out-face . . . grace. This is Gro- sart's reading on the authority of the Harleian MS. ; Turnbull prints, with the version of Wit 's Recreations : Eyes that displaces The neighbor diamond, and outfaces That sunshine by their own sweet graces. 101 57. Long choosing a dart. Long finding a weapon powerful enough to reach so well-controlled (well-tamed) a heart. 101 70. Fond and flight. Foolish and fleeting. 101 74. Those [that] are shed. Cf. 1 2, 4 6, 9 2, IS 5, 94 7. 102 88. Sydneian showers of sweet discourse. Explained by Mr. Palgrave : " Either in allusion to the conversations in the Arcadia, or to Sidney himself, as a model of gentleness in spirit and demeanor " {Golden Treasury, p. 357). 102 98. Name. Report, fame. 102 100. Flattery, etc. Painting and poetry may flatter her, but let her own virtue be her sole counsellor. 102 103. Store of worth, etc. I wish that she may have such an abundance of worth that she may not need many wishes for things not already in her possession. 103 118. Enjoy. This word was pronounced in Crashaw's day and long after so as to rhyme with the last syllable of apply. Cf. coin rhyming with resign, 71 25, and 114 5. 102 123. Determine. End them, resolve them into. 103. The Merry Beggars. The text of this song is from the reprint of Brome's plays by Pearson, 1873. I{ seems almost too good for Brome. In the same play a song is introduced which is undoubt- edly Campion's. 104 16. Remore us. Delay us. Cf. remora, the creature fabled to delay ships by attaching itself to their bottoms. 104. Lord Strafford's Meditations. Occasional lyrics such as this, though not up to the standard of the highest literary art, have fre- 260 NOTES. quently a genuineness and fervor of passion that brings them literally within Wordsworth's famous designation of poetry as " the spontane- ous overflow of powerful emotion." A large and interesting collection of such applied poetry might be made from the literature of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. Cf. the pieces ascribed to Raleigh in Hannah's ed. of Raleigh and Wotton, the works of several of the poets contained in Dr. Grosart's Fuller Worthies' Miscellanies, and Eliza- bethan Lyrics, pp. 27, 94, 129, and 188. 105 33. In Thetis' lap he lies. In allusion to the deep security which one might enjoy in the depths of the sea. 106 41. Did fly in Charles's wain. Charles's wain, like the dipper, was a popular appellation applied to the cluster of seven stars in the constellation of Ursa Major. The play upon words by which Charles's (the King's) wain (wagon) is likened to the chariot of the Sun, and Stafford's "ambitious wings" to the audacious act of Phaethon in attempting to drive his father's fiery steeds, is as apt as it is obvious. Cf. the similar play upon words in The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage, where Christ, described as "the King's Attorney, . . . hath angels, but no fees." See also below, 106 63. These conceits seem not the result of cool ingenuity, but the genuine product of a fancy heightened by momentary excitement. 106 52. Glorious seat. Alike the exalted position of the star and of the statesman figured forth by it. 106 53. Influence. In the original astrological sense of the word: " The effect of the planets in determining the events of man's life." 107. Fragmenta Aurea, a Collection of all the Incomparable Pieces written by Sir John Suckling, was the title under which the poetry of Suckling was published posthumously. I have before me the third ed. 1658, and Langbaine mentions a later one of 1676, " to which are added several poems and other pieces, which were by his sister's permission allowed to be published." 10S. The Siege. The figure which is elaborated in this poem has been frequently employed both before and later. In Mr. Arber's Eng- lish Garner (I, pp. 74, 12S, 460, and 651) will be found several parallels. Sedley's song in Bellamira beginning, " When first I made love to my Chloris," gives us another. See Bullen's Musa Proterva, p. 84. Cf. also the third stanza of Carew's A Deposition in Love, p. 69, above, and a paper, Notes on Lyrical Poetry, by the editor, Modern Language Notes, April, 1899. 109 13. I brought down great cannon-oaths, and shot a thousand ... to the town. Thus imitated by Sedley : NOTES. 261 Cannon-oaths I brought down To batter the town. Billets-doux like small shot did ply her. 109 31. Honor was there. Notice the emphasis produced by the trochee in place of the iambus. 110 4. Still. Ever. Cf. 5 9, 33 12, 50 io, 65 51. 112. Song. Cf. Herrick, To (Enone, ed. Hale, p. So. 112 15. I'm best resolved. I have found a solution. 113. When the assault, etc. This is Milton's own heading, as appears in the Cambridge MS., the words " On his door when the city expected an assault " having been crossed out. This was in Novem- ber, 1642, when the withdrawal of the Parliamentary forces under Essex to Warwick after the indecisive skirmish of Edgehill left the road to the capital open to the forces of Charles. 113 5. He can requite thee. Pattison cites several parallels, among them Shakespeare's Sonnets, lv, lxxxi ; Drayton, Idea, sonnet vi. 113 5. Charms. Spells, magical effects. 113 10. Emathian conqueror. Alexander. So called from Ema- thia, a district of Macedonia, the original seat of the Macedonian monarchy. 113 10. Bid spare, etc. This story is told by Pliny, Hist. Nat., vii. 29 ; /Elian, Var. Hist., xiii. 7, and many others. Pattison suggests that Milton had it from the Vita Pindari of Thomas Magister. 113 13. Sad Electra's poet. Euripides. His tragedy Electra was produced during the period of the Sicilian expedition, 415-413 B.C. Euripides was a favorite author with Milton. 113 14. To save the Athenian walls. " On the taking of Athens by the Lacedaemonians, 404 B.C., the leaders of the combined Greek forces deliberated as to how the city should be dealt with. The The- bans proposed to raze it to the ground and to turn the site into a sheep walk. While the decision was in suspense, on one occasion the gen- erals were at wine together, and it so happened a Phocian sang part of a chorus of the Electra, which begins : ' Kyafiip.vovos w K6pa, r/Xvdou k.t.X. (Electra, 167). Those present were so affected that they agreed it would be an un- worthy act to destroy a city which had produced such noble poets" (^Elian, Var. Hist., xiii. 7. Pattison). 113. Steps to the Temple. So entitled in relation to The Temple 262 NOTES. of George Herbert. Cf. The Preface, To the Reader : " Reader, we style his sacred poems, Steps to the Temple, and aptly, for in the temple of God, under his wing he led his life in Saint Mary's Church near Saint Peter's College; there he lodged under Tertullian's roof of angels ; there he made his nest more gladly than David's swallow near the house of God, where like a primitive saint he offered more prayers in the night than others usually offer in the day : there he penned these poems, steps for happy souls to climb heaven by." These poems were then written before Crashaw's loss of his fellowship in 1643. 114 5. Joy. Cf. 103 118. 114 5. To all our world ... he slept. Cf. Shakespeare Grammar, § 188 ; we still say : " Dead to the world." 