Qass ■ Rook . IXiZ • Co fpairfttgton'g ea&ara* At'Z &a!rittgtttt'g ©aetata, M PREFACE AND NOTES, CHARLES A. ELTON. Spirat adhuc amor Vivuntqiie commissi calores. Hor. BRISTOL: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. M. GUTCH 9 15, Small-Street; *OLD ALSO BY R. BALDWIN, PATERNOSTER-ROW ; J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-bTREET J AND R. TRIPHOOK, ST. JAMES V STREET, LONDON. PREFATORY ESSAY. lHE late Mr. Headley, in the " Biographical Sketches" prefixed to his ei Select Beauties of ancient English Poetry," speaks of Habington, as a writer, " «ome of whose pieces deserve being revived :" and Sir Egerton Brydgcs, in his u Cen- sura Literaria," has given a critical analysis of the Castara. Mr. Chalmers has reprinted the work in his enlarged edition of The British Poets ; and has pointed out its distinguishing merits with elegance aHd precision. As the poems are now only accessible in the body of a voluminous collec- tion, owing tothescarcen^,s of the original copies, it seems desirable that they should be republished in a separate form. The present edition is printed from that which bears date 1640. Some account of the immediate ancestors of William Habington may not be uninteresting. B PREFATORY ESSAY. Thomas Habington, (sometimes spelt Abington) was the son of John Habington of Hendlip, in Worcestershire: and grandson of Richard Habing- ton of Brockhampton, in Herefordshire. Thomas, at sixteen, became a commoner of Lincoln Col- lege, Oxford ; and finished his academical studies at the universities of Paris and Rheims. On his return to England, he joined the adherents of Mary, Queen of Scots ; and, on suspicion of being implicated in Babington's conspiracy, was impri- soned six years in the Tower. The circumstance of his being godson to Queen Elizabeth, to whom his father, John, was cofferer, it is supposed, ope- rated in his favor, so that his life was spared. But his younger brother, Edward, who had engaged in the same conspiracy, and was, says Wood, u a person of a turbulent spirit, and nature," was executed at St. Giles's in the fields, in September 1586. Thomas, on his liberation, retired to Hendlip, the manor of which was settled on him by his father, and married Mary, eldest daughter of Edward lord Morley, by Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of Sir William Stanley, knight, lord Mounteagle. He was, afterwards, exposed to a similar danger, and actually sentenced ta PREFATORY ESSAY. death, for concealing in his house* Garnet and Alcerne, two Popish priests, who were concerned in the Gunpowder plot ; but was reprieved, and finally pardoned, through the intercession of Lord Mountcagle, his wife's brother. Mary Habington was, in fact, the real author of the celebrated warn- ing letter which Lord Mounteagle received, the day before the meeting of Parliament. Thomas Habing- ton died at the advanced age of eighty-seven^ at Hendlip, on the 8th of October, 1647. His only published work was, a translation of Gildas, " De excidio et conquestu Britanniae," with an ample preface, 8vo. Lond. 1638 ; but he left behind him in manuscript, u The Antiquities and Survey of Worcestershire :" u Part of this book," says Wood, " I have seen, and perused; and find that every leaf is a sufficient testimony of his generous, and virtuous mind ; of his indefati- gable industry, and infinite reading :" and, "Of the Cathedral Church, and Bishops of Worcester," written with his own hand, in a thin folio. The preamble, quoted by Wood, is a specimen of the style of the age — " God's eternal empire of heaven * See Nash's Worcestershire, vol. 1. page 585, and in page 588 is a view of Hendlip House ; with engraved portraits of John Habington the founder, Thomas, and Mary his wife* PREFATORY ESSAY. endureth for ever. " He, also, laid the ground- work of " The History of Edward IV. " after- wards completed and published by his son* William Habington was born at Hendlip, in Worcestershire, on the 4th or 5th of November, 1605 : and reeeiyed his education at St. Omer's and in Paris. He was earnestly pressed by the Jesuits to belong to their order ; and, to avoid their impor- tunities, returned to England, where he finished his studies under the immediate eye of his father : and applied himself, in particular, to history. Re- port speaks of him as "an accomplished gentle- man," He married Lucia, daughter, of William lord Powis ; the lady whom he has celebrated under the name of Castara, and who is described by Winstanly, in his lives of the poets, as " a lady of rare endowments and beauty." Habing- ton died November 30th, 1654: one year after Cromwell's* elevation to the protectorship ; and was buried in the family vault at Hendlip, * Yfood insinuates, in a vague manner, that " this William " Habington did run with the times, and was not unknown to Oliver the usurper." That men of upright and honourable minds were enlisted both on the monarchical and popular side must be acknowledged by all, in whom the bigotry of party has not ex- tinguished charity. But against Wood's surmise we have the strongest possible presumptive evidence. Habington v, as a PREFATORY ESSAY. Exclusive of the Castara, which will presently he considered, he was the author of a tragi-comedy entitled " The Queen of Arragon ;" whicli he pre- sented to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamber- lain of the household to Charles the First. It was acted at Court and the Black-Friars ; and printed at London in folio, 1640. It now appears in Dodsley's collection of old plays. Of his " His- t ry of Edward IV. King of England," Lond. 1640, fol. Wood tells us without probability, that the work was both " written and published at the desire of C arles the First :" We have seen that it was begun by Habington the father. He adds, Roman Catholic ; and it is not likely that he should side witb the Presbyterians : he was full of courtly loyalty ; and it i? quite improbable that he should pass to the extreme of repub- licanism. The passages And who were busie here - Are gone to sow sedition in the shire. and Only a pure devotion to the king, In whose just cause whoever fights mi^t he Triumphant, are too strong to admit of so sudden and radical a change in a man of principle, which Habington appears to have been. Lang- baine quaintly speaks of him a* " a gentleman who lived in the civil wars, and, blighting Be]iona, gave himself entirely to the Muses ;" and th^ probability is, that he took no active part in the state commotions, PREFATORY ESSAY. that a it was by many esteemed to have a style sufficiently florid, and better becoming a poetical, than historical subject." In the " Complete History »^of England," 1706 ; the two first volumes of which £/*C were compned by Hughes the poet, Habington's Life of Edward is inserted among other adopted lives. He also wrote " Observations on History," London, 1641, octavo. There is a copy of the Castara in the li- brary of St. John's College, Oxford ; this bears date 1634, and is the first edition. A second, in octavo, succeeded in 1635 ; and a third, with addi- tions, of a small duodecimo size, in 1640f The final arrangement of the work was in three parts, under different titles, and each introduced by a charac- ter in prose. The first, The Mistress, contains the poems addressed to the Lady Lucia during his courtship ; the second, The Wife, includes those which he composed after their marriage. On this second part is ingrafted The Friend ; a collec- tion of funeral elegies ; which is preceded, like the former, with a prose character, and is evidently a distinct part of itself. It is, therefore, so disposed in the present edition. The third, or, as I have printed it, the fourth part, is entitled The Holy Man ; and consists of devotional pieces. From a PREFATORY ESSAY. a delicate compliment to his wife, he has com- prehended these several divisions of the work under the general title of u Castara." Win- stanly justly characterizes the author as u one of a quick wit, and fluent language;'' ~and says, that his poems on their coming out, Ci gained a general fame and estimation. " The amatory poetry of Habington is that of a man, who regards woman as a highly intellectual being ; not as the mere slave and instrument of sen- sual pleasure : and the correctness of his mind, in this particular, is equally apparent in his prose and verse. There are writers of the present day, who, if they could be supposed capable of any touches of moral compunction, might start at a passage in the preface to Castara, with no common self-abasement and remorse. " Of such heathens our times afford us a pittycd multitude 5 who can give no other testimony of twenty years employment,, than some loose copies of lust happily exprest. Yet these the common people of wit blow up with their breath of praise, and honour with the sacred name of poets." In Habington we have no burning glances, cr murmuring blisses, or blasphemous exclamations PREFATORY ESSAY. of delirious rapture. Still less is the lady insulted by vaunts of a general and systematic sensuality. She is neither complimented by the assurance of dividing the thoughts of her lover with the vulgar pleasures of the glass, nor told that between kisses and bumpers life glides pleasantly away. Instead of this, we hear the delicacy of sentiment with which our grandmothers were pleased to be addressed, and to which our daughters may lend their ear, without risk of mental contamination. The following stanzas breathe an affectionate esteem, and are easy, simple, and poetical: Like the violet, which alone Prospers in some happy shade. My Castara lives unknowne, To no looser eye betray'd : For shee's to herself untrue "Who delights i'th' publicke view. Such is her beauty^ as no arts Have enrich'd with borrow'd graee; Her high birth no pride imparts, For shee blushes in her place ; Folly boasts a glorious blood ; She is noblest being good. Shee her throne makes reason climbe, While wild passions captive lie j And, each article of time, PREFAT011F ESSAY. Her pure thoughts to heaven flie ; All her vowes religious be, And her love she vows to me. Easy numbers are not his only praise; his style is often pointed and vigorous. Give me a heart, where no impure, Disordered passions rage ; Which jealousy doth not obscure, Nor vanity t'expence engage ; Not wooed to madnesse by quaint oatlies, Or the fine rhetoricke of clothes m t "Which not the softness of the eye To vice or folly doth decline ; Give me that heart Castara! for tis thine. Take thou a heart, where no new looke Provokes new appetite ; "With no freshe charme of beauty tooke, Or wanton stratagem of wit ; Not idly wandering here and there, Led by an am'rous eye or eare ; Aiming each beautious marke to hit ; Which virtue doth to one confine ;. Take thou that heart Castara ! for tis mine. His figures and illustrations are almost always new and uncommon, and denote a lively and preg- nant imagination. They are not always free from conceit, but they frequently strike by their elegant appositeness, no less than by their fanciful beauty* 10 PREFATORY ESSAY. They meet but with unwholesome springs, And summers, which infectious are ; They heare but when the meremaid sings. And onely see the falling starre ; Who ever dare Affirme no woman chaste and fair. There is, perhaps, something of the manner, though not quite the smoothness of Waller, in these stanzas on an embrace : ^Bout th' husband oke the vine Thus wreathes, to kisse hisleavy face; Their streams thus rivers joyne, And lose themselves in the embrace ; But trees want sence, when they infold, And waters, when they meet, are cold. Thus turtles bill, and grone Their loves into each other's eare ; Two flames tfrus burne in one, "When their curl'd heads to heaven they reare j But birds want soul, though not desire, And flames materiall soon expire. The poems to the memory of his friend Talbot have the common fault of poetical sorrow : they are too elaborate in fancy for the natural effusions of grief. But to this there are exceptions. The be- ginning of his address tothespirit of the departed, is vnaiTcctedly tender and solemn. PREFATORY ESSAY. 11 Let me contemplate thee, fair soule ! and though I cannot tracke the way, which thou didst goe -In thy celestiall journey, and my heart Expanssion wants, to thinke what now thou art, How bright and wide thy glories; yet I may Remember thee, as thou wert in thy clay ; Best object to my heart ! what virtues be Inherent even to the least thought of thee ! Wc meet occasionally with original and philo- sophic reflexion : But all we poets glory in, is vaine And empty triumph ; art can not regaine One poore houre lost, nor reskew a small flye By a foole's finger destinate to die. In the lines that conclude these elegies, no one can fail to recognize the poet. The conceit of the ashes of the pious dead exhaling odours, conveys a disagreeable association ; but he is not the only writer who has adopted it. The splendor of dic- tion and imagery which distinguishes this passage, is such as to place the genius of Habington in a yery conspicuous light. Thou eclips'd dust ! expecting breake of day From the thieke mists about thy tombe, 1'le pay, Like tiie just larke, the tribute of my \ersc. I will invite thee from thy envious herse Xq rise, aud 'bout the world thy beams to spread, 12 PREFATORY ESSAY. That we ma)' see there's brightnesse in the dead. My zeal deludes me not. What perfumes come From th' happy vault r iu her sweet martyrdorae The nard breathes never so, nor so the rose, "When the enamour'd spring by kissing blowes Soft blushes on her cheeke, nor th' early East, Vying with Paradice, in th' Phoenix nest. These gentle perfumes usher in the day, Which from the night of his discolour'd clay Breakes on the sudden. The passage has already exceeded the license ©f transcription ; but I cannot refrain from adding the close of it; in which a very striking sentiment i3 expressed with very uncommon energy of language. But, if w' are $o far blind, we cannot see The wonder of this truth, yet let us be Not infidels ; nor like dull atheists give Ourselves so long to lust, till we believe, (T' allay the griefe of sinne) that we shall fall To a loath'd nothing in our funeral!. The bad man's death is horror : but the just Keeps something of his glory in his-dust. The sacred lyrics, which conclude the volume, are chiefly paraphrases of texts out of the Psalms, and the book of Job. Habington seems to please himself in lyric poetry. At least, to my ear, his rhythm is never so pleasing as when it flows in the PREFATORY ESSAY. 13 measures of the ode. The stanzas on the amorous idolatries of poets will not easily be paralleled for softness of numbers, luxuriance of expresssion, and elegance of thought. Noe monument of me remaine ; My memoiie rust In the same marble with my dust; Ere [ the spreading lawrel gaine By writing wanton or profane. Ye glorious wonders of the skies, Shine still, bright starres, Th' Almightie's mystick characters ; I'le not your beautious lights surpriz-e, T' illuminate a woman's eyes. Jtfor, to perfume her veines, will I In each one set The purple of the violet ; The untoucht flowre may grow and dye Safe from my fancie's injurie. From some few specimens in the former part of the work, it should appear that he would have excelled also in satyric pleasan(ry; the lines to Sir Ed. P. descriptive of a feast, are lively and Horatian ; but enriched with more poetic ima- gery, than we meet with in the familiar satires of II* race. 14 PREFATORY ESSAY. The prose, interspersed with the volume, should not pass without notice. It is a valuable relic of this author's well-principled and cultivated mind. It has a tincture of that floridness, objected by Wood to his historical style, and is coloured oc- casionally with something of the quaintness of wit, which we remark in Burton; but there is great pithiness of sense, and closeness of expression in what Habington writes. u Her language," he observes of a virtuous mistress, u is not copious, but apposite; and she had rather suffer the re- proach of being dull in company, than have the title of witty with that of bold and wanton. In her carriage she is sober ; and thinks her youth expresseth life enough, without the giddy motion, fashion of late has taken up. She danceth to the best applause, but doates not on the vanity of it; nor licenseth an irregular meeting to vaunt the levity of her skilL She sings, but not perpe- tually; for she knows that silence, in a woman, is the most perswading oratory. She never arri- ved to so much familiarity with a man, as to know the diminutive of his name, and call him by it ; and she can show a competent favor, without yielding her hand to his gripe." PREFATORY ESSAY. 15 Of a wife he says, " She is so true a friend, her husband may to her communicate even his ambitions, and, if success crown not expectation, remain, nevertheless, uncontcmned. She is col- league with him in the empire of prosperity, and a safe retiring place, when adversity exiles him from the world. She is so chaste she never understood the language lust speaks in, nor with a smile ap- plauds it, although there appear wit in the mcta- phore." In the eyes of those, who value a medal for its rust, it will not detract from the merit of Habington, that his verses, more especially his couplets, are sometimes broken and rugged : that they are, sometimes, clogged with parenthesis, and harshly jangled out of tune by rough and arbi- trary elisions of letters and syllables. The admi- rers of classical simplicity will not fail, also, to detect, in several of his compositions, a faulty mixture of metaphysical pedantry, which insinuates itself among passages of, otherwise, singular de- licacy and beauty. When he once gives therein to his imagination, he seems unable to retain the mastery of it. What should we feare Castara ? the cool aire, That's falne in love, and wantons in thy haire, / 16 PREFATORY ESSAY, Will not betray our whispers. Should I steale A nectar'd kisse, the wind dares not reveale The pleasure I possesse. The wind conspires To our blest interview, and in our fires Bathes like a Salamander, and doth sip, Like Bacchus from the grape, life from thy Up, The opening of the poem to Mr. E. Porter, is in a wild and pleasing strain of romantic poetry. Not still i' th' shine of kings. Thou dost retire, Sometime, to th' holy shade, where the chaste quire Of muses doth the stubbome Panther awe, And give the wildenesse of his nature law. The wind his chariot stops : th' attentive rocke The rigor doth of its creation mocke, And gently melts away. but he cannot forbear adding, Argus, to heart The music, turns each eye into an eare. A very fine imitation of part of an ode of Horace is disgraced by a pedantic witticism in the style of Cowley : Direct your eye-sight inward, and you'le find A thousand regions in your minde Yet undiscover'd : travell then, and be Expert in home-cosmographie. During Castara's absence, the lover conceives himself dead, and deprecates the idea of being Prefatory essay. 17 dissected. He then imagines that his friends sup- pose him still living, and assures them that either a spirit has taken his form, or Use heaven by miraele makes me survive Myselfe, to keepe in me poore love alive. Could Cowley himself have gone beyond him ? One of the stanzas u To the world/' furnishes a resemblance both to the grossness and abstruse conceit of Donne. But he has no other of the same kind. AY hen we speake love, nor art, nor wit, Weglosse upon ; Our souls engender, and beget Ideas, which >ou counterfeit In your dull propagation. On his lady's sickness, he supposes a dart shot from her eyes to have singed the wings of death, and obliged him to hover near her. Olher poets, more timid or less ingenious, have regarded the approach of death to beauty with terror and aver- sion. But with tame, common sense, what poeti- cal metaphysician would rest satisfied ? They who loath'd thee, when they see Where thou harbours't, will love thee. Deatlv was never, probably, so complimented before. € 18 PREFATORY ESSAY. Of that frigid purity, which consists in the exclusion of every thing sensibly human, he has more than one example ; his ode " to the dew," betrays that " cold glitter'* of sentiment/which Mr, Coleridge ascribes to Petrarch : But see — she comes ; bright lamp o' th'skie Put out thy light ; the world shall spie a A fairer sunne in either eye. And liquid pearle, hang heavy now On every grasse, that it may bow In veneration of her brow. But these were the vices of his time. I have been thus minute in remarking on Habington's defects, because these vices of his age are generally overlooked, in the prevalent disposition to extol, what is termed the vigorous simplicity of the ancient school. That I am not insensible to the genius of those poets who grace the period from Elizabeth to Charles, ray revival of Habington may be admitted as a sufficient proof; but the latter sera cannot be classed as ancient, otherwise than by comparison ; and certainly exhibits a degree of sophisticated taste, incompatible with the impression intended to be conveyed by the phrase ancient poetry, and far exceeding, in its capricious deviations from nature, the alledged P*ETATOItY ESSAY. 19 » ■ * ca artificial refinements of the modern school. What affinity has the glitter of Italian conceit to the vigour of ancient simplicity ? It appears at first sight not a little singular, that Petrarch, the restorer of classical learning, -who, when surprised by his father in the midst of Roman authors, supplicatcd'that Virgil might be spared to him from the flames, should in his own compositions,haveso widely departed from the no- ble purity of the ancient models. But his taste, pro- bably, took its hue from the times in which he lived. The genius of chivalry, receiving a particular bias and direction from the spirit of the crusades, blend- ed a highly wrought religious enthusiasm with a re- verential courtesy towards women. This complex sentiment gave the tone to the language of love, and of poesy. Hence terms of divinity, and other celestial attributes, were profusely lavished on the fair sex : hence also, spiritual reveries supplanted natural passion, and the obvious images of human life being discarded as degrading and unworthy, the fancy was ransacked for conceptions of pure immateriality. Towards the commencement of the Elizabethan period, society still retained something of the co- lor of chivalrous sentiment. The Earl of Surrey e 2 50 y PREFATORY ESSAY, not only sang the praises of his Oeraldine, but had broken a lance in defence of her peerless perfections. This species of poetry was, there- fore, not inconsistent with the general turn of thinking, and cast of manners : the mistake was, in continuing the same strain, when customs and opinions had undergone a complete revolution* The Petrarchal school appears to hare exube- rated* into that, which Johnson, -j- in his able analysis, has denominated the metaphysical, and of which Pope in his sketch of the poetical asras, classes Donne as the head. A studied imitation of Italian poetry was, certainly, the germ of this species of composition, though Petrarch is not accountable for its adventitious extravagancies. His imitators refined upon their archetype. They have more affectation of multifarious learning: They abound more with allusions to occult art and science; a tincture, probably, of the fashion- able studies of the day. Occasions for images, metaphors, and comparisons, drawn from the secrets of alchymy, and the planetary conjunctions, * " he might, perhaps, have exuberated into an atheist.'* " Johnson. Life by Boswell. + Life of Cowley. PREFATORY ESSAY. c 2 I are perpetually sought, and arc made, when they cannot readily be found. Of this class of poets, from whom the praise of happy ingenuity and a learned fancy is not always to be withheld, it is the most remarkable characteristic, that they arc forever endeavouring to assimilate things, in them- selves essentially dissimilar ; and what they evi- dently value as their finest strokes of fancy, are those chimerical parallels between objects incon- gruous in their nature, which are brought into a forced connexion of mock analogy, by dint of a certain dexterity in twisting ideas, and playing -upon words. Such is their fondness for this ap- proximation of contraries, that they will resort to the Iow r est, and most disgusting allusions, for the sake of displaying their acuteness, effecting a sudden surprise, and producing an unexpected contrast. Who would expect such an illustration as the following, in an ode upon Platonic Love: Come, I will undeceive thee ; they that tread These vain aeriall waves, Are like young heirs and alchemysts, misled. To waste their wealth and dayes ; For searching thus to be for ever rich, They only find a med'eine for the itch. William Cartricjit A 22 PREFATORY ESSAY. Another peculiarity affected by these writers. is an unhappy ruggedness of measure, that seems to defy every principle of rhythmical modulation. Whether in thus putting verse to the torture they meant to convey the impression of an easy neg- ligence, it is impossible to say ; but dislocation rather than collocation of syllables, appears to have been the rule of their adopted harmony. An and or a the is not seldom put in requisition for the terminating rhyme; and the ear experiences a sensation analogous to that which is communicated by the joltings of a coach -wheel on a stony road. So far from any regard being paid to the Iambic* cadence, which, as Pope truly observed, influences more or less the melodious flow of English verse, there is, seemingly, an anxiety to obstruct the uniform return of a stated emphasis ; and the poet chuses to be guided by no other criterion, than the necessity of squeezing so many syllables into the line. It is not the least absurd feature of that ballad-mongering taste, which has flowed in upon * It is idle to dispute about the suitableness of the an- cient metrical terms to modern prosody ; it is enough that they are convenient : and whatever we may chuse to deno- minate the regularly recurring stress on particular syllables, the principle is the same. PULIATORY ESSAY. 53 us, that there are found poets who sedulously aim at bringing back our metre* to this delectable confusion of crippled feet and jangled sounds ; who regard the verses of John Bun if an as cx- * From the censure which attaches to these modern- antique innovations, should be excepted 1 he Thalaba of Southey. Its irregular and mixed measures are quite dis- tinct from the established metre, and do not interfere with its laws. They resemble Miltonic verse, broken into frag- ments and detached periods : indeed, the monologues and chorusscs of Samson slgonistes may have suggested this structure of rhythm. It is less perceptibly or obtrusively irregular, as it is not marked by the close of rhyme. It has not, therefore, that pretension to finish and correctedness which rhyme confers. We look on it as on the rough study of a painter's pencil; the sketch is not a picture, but we are satisfied with the sketch. The truth and richness of the des- criptive painting, and the strong pathetic human interest which is blended with the wildness of the sorcery, place this poem high among the productions of original fancy. Much higher, I think, than the Oberon of Wieland. Of the lan- guage it may be said that it unaffectedly resembles the beau- tiful prose-poetry of the English scriptures. The moral sublimity of this metrical romance is exquisite. No man rises from its'perusal without an elevated emotion, not un- allied to the solemn enthusiasm of religious faith. The poem is a species in itself. Genius can sanctify even errors : and he that can err like the poet of Thalaba,. may err with impunity. 24 PREFATORY ESSAY. hibiting the correctest model of genuine melody, and who consider the satires of Dr. Donne as irretrievably marred in their musical variety by the regular adjustment of Pope. All this is ex- tremely idle : to complain that verse is uniform, is to complain that it is verse. Whatever may be said of u balancing the verse and making the first part of it betray the second/' the metre of Virgil and Ovid is open to the same ob- jection : and Mr. Pye has justly remarked, that the concluding adonic of the hexameter line, marks the close of the verse as strongly as the final rhyme in the couplet of Pope. It is this anticipation of re- ciprocated cadences which constitutes the charm of lyric poetry. Pindarics had their day. The Pindaric poets, also, disdained to adjust syllables and pauses, or to make one line respond to ano- ther. The ode had all the looseness and uncer- tainty of a lapidary inscription ; and the numbers wandered and wantoned in all the abrupt brevity and immeasurable length, the tripping unevenness and wallowing unwieldiness, of what was called the Pindaric style. But the public grew dizzy and weary, and the regular stanza was resumed. As little seems to have been gained by the restitution of couplet verse to the form which it had PREFATORY ESSAY. 26 before Waller and Dryden smoothed its rugged- ncss and repressed its diffusion. When the sense does not rest, in some degree, on the rhyme, the rhyme appears always needlessly obtruded. In blank measure, the pause is judiciously shifted to different syllables in different successive lines : because, if the sense were to close with the verse, as is too generally the case in the poem of the Seasons^ the absence of rhyme would be felt. But an opposite principle should regulate the couplet: occasional deviations may add to the grace of composition ; as we often see in the bold and felicitous practice of Dryden ; but it may be generally affirmed that couplets are most harmo- nious when complete in themselves ; for if broken into each other, the interposal of rhyme becomes a mere impediment to the flow of the lines, and has the effect of impleasing interruption to the ear. To those who censure any studied care in the interior disposition of the verse ; not from a desire to vary the effect and extend (he boundaries of melody, but on the principle that a regular distribution of accent is needless and absurd ; and who regard the very idea of metrical feet, in a modern language, as a scholastic illusion, it would 26 PREFATORY ESSAY. be in rain to insist on the secret of that harmony, -which glides in the flowing numbers of Dryden, or the 'golden lines of Rowe.' True it is that we do not possess the same advantages of measure, the same regular diversity of long and short sylla- bles as the Greeks and Latins : but in English versification, the accent or emphasis of words, re- duced to rule and arranged in a musical propor- tion, is in some degree a compensation for the absence of the ancient quantities. They, there- fore, who argue that having no quantity, we have no concern with rhythmical feet, prove only, as Voltaire observed of La Mottc, when he denied the reality of any poetic beauty, that they talk about that which they do not understand. If our verse consist only of so many syllables, indepen- dent of syllabic feet, and if the order in which those syllables fall be a matter of indifference, we have in fact no verse whatever, but only a mea- sii red prose. Because we have not what the an- cients had, why deprive us of that which we have? AVith such critics, Dr. Johnson's mock-metrical line, " Lay your knife and your fork across your plate," will pass current as having all the requisites of le- PREFATORY LSSAY. c 27 gitimatc verse ; that is it has ten syllables. Tfcey may be reminded in the language of Yida, though in a different sense, Haud satis est illis utcunique clauriere vcr^um.