114 21. Thy day . . . did rise, etc. A common figure in the erotic verse of the time. Cf. Carew, 70 16 ; Davenant, 184 12, and the note thereon. 115 38. Starry. Celestial ; a favorite word with Milton. 115 44. Contest. For the accent, cf. Shakespeare Grammar, § 490. 115 46. Phoenix'. Cf. 74 is. 115 48. Embraves. Makes beautiful. 116 60. For well they now can spare their wing. A typical con- ceit of the school to which Crashaw belongs. 116 78. Welcome. Though born neither to gold nor to silk, thou art born to more than the birthright of Caesar. 116 80. Two sister seas. This stanza is one of those — too fre- quent in Crashaw — in which the stroke of wing fails, and the song falls earthward. 117 84-89. This stanza is omitted in the Paris edition of 1652. See Introduction to this volume, p. xxxi. 117 89. Points. Cf. 121 21, and Donne, The Ecstasy: Our eye-beams twisted and did thread Our eyes upon one double string. 117 92. Slippery souls in smiling eyes. Notice the alliteration and the correspondence of sound in smiling and eyes. 117 93. Shepherds' homespun things. This is the reading of Grosart. . 117 93. Homespun. Cf. Shakespeare's conversion of this adjective into a noun, Midsitm>?ier Night 's Dream, iii. 1.79: " hempen homespuns." 118 8. Silver mate. Cf. silver doves above, and Psalms, LXVIII, 13- 118 8. Rise up, my love. Cf. Solomon's Song, II, 10-14. NOTES. 263 118 20. Or quickly would, wert thou once here. It is interesting to notice this classical thread — in allusion to the springing up of flow- ers about the footsteps of Spring — and the conceit, except so much [rain] as we detain in needful tears, etc., below, woven into the glowing fabric of the old Hebraic poetry. 120. " And those other of his pieces, intituled The Delights of the Muses, though of a more human mixture, are as sweet as they are inno- cent" {To the Reader, Crashaw, ed. 1646). 120 3. Consults the conscious spheres. A popular belief in astrology was still prevalent in Crashaw's day. The poets are full of such allu- sions as these, 91 47, 98 17, 106 52. 120 12. Love's fortune-book. The book of Love's fortune. 121 17. Love's native hours were set. However the horoscope of the natal hours of Love was arranged. 121 18. Starry synod. Assemblage of stars ; the position of the planets with reference one to the other determined the particulars of the horoscope. 121 21. Sharp rays, putting on points. Her glances. Cf. Cra- shaw's use of the word point, above. Cf. 117 88. 121 25. Aspects. The aspect was "the relative position of the heavenly bodies as they appear to an observer on the earth's surface at a given time" (Murray). Here aspects is almost equivalent to influ- ences. 121 25. Twined, etc. " United to give a combined influence which was extremely favorable." Cf. Donne, The Ecstasy, quoted above, 117 88. 121 33. Influence. Cf. 106 53. 121 36. Black. The color of evil. Cf. 128 16. 122 52. Love shall live, although he die. This subtly varied refrain finds its original in Donne. Cf. his Lover's Infiniteness, Love's Infinite- ness, The Will, The Prohibition. 122. Sonnet. The lady to whom this sonnet is addressed is not known. Philips mentions' a Miss Davis, whom Milton thought of marrying when deserted by his first wife ; and Pattison quotes a sug- gestion " that the virtues celebrated in these lines were those which Milton would have sought for in a wife." Pattison continues of this sonnet : " Imagery here is the hackneyed biblical allusion ; the thought commonplace ; the language ordinary ; yet it will hardly be denied that the effect is impressive. ... It is due to the sense that here is a true utterance of a great soul." 122 2. The broad way. Matthew, VII, 13. 264 NOTES. 122 2. And the green. Because a green way is a pleasant one. Cf. 77 Penseroso, 66 ; L 1 Allegro, 58, and Shelley's sonnet beginning : " Ye hasten to the dead." 122 5. Ruth. The perfect rhyme was not regarded as a blemish in Milton's day. 122 6. Overween. A favorite word with Milton, Paradise Lost, x. 878 ; Paradise Regained, i. 147, etc. 122 11. Hope that reaps not shame. Romans, V, 5. 122 12. Feastful. Cf. Samson Agonistes, 1741. 123. To Phyllis. This poem appears in Wit's Recreations and was set to music in Playford's Select Airs and Dialogues, 1659. I hesitate to assign a date to any of Waller's lyrics, although this may have been written as early as 1639, considering its position in the earlier editions of his poems. Waller was much given to repolishing and filing his verses that they might conform to the poetical standards which prevailed after the Restoration — standards the setting up of which he was especially emulous to have generally believed to have been of his devising. 123. On a Girdle. This poem appeared first in an appendix to the second ed. of 1645. It was probably written not long before that date. 124 5. It was. Is in the ed. of 1645, where the present tense is kept up through the poem. 124 11, 12. The ed. of 1645 reads : Give me but what this riband tied, Take all the sun goes round beside. See also the Introduction, p. xxviii f. 124 9. Thyrsis'. " Thyrsis, a youth of the inspired train"; the name assumed by Waller in his poetical courtship of Saccharissa. See The Story of Phoebus and Daphne Applied, Drury's Waller, p. 52. 125 l. Go, lovely rose. This famous lyric, which it seems to me has been somewhat overrated, appears also in Wit's Recreations, followed by two other poems on the same subject — one of them Waller's, entitled (in his works) The Bud ; the other Herrick's, entitled (in the Hesperides) To the Rose, Song. The first stanza runs : Go, happy rose, and interwove With other flowers bind my love. Tell her too, she must not be Longer peevish, longer free, That so long hath fettered me. NOTES. 265 The resemblance is only superficial. In Mr. Drury's Waller will be found a number of other parallels. The fact that these poems of Herrick and Waller occur towards the end of Wit 's Recreations, inter- mixed with verse of Sir Edward Sherburne, whose volume of poetry, Salmacis, Lyrian, and Sylvia, appeared first in 1651, makes it likely that all were collected into a late edition of Wit's Recreations, probably that of 1654. 125 7. Graces spied. Mr. Gosse {From Shakespeare to Pope, p. 60) finds these syllables "drag painfully on the tongue" and remembers "to have heard the greatest living authority on melodious numbers [Tennyson?] suggest that Waller must have written graces eyed." He adds: "The first edition of 1645, however, has, by an obvious misprint, grace spy'd." The reprint of Wit's Recreations reads graces spy'd ; Fenton reads as in the text. If another conjecture may be made, may not Waller have written grace espied? 126 7. Thetis' streams. The ocean. 126. Fie on Love. I have preferred the longer and more finished version of this poem, which appears in Goffe's Careless Shepherdess, 1656. A shorter version is found in Shirley's Poems, 1646. I have no hesitation in assigning the lines to Shirley ; they are much in his man- ner. Cf. note on Love's Hue and Cry, above, p. 6. 126. Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, so called by his contemporaries from his birth among the people of South Wales, entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 163S. Both Henry and his brother Thomas were zealous in the royal cause, although the poet does not seem to have borne arms. Vaughan had a glimpse of the last of the great age preceding. He knew Randolph and venerated Jonson, though he could hardly have met him personally. This contact with literary London inspired Vaughan 's first work, Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Eng- lished. Olor Iscanus, a second book of secular poems and translations, appeared without the author's sanction in 1651. 127 19. Sense. Senses, perceptions. Cf. 36 2, 37 30, 94 5. 127 22. Element. Compose, make up their love. A favorite word of Donne's. Cf. his Upon Parting from his Mistress, Elizabethan Lyrics, 102 16. 127. The Inconstant. This poem was prompted by Donne's Indif ferent, to which it is as inferior as the flippancy of persiflage is inferior to imaginative cynicism. There is a clever mock poem on the same topic, having Donne's title and Cowley's treatment, in Alexander Brome's Works, Chalmers's English Poets, VI, p. 645. 127 5. Devil. Monosyllabic here, as frequently. Cf. the Scotch deil. 266 NOTES. 127 6. Legion. Trisyllabic. Cf. 37 20, 75 4, 121 26. 128 13. Proper. Handsome. 12S 16. Black. Cf. Shakespeare's Sonnet, cxlvii, where there is a play on the meaning of black as the color of evil. Cf. 121 36, 134 13. 128 30. The man [that] loves. Cf. 1 2, 4 6, 9 2, 94 9. 129. Thomas Stanley, remembered for his work in the history of philosophy, was also a poet in his youth, publishing several volumes, chiefly of translation, between 1647 and 1651. Stanley's poetical work seems to have belonged wholly to his college days. Poems and Trans- lations is the first of Stanley's volumes of poetry. Much of this volume is reprinted with slight variation in the subsequent ones. 129. The Tomb. I prefer the shorter and apparently revised version of this poem which appeared in Poems by T. S., 1651. 129 20. As thine. As thy sacrifice. 130. TheRelapse. This poem is entitled simply .S"ial Biography, that " Orinda's fame as a poet [was] always considerably in excess of her merits." 185. Sir William Killegrew was elder brother of the dramatists Henry and Thomas. He wrote several plays, all of them acted after the Restoration. His later work was chiefly devotional. 186. Sir George Etheridge was the author of three comedies and much reputed for his wit. He was employed abroad as envoy to Hamburg and minister to Ratisbon, in which latter place he died. 186. Song. This song was lengthened into a broadside ballad. Cf. Roxburghe Ballads, XVI, 133-135 (Bullen). 186 10. His is Mr. Bullen's reading for this of the original. 187. The Indian Queen was published as " w r ritten by the Honorable Sir Robert Howard," the brother-in-law of Dryden. Dryden not only touched up the whole play, but wrote large portions of it. The songs are in his manner. 187 7. Zempoalla is the usurping Indian queen. 187 8. On her dismal vision wait. After these words the queen impatiently interrupts the incantation, which then continues. 187 9. Toad . . . adders'. Cf. Middleton's The Witch, v. 2 : The juice of toad, the oil of adder, Those will make the younker madder. 187 14. Clifts. Dryden uses this form of the word " cliff " else- where, Translation of Per sins, vi. 17. 187 24. Use. Are accustomed to. 18S. "The Indian Emperor," says Scott, "is the first of Dryden's plays which exhibited, in a marked degree, the peculiarity of his style, and drew upon him the attention of the world." 188 5. Does. Later ed. reads would. 18S 13. Fall, fall, fall. Cf. Jonson's lyric in Cynthia's Revels, i. 2 ; Like melting snow upon some craggy hill, Drop, drop, drop, drop. 188. Sir Charles Sedley led the usual dissipated life of his age. He is thus distinguished as a wit from his two great rivals by Bishop Burnet : " Sedley had a more sudden and copious wit, which furnished a perpetual run of discourse ; but he was not so correct as Lord Dorset, NOTES. 281 nor so sparkling as Lord Rochester " {History of His Own Time, I, 372). Sedley appears to have become somewhat less frivolous in later life, and took sides against the Stuarts at the Revolution. I read from the collected ed. of Sedley's Works, 1778. 1SS. The Mulberry Garden is described by Ward as " partly founded on Moliere's HEcole des Afaris." The title of this lyric is given in the play a few lines above the poem. Cf. a very different treatment of a similar theme by Marvell, The Picture of Little T. C. hi a Prospect of Flowers, p. 159, above. 190 7. I only care. I care alone. Cf. 199 6. 191 22. Joy. Bliss in some editions, with a change of the fourth line of the stanza to " No less inhuman is." This version concludes with an additional stanza, which is no gain to the poem. 191 G. Knotted. Knotting was a kind of fancywork similar to lace making. See Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, I, 17. 192 l. Phyllis, men say. There is an amplification of the last stanza of this song in most editions of Sedley. This destroys the unity of the poem, as the addition is distinctly inferior. 193. Tyrannic Love is one of the most characteristic of the heroic plays of Dryden ; An Evening 's Love, largely a translation from various sources, is a very vivacious comedy. 194. You Charmed Me. The simplicity, directness, and choice diction of this little song show the master hand of a strong poet. 194. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, is thus tersely described by Walpole : " A man whom the Muses were fond to inspire and ashamed to avow; and [who] practised, without the least reserve, that secret which can make verses more read for their defects than their mer- its" {Noble Authors, II, 43). Rochester died at thirty-two a ruined debauchee. The text is from the ed. of 1680. 195 8. That tears, etc. In later editions : " That tears my fixed heart from love." 195 11. Where love, etc. A later reading is : " Where love, and peace, and honor flow." 196. Upon Drinking in a Bowl. A spirited paraphrase of the song ascribed to Anacreon, Et's iror^pLov dpyvpovv. Rochester has delight- fully enlarged upon the Greek : " Deepen the cup as much as you can {6l) '■ Ode, ' The day is set ' 171 Ode, ' Fair Isabel ' 172 The Morning Quatrains 207 Rondeau 210 Song, ' Why, dearest, shouldst thou weep ' 210 Les Amours 211 Song, ' Join once again ' 212 To Celia, Ode 212 Laura sleeping 213 Cowley, Abraham (1618 — 1633 — 1667): A Vote 59 Ode VI, Upon the Shortness of Man's Life 60 The Inconstant 127 The Chronicle 173 Anacreontique II, Drinking 176 Crashaw, Richard (1613? — 1634 — 1649) : Wishes to his Supposed Mistress 99 A Hymn of the Nativity 113 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary 117 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. 