* But it seems that any attention to syllabic melody, any indication of respect for the prin- ciples of rhythmical art and the laws of metre, cannot possibly co-subsist with the spontaneous energies of natural feeling. We learn, in the words of Headley, that, it was not the practice of our early poets to u cull words, vary pauses, adjust accents, and diversify cadence." The early poets, it may be supposed, took the English metre as they found it. AY hat was not yet invented, they could not adopt ; but there is no reason to infer that they were careless about the structure of their lines. The stanza of Spenser, probably, will not be cited as a very remarkable instance of their despising the minute artifices of versification. But if a nice and attentive modulation of rhythm be thought to detract from the dignity of the poet r * TU not enough their verses to complete, PlTT> 2$ PREFATORY FSSAY. what shall be said in defence of the following pas- sage from Virgil ? — Continuo ventis surgentibus, aut freta ponti Incipiunt agitata tumescere, etaridus altis Montibus audiri fragor ; aut resonantia longe Litiora misceri, et nemorura increbrescere murmur.* Virgil might here, not unreasonably, be sus- pected of u culling his words, varying his pauses, adjusting his accents, and diversifying his caden- ces. " Certainly the minutest observation and the most assiduous diligence could not have more successfully contrived that the sound should be a picture of the sense. Yet Virgil, probably, struck out the passage in the heat of the moment, and accomplished by means of a delicate ear and a flexible fancy this miracle of the metrical art. The critical cant about studied cadences and elaborate pauses is, in fact, completely fanciful. If the metre of Virgil How with the smoothest modulation of art, that art was facility. Who- ever composes in metre has formed to himself a certain structure of style, which having once * Slow rise the winds; the hearing surges dash "VYork'd into foam ; ihe hollow mountains crash ; Far shores re-echo to the beating floods, And a low sound runs murmring through the woods. PKEFATOltY ESSAY. formed, he has frequently practised, and which, however carefully modelled after the rules of science in its original construction, has become in reality the natural vehicle of his thoughts. The^i^* who make this stirabout the natural language-*)/^ poetry, betray, in fact, the struggle of artificial » negligence^ and exhibit a style of composition visibly more studied and infinitely more unnatural than the vigorous elasticity of Pope's numbers. The charge against Pope, however, is not * - merely that he is trirlingly elaborate, but that, his ^^ elaboration is without effect ; that his metre is W W monotonous ; that he is a bungler in his own art. That his verses are bounded by the rhyme may be admitted ; but that, in their interior mechanism, he has shewn any deficiency of skill in adapting his pause to the sense, or his cadence to the subject, no one who attentively cousiders the specimens which Lord Karnes has selected in his u Elements of Criticism" can safely affirm. It is said, however, that a school of polished inanity has risen on the basis of Pope's versification, and Cowper asserts that " Every whistler has his tune by heart." But neither is Pope responsible for the. flat and nerveless equability of numbers adopted by his imitators, nor is Cowper correct 30 PREFATORY ESSAY. in supposing, that to imitate Pope is an easy task. Pope, by the judicious intermixture of the Trochaic with the Iambic cadence, and by a well regulated use of the hemistick rest in the middle of the verse, imparted an insensible rapidity and buoyancy to his numbers, which his copyists, more indolent, or less skilful, have failed to attain. I am aware that this practice has been objected to Pope as a part of what is called the monotony of his system: but in fact it makes a part of his diversity. His whole system of verse was constructed on the principle of alternation and relief; a secret which has escaped the greater number of succeeding writers of couplets ; who have but one flow of verse, which they prolong without variation. This is the " tune of the whistler," but it is not learned from Pope. If he be found superior to his imita- tors in the structure of his harmony, I think he will also be found superior to them in his fewness of epithets, his brevity and perspicuity of lan- guage, and his compression of thought. That Cowper should pass judgment on Pope's metre, is the more unfortunate, as his own ear was remarkably obtuse ; and as more instances of homely and prosaic verses may be selected from his compositions, than from those of any contemporary PREFATORY ESSAY. 31 writer. Not that he disdained to stoop to melody, but that melody was beyond his reach. It was not the custom of Pope formally to apprise his reader when he designed to be musical ; butCowper, in his Homer, introduces two wretched attempts at imita- tive harmony by the parade of a note. In the line M Dread-sounding, bounding on the silver bow," and in the notable dactylic which describes the stone of Sisyphus, a Rush'd again obstinate down to the ground,'' the reader would have perceived his attempt, without the aid of a commentary, and perceived that it had failed. They would, also, have recollected that when in Pope, Th' impetuous arrow whizzes on the wing, this echo to the sense appears the effect of accident. But the charge of inanity, brought against Pope, goes further than the mechanism of his verse : it involves the very essence of his poetry; and every sentimentalizing school-girl, who can scribble in slip-shod measures about " Lady fair" and " berry-brown steed, " thinks herself entitled to declaim on the insipidity of Pope. Pope is, indeed, the poet of men ; the painter of the man- 32 PREFATORY ESSAY, Tiers, the characters, and the passions of actual human life ; the Lucilius* of a moderaage, who strikes at vice arrd ignorance and corruption in every shape: and like Cicero's orator, i " Tehe- mens ut procella, excitatus ut torrens, incensus ut fulmen, tonat, fulgur at, et rapidis eloquentise fluctibus omnia proruit ac proturbat" But it is for the first time discovered that* satire is no * Cum est Lucilius ausus, &c. — Hor. Serm. 2*1, 62. in his honest page When good Lucilius lash'd a vicious age ; From conscious villains tore the mask away, And stripp'd them naked to the glare of day. Dr. Fraxcis. t " Strong as the tempest, rough as the torrent, fiery as the bolt of heaven, he thunders, he lightens, and with the rapid waves of his eloquence, overthrows and sweeps from before him every thing that opposes." In his Horatian imitations, nothing can occasionally exceed the delicate ease of Pope; but he is more bitter as well as more lofty than Horace. His genius should have led him to Juvenal. See his character of Sporus* in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot ; where we actually feel the knife of the anatomist. See also the grand and indignant burst of eloquence on high vice and state corruption, in the first dialogue of his epilogue to the satires. £ " Satire and morality," says Headley, they carried te PKFFATORY ESSAT. 33 part of poetry ; and Persius and Juvenal must 4 hide their diminished heads.' their perfection." As if these were necessarily distinct from poetry. The travelled youth in the Dunciad, b. 4. v. 282- 322, is satire blended with poetical imagination. Morality is combined with poetry in the scheme of universal benevolence. Essay on Man. Epist. 4. v. 325: Poetry is defined by Aristotle a mimetic or imitative art : a definition which includes satire no less than the drama. The name of poet has been denied to the author of Hudibras : as well might it be refused to the author of Orlando Furioso. Butler attains both the implied objects of poetry. He moves the passions by the imitation of character and manners ; he amuses the fancy by the pregnancy of his imagination. But this absurd contra-distinctron' is borrowed from Warton ; who in bis " Essay on Pope" advanced those spe- cious poiitions which have been so nbly refuted by Ruffhead, but which have given the tone to succeeding^ poetical critics, and induced them to exclude Pope from the higher order'of poets, and degrade him into a mere clear-headed, sensible, didactic versifier. The conclusion that because Boileau and Pope both wrote satires and epistles, -and both imitated Horace, there- fore they belong to the same order of poets, is a sort of' sophistry that can impose* on no- single individual who has the use of his eyes. Their works arein erery-one's hands. How few kinds of poetry has Boileau attempted in compa- rison with Pope? How little of comparative originality is t\iere in Boileau ? how little of passion ? how little of fancy ? D 34 PREFATORY ESS-AY. It is objected to him, that he wants imagery* His didactic essays are condemned because they are didactic essays ; his satires, because they are satires; or if it be conceded that sense, not des- cription, is the pith of satyrlcal and didactic poetry, his pastorals are ransacked for proofs of an insensibility to the forms of original nature ; and we are told of " traditional imagery ;" of C( verdant shades" and " purling streams." But it is not in a juvenile cento of amabaean verses ; the purple patchwork of a young versifier, fresh The iAdrin is the only point of contact between them : and Voltaire has allowed the superiority of the Rape of the Lock, in ease, grace, and imagination : a decision which Laharpe, with the narrow envy of an illiberal nationality, ascribes to the civilities received by Voltaire at Pope's table. How far Laharpe, a petulant, minute, and superficia lcritic, was quali- fied to decide on Pope, will appear from his ignorant and inso- lent attempt to resolve the manly taste of Englishmen for the dramas of Shakspeare, into a compliance with the humours of (he populace. After Johnson's acute and philosophical defence of Shakspeare,* it is to he hoped that no future Frenchman will render himself ridiculous by running round the circle of his " unities," and shutting his eyes to the living realization of human character. * Preface to fc is edition of Shakspeare: printed also in Murpliy't edition of Dr. Johnson's Works. Vol. li. PREFATORY ESSAY. 35 from the reading of classical eclogues, that des- criptive excellence, or excellence of any kind, beyond that of smooth metre, would naturally be explored. The zealous advocates of Pope, who have looked for striking description in such of his pieces as are professedly descriptive, have dreamed of beauties which they wished to find ; and have been content to wonder at that art, which could make alders tremble in the wind, and sunbeams quiver on the water. Ruffhead, with singular infelicity, has quoted some foolish lines about " Naiads weeping in their watery bower," and u Jove consenting in a shower," as an in- stance of the picturesque. How that can be picturesque which is made up of impalpable ab- stractions, and conveys no sensible image, it would be difficult to explain. But the imagery of Eloisa, whether drawn from natural scenery, from the cloyster, or the chapel, may satisfy the most fastidious connoisseur. Tlie darksome pines, that, o'er yon rock recliffd, Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind ; have a peculiarity, a distinctness, a plaintive wild- ness, not unworthy of Theocritus : Tiie moss-grown dome?, with spiry turrets crowri'd, n 2 36 PREFATORY ESSAY. are not wanting in picturesque effect ; and no Terse in ancient or modern poetry will easily be found more exquisite than that in which the inward melancholy of the mind is said to " breathe a browner horror on the woods." But where all is passion and enthusiasm of sensibility, who can patiently endure to pry into tints and shades; to listen for the rustling of a leaf, or watch for the waving of a daffodil ? What Pope attempted he effected ; and has given proofs that if more had been attempted he would have effected more. As to general imagery, or lively representations of sensible things, his essays, and satires, and epistles, to use a happy expression of Dr. Parr, are crowded with u ga- laxies of imagery." that fling their light unex- pectedly upon us, in every form of illustration and similitude. Yet Headley could assert, that u the prose of Young has more imagery than the poetry of Pope. " But passion is the native excellence of Pope; a quality as superior to description, as spirit is to matter. Q< His translation of Homer," says Headley, u operated like an inundation in the English republic of letters." It did so: and the cause must be sought in the passion v^hich is sus- PREFATORY ESSAY. 37 tained throughout the poem. However inaccurate, however paraphrastical, the ' thoughts breathe/ and the ; words burn:' and the speeches, when- ever passion is concerned, are poured out in rapid, condensed, and pointed sentences of glowing elo- quence, unclogged with epithets, and teeming with character. Whether homeric or not, t\m poem of Pope is warmed with original fire ; and the readers who nod with cold approbation over the heavy, blank interpretation of Cowpcr, hasten to refresh their attention, and stimulate their feelings, by the dignified and animated oratory of Pope's Achilles. Yet all this, we are told, is the effect of a mere- tricious c dazzle of diction/ and a c clock-work construction of verse !' Surely some respect is due to the public voice, and where the many are pleased, it is, at least, possible, that the few may be mistaken. These remarks may be thought to occupy a disproportionate space in an essay, ostensibly de- voted to the merits of Habingtoiu But in re- editing one of our earlier poets, I was anxious to escape the imputation of that antiquarian bias, which can see merit no where but in that which is obsolete : and I was not sorry to embrace an occasion of saying something in defence of a poet, 38 PREFATORY ESSAY. who, in his day, was reverenced by the learned, and esteemed by the wise ; but whom it is now the fashion to pity for the poverty of his genius. Clifton, March, 1812. COMMENDATORY VERSES. TO HIS BEST FRIEND AND KINSMAN WILLIAM IIABINGTON, ESQUIRE. JN ot in the silence of content, and store Of private sweets, ought thy Muse charme no more Than thy Castara's eare. 'Twere wrong such gold Should not like mines, (poore nam'd to this) behold Itselfe a publicke joy. Who her restraine, ]\Iake a close prisoner of a soveraigne. Inlarge her then to triumph. While we sec Such worth in beauty, such desert in thee, Such mutuall flames betweene you both, as show How chastity, though yce, like love can glow, Yet stand a virgin : how that full content By vertue is to soules united lent, Which proves all wealth is poore, all honours are But empty titles, highest power but care, That quits not cost. Yet Heaven, to vertue kind, Hath given you plenty to suffice a minde That knowes but temper. For beyond, your state May be a prouder, not a happier fate. I write not this in hope t' incroach on fame, Or adde a greater lustre to your name, 40 COMMENDATORY YERS1S. Bright in itselfe enough. We two are knowne To th' world, as to ourselves, to be but one, In blood as study : and my carefuillove Did never action worth my name approve Which servM not thee. Nor did we ere contend, But who should be best patterne of a friend. Who read thee, praise thy fancie, and admire Thee burning with so high and pure a fire, As reaches Heaven it selfe. But I who know Thy soule religious to her ends, where grow No sinnes by art or custome, boldly can Stile thee more than good poet, a good man. Then let thy temples shake off vulgar bayes, Th' hast built an altar which enshrines thy praise : And to the faith of after-time commends 3Tee the best paire of lovers, us of friends. George Talbot. THE AUTHOR. The presse hath gathered into one, what fanciehad scatter^ ed into many loose papers. To write this, love sto!e some houres from business, and my'more serious study. For though poetry may challenge, if not priority, yet equality, with the best sciences, both for antiquity and worth . I never set so high a rate upon it, as to give my selfe entirely up to its devotion. It hath too much ayre, and (if without offence to our next transmarine neighbour) wantons tco much ac- cording to the French garbe. And when it is wholly im- ployed in the soft straines of love, his soul who eniertaines it loseth much of that strength which should confirme him man. The nerves of judgment are weakened most by its dalliance ; and when woman (I mene onely as she is externally fair) is the supreme object of wit, we soon degenerate into effeminacy. For the religion of fancie declines into a mad superstition, when it adores that idoll which is not secure from age and sicknesse. Of such heathens, our times afford us a pittyed multitude, who can give no nobler testimony of twenty yeares' imployment, than some loose coppies of lust happily cxprest. Yet these the common people of wit blow up •with their breath of praise, and honour with the sacred name of poets : to which, as I believe, they can never have any just olaime, so shall I not dare by this essay to lay any title, 42 THE AUTHOR. since more sweate and oylehe must spend, who shall arrogate so excellent an attribute. Yet if the innocency of a chaste Muse shall bee more acceptable, and weigh heavier in the bailance of esteeme than a fame begot in adultery of study, 1 doubt [ shall leave them no hope of competition. For how unhappie soever I maybe in the elocution, I am sure the theame is worthy enough. In all those flames in which I burnt, I never felt a wanton heate ; nor was my invention ever sinister from the straite way of chastity, And when love builds upon that rocke, it may safely contemne the batiery of the waves and thfeatnings of the wind. Since time, that makes a mockery of the firmest structures, shall it selfe be ruinated, before that be demolisht. Thus was the foundation layd. And though my eye, in its survey, was satisfied, even to curiosity, 5^et did not my search rest there. The alabaster, jvory, porphir, iet, that lent an admirable beauty to the out- ward building, entertained me with but a halfe pleasure, since they stood there onely to make sport for ruine. But when my soule grew acquainted with the owner of that mansion; I found that Oratory was dombe when it began to speak e her, and wonder (which must necessarily seize the best at that time) a letbargie, that dulled too much the faculties of the minde, onely fit to busie themselves in discoursing her per- fections : Wisdome I encounteied there, that could not spend it selfe since it affected silence, attentive onely to instructions, as if all her sences had been contracted into hearing : Innocencie, so not vitiated by conversation with the world, that the subtile witted of her sex would have tearm'd it ignorance : wit, which seated it selfe most in the appre- hension, and if not inforc't by good manners, would scarce have gained the name of affability: Modesty, so timorous, THE AUTHOR. 4£ that it represented a besieged citty, standing watchfully upon ber guard, strongest in the loyalty to her prince. In a word, all those vcrtucs which should restore woman to her primitive state of beauty, fully adorned her. ttut I shall be censured, in labouring to come nigh the truth, guilty of an indiscreet rheroticke. However such I fancied her, for to say shee is, or was such, were to play the merchant, and boast too much the value of a iewell I possesse, but have no miude to part with. And though I appeare to strive against the streame of best wits, in tree ting the selfe same altar, both to chastity and love ; { will for once adventure to doe well, without a president. Nor if my rigid friend question superciliously the setting forth of these poems, will I excuse my selfe (though justly perhaps I might) that importunity prevailed, and clere judgements advised. This onely I dare say, that if they are not strangled with en vie of the present, they may happily live in the not dislike of future times. For then partiality ccaseth, and vertue is without the idolatry of her clients, es- teemed worthy honour. Nothing new is free from detraction, and when princes alter customes even heavie to the subject, best ordinances are interpreted innovations. Had I slept in the silence of my acquaintance, and affected no study beyond that which the chase or lield allowes, poetry had then beene no scandall upon me, and the love of learning no suspition of ill husbandry. .But whit malice, begot in the country upon ignorance, or in the city upon criticisme, shall prepare against me, I am armed to endure. For as the face of vertue lookes faire without the adultery of art, so fame needes no ayde from rumour to strengthen her selfe. If these lines want that courtship, ([ will not say flattery) which insinuates it selfe into the favour of great men best ; they partake of 44 THE AITTITOR. my modesty : If satyre to win applause with the envious multitude, they expresse my content ; which maliceth none the fruition of that, they esteeme happie. And if not too indulgent to what is my owne ; I think even these verses will have that proportion in the world's opinion, that Heaven hath allotted me in fortune ; not so high, as to be wondred at, nor so- low as to be contemned, Castam. RART. THE FIRST. Carmina, non prius Audita, Musarum sacerdos VUrgiuibiis.. A MISTRESS. Is the fairest treasure the avarice of Love can covet ; and the onely white, at which he shootes his arrowes, nor while his aime is noble, can he ever hit upon repentance. She is chaste, for the devill enters the idoll and gives the oracle, when wantonnesse possesseth beauty, and wit maintaines it lawfull. She is as faire as Nature intended her, helpt perhaps to a more pleasing grace by the sweetnesse of education, not by the slight of art. She is young, for a woman past the delicacie of her spring, may well move by vertue to respect, never by beauty to affection. Shee is iunocent even from the knowledge of sinne, for vice is too strong to be wrastled with, and gives her frailty the foyle. She is not proude, though the amorous youth in- terpret her modesiie to that sence ; but in her vertue weares so much maje>tie, lust dares not rebell, nor though masqued, under the pretence of love, capitulate with her. She entertaines not every parley offer d, although the articles pretended to her advantage : advice and her owne feares re>traine her, and woman never owed ruine to too much caution. She glories not in the plurality of servants, a multitude cf adorers Heaven can onely challenge; aid it is impietie in her weaknesse to desire superstition from many. She is denfe to the whispers of love, and even on tne marriage home can breake off, without the least sus- pition of scaiidall to the former liberty of her carriage. A MISTRESS. 47 She avoydes a too neere conversation with man, and like the Parthian overcomes by flight. Her language is not copious but apposit, and she had rather suffer the re- proach of being dull company, than have the title of witty, With that of bold and wanton. In her carriage she is sober, and think.es her youth expresseth life enough, without the giddy motion, fashion of late hath taken up. She danceth to the best applause, but doates not on the vanity of it, nor licenceth an irregular meeting to vaunt the levity of her skill. Site sings, but not perpetually, for she knowes, silence in a woman is the most perswading oratory. She never arrived to so much familiarity with man as to know the demunitive of his name, and call him by it ; and she can shew a competent favour : without yeelding her hand to his gripe. Shee never understood the language of a ki>se, but at salutation, nor dares the courtier use so much of his practised impudence as to otfer the rape of it from her : because chastity hath write it unlaw full, and her behaviour proclaimed it unwelcome. She is never sad, and yet not jiggish ; her conscience is cleerefrom guilt, and that secures her from sorrow. She is not passionately in love with poetry, because it softens the heart too much to love : but she likes the h?rmony in the composition ; and the brave examples of vertue cele- brated by it, she proposeth to her imitation. She is not vaine in the history of her gay kindred or acquaintance : since verlue is often tenant to a cottage, and familiarity with greatnesse (if worth be not transcendent above the title) is but a glorious servitude, fooles oncly are willing to sulfer. She is not ambitious to be praised, and yet 48 A MISTRESS-. vallues death beneath infamy. And lie conclude, (though the next sinod of ladies condemne this character as an heresie broacht by a precision ) that onely she who hath as great a share in vertue as in beauty, deserves a nobler love to serve her, and a free poesie to speake her. part $itst. TO CASTARA, A SACRIFICE. JLet the chaste phcenix, 1 from the fiowry East, Bring the sweete treasure of her perfum'd nest, As incense to this altar ; where the name Of my Castara's grav'd by th' hand of Fame; Let purer virgins, to redeeme the aire From loose infection, bring their zealous prayer, T' assist at this great feast : where they shall see, What rites Love offers up to Chastity. 1 Let the chaste Phoenix. This epithet designates the supposed faculty of the Phoenix to regenerate itself. It is scarcely necessary to state, that after some hundred years, five hundred according ta £ 50 CAST^RA, Let all the amourous jouth, whose faire desire Felt never warmth but from a noble fire, JElian, the Phcenix formed itself a pyre of cinnamon and other spices : Et cumulum texens pretiosa. fronde Sabaenm, Componit bustumque sibi, partumque futurum. Claudian. Eidyil : 1. "With precious heap of Saba's od'rous leaves His present tomb and future cradle weaves. The pile was enkindled by the sunbeams ; the old bird con- sumed away, and a young one was instantly quickened in its ashes. The supposition of the Phcenix bringing his nest to the altar of Castara, by which Habington typifies the im- mortality of his affection, alludes to the circumstance of this fabulous bird journeying through the air after its regenera- tion, and depositing the ashes of its former self on the altar of the sun, in his temple at Heliopolis, in /Egypt. Buth Herodotus aud Pliny the naturalist mention the Phoenix: but in incredulous terms. Some suppose the Bird of Paradise to be the original of this chimerical creation. Brown in his "History of Vulgar Errors" considers it as emblematical ; and says that ** To the ^Egyptians the Phcenix was the hieroglyphic of ihe sun; and this was probably the ground of the whole relation. ,, Every thing respecting this " bird of ages" is a riddle. A peculiar recommendation to the tawdry and afiecied poet of the court of Honoiius ; and no less so to the imitators of TMTIT FIRST. 51 Bring hither their bright flames : which here shall shine As tapers fixt about Castara's shrine. While I, the priest, my untam'd heart surprise. And in this temple mak't her sacrifice. Italian sonnets in the period of Charles. Accordingly we find in Cowley in Carew, and in every port of that day, that the Phcenix u a favorite topic of allusion. 52 CASTARA, TO CASTARA, PRAYING. I saw Castara pray, and from the side A winged legion of bright angels Hie, To catch her vowes, for feare her virgin prajer Might chance to mingle with impurer aire* To vulgar eyes, the sacred truth I write May seeme a fanc-ie. But the eagle's sight Of saints, and poets, miracles oft view, Which to dull heretikes appeare untrue. Faire zeale begets such wonders. O divine And purest beauty ! let me thee enshrine In my devoted soule, and from thy praise, T' enrich my garland, pluck religious bayes. Shine thou the starre by which my thoughts shall move, Best subject of my pen, queene of my love. I' ART FIRST. ROSES IN THE BOSOxME OF CASTARA. J EE blushing virgins happie are In the chaste nunn'rj of her brests, 2 9 In the chaste nunnery of her brests. This is a common figure with the poets of the time. Herricke, speaking of roses in a lady's bosom, observes, not with the most elegant choice of expression, And snugging there they seem'd to lie As in a flowery nunnery. And Colonel Lovelace adopts the metaphor in some stanzas to his Luca-ta, the beautiful Lucy Sacheverel; who, after- wards, concluding him to have been killed in battle, married another person. The lines are so simply graceful, that they merit transcription ; independently of their being now- curious, from the encreased rarity of the poems. Tell me not sweet, I am unki'nde ; That from the nunnerie Of thy chaste breast and quiet ininde To warre and armes I flic True, a new mistresse now I chase, The first foe in the field ; 54 CASTAR&. For hee'd prophane so chaste a faire. Who ere should call them Cupid's nests. Transplanted thus how bright yee grow/ How rich a perfume doe yee yeeld ? In some close garden, cowslips so Are sweeter than i'the open field. In those white cloysters live secure From the rude blasts of wanton breathy Each houre more innocent and pure, Till you shall wither into death. And with a stronger fairh embrace A sword, a horse, a shield : Yet this inconstaacy is sucli As you too shall adore ; I could not love thee, deare, so much Lov'd I not Honour more. 3 Transplanted thus how bright ye grow. Carew has the same thought ; " On a damask rose sticking upon a lady's breast 1 ' — Let scent and looks be sweet, and bless that hand That did transplant thee to that sacred land ; O happy thou, that in that garden rests, That paradise between that lady's breasts. part rrusr. Then that which living gave you roome, Your glorious sepulcher shall be :* * Your glorious sepulcher shall be, Herrick lias adopted a similar fancy, M upon the rOMI in Julia's bosome :" but without the sentimental elegance of Ilabington. Thrice happy roses ! so much grae'd to have Within the bosom of my love your grave ; Die when you will, your sepulchre is known, Your grave her bosom is, the lawn the stone. The cast of this ode reminds me of some pretty stanza* by Bernard ; author of V Art d' Aimer. The reader will pardon my presenting him with a translation only, as I have mislaid the original. NursM by the zephyr's balmy sigh*, And cherish'd by the tears of morn ; Oh Queen of flowers ! awake ! arise ! Oh haste, delicious rose, be born ! Unheeding wish ! no — yet awhile, Be yet awhile thy dawn delay'd ; Since the same hour, that sees thee smile In orient bloom, shall see thee fade. Themira thus, an opening flower, Must withering droop at fate's decree; Like her thou bloomst thy little hour, And she alas must fade like thee. Yet go, and on her bosom die ; At once, blest rase ! thy throne and tomb;- 56 CASTARA. There wants no marble for a tombe, 1 "Whose brest hath marble beene to me. While envious heaves ray secret sigh To share with thee so sweet a doom. Love shall thy graceful bent advise, Thy blushing, trem'lous leaves reveal ; Go, bright, yet hurtless, charm her eyes ; Go deck her bosom, not conceal. Should some bold hand invade thee there, From Love's asylum rudely torn ; Oh Rose ! a lover's vengeance bear ; And let my rival feel thy thorn. Charlotte Smith has given a version of this ode among her sonnets and poems, but hag erroneously ascribed it to the Cardinal Bernis. PART FIRST. 