291 Crashaw, Richard: page Love's Horoscope 120 A Song, ' Lord, when the sense of thy sweet grace ' . . . .140 Davenant, Sir William (1606 — 1618 — 166S) : Song, Against Woman's Pride 183 Song, ' The lark now leaves his wat'ry nest ' 184 Dekker, Thomas (1570? — 1598 — 1641 ?) : Country Glee 2 Cast away Care 4 Song of the Cyclops 14 Dorset, Charles Sackville, Earl of (163S — 1663? — 1706): On a Lady who fancied herself a Beauty 201 Song, ' Phyllis, for shame' 202 Dryden, John (1631 — 1649 — 1700) : Incantation 187 Song, ' Ah, fading joy ' 188 ' You pleasing dreams of love ' 193 ' You charmed me not ' 194 ' Can life be a blessing ' 201 ' Farewell, ungrateful traitor ' 203 Song, betwixt a Shepherd and a Shepherdess 204 A Song, for Saint Cecilia's Day 216 ' Fairest isle, all isles excelling ' 219 ' No, no, poor suffering heart ' 219 A Song, to a Fair Young Lady 220 Song of Jealousy 222 Hunting Song 226 Egerton MS.: ' We must not part ' 19 ' Stay, stay, old Time ' 19 Etheridge, Sir George (1635 ? — 1664 — 1691) : Song, 'Ladies, though to your conquering eyes' 186 To a Lady 199 A Song, 'Ye happy swains' 199 Flatman, Thomas (1637 — 1659 — 1688) : For Thoughts 179 A Wish 181 The Defiance . . .• 198 292 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. Fletcher, Phineas (1582 — 1627 ? — 1650) : page To the Soul 142 Ford, John (1586 — 1606 — 1639?): Fly hence, Shadows 7 A Bridal Song 7 Song, ' O no more, no more ' 8 Dirge 8 Forde, Thomas (? — 1647 — 1660 ?) : The Busy Man is Free 135 Goffe, Thomas (1591 — 1620 — 1629) : Sylvia's Bower 9 Graham, James, see Montrose. Granville, George, see Lansdowne. Habington, William (1605 — 1634 — 1654) : To Roses, in the Bosom of Castara 29 Upon Castara's Departure , . 30 To Castara in a Trance 30 Against them that lay Unchastity to the Sex of Woman . . 31 To the World 36 Nox nocti indicat scientiam 85 His Mistress Flouted 86 Harrington, Henry (?) : Song, ' Trust the form of airy things ' 178 Hausted, Peter (? — 1631 — 1645) : ' Have pity, Grief ' 28 Herbert, George (1593 — 1612 — 1633) : The Altar . 32 Easter Wings 32 Employment 33 Virtue 34 The Quip 34 Frailty 35 Herrick, Robert (1591 — 1616? — 1674) : To Dianeme 9 Corinna 's Going A-Maying 10 Night Piece, to Julia 12 To Electra 13 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. 293 Herrick, Robert : page A Hymn to Love 13 Upon a Maid 20 An Ode for Ben Jonson 62 Delight in Disorder 75 To Laurels 76 To the Virgins, to make Much of Time 76 To the Western Wind 77 To Primroses 77 To Anthea 78 To Meadows 70. To Daffodils 80 To Blossoms 80 His Grange, or Private Wealth 81 To Death 82 A Thanksgiving to God for his House 83 His Winding-Sheet go To Perilla 136 Upon the Loss of his Mistresses 137 His Poetry his Pillar 137 Jonson, Ben (1573 — 1 595— l ^>37) The Shepherds' Holiday I Hymn, To Pan 2 Perfect Beaicly 16 Killegrew, Sir William (1606 — ? — 1695) : Song, ' Come, come, thou glorious object ' 185 King, Henry (1592 — ? — 1669) : Sonnet, 'Tell me no more' 177 Lansdowne, Lord (1667 — 1688 — 1735): Song, ' The happiest mortals once were we ' 225 Lovelace, Richard (1618 — 1635 — 1658): To Lucasta, going beyond the Seas 131 Song, To Lucasta, on going to the Wars 132 Song, 'Amarantha, sweet and fair' 133 The Scrutiny 133 To Althea from Prison 134 Mabbe, James (1572 — 1623 — 1642) : ' Now sleep, and take thy rest ' 25 Waiting 25 294 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. Marvell, Andrew (1621 — ? — 167S) : page The Coronet 150 Bermudas 151 Clorinda and Damon 152 A Dialogue between Thyrsis and Dorinda 154 The Fair Singer 1 57 To his Coy Mistress 1 58 The Picture of Little T. C 159 The Mower to the Glow-Worms 161 The Mower's Song 161 Making Hay-Ropes 162 Massinger, Philip (1583 — 161 1 ? — 1640) : Death invoked 23 Mat, Thomas (1595 — 1620 — 1650) : Love's Prime 5 Mayne, Jasper (1604 — 1630 — 1672) : Time is the Feathered Thing 138 Milton, John (1608 — 1623 — 1674): On Time 20 Song on May Morning 21 An Epitaph on Shakespeare 21 Sonnet, To the Nightingale 22 Sonnet, On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three . 23 Song, ' O'er the smooth enamelled green ' 38 Song, ' Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more ' 38 Song, ' Sweet Echo ' 39 The Spirit's Epilogue 42 Sonnet, When the Assault was intended to the City . . . .113 Sonnet, To a Virtuous Young Lady 122 Sonnet, To the Lord General Cromwell 166 Sonnet, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 167 Sonnet, On his Blindness 168 Sonnet, On his Deceased Wife 178 Montrose (1612 — ? — 1650) : ' My dear and only love ' 140 Norris, John (1657 — 1682 — 17 1 1 ) : Hymn to Darkness 205 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. 295 Philips, Katherine (1631 — 1651 — 1664).: page An Answer to Another persuading a Lady to Marriage . . . 184 Porter, Walter (1595 ? — 1632 — 1659) : ' Love in thy youth ' 27 Disdain returned 27 Prior, Matthew (1664 — 1687 — 172 1) : A Song, ' In vain you tell your parting lover ' 221 An Ode, 'The merchant, to secure his treasure' 223 To Chloe Weeping 223 A Song, ' If wine and music have the pow r er ' 224 Quarles, Francis (1592 — 1620 — 1644) : ' O whither shall I fly ? ' 53 My Beloved is mine and I am his 55 Randolph, Thomas (1605 — 161 5 ? — 1635) : An Ode, To Master Anthony Stafford 44 To One Admiring herself in a Looking-Glass 47 Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of (1648 — ? — 1680) : Song, ' Absent from thee I languish ' 194 Love and Life 195 Upon drinking in a Bowl 196 Constancy 197 A Song, ' My dear mistress has a heart ' 197 Sackville, Charles, see Dorset. Sandys, George (1578 — 161 5 — 1644) : Deo Optimo Maximo 56 Sedley, Sir Charles (1639? — 1688? — 1701) : To a very Young Lady 188 Constancy 189 ' Love still has something of the sea ' 190 Phyllis Knotting 191 ' Phyllis is my Only Joy ' 192 A Song, ' Phyllis, men say that all my vows ' 192 Sherburne, Sir Edward (1618 — 1648 — 1702): The Vow 163 Weeping and Kissing 164 296 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. Sherburne, Sir Edwarj): page Novo Inamoramento 164 The Sweetmeat 164 Change Defended 165 The Fountain 165 Shirley, James (1596 — 1618 — 1666 ) : Love's Hue and Cry 6 Peace restored 87 Song of the Nuns SS No Armor against Fate 89 Good Morrow 125 Fie on Love 126 Death's Subtle Ways 167 Stanley, Thomas (1625 — 1647 — 1678) : The Tomb 129 The Relapse 130 Celia Singing 131 Suckling, Sir John (1609 — ? — 1642) : ' Why so pale and wan, fond lover ? ' 61 True Love 61 Sonnet, ' Dost see how unregarded ' 107 Song, ' I prithee spare me ' 107 The Siege 10S Song, ' Honest lover whatsoever ' no Constancy 1 1 1 Song, ' I prithee send ' 112 TOWNSEND, AURELIAN (? — ? — 1 643) : Mercury Complaining 26 Vaughan, Henry (1622 — 1646 — 1695) : To Amoret, gone from Home 126 The Retreat 143 Peace 144 Love, and Discipline 145 The World 145 The Hidden Flower 147 Departed Friends 169 The Throne 170 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS. 297 Waller, Edmund (1605 — 1629? — 16S7) : !' AGE Song, ' Stay, Phoebus, stay ' 1 To my Young Lady Lucy Sidney 49 On the Friendship betwixt Sacchariss-a and Amoret ... 50 To Amoret 55 To Phyllis 123 On a Girdle 1 23 To Flavia 1 24 On the Rose 125 Of the Last Verses in the Book 216 Wilmot, John, see Rochester. Wilson, Dr. John : The Expostulation 16 Love's Idolatry 18 Love with Eyes and Heart 18 Wither, George (1588 — 1612 — 1667) : A Rocking Hymn 91 Wit 's Recreations : The Sad Lover 98 INDEX OF FIRST LINES. PAGE Absent from thee I languish still 194 A funeral stone 76 Ah, Ben 62 Ah, Chloris, that I now could sit 188 Ah, fading joy ! how quickly art thou past 187 Ah, my Perilla ! dost thou grieve to see 136 A kiss I begged : but smiling she 164 All my past life is mine no more 195 Amarantha, sweet and fair . 