57 TO CASTARA, A TOW. JL>y those chaste lamps, which yeeld a silent light To the cold vrnes of virgins ; by that night, "Which guilty of no crime doth only Iicare The yovves of recluse nuns, and th' an'thrit's prayer ; And by thy chaster sclfe ; my f rvent zeale, Like mountaine yce, which the north winds con- geale To purest christall, feels no wanton fire : But as the humble pilgrim, (whose desire 5 Blest in Christ's cottage view, by angels' hands ■ whose desire Blest in Christ's cottage view. The allusion is to a Romish legend of the house of the virgin being carried by angels through the air, from Naza- reth to Loretto, at the time when the inhabitants of Galilee apostatized to the Mahometan faith, liabington supposes the dwelling to have been so transported from hethlehem, *n the massacre of the Innocents: to which the epithet sad CASTAKA. Transported from sad Bethlem,) wondring stands At the great miracle ; so I at thee. Whose beauty is the shrine of chastity. Thus my bright Muse in a new orbe shall move. And even teach religion how to lore. refers. The chapel of the Lady of Loretto, in which the pilgrim " wondering stand?," is called the " Santa Casa." Of this aerial journey of "The holy house,'* the reader will find an amusing account in "Letters from Italy by aa Englishwoman; (Mrs. M. Miller) 1776,'' vol. 3. ; and in Dr. lucre's " View oi Society and Manners in Italy," vol. 1. PART FIRSV. 50 TO CASTARA, OF HIS BF.IXG IX LOVE. VV here am I ? not in Heaven : for oh I feele G The stone of Sisiphus, Ixion's wheelc; And all those tortures, poets (by their wine Made judges) laid on Tantalus, arc mine. 6 For oh I Ifcele The stone of Sisyphus, Perhaps suggested by Propertius : El. 19. lib. 2. go now and sip Tantaiean streams, that mock thy thirsty lip ; Or toiling, the Sissphian rock behold, With steep recoil from the whole mountain roll'd; What as a lover's fate so hard can be, Or what, if wise, so little wish-'d by thee ? The comparison of the pleasures and pains of Love to Heaven and Hell, on which Ilabington has so fancifully refined, is pursued with classical elegance by Boncfonius, Basium 15. Donee pressius incubo labelfis, $*c. While oh ! sweet girl ! with close caress Thy pouting lips I lingering press ; 60 CASTARA. Nor yet am I in Hell : for still I stand. Though giddy in my passion, on firme land. And still behold the seasons of the yeare, Springs in my hope, and winters in my feare. And sure I'm 'hove the Earth, for th J highest star Shoots beames, but dim, to what Castara's are ; And in her sight and favour I even shine In a bright orbe beyond the christalline. 7 "Wh^le deep T draw, with every kiss, Thy soul's perfume in fragrant bliss ; I seem a God ; or if more high Or blest there be, so blest am I. But when you tear yourself away, Then I, who seem'd in heaven to stray ; Or where still higher joys abound, If higher than in heaven be found ; Am sudden snatch'd to iealms of wo, And tread the gloomy shades below ; If there be regions of despair More dark, more deep, I wander there. 7 Beyond the ckristaltine. The Ptolemaic astronomy supposed the following ascenti or gradations : — l.The planetary system : — 2. The firmament or sphere of the fixed stars : — 3. The crystalline sphere, or clear heaven ; to which was ascribed a trepidation, or libra- tion ; producing certain irregular motions in the stars : — TART FIRST. '/I If then, Castara, I in Ueaven nor move, Nor Earth, nor Hell ; where am I but in lore? 4. The primum mobile, or first mover; which communicated motion to tlie lower spheres; — and 5. The empyrean, or heaven of heavens. Milton describes this system — They pass the planets seven, and pa>s the fiv'd, And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs The trepidation talk'd, and that fiiat mov'd. Par. Lost. 3-481. And Tasso in the descent of the arch-angel Michael. Passa il foco, e la luce, $"r.— Cai t. ix. st. 60. He pass'd the light, and shining tire, assigned The glorious seal of bis selected crew ; The mover first, and circle crystalline ; The firmament where fixed stars all shine. Fairfax. The substance of this note is collected from Newton** notes on Paradise Lost. 62 CAST AHA. TO MY HONOURED FRIEND MR, E. P.« IS ot still V th"' shine of kings. Thou dost retire Sometime to th' holy shade, where the chaste quire SEndymion Porter. He was groom of the king's bedchamber, and colonel of the 5th regiment of foot under the Earl of Newcastle. Granger speaks of him as a person ** whose excellent natural parts were adorned by arts, languages, and travel. Re was much in favor with James I. and his son Charles. He was a man of great generositj', wit, and spirit ; and had a ^general acquaintance among such as were of that character. He respected learned men in general, but loved poets ; and had himself a refined taste for poetry. He attended Charles, when Prince of Wales, into Spain : and was afterwards em- ployed by him in several negociations abroad. He was very active in secret services for the king in the civil war, and was no less dexterous in conveying his intelligence. He was so obnoxious to the parliament, that he was one of those who were always excepted from indemnity. He died abroad in the court of Charles II?' The name of Endymion Porter is mentioned, also, by Herrick, in terms of familiar friendship; though of tH* VMIT IIRST. 65 Of Muses doth the stubbome panther av, e, And give the wildncsse of his nature law. The wind his chariot stops: th' attentive rockc The rigor dotli of its creation mocke, And gently melts away : Argus, to heare The musicke, turtles each eye into an care. To welcome thee, Endymion, glorious they Triumph to force these creatures disobey What nature hath enacted. But no charme, The Muses have, these monsters can disanne Of their innated rage: no spell can tame The North-wind's fury, but Castara's name. Climbe yonder forked hill,* and see if there, I' rh' barke of every Daphne, not appeare man and his peculiar habits, we cannot expect to learn much, from an Eclogue, in which Ave are told, that Jessamine with Florabeil And dainty Amaryllis ; With handsome- banded Drosomel Shall prank thy hock with lillies: We learn only that he is fond of " the courtly state," and that he 4 ' vows to come away'" and 4i pipe to the sor.g" of Lycidas Her rick. This was the poetic cant of the day ; and if Charles I. himself had stood in need of the M vale sacra," he must have consented to hold a crook, and to bleat non- -sense. • Parnassus. 64 CASTARA. Castara written : and so markt by me, How great a prophet growes each virgin tree! Lie down, and listen what the sacred spring In her harmonious murtnures strives to sing To th' neighb'ring banke. ere her loose waters crre Through common channels ; sings she not of her ? Behold yond' violet, which such honour gaines, That growing but to emulate her veines, It's azured like the skie : when she doth bow T* invoke Castara, Heav'n perfumes her vow. The trees, the water, and the flowers 9 adore The deity of her sex, and through each pore Breath forth her glories* But unquiet Love! To make thy passions so uncourtly prove. As if all eares should heare her praise alone : Now listen thou • Endymion sings his owne* 9 The trees, the water, and the flowers. This is a happy imitation of Petrarch ; mingling, in the usual style of that poet, metaphysical abstractions with rurai imagery. part fifut: Ci TO CASTARA. Uoe not their prophane orgies heare, Who but to wealth no altars reare: The soulc's oft poys'ncd through the care. Castara, rather seeke to dwell l'th' silence of a private cell ; Rich discontent's a glorious Hell. Yet Hindlip doth not want extent Of roome (though not magnificent) To give free welcome to content. There shalt thou see the earely Spring That wealthy stocke of Nature bring, Of which the Sybils bookes did sing. 10 10 Of which the Sybil's bookes did sing, Lactantius was of opinion, (Instit. vii. 24.) that Virgil, in his 4th Eclogue, had ingeniously transferred certain Sybil- line prophecies, respecting the coming of Christ, to the birth F 66 CASTARA* From fruitlesse palmes shall honey flow, And barren Winter harvest show, While lillics in his bosome grow. No North winde shall the come infest, But the soft spirit of the East Our sent with perfum'd banquets feast. of the son of Pollio. Heyne peremptorily rejects the sup- position, and contends that Virgil employed only the trite, traditionary images of a golden age : but the opinion has been maintained by men of eminent genius and learning ; by Chandler, Whiston, and Cudworth. The same hypothesis is considered and supported in the tenth volume of the Asiatic Researches. In fact it does not rest on the mere internal evidence of Virgil's eclogue, but is grounded on the collateral circum- stance, that the prophetical records of other nations, besides the Jewish, and particularly those of the East, pointed con- sentaneously to a renovation of the world, and the appear- ance of some extraordinary person, about the era of the birth of Jesus. If the Svbilline books contained a similar prediction, it seems probable that Virgil alludes to them by the expression of " Cumean song," and not to the poetry of Ilesiod, as some critics have conceived. Indeed, on the true interpretation of these words, the whole question depends. Cumberland has devoted a paper to the authenticity of the Sybilline verses, in his Observer, vol. 2. No. 36. A com- pendious account of the Sybils may be found in Hoffman* ?ART FIRST. 67 A Satyrc here and there shall trip, In hope to purchase leave to sip Sweete nectar from a Fairie's lip. The Nymphs with quivers shall adorne Their active sides, and rouse the morne With the shrill musicke of their home, "Wakened with which, and viewing thee> Faire Daphne her fairc selfe shall free, From the chaste prison of a tree : And with Narcissus (to thy face Who humbly will ascribe all grace) Shall once againe pursue the chase. So they, whose wisdome did discusse Of these as fictions, shall in us Finde, they were more than fabulous. r L l 68 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, SOFTLY SINGING TO HER SELFE. Oing forth, sweete cherubin, (for we have choice Of reasons, in thy beauty and thy voyce, To name thee so, and scarce appeare propnane) Sing forth, that while the orbs ceJestiall straine To eccho thy sweete note, our humane eares May then receive the musicke of the spheares. 11 11 The musicke of the spheares* This imaginary music is borrowed from the doctrine of Plato ; which is thus explained by Maclaurin. " If we should suppose musical chords extended from the sun to each planet : that all these chords might become unison, it would be requisite to increase or diminish their tensions in the same proportions, as would be sufficient to render the gravities of the planets equal ; and from the similitude of their propor- tions, the celebrated doctrine of the harmony of the spheres is supposed to be derived." Spence describes an antique gem in Baron Stosche's col- lection at Florence, on the outer round of which are the seven planets in chariots; Saturn drawn by serpents ; Jupiter PART FIRST. 69 But yet take hcede, lest if the swans of Thames, 12 That adde harmonious pleasure to the streames, by eagles, &c. and in the centre is a person playing on two pipes ; elegantly emblematical of the planetary harmony. 12 The swans of Thames, That the Swans of the Thames have this peculiar musical faculty, was affirmed by Aldrovandus of Bologna, in his Ornithology, 3 vol. fol. 1599. Brown remarks, that when we consider " the indisposition of the organs, and the im- musical note of all we ever beheld or heard of, surely he that is bit with a Tarantula shall never be cured by this music." Hist, of Vulgar Errors. A French writer, however, the Chevalier de Jaucourt, lightly overleaps the difficulty of organic conformation, and takes the trouble to account for this melody, which he assumes as uncontroverted, by the following satisfactory solution. " The swan, whose sweet song is so celebrated by the poets, does not produce the sounds by his voice; which is very coarse and disagreeable ; but by his wings ; which being raised and extended when he sings, are played upon by the w inds, like an AZolian harp: 1 Encyclopedic Art. voix. The reason why this melody is ascribed, in particular, to the dying swan, may, possibly, be accounted for b. a confused association of the death of Orpheus ; who is sup- posed by Plato, on the principle of the Pythagorean metempsichosis, to have transmigrated into the body of a swan. But the original idea of this transmigration must apparently have been built on the imaginary musical pro- perty of the bird; and the primitive cause of that opinion 70 CASTARA. OW sudden heare thy well-divided breath, Should listen, and in silence welcome death : And ravisht nightingales, striving too high To reach thee, in the emulation dye. 13 is still to be sought. We do not ascend much higher on the ladder of discovery, when we find that the swan was the bird of Apollo, the God of music, among the Greeks, and a hieroglyphic of music among the Egyptians. 13 And ravisht Nightingales In emulation die, Strada, in his " Academical Prolusions," where he in- troduces a kind of masquerade of the different Roman poets, exemplifies the manner of Claudian by the description of a contest between a nightingale and a lutanist. But Habington, not improbably, took his allusion from Ford's imitation of Strada. " The Lover's Melancholy," in which it occurs, was published in 1629. A nightingale, Nature's best-skilled musician, undertakes The challenge ; and for every several strain The well-shap'd youth could teach, she sung her own. He could not run division with more art Upon his quaking instrument, than she, The nightingale, did with her various notes Reply to. Some time thus spent, the young man grew at last Into a pretty anger, that a bird Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes, fART FIRST. 71 And thus there will be left no bird to sing Farewell to th' waters, welcome to the spring. Should vye with him for mastery, whose study Had busied many hours to perfect practice. To end the controversy, in a rapture, Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly So many voluntaries, and so quick, That there was curiosity and cunning, Concord in discord; lines of diflf'ring method Meeting in one full centre of delight. The bird, ordain'd to be Music's first martyr, strove to imitate These several sounds ; which when her warbling throat Fail'd in, for grief down dropt she on his lute, And brake her heart, llerrick instances as one of the dainties of Oberoif* feast, The broke heart of a nightingale Oercome in music : probably derived from the same source. " With respect to the boasted influence of music upon animals," observes Dr. Burney, " though not only antiquity, but several eminent and philosophical modern writers seem to have entertained no doubt of it, yet the articles of my creed on this subject, are but very few. Even birds, so fond of their own music, are no more charmed or inspired by ours, than by the most dissonant noise. For I have long observed, that the sound of a Toice or instrument of the most exquisite kind, has no other effect upon a bird in a 72 CASTARA, cage, than to make him almost burst himself in envioui efforts to surpass it in loudness : and that the stroke of a hammer upon the wainscot or a fire-shovel, excites the same rival spirit. A singing bird is as unwilling to listen to others, as a loquacious disputant. n History of Music. 189-1. PART FIRST. 73 TO A WANTON. In vaine, faire sorceresse, thy eyes speake charmes, In vaine thou mak'st loose circles with thy armes; I'me 'bove thy spels. No magicke him can more, In whome Castarahath inspir'd her love. As she, keepe thou strict cent'nell o're thy eare, Lest it the whispers of soft courtiers heare ; Reade not his raptures, whose invention must Write journey worke, u both for his patron's lust And his own plush : let no admirer feast His eye o'th' naked banquet of thy brest. If this faire president, nor jet my want Of love to answer thine, make thee recant 14 Write journey work. Journte work ; day-work for hire : — plush is put for any •loth — " whose invention must be task'd to procure clothes for hii back." 74 CASTARA. Thy sorc'ries ; pity shall to justice turne, And judge thee, witch ! in thy own flames to burne. 15 15 In thy own flames to burne* Allusive to the supposed sympathetic influence exerted by witches through the means of fire : as instanced by the faggot in Ovid, on which depends the life of Meleager ; or more appropriately in the laurel-bough and the wax, which the girl in Theocritus employs to consume her lover. AiQco Eidyl. 2. 23. fls TSTov Toy ycxpov eyw cvv oxi[jlgvi T«Ka/.-^2S» My tortur'd bosom rues the perjur'd vow : But, in revenge, I give this laurel bough, The type of Delphis, to the crackling fires; That as the spirit of his life expires, Oer his scorch'd frame, like these, may flashes haste f Thus his flesh tremble ; thus a cinder waste. POLWHELE. Evn as this wax evaporates in fume, May Myndian Delphis, scorch'd by Love, consume. Id. which Virgil has imitated in his eighth eclogue ; it is sin- gular that we have here an example of Leonine rhyme. Limus ut hie durescity et heec ut cera liquescit Uno eodemque igni, sic nostro Daphnis amore. As fire this figure hardens, forra'd of clay, And this of wax in fire consumes away > PART FIRST. 75 Such let the soul of cruel Daphnis be, Hard to the rest of women ; soft to me. Drtoen. M The opinion was not less prevalent in this country in the reigns of Elizabeth and Jame?. Dr. Martyn observes, that in the beginning of the last century many persons were convicted of this practice; and were executed accordingly,. as it was deemed to be attempting the lives of others. The burning in effigy is often accompanied with the like ma- lignity." Polwhele.— Notes on Theocritus. 76 CASTARA, TO THE HONOURABLE MY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND R. B. ESQUIRE, 1? hile you dare trust the loudest tongue of fame. The zeale you beare your mistresse to proclaim k To th' talking world : I, in the silenst grove, | Scarce to my selfe dare whisper that I love. Thee titles, Brud'nell, 15 riches thee adorne, And vigorous youth, to vice not headlong borne 15 Thee titles, Brudenell, $c. Robert Brudenell, afterwards second earl of Cardigan ; a man who lived to the great age of 96, being bom March 5, 1607, and did not die till July 16, 1703. He had the misfortune to be father to the infamous Countess of Shrews- bury, (widow of George Talbot's younger brother, Earl Francis) who held the Duke of Buckingham's horse in the disguise of a page, when he fought and killed her husband. Her sister, the Countess of Westmoreland, died in 1739, at the age of 91. — Censura Litteraria, vol. x. p. 195. PART FIU8T. 77 By th' tide of customc : which I yalue more Than what blind superstitious fooles adore, Who greatnessein the chairc of blissc enthrone: Greatnesse we borrow, vertue is our owne. In thy attempt be prosperous ; and when ere Thou shalt prefix thehoure, may Hymen wcare His brightest robe- where somefam'd Persian shall 16 Worke by the wonder of her needle all The nuptiall joyes; which (if we poets be True prophets) bounteous Heaven designcs for thee, I envie not, but glory in thy fate ; While in the narrow limits of my state I bound my hopes ; which if Castara daigne Once to entitle hers, the wealthiest grainc My earth, untild, shall beare ; my trees shall grone Under their fruitfull burthen ; and at one And the same season, Nature forth shall bring Riches of Autumne, pleasures of the Spring. 16 Some farnd Persian. Sir John Chardin, in his " Travels into Persia and the East Indies, through the Black Sea and the Country of Colchis," speaks of the Persians, in the 17th Century, as excelling the rest of the world in the richness of their tissues ; and as celebrated for their silks, velvets, and cloths, worked with flowers and foliage in silk, gold, and silver. 78 CASTARA. But digge and thou shalt finde a purer mine 17 Thanth' Indians boast : taste of this generous vine, And her blood sweeter will than nectar prove ; Such miracles wait on a noble love. But should she scorn my suite, I'le tread that path Which none but some sad Fairy beaten hath, 18 17 A purer mine than £ti Indians boast. The diamond mines of Golconda, as most known, were probably in the poet's view : Rennel mentions that of Raolconda as equally famous : and there are several not less noted. Hindostan produces, also, the sapphire and the ruby : gold is found only in the rivers. See Pinkerton's Geography, vol. 2. p. 357. 18 Some sad fairy beaten hath. Sad is here used in the sense of unlucky : causing disaster, a sense not unusual with our old writers. There seems an ailusion to the fairy-rings or circles of dark green grass ; supposed to be caused by electricity ; but by the vulgar ascribed to the fairies, This superstition is a favorite theme with the early poets. Browne in his Britannia's Pastorals describes the spot Where fairies often did their measures treade. — B. 1. Shakspeare abounds with it, and is fond of particularizing the minuter circumstances — You demi-puppets that, By moonshine, do the green sour ringlets make Whereof the ewe not bites. Tempest. Act. 5. Sc. 1. Habington appears to touch on some traditionary notion, PART FIRST. 79 Then force wrong'd Philomel, 19 hearing my mone, To sigh my greater griefes, forget her ovvne. that in tliese dances a good and evil fairy alternately took the lead ; and that whatever mortal afterwards set his foot within thp grassy circle, was happy or unfortunate accord- ingly. He, therefore, imagines himself to tread in the path which has been beaten by the ill-omened fairy. 13 IVrong'd Philomel, The general practice of poets has perpetuated this classical error of the voice of the nightingale. The classic poets took their association, probably, from the tragic fable of Philomela : yet it might be supposed that the fable itself was only a consequence of this supposed melancholy music in the bird. In fact there is but one note in the whole compass of the nightingale's melody that can be called plaintive. Mr. Coleridge has vindicated the sprightliness of her tones in a poem, rich in Miltonic harmony, and in the sensible imagery of nature. See his "Nightingale" in T. 91 IN CASTARA, ALL FORTUNES. X e glorious wits, who finde than Parian stone A nobler quarry to build trophies on, Purchast 'gainst conquer'd time, go court loud fame : He wins it, who but sings Castara's name. Aspiring soules, who grow but in a spring, Forc't by the warmth of some indulgent king ; Know, if Castara smile, I dwell in it, And vie for glory with the favourit. Ye sonnes of avarice, who but to share Vncertaine treasure with a certain care, Tempt death in th* horrid ocean : I, when ere I but approach her, find the Indies there. Heaven, brightest saint ! kinde to my vowes ? made thee Of all ambition courts ; th' epitome. m CASTARA, VPON THOUGHT CASTARA MAY DYE. If she should dye, (as well suspect we may, A body so compact should ne're decay) Her brighter soule would in the Moon inspire More chastity, in dimmer starres more fire. You twins of Laeda-* (as your parents are In their wild lusts) may grow irregular 2 * You twins of Leda. The constellation of Gemini or the Twins: which was thought propitious to navigators. They are des- cribed by Manillas, as they are painted on the globe; in the form and attitude of naked youth?, with their arms inter- woven. Ovid designates them as Castor and Pollux ; Horace also calls them M those bright stars, the brothers of Helen." Accordingly in marble antiques and on family medals, they appear on horseback, side by side ; each with a coat of mail and a spear in his hand ; and a star over his head. Spence observes, that the identity of the constellation with Uastor and Pollux cannot be reconciled with the popular fable of their taking their places alternately in the higher heavens : for the stars instead of rising and PART FIKTIY Now in your motion ; for the marrincr Henceforth shall oncly stccre his course by her : And when the zcale of after time shall spie Her uncorrupt i'th' happy marble lie, The roses in her checkes unwithered, 'Twill turne to loye, and dote upon the dead ; For he who did to her in life dispence A Heaven, will banish all corruption thence. setting alternately, are always seen together. The mytho- logical amour of Leda, with Jupiter in the shape of a swan, was unknown to Homer and Hesiod ; und must, therefore, have been the invention of later mvthologists. 94 CASTARA. TIME TO THE MOMENTS, ON SIGHT OF CASTARA. J. ou younger children of your father stay 5 Swift flying moments (which divide the day. And with your number measure out the yeare In various seasons) stay and wonder here. For since my cradle, I so bright a grace Ne're saw, as you see in Castara's face ; Whom Nature to revenge some youthfull crime Would never frame, till age had weakened time. Else spight of fate, in some faire forme of clay My youth I'de' bodied, throwne my sythe away, And broke my glasse. But since that cannot be, I'le punish Nature for her injurie. On, nimble moments! in your journey flie ; Castara shall, like me, grow old, and die. PART FIRST. 95 TO A FRIEND INQUIRING HER NAME, WUOM HE LOVEP. Fond Love himsclfc hopes to disguise From view, if he but covered lies, I'th 1 veile of my transparent eyes. Though in a smile himselfe he hide, Or in a sigh, thou art so tride In all his arts, hee'le be descride. I must confessc (deare friend) my flame, Whose boasts Castara so doth tame, That not thy faith shall know her name. ''Twere prophanation of my zeale,-^ 25 * Twere prophanaliun of my teal. There is something of the same cast of sentiment in a canzon of Camoens : " A minha dor, e o nome," &c. Why should I indiscreetly tell The name my heart has kept so well ? 96 CASTARA* If but abroad one whisper steale; They love betray who him reveale. In a darke cave, which never eye Could by his subtlest ray descry,- It doth like a rich nrinerall lye. Which if she with her flame refine, I'de force it from that obscure mine^ And then it like pure gold should shine.. Why to the senseless crowd proclaim For whom ascends my bosom-flame ? Lord Strangford. Carew has turned the same thought in a different man-? ner . Seek not to know my love ; for she Hath vow'd her constant faith to me. Search hidden nature ; and there find A treasure to enrich thy mind ; Discover arts not yet reveal'd, But let my mistress live conceal'd ; Though men by knowledge wiser grow* Yet here 'tis wisdom not to know. PART FIRST. 07 A DIALOGUE BETWEENE HOPE AND FEARE.' >'3 FEARE. Ciiecke thy forward thoughts, and know- Hymen only joynes their hands ; Who with even paces goe, Shee in gold, he rich in lands. HOPE. But Castara's purer fire, When it meetes a noble flame ; Shuns the smoke of such desire, Ioynes with loye, and burnes the same. 26 Dialogue between Hope and Feare. The dialogue between Horace and Lydia, of which Herrick, in Granger's opinion, was the first professed trans- lator, and which was afterwards both translated and imi- tated to satiety, seems to have been the prototype of all the dialogue lyrics, which were so fashionable in this era of our poetry. H 98 CASTARA. FEARE. Yet obedience must prevaile ; They, who o're her actions sway, Would have her in th' ocean saile, And contemne thy narrow sea. HOPE. Parents' lawes must beare no weight When they happinesse prevent, And our sea is not so streight. But it rooine hath for content. FEARE, Thousand hearts as victims stand, At the altar of her eyes ; And will partiall she command Onely thine for sacrifice ? HOPE. Thousand victims must returne; She the purest will designs : Choose Castara which shall burne, Choose the purest, that is mine. fart nnsT. 99 TO CUPID, TPON A DIMPLE IN CASTARA'S CIIEEKE. / JN imble boy, in thy warme flight What cold tyrant dimm'd thy sight ? lladst thou eyes to see my faire, Thou wouldst sigh thy self to ayre : Fearing to create this one. Nature had her selfe undone. But if you, when this you heare, Fall downe murdered thro ugh your eare, Begge of love that you may have In her cheekc a dimpled grave. 27 2 " In her cheeke a dimpled grave, Carew has a similar conceit : In her fair cheeks two pits do He, To bury those slain by her eye : My grave with rose and lilly spread ; Oh ! lis a life to be so dead. H 2 100 CASTARA. Lilly, rose, and violet Shall the perfum'd hearse beset; While a beauteous sheet of lawne O're the wanton corps is drawne: And all lovers use this breath ; a Here lies Cupid blest in death/* PART FIRST. 101 CVPID'S DEATH AND BURIAL irr CASTARA'S CHEEKE. Cypid's dead. Who would not die To be interr'd so neere her eye ? Who would feare the sword, to hare Such an alabaster grave ? O're which two bright tapers burne, To give light to the beauteous vrne; At the first Castara sraiPd, Thinking Cupid her beguiled, Onely counterfeiting death : But when she perceived his breath Quite expired ; the mournefull girle, To entombe the boy in pearle, Wept so long ; till pittious Iove$ From the ashes of this Love, 102 CASTARA. Made ten thousand Cupids rise, But confin'd them to her eyes : Where they yet, to show they lacke No due sorrow, stiil weare blacke. 28 But the blacks so glorious are Which they niourne ia 5 that the faire Quires of starres looke pale and fret, Seeing themseWes out shin'd by jet. 28 Still wegre blacke. Alluding to the pupil of the e>e, which reflects th person; that is the object of vision. This conceit of a baby or.acupid, in the eye, is among the most trite of poetic; fancies : Cowley surpasses all his brethren, in transferring the reflexion from the eye to a tear : As stars reflect on waters, so I spy In every drop, methinks, her eye ; The baby which lives there, and always plays In that illustrious sphere, Like a Narcissus does appear, Whilst in his flood the lovely bey did gaze. The same image of babies in the eyes occurs repeatedly in the lesser poems of Cainoens.— See Lord Strangford's trans- lation. s FART FIRST. 103 TO FAME. Jl ly on thy swiftest wing, ambitious Fame, And speakc to the cold North Castara's name : Which very breath will, like the East wind, brings The temp'rate warmth, and musicke of the spring. Then, from the articke to th' antarticke pole, Haste nimbly, and inspire a gentler soule, By naming her, i'th' torrid South; that he May miide as Zephyrus' coolc whispers be. Nor let the West where Heaven already joynes The vastest empire, and the wealthiest mines, Nor th' East, in pleasures wanton, her condemne,. For not distributing her gifts on them. For she with want would have her bounty meet 3 . Love's noble chanty is so discreete. 