133 And here the precious dust is laid 73 And yet anew entangled, see . 164 Ask me no more where Jove bestows 74 Ask not the cause, why sullen spring 220 A sweet disorder in the dress 75 Avenge, O Lord, thy slaugh- tered saints, whose bones . 167 Be not too proud, imperious dame 198 Bid me not go where neither suns nor showers .... 96 PAGE Bid me to live, and I will live 78 Brave iron, brave hammer, from your sound . . . . 14 By my life I vow 163 Can life be a blessing . . . 201 Captain or colonel, or knight in arms 113 Cast away care, he that loves sorrow 4 Come, come ; away ! the spring 103 Come, come, thou glorious object of my sight . . . 185 Come, shepherds, come, im- pale your brows .... 9 Come thou, who art the wine and wit 90 Come, we shepherds whose blest sight 113 Comforts lasting, loves in- creasing 7 Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud . .166 Damon, come drive thy flocks this way 152 Dear, do not your fair beauty wrong 5 299 300 INDEX OF FIRST 1 1 NFS. Dorinda's sparkling wit and eyes 201 Dost see how unregarded now 107 Ev'n like two little bank-divid- ing brooks 55 Fair Amoret is gone astray . 226 Fair copy of my Celia's face . 70 Fair daffodils, we weep to see So Fairest isle, all isles excelling 219 Fair Isabel, if aught but thee 172 Fair pledges of a fruitful tree 80 Fair ! that you may truly know 51 Fancy and 1 last evening walked 126 Farewell, ungrateful traitor . 202 Fine young folly, though you were 86 Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race .... 20 Fly hence, shadows, that do keep 7 Fond Love, no more . . . 135 Fond soul is this 142 Forbear, bold youth ; all 's heaven here 184 Forbear, fair Phillis, O forbear 2 1 o Forsake me not so soon ; Cas- tara stay 30 From harmony, from heavenly harmony 216 Gather ye rosebuds while ye may 76 Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn .... 10 Give me more love, or more disdain 67 Glories, pleasures, pomps, de- lights, and ease .... 8 Go, empty joys 104 Go, lovely rose 125 Good morrow unto her who in the night 125 Greedy lover, pause awhile . 16 Had we but world enough and time 1 58 Hail, thou most sacred vener- able thing 205 Happy those early days, when I M3 Hark ! she is called, the part- ing hour is come . . -117 Have pity, Grief ; I cannot pay 2S Haymakers, rakers, reapers, and mowers 2 Hears not my Phyllis how the birds 191 Here she lies, in bed of spice 20 Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee 12 Honest lover whatsoever . .110 How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth ... 23 I cannot change, as others do 197 I dare not ask a kiss ... 13 If the quick spirits in your eye 68 If to be absent were to be 131 If wine and music have the power 224 I have lost, and lately, these . 137 I '11 gaze no more on that be- witched face ... -75 INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 301 I never yet could see that face 127 In Love's name you are charged hereby .... 6 In vain you tell your parting lover 221 I prithee send me back my heart 112 I prithee spare me, gentle boy 107 Iris, to keep my soul entire and true 214 I saw Eternity the other night 145 It is not, Celia, in our power 199 It was a beauty that I saw . 16 I walked the other day to spend my hour . . . .147 I was foretold, your rebel sex 69 I will confess 13 Join once again, my Celia, join 212 Ladies, though to your con- quering eyes 186 Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth 122 Leave, fairest, leave, I pray no more 165 Lord, thou hast given me a cell 83 Lord, when the sense of thy sweet grace 140 Love, brave Virtue's younger brother 120 Love in fantastic triumph sat 200 Love in thy youth, fair maid ; be wise 27 Love still has something of the sea 190 Margarita first possessed . .173 Mark that swift arrow how it cuts the air 60 Methought I saw my late es- poused saint 178 My dear and only love, I pray 140 My dear mistress has a heart 197 My mind was once the true survey 161 My soul, there is a country . 144 No, no, poor suffering heart, no change endeavor . . .219 Nor Love nor Fate dare I accuse 24 Not, Celia, that I juster am . 189 Not to the hills where cedars move 181 Now fie on love ! it ill befits . 1 26 Now sleep, and take thy rest 25 Now that winter 's gone, the earth hath lost 63 Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger .... 21 O Chloe, why wish you that your years 95 O fly, my soul ! what hangs upon S8 Of Pan we sing, the best of singers, Pan 2 O love that stronger art than wine 215 O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray 22 Only a little more . . . -137 O, no more, no more, too late 8 O thou who all things hast of nothing made 56 O turn away those cruel eyes 130 302 INDEX OF FIRST LINES. Out upon it, I have loved . . 1 1 1 O whither shall I fly? what path untrod 53 Phyllis, for shame ! let us im- prove -02 Phyllis is my only joy . . . 192 Phyllis, men say that all my vows 192 Phyllis, why should we delay 123 Read in these roses the sad story 72 Roses in breathing forth their scent 131 See, see, she wakes, Sabina wakes 225 See these two little brooks that slowly creep .... 97 See, whilst thou weep'st, fair Chloe, see 223 See with what simplicity . . 1 59 She that I pursue, still flies me 211 Since in a land not barren still 145 Skin more pure than Ida's snow 25 Stay, Phoebus, stay .... 5 Stay, stay, old Time ! repose thy restless wings . ... 19 Stranger, whoe'er thou art, that stoop'st to taste . . 165 Sweet baby sleep ; what ails my dear 91 Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes 9 Sweet western wind, whose luck it is 77 Tell me, lovely, loving pair . 50 Tell me no more how fair she is 177 Tell me not of a face that 's fair 182 Tell me not, sweet, I am un- kind 132 Tell me, Thyrsis, tell your an- guish 204 That which her slender waist confined 123 The day is set, did earth adorn 171 The glories of our blood and state 89 The happiest mortals once were we 225 The lark now leaves his vvat'ry nest 184 The merchant, to secure his treasure 223 The thirsty earth soaks up the rain 176 They are all gone into the world of light 169 Think not 'cause men flatt'ring say 64 Think'st thou that this love can stand 162 This only grant me, that my means may lie 59 Thou bidd'st me come away . 82 Thou gav'st me late to eat 164 Though clock 81 Thoughts! what are they. . 179 Thou, who didst never see the light 94 Thus, thus begin the yearly rites 1 INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 303 Time is the feathered thing . 138 'T is not your beauty can en- gage 124 'T is now since I sat down before 108 'T is true, I never was in love 1S2 To make a final conquest of all me 157 Trust the form of airy things 178 Venus, redress a wrong that 's done 94 Victorious men of earth, no more 167 Victorious Time, whose winged feet do fly . . . 4 Vows are vain ; no suppliant breath 30 Vulcan, contrive me such a cup 196 We must not part, as others do 19 We read of kings and gods that kindly took .... 66 What makes me so unnimbly rise 26 What need my Shakespeare for his honored bones . . 