104 CASTARA. A DIALOGUE. BETWEENE ARAPHILL AND CASTARA. ARAPHILL. Dost not thou Castara read Ani'rous volumes in my eyes ? Doth not every motion plead What I'de shew, and yet disguise ? Sences act each other's part, Eyes, as tongues, reveale the heart. CASTARA. I saw lore as lightning breake From thy eyes, and was content Oft to heare thy silence spcake: Silent love is eloquent: So the seuce of learning heares The dumbe musicke of the spheares* PART FIRST. 105 ARAPHILL. Then there's mercy in your kinde, Listning to an unfain'd love : Or strives he (o tame the wind, Who would your compassion move? No ; y'are pittious as y're fairc : Heaven relents, o'ercome by prayer* CASTARA. But loose man too prodigall Is in the ex pence of vowes ; And thinks to him kingdomes fall When the heart of woman bowes ; Frailty to yourarmes may yeeld; Who resists you wins the field. ARAPHILL. Triumph not to see me bleede ; Let the bore, chafed from his den, On the wounds of mankinde feede ; Your softe sexe should pitty men : Malice well may practise art, Love hath a transparent heart. 105 CASTARA. CASTARA. Yet is love all one deceit, A warme frost, a frozen fire : She within herself is great, Who is slave to no desire ; Let youth act, and age advise, And then Love may finde his eye»* ARAPHILL. Hymen's torch yeelds a dim Mght^ When ambition joynes our hands ; A proud day, but mournefull night, She sustaines, who marries lands: Wealth slaves man : but for their ore, Th' Indians had beene free, though poore* CASTARA. And yet wealth the fuell is Which maiutaines the nuptiall fire y And in honour there's a blisse, Th' are immortall who aspire. But truth sayes no joyes are sweety But where hearts united meete* part ri: 107 AUAriULL. Roses breath not such a sent, To perfume the neighb'ring groves ; As when you affirm, content In no spheare of glory moves : Glory narrow souies combines : Noble hearts Love onely joynes. 108 CASTARA, TO CASTARA, INTENDING A JOURNEY INTO THE COUNTRY. V'Vhy haste you hence Castara ? can the Earth, A glorious mother, in her flowry birth. Show lillies like thy brow ? Can she disclose In emulation of thy cheeke, a rose, Sweete as thy blush ? upon thy selfe then set lust yalue, and scorne it thy counterfet. The spring's still with thee ; but perhaps the field, Not warm'd with thy approach, wants force t» yeeld Her tribute to the plough : O rather let Th' ingratefull Earth for ever be in debt To th' hope of sweating Industry, than we Should starve with cold, who have no heat but thee. Nor feare the publicke good ; Thy eyes can give A life to all, who can deserve to live. PART FIRST. 100 CASTARA'S DEPARTURE. I AM cngag'd to sorrow, and my heart Feeles a distracted rage. Though you depart And leave me to my feares ; let love, in spite Of absence, our divided soules unite. But you must goe. The melancholy doves Draw Venus' chariot hence : the sportive Loves "Which wont to wanton here hence with you flye, And, like false friends, forsake me when I dye ; For but a walking tombe what can he be, Whose best of life is forc't to part with thee I 110 CASTARA, TO CASTARA, TPON A TREMBLIXG KISS AT DEPARTURE. JLh' Arabian wind/ 9 whose breathing gently blows Purple to th' violet, blushes to the rose, Did never yeeld an odour rich as this : Why are you then so thrifty of a kisse, 29 Th* Arabian wind. The myrrh, aloes, and frankincense, indigenous to the soil of Arabia, have naturalised the term Arabian in poetry as s>,nonimoiis with fragrant. — Milton is fond of this allusion. In " Paradise Regained," where a charmed banquet is presented by the Tempter to the Messiah, we are told that winds Of gentlest gale Arabian odour fann'd From their soft wings. Epithets allusive to particular countries, are always grace- ful and picturesque from their individuality ; and interesting from the train of association which they open to the fancy : Milton abounds with such epithets: and Virgil has his Idumean palms, and his Sicyonian olives. . PART FIRST. Ill Authorized even by custome ? Why doth feare So tremble on your lip, my lip being neare? Thinke you I, parting with so sad a zcale, Will act so blacke a no is chief e ? as to stealc Thy roses thence ? And they, by this device Transplanted, somewhere else force Paradice ? Or else you feare, lest you, should my heart skip Vp to my mouth, V incounter with your lip, Might rob me of it ; and be judg'd in this, T' have Iudas like betraid me with a kisse* 112 CASTARA. ON" CASTARA^ LOOKING BACKE AT HER DEPARTING* JLooke backe Castara ! From thy eye Let yet more flaming arrowes flye: To live is thus to burne and dye. For what might glorious hope desire. But that thy selfe, as I expire, Should bring both death and funerall fire I Distracted love shall grieve to see Such zeale in death : for feare lest he Himselfe should be consum'd in me. And gathering up my ashes, weepe, That in his teares he them may steepe n And thus embalm 1 d, as reliques, keepe. PAIIT FIRST. 113 Thither let lovers pilgrims turne, And the loose flames in which they burne Give up, as offerings to my vrrie. That then the vertue of my shrine By miracle so long refine ; Till they prove innocent as mine. 114 CASTARA. UPON CASTARA'S ABSENCE. 1 is madnesse to give physicke to the dead ; 30 Then leave me friends : Yet haply you'd here read A lecture : but Pie not dissected be, 31 T J instruct your art by my anatomic 30 Tis madnesse to give physicke to the dead. This is borrowed from Propertius : Atque utinarn non tam sero raihi nota fuisset Conditio ; Cineri nunc medicina datur. L. 2. Eleg. 14. Oh ! had my state been earlier known ! you shed Your potions, on the ashes of the dead. 31 Vie not dissected be. It was the glory of the metaphysical poets to link together images of pleasure and horror — ideas which from common consent are thought attractive, with such as occasion aversion PART FIRST. 115 But still you trust your sense, svvcarc you descry No difference in me. AITs deceit o'th' eye ; Some spirit hath a body fram'd in th" ayre Like mine, which he doth to delude you wcare: Else Heaven by miracle makes me survive My selfc, to keepe in me poore love alive. But I am dead ; yet let none question where My best part rests, and with a sigh or teare, Prophane the pompc, when they my corps interre, My soulc imparadis'd, for 'tis with her. and disgust. Chirurgery, in particular, seems to have been a favorite source of metaphor : Cowley says to his mistress, Gently, ah ! gently, Madam, touch The wound, which you yourself have made. We need not, therefore, wonder that Carew should have stumbled upon a similar fancy to that of Habington : If, when I die, physicians doubt What caus'd my death; and, there to view Of all their judgments which was true, Rip op my heart ; oh then I fear The world will see thy picture there. i 2 116 CASTARA, TO CASTARA, COMPLAINING HER ABSENCE IN THE COUNTRY. InE lesser people of the ayre conspire To keepe thee from me. Philomel with higher And sweeter notes, wooes thee to weepe her rape, Which would appease the gods and change her shape. The early larke, preferring 'fore soft rest Obsequious duty, leaves his downy nest, And doth to thee harmonious tribute pay ; Expecting from thy eyes the breake of day. From which the owl is frighted, and doth rove (As never having felt the warmth of love) In uncouth vaults, and the chill shades of night, Not biding the bright lustre of thy sight. With him my fate agrees. Not viewing thee I'me lost in mists : at best, but meteors see. PART FIRST. 117 TO THAMES. owift in thy watry chariot, courteous Thames, Hast by the happy errour of thy strcames, To kisse the banks of Marlow, which doth show Faire Seymors, 32 and beyond thai; never flow. Then summon all thy swans, that who did give Musicke to death, may henceforth sing, and live, For my Castara. She can life restore. Or quicken them who had no life before. How should the poplar else the pine provoke. The stately cedar challenge t)\e rude oke To dance at sight of her? They have no sense From Nature given, but by her influence ; If Orpheus did those senslesse creatures move. He was a prophet and fore sang my love. 33 Fair Seymours. The name of the house in which Castara resided at Mar- low upon Thames. 118 CASTARA. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE OF SHREWES. 33 JVIy Muse, (great lord) when last you heard her sing, Did to your vncles vrne her offerings bring: And if to fame I may give faith, your eares Delighted in the musicke of her teares. That was her debt to vertue. And when e're She her bright head among the clouds shall reare, And adde to th' wcndring Heavens a new flame, Shee'le celebrate the genius of your name. Wilde with another race, inspired by love. She charmes the myrtles of the Idalian grove. And while she gives the Cyprian stormes a law. Those wanton doves, which Cythereia draw 33 Earle of Shretccs. John, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury. He succeeded his uncle, George, the 9th Earl, who died unmarried April 2d, 1630; and to whom the subsequent elegy of Habington, beginning il Bright saint thy pardon," refers. r.VRT FinsT. 1 19 Through th' am'rous ayre, admire what power doth sway The ocean, and arrest them in their way. She sings Clstara then. O she more bright, Than is the starry senate of the night ; Who in tlu'ir motion did like straglers erre, Cause they deriv'd no influence from her, Who's constant as she's chaste. The Sunnc hath bcene Clad like a neighb'ring shephcard often scene To hunt those dales, in hope than Daphne's there To see a brighter facz. Th' astrologer In th' interim dyed, whose proud art could not show Whence that eclipse did on the sudden grow. A wanton satyre eager in the chase Of some faire nymph, beheld Casta ra's face, And left his loose pursuite ; who while he ey'd, Vn chastely, such a beauty, glorified With such a verfcne, by Heaven's great commands, Turn'd marble, and there yet a statue stands. As poet thus. But as a Christian now, And by my zeale to you (my lord) I tow, She doth a flame so pure and sacred move; In me impiety 'twere not to love. 120 CASTARA. TO CVPID, WISHING A SPEEDY PASSAGE TO CASTARA. 1 hankes Cupid, but the coach of Venus moves For me too slow, clravvne but by lazie cloves. I, lest my journey a delay should finde, AVill leape into the chariot of the wind. Swift as the flight of lightning through the ayre, Hee'le hurry me till I approach the faire, But unkinde Seymors. Thus he will proclaime. What tribute winds owe to Castara's name. Viewing this prodigie, astonisht they, Who first accesse deny'd me, will obey. With feare, what love commands : yet censure me As guilty of the blackest sorcery ; But after to my wishes milder prove, When they know this the miracle of love. PART FIRST. 121 TO CASTARA, OF LOVE. How fancie mockes me ! By th' effect I prove, 'Twas am'rous folly wings ascrib'd to Love^ And, ore th' obedient elements, command. Hee's lame as he is blindc, for here I stand Fixt as the Earth. Throw then this idoll dowue Yee lovers who first made it; which can frowne Or smile, but as you please. But I'me untame In rage. Castara call thou on his name, And though hc'elc not beare up my vowes to thee ; Hee'le triumph to bring downe my saint to me. 122 CASTARA, TO THE SPRING, TPON THE UNCERTAINTY OF CASTARA'S ABODE. Jb aire mistresse of the Earth, with garlands cro wn'd Rise, by a lover's charme, from the partcht ground, And shew thy flowry wealth : that she, where ere Her starres shall guide her, meete thy beauties there. Should she to the coldnortherne climates goe, Force thy affrighted lillies there to grow, Thy roses in those gelid fields V appeare ; She absent, I have all their winter here. Or if to th' torrid zone her way she bend, Her the coole breathing of Favonious lend. Thither command the birds to bring their quires ; That zone is temp'rate, I have all his fires. Attend her, courteous Spring, though we should here Lose by it all the treasures of the yeere. PART FIRST. Itt TO REASON, VPON CASTARA'S ABSENCE. W ith your calme precepts goe, and lay a storme In some brest flegmaticke, which would conforme Her life to your cold lawcs : in vaine y' engage Your selfe on me, I will obey my rage. Shee's gone, and I am lost. Some unknowne grove Pie finde, where by the miracle of Love Pie turne V a fountaine, and divide the yeere. By numbring every moment with a teare. Where if Castara (to avoyd the beamcs O' th' neigh'bring Sun) shall wandring meet my streames, And tasting hope her thirst alaid shall be, Shee'Ie fecle a sudden flame, and burnc like me : And thus distracted cry ; u Tell me thou cleere, But treach'rous fount, what lover's coffin'd here?" 124 CASTARA. ANSWERE TO CASTARA'S QUESTION. lis I, Castara, who when thou wert gone,, Did freeze into this rnelancholly stone, To vveepe the minutes of thy absence. Where Can greefe have freer scope to mourne than here ? The larkehere practiseth a sweeter straine, Aurora's early blush to entertaine, And haying too deepe tasted of these streames, He loves, and amorously courts her beames. The courteous turtle, with a wandring zeale, Saw how to stone I did myselfe congeale, And murm'ring askt, what power this change did move ? The language of my waters whispered. Love. And thus transform'd Pie stand, till I shall see That heart, so ston'd and frozen, thaw'd in thee* TAKT FIRST. 125 TO CASTARA, VFOX THE DISGUISING HIS AFFECTION* 1 ronounce me guilty of a blacker crime, Then c're, in the large volume writ by Time, The sad historian reades, if not my art Dissembles love, to veile an am'rous heart. For when the zealous anger of my friend Checkes my unusuall sadnesse, I pretend To study vertue, which indeede I doe ; He must court vertue, who aspires to you. Or that some friend is dead, and then a teare, A sigh, or groane steales from me : for I feare Lest death with love hath strooke my heart, and all These sorrowes usher but its funerall : Which should revive, should there you a mourner be, And force a nuptiall in an obsequie. 126 CASTARA. TO THE HONOURABLE MY HONOURED KINSMAN, MR.. G. T* 3 * J-hrice hath the pale-fac'd empresse of the night Lent in her chaste increase her borrowed light, To guide the vowing mariner, since mute Talbot th'ast beene ; too slothfull to salute Thy exil'd servant. Labour not V excuse This dull neglect : love never wants a muse. When thunder summons from eteniall sleepe Th' imprison'd ghosts, and spreads o' th' frighted deepe A veile of darknesse, penitent to be I may forget, yet still remember thee, 3* My honoured Kinsman Mr. G. T. The Hon. George Talbot. He must have been one of the three younger sons of John Talbot of Longford, (brother to George Earl of Shrewsbury) whose names are not mentioned in Collins's Peerage. Censura Litteraria, vol. 10. p. 193. TART FIRST. 127 Next to my faire; under whose eye-lids move, In nimble measures, beauty, wit, and love. Nor think Castara (though the sex be fraile, And ever like unccrtaine vessels saile On th' ocean of their passions; while each wind, Triumphs to sec their more uncertaine mind,) Can be induc't to alter. Every starre May in its motion grow irregular ; The Sunne forget to yeeld his welcome flame To th' teeming Earth, yet she remaine the same: And in my armes (if poets may divine) I once that world of beauty shall intwine: And on her lips print volumes of my love, Without a froward checke, and sweetly move I'th' labrinth of delight. If not, I'le draw Her picture on my heart, and gently thaw With warmth of zeale, untill I Heaven entreat; To give true life to th' ayery counterfeit. 