21 What state of life can be so blest 222 When, Celia, must my old days set 212 When, cruel fair one, I am slain 129 When death shall snatch us from these kids . . . -154 When for the thorns with which I long, too long . .150 When I behold my mistress' face 18 When I consider how my light is spent 16S When I survey the bright . 85 When Love with unconfined wings 134 When on mine eyes her eyes first shone 18 When on the altar of my hand 72 When thou, poor excommu- nicate 68 When we for age could neither read nor write . .216 When with these eyes, closed now by thee 170 Where the remote Bermudas ride 151 Whoe'er she be 99 Why art thou slow, thou rest of trouble, Death .... 23 Why came I so untimely forth 49 Why, dearest, shouldst thou weep when I relate . . .210 Why dost thou seem to boast, vainglorious sun . . . -183 Why do ye weep, sweet babes? Can tears ... 77 Why should I wrong my judg- ment so 98 Why shouldst thou swear I am forsworn 133 Why so pale and wan, fond lover 61 Winds, whisper gently whilst she sleeps 213 With horns and hounds I waken the day .... 226 304 INDEX OF FIRST LINES. Ye blushing virgins happy are 29 Ye happy swains, whose hearts are free 199 Ye have been fresh and green 79 Ye living lamps, by whose dear light 161 You charmed me not with that fair face 194 You pleasing dreams of love and sweet delight . . . .193 You that think love can con- vey 70 You twice ten hundred dei- ties 187 You virgins, that did late de- spair 87 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. Abbott, Dr., Shakespearean Gram- mar, 229, 232, et passim. Abdelazer, 282. /Elian, 261. Age of repression, The, lxiii. Aglaitra, 251. Albion's Triumph, 239. Amorous War, The, 263. Anacreon, 276, 281. Anglican Catholic approval of art, xlv, liii. Anne, Queen, xxxiii, lx, 281, 286. Arber, Professor, ed. of Putten- ham, xxvii ; of Castara, 240 ; English Garner, 235, 241, 260. Arcades, 242, 246 ; quoted, xvii. Arcadian Princess, The, 247. Argonautica, 235. Arnold, Matthew, lxii. Art and Morals, Divorce of, ix-xi. Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, 281. Bacon, Lord, xxvii, xliii, 241, 250. Bagehot, Walter, xi. Barnes, Barnabe, xlvii. Beaumont, Francis, 247, 268, 277. Beaumont, Sir John, xii. Bede, xlii. Behn, Aphara, lxviii, 282, 284. Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, 267. Biblical paraphrases in verse, xlvii. Biographica Britannica, 230. Blackmore, Sir Richard, liv. Brand's Popular Antiquities, 234, 237. 255, 268. Brathwaite, Richard, 238. Breton, Nicholas, xlvii, 271. Britannia's Pastorals, 243. Broken Heart, The, 233. Brome, Alexander, lix, 257, 265, 278, 279. Brome, Richard, xx, 238, 259. Browne, William, xvi, 243, 244, 252, 254. Browning, Robert, lvii. Bryant, William Cullen, Ixiv. Buckhurst, Lord, xxii. Bullen, Mr., More Lyrics, 230 ; 238, 239, 247 ; Musa Proterva, 260, 277, 284 ; ed. of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, 266 ; 274, 278, 2S0. Bunyaivjohn, lviii. Burnet, Bishop, quoted, 280. Burney's History of Music, 285. Burns, 253. Butler, Samuel, 282. Byron, Lord, xiii. 3°S 306 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. Caedmon, xlii. Campbell, Thomas, 248, 278. Campion, Thomas, xlii, 233, 244, 253. 2 59- Careless Shepherdess, The, 233, 265. Carew, Thomas, xi ; quoted, xii, xxxiv ; xiii, xv, xxii, xxiii, xxvii, xxxiii ; contrasted with Herrick, xxxiv-xlii ; his religious lyrics, xxxiv ; occasional verse, xxxv ; a poet of the court, xxxvi ; re- served temper, xxxvii ; vers de societe, xxxix ; his trochaic octo- syllabics, xlii ; xlv, Hi, lxiv, lxv, lxvii ; authorship confused with Shirley, 231, 232 ; 235, 236, 240, 241, 246, 249, 252, 253, 260, 262, 266, 267, 279. Carey, Lucius, Lord Falkland, xxi, xxiii. Carlyle, Thomas, lxiii. Carmen Deo Nostro, 26S. Cartvvright, William, xxii, xxiii, xxxiii, lv, lix, lxv, 249, 257, 266, 280. Castara, xxii, 1, 240. Catullus, xiii, 234. Celestina, 239. Chalmers's English Poets, 265, 273, 276, 279. Charles I, xiv, xv, et passim. Charles II, lviii, lxii, et passim. Cheerful Airs and Ballads, 235. Child, Dr. Clarence G., xxvii, xxviii. Child, Professor F. J., English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 229. Cicero, 248. Classicism, x, xviii, xix, lx— lxiii ; assimilative, empirical, and re- strictive, xxxiii ; of Carew and Herrick, xxxv ; theories as to the origin of, lx. Claudian, 251. Cleodora, 256. Cleomenes, 285. Clieveland, John, xxii; quoted, xxix, xli ; lix. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 276. Collection of Poems, A, Lans- downe, 2S6. Collier, J. P., 246. Comedies, Tragi- Comedies, and Other Poems, Cartwright, 257. Comns, xvii, 243, 244, 246, 271. Conceit, The Seventeenth Century fondness for, xxvii ; early use by Sidney, xxviii; illustrations of, xxix, xxxiii, xli; varieties of, xxix ; not wholly referable to Donne, xxx ; Donne's use of, and Crashaw's distinguished, xxx, xxxiii; Cowley's use of, xxxiii, lxiv, 231, 237, 260, 263. Congreve, William, quoted, lxviii ; 286. Conservative reaction in literature, lx ; its value and meaning, lxiii ; lxv. Constable, Henry, xlvii. Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, The, 256. Corbet, Richard, 277. Cota, Rodrigo, 239. Cotton, Charles, xv, xl, lix ; his debt to Carew and Walton, lxiv; /231, 251, 275, 276, 279, 283. Cowley, Abraham, xxiii, xxv, xxvi, xxvii-xxix ; quoted, xxxiii ; lii, liv ; long career, lx ; great re- pute, lxiv ; eclecticism, ib. ; rela- INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. 307 tion to Donne, ib.; lxv, 231, 247, 250, 251, 265, 276, 283. Crashaw, Richard, xv ; quoted, xxxi ; his use of conceit con- trasted with Donne's, xxxi- xxxiii; xlv, xlvii; at Cambridge, li; artistic and devotional tem- per, ib. ; goes over to Rome, lii ; rhapsodic nature of his poetry, ib., liii; liv, Ivii, lx, lxv, 237, 250, 258, 259, 261, 263, 268, 269, 279. Criticism, Eighteenth Century, of conceit, xxiv. Cromwell, Oliver, 272—274. Cupid and Death, 274. Darwin, Erasmus, 231. Davenant, Sir William, xxiii, xxxiii, xxxvi, lxiv, 246, 262, 279, 282. Dekker, Thomas, xx, xxiii, 229, 230. Delights of the Muses, The, li, 263. Denham, Sir John, lxiv. De Quincey, Thomas, quoted, xiii ; xxvii, xxxiii. Donne, John, xi, xv ; character of his poetry, xix, xxiii ; xxii ; his imitators, xxiii ; xxiv, xxv ; con- tempt for form, xxiv ; his satires, xxvi ; xxvii; quoted, xxx; use of conceit, xxx, xxxi ; contrasted with Crashaw, xxxii ; xxxiv- xxxvi, lvii, lxv, lxvi, 231, 232, ^35- 2 37> 240, 241, 251, 257, 258, 262, 263, 265-267, 277. Dorset, Earl of, xxii, xxv, lxviii, 280, 282. Dowden, Professor, 231. Drayton, Michael, xvi, lxv, 232, 244, 245, 247, 252, 261. Drummond, William, lxvii, 244. Drury, Mr., his ed. of Waller, quoted, 247, 248, 284; 264, 265 ; his life of Katherine Philips, quoted, 2S0. Dryden, John, xiii ; quoted, xxv, xxvi, xxix ; xxvii ; practice of devotional poetry, liv ; range of subject contrasted with Jonson and Pope, lxi ; follows- Jonson in the employment of occasional verse, satire, and criticism, ib. ; his lyrics, ib., Ixii, lxviii; lxiv- lxvi, 231, 242, 249, 271, 280-283, 285, 286. Duke of Guise, The, 283. D'Urfey, Tom, xx, 285. Dyce, A., ed. of Shirley, 232, 236. Egerton MS., 235. Elizabethan literature, Nature of, ix ; contrasted with Seventeenth Century literature, ix, x. Elizabethan Lyrics, A Book of, ix, 229, 233, 240, 247, 256, 260, 279. Elizabeth, Queen, ix,xiv,et passim. Emblems Divine and Moral, xlix, 248, 249, 258. Emperor of the East, The, 238. English Gentlewoman, The, 238. Etheridge, Sir George, 2S0. Euripides, 261, 277. Evelyn, John, 282. Evening'' s Love, An, 281. Faery Queen, The, xviii, 243, 245, 246, 285. Fairfax, Edward, lxv, lxvii, 274. Fairfax, Lord, 270, 273. Faithful Shepherdess, The, 243, 245. 308 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. Father's Testament, A, 269. Fenton's Waller, 230, 231, 248, 265. Ferrar, Nicholas, xlvi, li, 241. Flatman, Thomas, lxvii, 277, 278. Fleay, Mr. F. G., 229, 230, 256. Fletcher, Dr. Giles, xvi, 269. Fletcher, Dr. Joseph, 269. Fletcher, Giles, the younger, 269. Fletcher, John, xx, 238, 243, 245, 253, 268, 269. Fletcher, Phineas, xvi, 269. Ford, John, xx, xxii, 229, 230, 232, 2 33- Forde, Thomas, 268. Fragmenta Aurea, 260. Gascoigne, George, quoted, xxviii ; xliii. Gifford's Shirley, 232. Goffe, Thomas, xx, 233, 265. Gosse, Mr., From Shakespeare to Pope, lx, lxiv, 230, 24S, 265; 239, 265 ; Eighteenth Century Literature, lx, lxiv, lxvi. Graham, James. See Montrose. Granville, George. See Lans- downe. Gray, Thomas, 237. Greene, Robert, xxiii, 252, 268, 271. Grosart, Dr., his ed. of Herrick, xxii, xxxv, 234, 254 ; of Herbert, liii; Vaughan, lv, 270, 275; Sylvester, 241 ; Cowley, 247, 251; Quarles, 248, 249; Greene, 252 ; Crashaw, 259, 262 ; Fuller Worthies' Miscellanies, 260, 283; Marvell, 271; 276. Habington, William, xxii, xxiii, 1, lviii, 239, 240. Hale, Professor E. E., Jr., his ed. of Herrick, lv, 233-235, 252, 254, 256, 261, 263. Haleluiah, 256. Hales, Professor, xxv. Hallam, Henry, 277. Hannah, Dr., ed. of Raleigh, 260; Courtly Poets, 268. Harrington, Henry, 277. Hausted, Peter, 239. Hawkins's History of Music, 243. Hazlitt, Mr. W. C, ed. of Carew, xxii, 232, 246, 253; Herrick, 235 ; Randolph, 247. Hazlitt, William, xiii. Henrietta Maria, Queen, 231, 250, 258. Herbert, George, xv, xxiii, xxxiii, xlv ; delivery of his Temple, xlvi ; xlvii ; his popularity, 1 ; li ; purity of spirit, Puritanism and self-restraint, Hi; contrasted with Crashaw, ib.; quoted, liii; 241, 242, 262, 269. Herrick, Robert, xi, xiii, xv, xxii ; quoted, xxiii, xxxvii, xl, xli ; contrasted with Carew, xxxiv- xlii ; his religious lyrics, xxxiv, xlv, liii ; love of nature, xxxv, xxxvi ; occasional verse, xxxvi ; Hedonism, xxxviii ; constructive excellence, xiii ; metrical invent- iveness, ib.; lii, Ivi, 233, 234, 235, 240, 247, 252, 254, 255, 258, 261, 264, 268, 270, 279. Hesiod, 244. Hesperides, 233, 252, 254, 264, 268 xi, xxxvi. Heywood, Thomas, xxiii. Hilton, John, 235. Hoi bum Drollery, 253. INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. 309 Horace, xiii, 251. Howard, Sir Robert, 280. Howell, James, xxii, xxiii, 257, 263, 277. Hudibras, 282. Hugo, Herman, 249. Imposture, The, 256. Indian Emperor, The, 280. Indian Queen, The, 280. Ingelow, Jean, 249, 258. James I, ix, xiv, et passim. Johnson, Dr., his critique of 'the metaphysical poets,' xxiv, xxv ; 286, xxvi, lxiv. Jones, Inigo, 239. Jonson, Ben, xi, xv ; his manner in poetry, xviii-xx; his influence, ib.; his classicism, xix, xxxiii ; literary dictatorship, xxi ; the 'sons of Ben,' xxi-xxiii, 255; xxxiv-xxxvi, xl, lv; use of occa- sional verse, lxi; his lyrics; ib.; his influence on the subject- matter of later poetry, ib., 229, 23 2 > 2 35. 2 3 8 . 2 4i. 244> 252, 254, 265, 277, 280. Jonso)ius Virbius, xxi, xxii, 268, 277. Jovial Crew, The, or The Merry Beggars, 259. Juvenal, xxv, lv, lxii. Keats, xiii, xlii. Killegrew, Sir William, 280. King, Henry, Bishop, xxi, xxiii, xliii, lix, 277. King Arthur, Dryden's, 285. Kittredge, Professor, 242, 249, 259, 272, 285. Knox, John, 242. Lactantius, 254. L' Allegro, 244. Lansdowne, Lord, George Gran- ville, 286. last Remains, Suckling, 261. Lawes, Henry, xx, 242-244, 254, 267, 277. Lee, Nathaniel, 283. Le Gallienne, Mr., 253. letters of State, 273. Lodge, Thomas, xlii, 271. London's Tempe, 234. Love in a Tub, 280. Love Triumphant, 28 6. Lovelace, Richard, xxiv, xxxiii, lix, 240, 266. Lover's Melancholy, The, 233. Lover's Watch, The, 284. Love's Labyrinth, 268. Loyal Garland, The, 282. Lucasta, Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, and Songs, 266. Lucky Chance, The, 284. Lucretius, 245. Lyly, John, xx, 279. Lyric, The seventeenth century, justification of the secular, xiii; poetic influences upon the, xv- xx, xlii ; the secular, xxxiv-xlii ; the devotional, xlii-lix ; decline of the, lxvii ; becomes conven- tional, ib.; artificial and insin- cere, lxviii. Mabbe, James, 239. Magister, Thomas, 261. Malherbe, lxvi. Manlius, 254. Marlowe's Lust's Domi7iion, 282. Marmion, Shakerley, xxi. Martial, Epigrams, xi, 238. 310 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. Marvell, Andrew, xv, xl; his poetic period, liv ; devotional verse, ib.\ love of nature, his religious pastorals, ib.; lvi, lviii, lix, lxiv, 253, 270, 271, 272, 2S1. Massinger, Philip, xx, 238. Masson, Professor D., Life of Milton, 234, 237, 245, 246, 277. May, Thomas, xx, xxi, 230. Mayne, Jasper, xxii, 257, 268. Merry Beggars, The, 259. ' Metaphysical Poets,' The, xxiv- xxvi. Middleton, Thomas, 280. Milton, John, xiii ; his position as a world poet, xiv ; his artistic purpose, ib.; Spenser's influence on, xvi-xviii; classical allusion, xvii, xviii, 244 ; scholarship, xviii ; religious poetry, xlii, xlvii ; power of artistic sincerity, ib.\ liv, lvi, lviii-lxi, lxiv, 234-238, 242-246, 261-264, 267, 270-275, 277, 282. Miscellanies of Cowley, 276 ; of Dryden, 285. Miscellany, The Devotional, xlvii. Miscellany, The Poetical, xx, xxi Mistress, The, 265. Moliere, 28 1. Monk, General, 252. Montrose, Marquess of, lix, 268. More, Henry, 283. Morley, Professor, ed. of Herbert, xlvi; ed. of Peele, 267. Morley's First Book of Madrigals, 252. Mulberry Garden, The, 280. Murray, Dr., xxvii. Musarum Deliciae, 241. Miisica Antiqna, 230. Mysticism, Religious, lvii. Napier's Afoutrose and the Cove- nanters, 268. Nashe, Thomas, 241, 244. Nature, Love of, in poetry, xiv, xxiii, xxxv, xl, liv, lvi, lxiv. New Inn, The, 235. New Miscellany of Poems, A, 282. Nichols, J., 229. Nicholson, Dr., 271, 272. Noble Numbers, liii, 255. Norris, John, lviii, lxvii, 283. Northern Lass, The, 238. Notes and Queries, 252, 253. Occasional verse, Carew's em- ployment of, xxxv ; Herrick's, xxxvi ; Jonson's, lxi ; Dryden's and Pope's, lxii; 259; Milton and, 273, 274. Old Couple, The, 230. Oldmixon, John, lxviii. Oroonoko, 282. Overbury, Sir Thomas, lxv. Ovid, 249, 250. Palgrave, Mr., quoted, 233 ; 259, 267, 272, 283. Pan's Atniiversary, 229. Parnell, Thomas, xxvi, liv. Pastoral, The, xvi, xxii, liv, lv. Pattison, Mark, ed. of Milton's Sonnets, quoted, xliii, 236, 237, 261, 263, 273, 275, 277 ; Life of Milton, 274. Peele, George, 267. Pepys, Samuel, 252. Percy, Bishop, 267. Persius, 280. INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. 311 Philips, Edward, 272, 273. Philips, Katherine, lxviii, 279, 280. Plato, 256, 266. Playford, Henry, xx ; his Select Airs, 264 ; his Theater of Music, 284. Pliny, 261. Poems and Discourses, Norris, 283. Poems and Songs, Flatman, 277. Poems and Translations, Stanley, 231, 265. Poems both English and latin, Milton, 236, 237, 261, 263. Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets, King, 277. Poems of Carew, xii, 246, 252; Philips, 279; Shirley, 231, 265; Waller, 247. Poems on Several Occasions, Cot- ton, 275 ; Davenant, 279; Roch- ester, 281 ; Prior, 286. Poe?ns upon Several Occasions, Milton, 274 ; Waller, 247, 264. Poems, with the Muses' 1 Looking Glass, Randolph, 247. Poems, zvith the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, Vaughan, 265. Poetry and prose distinguished, lxii. Poetry, degeneracy of taste in, xxi, xxxiii, lxviii, lxix ; influence of Spenser, xv-xviii, of Jonson, viii-xix, of Donne, xix, xx ; sec- ular, xxxiv-xlii, religious, xlii- lix ; at the Restoration, lix, later decline of, lxvii. Poets, Secular, side with the king, xxiii ; tribute to Jonson, xxi, xxii ; ' metaphysical,' xxiv, xxv; ' rhetorical,' xxvii ; devotional, not of one sect or party, lviii ; of the old and new manner, lxiv. Polyolbion, The, xvi, 244, 245. Pope, Alexander, xiii, xxvi; quoted, xxix ; xl, liv, lxi; follows Jon- son and Dryden in subject- matter, lxii ; his plan for a his- tory of English poetry, lxv ; Ixvi, 23 1 . 2 37, ~3 8 > 2 49> 286 - Porter's Madrigals and Airs, 230. Prior, Matthew, liv, lxviii, 234, 286. Propertius, 274. Psalms of David, Paraphrases upon the, xliii, 249. Purcell, Dr., 286, 287. Puritanism, x ; effect of, on poetry, xlv. Puttenham's Art of English Poesie, xxvii, 241. Quarles, Francis, xi, xxxiii ; his contemporary popularity, xliv, xlvii ; xlv-xlvii ; contrasted with Wither, xlviii ; his ingenuity and use of conceit, xlix ; quoted, ib. ; 248, 249, 258. Queen's Masque, The, 244. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 260. Randolph, Thomas, xx, xxiii, lv, lxv, 235, 246, 265. Religious poetry, x; of Carew, xxxiv ; of Derrick, ib., liii ; in- fluence of the Psalms on, xlii ; Elizabethan and Seventeenth Century, contrasted, xlv; of Herbert, xlvi, 1 ; Milton, the highest exponent of, xlvii, lix ; Biblical paraphrases, xlvii ; Quarles and Wither, ib., xlix ; Sandys, 1 ; Crashaw, li — liii ; later 312 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. paraphrases and epics, liv ; Mar- veil, his religious pastorals, ib. ; Vaughan, lv-lvii ; not confined to one sect or party, lviii. Restoration, Literature at the, lix- lxi, lxiii. Rhetoric a basis of artistic pleas- ure, xiii. ' Rhetorical poets,' The, xxvii, xxxiii. Rival Friends, The, 239. Rochester, Earl of, lxviii, 281, 282, 283. Rojas, Fernando de, 239. Rolliad, The, 284. Rondeau, The, 284. Ronsard, Pierre de, 273. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 270. Rota, Bernadino, 277. Ruff head's life of Pope, lxv. Ruskin, Mr., lxiii. Saintsbury, Professor, Elizabethan Literature, 252, 267 ; Seven- teenth Century Lyrics, 253, 268, 279, 2S2, 2S4 ; ed. of Scott's Dryden, 283, 285. Salmasis, Lyrian and Sylvia, 272. Sandys, George, xxxiv, xxxvi, xliii, xlv ; his scriptural paraphrases, 1, lxv ; his formal nature, ib. ; alleged importance in the history of the heroic couplet, ib., 249. Scott, Sir Walter, his ed. of Dry- den, 280, 283, 285. Second Part of Mr. Waller's Poems, The, 2S4. Secular Masque, The, 286. Scdley, Sir Charles, lxviii, 260, 280, 281. Selindra, 280. Seventeenth Century literature, ix- xv ; contrasted with Elizabethan, ix-xii, xlv, xlvi ; its limited range, xi, xiii ; fanciful character, xii, xxvii ; use of conceit, xxviii, xxxii ; secular poetry of, xxxiv- xlii ; devotional poetry of, xiii— lix. Shakespeare, x, xi-xiii, xx, xiii, lxi, 2 3°> 2 33> 2 34, 236, 240, 241, 243, 245, 246, 255, 261, 262, 266, 271, 272, 275, 279, 282, 284. Shelley, xiii, liii, 236, 264. Shepherds' 1 Holiday, The, 229. Sherburne, Sir Edward, lix, 257, 265, 272, 273. Shirley, James, xx, xxii ; author- ship confused with Carew, 231, 232; 247, 266. Sidney, Sir Philip, xxi, xxvii, xxxiii, xliii, 248, 259. Silex Scintillans, 269, 275. Silisio, Mariano, 247. Skeat, Professor, 236. Smith, Stafford, his Musica Anti- gua, 230. Song Books, xx. Songs and Other Poems, A. Brome, 278. Songs of the Drama, xx. Sonnet, Discontinuance of the, xxii ; devotional sequences of the, xlvii ; Milton's use of the, xliii. Southey, Robert, lxiv. Southwell, Robert, xlv. Spanish Friar, The, 283. Spenser, Edmund, xi, xv ; his in- fluence, xvi-xix, xxxiii, xlv, lxv, lxvi, 236, 237, 243-246. Spenserianism, xv-xviii, lxvii ; its INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. 313 influence on poetry of classic type, lxvii. Sprat, Dr. T., lxiv. Stafford, Anthony, 246. Stanley, Thomas, lv, lix, 266, 273. Steps to the Temple, li, 261, 262. Strafford, Earl of, 259, 260. Suckling, Sir John, xiii, xxiv, xxxiii, 246, 251, 253, 260, 267. Suit's Darling, The, 229. Swinburne, Mr., 244. Sylva, Cowley, 250. Sylvester, Joshua, 241, 243. Tabley, Lord de, 251. Temple, The, xlvi, 1, li, 241. Tennyson, Lord, 231, 265, 273. Tertullian, xliii, 274. Thucydides, 236. Townsend, Aurelian, xx, 239. Trench, Archbishop, 269. Troilns and Cressida, Dryden, 282. Trumbull, W. B., ed. of Crashaw, 237, 258, 26S. Tupper, M. F., xliv. Tyrannic Love, 281. Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, xxxi. Ulrici, Professor, xi. Vaughan, Henry, xv; quoted, xxx, lvi ; xxxiii, xlv, xlvii, liv ; a recluse, lv ; his likeness to Wordsworth, ib., lvi ; love of nature, lvi ; seriousness, halting execution, realism, id.; mysti- cism and intellectuality, lvii; lviii, lix, 255, 265, 269, 275, 279. Vaughan, Thomas, 265. Vers de societe, justification of, xii, xiii ; defined, xxxix ; Carew and, ib.\ Waller a follower of Carew iu the practice of, lxvii ; Suck- ling's, 251. Virgil, 245, 267, 273. Waller, Edmund, his contact with earlier poetry, xxii; xxiii, xxvi, xxxiv; indebtedness to Herrick, xl r quoted, xli ; devotional verse, liv; long career, lx ; not the originator of the new poetry, lxvi; indebtedness to Carew and Jonson, lxvii; real place, ib.; freedom of his early verse, 230 ; 231, 247; editions of, 248; 250, 264, 265. Walpole, Horace, 282. Walton, Izaak, quoted, xlvi; lxiv, 241, 275-277, 279. Ward, Professor A. W., 232, 281. Ward's English Poets, xxv. Warton, Thomas, 236, 243, 244. Weaver, Thomas, 267. Wharton, Anne, Marchioness of, lxvii. William III, 283, 2S6. Wilmot, John. See Rochester. Wilson, Dr. John, his Cheerful Airs, xx, 235, 267. Wilson, John, the dramatist, lxviii. Wit, xxvii-xxx. Wither, George, xi, xvi ; contrasted with Quarles, xliv; his devo- tional miscellanies, xlvii; free- dom from figure, xlix ; lviii, 241, 249, 256, 257, 279. Wifs Interpreter, 230, 267. Wit's Recreations, xxi, xl, 230, 233- 2 35> 2 S4. 258, 259, 264, 265, 273- 314 INDEX TO INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. Witty Fair One, The, 231. Wood, Anthony a, 239, 266. Wood, Professor, lx. Wordsworth, xliv, lvi, 231, 260, 269, 275. Works of Celebrated Authors, 283. Works of Congreve, 286. Works of Edmund Waller, 247. Wotton, Sir Henry, 260. Wyatt, Sir Thomas, xliii, 284. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 17 193S 8 \9S# 10 -1940 •*r>*. - 0§c 17 '58 Nov 27 6 l Form L-9-20m-8,'3' PR Schelling ~ 1137 A book of — S^2 — a o v o nte -errbn- cop.l century lyrioo « UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 296 661 SVERSITY of cAuwmm* AT LOS ANGfiLES LIBRARY