128 CASTARA. ECCHO TO NARCISSUS, IN PRAISE OF CASTARA's DISCREETE LOVE. ocorn'© in thy watry Trne Narcissus lye, Thou shalt not force more tribute from my eye T' increase thy streames : or make me weepe a showre. To adde fresh beauty to thee, now a llowre. But should relenting Heaven restore thee sence To see such wisedome temper innocence In faire Castara's loves ; how shee discreet Makes causion with a noble freedome meete, At the same moment; thou'ld'st confesse, fond boy 5 Fooles onely think them vertuous, who are coy. And wonder not that I, who have no choyce Of speech, have, praysing her, so free a voyce : Heaven her severest sentence doth repeale, When to Castara I would speakc my zeale. PART FIRST. 129 TO CASTARA, BEING DEBARR'D HER PRESENCE. J3anisht from you, I charg'd the nimble winde, My unseene messenger, to speake my minde, In am'rous whispers to you. But my Muse, Lest the unruly spirit should abuse The trust repos'd in him, sayd it was due To her alone, to sing my loyes to you. Heare her then speake. " Bright lady, from whose eye Shot lightning to his heart, who joyes to dye A martyr in your flames : O let your love Be great and firme as his : Then nought shall move Your settled faiths, that both may grow together : Or if by Fate divided, both may wither. 130 CASTARA. Harke ! 'twas a groane. Ah how sad absence rends His troubled thoughts ! See, he from Marlow sends His eyes to Seymors. Then chides th' envious trees, And unkiade distance. Yet his fancie sees And courts your beauty, joyes as he had cleav'd Close to you, and then weepes because deceiv'd* Be constant as y'are faire. For I fore-see A glorious triumph waits o'th' victorie Your love will purchase, showing us to prize A true content. There onely Love hath eyes." PART TIRST. 131 TO SEYMORS, THE HOUSE IN WHICH CASTARA LIVED. jL>lest temple, haile, where the chast altar stands, Which Nature built, but the exacter hands Of vertue polisht. Though sad fate deny My prophane feete accesse, my vowes shall flye. May those musitians, which divide the ayre With their harmonious breath, their flight prepare For this glad place, and all their accents frame, To teach the eccho my Castara's name. The beautious troopes of Graces, led by Love In chaste attempts, possesse the neighboring grove, Where may the spring dwell still. May every tree Turne to a laurell, and propheticke be, Which shall in its first oracle divine, That courteous Fate decrees Castara mine. K 2 132 CASTARA. TO THE DEW, IN HOPE TO SEE CASTARA WALKING. .Bright dew, which dost the field adorne, As th' Earth, to welcome in the morne, Would hang a Jewell on each corne : Did not the pittious night, whose eares Have oft beene conscious of my feares, Distil you from her eyes as teares ? Or that Castara for your zeale, When she her beauties shall reveale, Might you to dyamonds congeale ? If not your pity, yet how ere Your care I praise, 'gainst she appeare, To make the wealthy Indies here. PART FIRST. 13" But see she comes. Bright lampe o'th' skie, Put out thy light : the world shall spie A fairer Sunne in either eye. And liquid pearl, hang heavie now On every grasse, that it may bow In veneration of her brow. Yet if the wind should curious be, And were I here should question thee, Hee's full of whispers, speake not me. But if the busie tell-tale day Our happy enterview betray ; Lest thou confesse too ; melt away. 134 CASTARA. TO CASTARA. Stay under the kinde shadow of this tree Casiara, and protect thyself and me From the Sunne's rayes. Which show the grace of kings A dangerous warmth with too much favour brings. How happy in this shade the humble vine Doth ? bout some taller tree her selfe intwine, And so growes frititfull ; teaching us her fate Doth beare more sweetes, though cedars beare more state ; Behold Adonis in yand' purple flowre : T' was Venus' love : That dew, the briny showre^ His coynesse wept, while strugling yet alive : Now he repents and gladly would revive, By th' vertue of your chaste and powerfull charmes, To play the modest wanton in your armes. PART FIRST. 135 TO CASTARA, VENTURING TO WALKE TOO FARRE IN THE NEIGHBOURING WOOD. .Dare not too farre Castara, for the shade This courteous thicket yeelds hath man betray'd A prey to wolves to the wilde powers o'th' wood; Oft travellers pay tribute with their blood. If careless of thy selfe, of me take care ; For like a ship, where all the fortunes are Of an advent'rous merchant ; I must be, If thou should'st perish, banquerout in thee. My feares have mockt me. Tygers, when they shall Behold so bright a face, will humbly fall In adoration of thee. Fierce they are To the deform'd, obsequious to the faire. Yet venture not ; 'tis nobler farre to sway The heart of man ; than beasts ; who man obey. 136 CASTARA. rpow CASTARA'S DEPARTURE. V owes are vaine. No suppliant breath Stayes the speed of swift-heel'd Death* Life with her is gone, and I Learn but a new way to dye. See the flowers condole, and all Wither iu my funerall. The bright HHy, as if day Parted with her, fades away. Violets hang their heads, and lose All their beauty. That the rose A sad part in sorrow feeares, Witnesse all those dewy teares, Which as pearle, or dyamond like, ^well upon her blushing cheeke. PART FIRST. 137 All things mourne, but oh behold How the withered marigold 35 Closeth up, now she is gone, Iudging her the setting Sunne. 35 How the wither* d marigold. The notion of the marigold closing when the sun sets, is commonly adopted by the poets ; and is perhaps a popular doctrine. Drayton has the " morn-lov'd marigold :" and Browne in his M Britannia's Pastorals" observes the day is waxen old, And gins to shut in with the marisjolde. 138 CASTARA. A DIALOGUE BETWEENE NIGHT AND ARAPHIL. NIGHT. JLet silence close thy troubled eyes. Thy feare in Lethe steepe : The starres, bright cent'nels of the skies ? Watch to secure thy sleepe. ARAPHIL. The North's unruly spirit lay In the disordered seas : Made the rude winter calm as May? And gave a lover ease. PART FIttST. NIGHT. Yet why should fearc with her pale charmes, Bewitch thee so to griefe ? Since it prevents n'insuing harmes, Nor yeelds the past relicfe. ARAPHIL. And jet such horrour I sustaine As the sad vessel], when Rough tempest have incenst the maine 7 Her harbour now in ken. NIGHT. No conquest weares a glorious wreath, Which dangers not obtaine : Let tempests 'gainst the shipwrackc breathe. Thou shalt thy harbour gaine. ARAPHIL. Truth's Delphos doth not still forctel, Though Sol th' inspirer be ; How then should Night, as blind as Hell, Ensuing truths fore-see ? 140 CASTARA. NIGHT. The Sunne yeelds man no constant flame; One light those priests inspires ; While I though blacke am still the same. And have ten thousand fires. ARAPHIL. But those, saves my propheticke feare, As funerall torches burne, While thou thy selfe the blackes dost weare, T' attend me to my vine. NIGHT. Thy feares abuse thee, for those lights In Hymen's church shall shine. When he by th' mystery of his rites. Shall make Castara thine. PART FIRST. 141 TO TIIE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LADY, E. P.™ Y our judgment's cleere, not wrinckled with the time, On th' humble fate ; which censures it a crime To be by vertue ruin'd. For I know Y' are not so various as to ebbe and flow P th' streame of Fortune, whom each faithlesse winde Distracts, and they who made her, fram'd her blinde. 36 The Lady E. P. Lady Eleanor Powls : wife of William Herbert, first Lord Powis, and daughter of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland : the mother of Habington's Castara. 142 CASTARA, Possession makes us poore. Should we obtaine All those bright jems, for which i' th ? wealthy maine The tann'd slave dives ; or in one boundless chest Imprison all the treasures of the West, We still should want. Our better part's iramence^ Not like th' inferiour, limited by sence. Rich with a little, mutuall love can lift Vs to a greatnesse, whither chance nor thrift E're rais'd her servants, For,though all were spent. That can create an Europe in content. Thus (madam) when Castara lends an eare Soft to my hope, I, love's philosopher, Winne on her faith. For when I wondring stand At th' intermingled beauty of her hand, (Higher I dare not gaze) to this bright veine I not ascribe the blood of Charlemaine 36 36 the blood of Charlemaine Deriv'd from you to her. Agnes, youngest daughter of William de Percy, on whom the inheritance of the family estate devolved in the 6th of King John, married Josceline de Louvaine, Son of Godfrey, Duke of Brabant; this ancestor of the Earls of Northumberland traced his descent from Charlemagne. See ;his pedigree in Collinses Peerage, vol. 5, 310. Sir Edward PAKT FIRST. 143 Dcriv'd by you to her ; or say there are, In that and th'other, Marmion, Rosse, and Parr, Fitzhugh, Saint Quiutin, and the rest of thein That adde such lustre to great Pembroke's stem. My love is envious. Would Castara were The daughter of some mountaine cottager, Who, with his toile worne out, could dying leave Her no more dovvre, than what she did receive From bounteous nature. Her would I then lead To th' temple, rich in her owne wealth ; her head Crown'd with her haire's faire treasure; diamonds in Her brighter eyes ; soft ermines in her skin ; Each Indie in her cheeke. Then all who vaunt, That Fortune, them V enrich, made others want, Herbert of Poole Castle, Montgomeryshire, (afterwards Powis Castle) brother to Henry Earl of Pembroke, was ancestor to the Marquis of Powis. The titles of the Earl- dom of Pembroke are, Herbert Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery ; Baron Herbert of Caerdiff ; Ross of Kendall ; Parr, Fitzhugh, Marmion, St. Quintin, and Herbert of Shurland. 37 Each Indie in each cheeke. An allusion to rubies. Shakspeare employs the same metaphor in a burlesque sense: 144 CASTARA, Should set themselves out glorious in her stealth, And trie if that could parallel this wealth. S. Antipholis. Where America ? the Indies ? S. Dromio. Oh Sir, upon her nose: all oer embellished with rubies^ carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain. Comedy of Errors , Act 3, Scene 2, PART FIRST. 145 TO CASTARA, DEPARTING UPON THE APPROACH OF NIGHT. What should we feare Castara ? The coole aire, That's falne in love, and wantons in thy haire, Will not betray our whispers. Should I steale A nectar'd kisse, the wind dares not reveale The pleasure I possesse. The wind conspires To our blest interview, and in our fires Bathes like a salamander, and doth sip, Like Bacchus from the grape, life from thy lip. Nor thinke of night's approach* The world's great eye Though breaking Nature's law, will us supply With his still flaming lampe : and to obey Our chaste desires, fix here perpetuall day. But should' he set, what rebell night dares rise^ To be subdu'd i'th' vict'ry of the eyes ? 146 CASTARA, AN APPARITION. More welcome my Castara, than was light To the disordered chaos, O what bright And nimble chariot brought thee through the aire ? While the amazed stars, to see so faire And pure a beauty from the Earth arise, Chang'd all their glorious bodies into eyes. O let my zealous lip print on thy hand The story of my love, which there shall stand A bright inscription, to be read by none, But who as I love thee, and love but one. Why vanish you away ? Or is my sense Deluded by my hope ? O sweete offence Of erring nature ! And would Heaven this had Beene true; or that I thus were ever mad. PART FIRST. 147 TO THE HONOURABLE MR. WM. E. Hee who is good is happy. 33 Let the loude Artillery of Heaven 39 breake through a cloud 38 He who is good is happy. The same sentiment, and in the same words, occurs in Howe's " Fair Penitent." Then to be good Is to be happy. 39 Artillery of heaven. Crashaw in his ' Sacred Poems' has " Heaven's great artillery :" So also Shakspeare. Taming of the Shrew, A. 1, S. 2. Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, And heaven* s artillery thunder in the skies ? The sentiment is borrowed from Horace : L. 3. od. 3. Nee fulminantis magna Jovis manus : L 2 148 CASTARA. And dart its thunder at him, hee'le remaine Vnmov'd, and nobler comfort entertaine In welcomming th' approach of death, than vice Ere found in her fictitious paradise. Time mocks our youth, 40 and (while we number past Delights, and raise our appetite to taste Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinag. Not the red arm of angry Jove That flings the thunder from the sky, And gives it rage to rear, and strength to fly ; The stubborn virtue of his soul can move. Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion huil'd ; He, unconcernM, would hear the mighty wreck, And stand secure amidst a falling world. Addison, This noble paraphrase of Addison has fallen into unde- served oblivion, from the vulgarism and ludicrous triviality of a single word ; which I have taken the liberty to alter. The sly irony of Pope did not spare this mighty crack of a world in ruins. See the Treatise on the Bathos. PART FIRST. 149 Ensuing) brings us to unflatter'd age. Where we are left to satisfie the rage Of threatning death : pomp, beauty, wealth, and all Our friendships, shrinking from the funerall. The thought of this begets that brave disdaine With which thou view'st the world, and makes those vaine Treasures of fancy, serious fooles so court, And sweat to purchase, thy contempt or sport. What should we covet here : Why interpose A cloud twixt us and Heaven ? kind Nature chose Man's soule th' exchecquer where she'd hoor'd her wealth, And lodge all her rich secrets ; but by th' stealth 40 Time mocks our youth. Probably suggested by a passage in Juvenal. Sat. 9. 126. Festinat enim decurrere velox Flosculus angustae, miseraeque brevissima vilse Portio ; dum bibimus ; dum serta, unguenta, puellas Posciraus, obrepitnon intellecta seneetus. Brief is the span of life's afflicted day, And youth's fleet blossom drops, and fades away. While breathing liquid odours, bath'd in wine, We press the blooming nymph ; the garland twine ; Age, creeping on our pleasures, steals between With unsuspected pace, and shuts the scene. 150 CASTARA. Of our own vanity, w'are left so poore, The creature meerely sensuall knowes more. The learned halcyon by her wisedome finds A gentle season, when the seas and winds Are silenc't by a calme, and then brings forth The happy miracle of her rare birth. Leaving with wonder all our arts possest, That view the architecture of her nest. Pride raiseth us 'bove justice* We bestowe Increase of knowledge on old minds, which grow By age to dotage : while the sensitive Part of the world in it's first strength doth live. Folly ? what dost thou in thy power containe Deserves our study? Merchants plough the mairie And bring home th' Indies, yet aspire to more By avarice, in the possession poore. And jet that idoll wealth we all admit Into the soule's great temple, busie wit Invents new orgies, fancy frames new rites To show it's superstition* anxious nights Are watcht to win its favour : while the beast Content with Nature's courtesie doth rest. Let man then boast no more a soule, since he Hath lost that great prerogative. But thee PART FIRST. 151 (Whom fortune hath exempted from the heard Of vulgar men, whom vertue hath prefer'd Farre higher than thy birth) I must commend, Rich in the purchase of so svvectc a friend. And though my fate conducts me to the shade Of humble quiet, my ambition payde With safe content, while a pure virgin fame Doth raise me trophies in Castara's name. No thought of glory swelling me above The hope of being famed for vcrtuous love. Yet wish I thee, guided by the better starres To purchase unsafe honour in the warres Or envied smiles at court ; for thy great race, And merits, well may challenge th' highest place. Yet know, what busie path so ere you tread To greatnesse, you must sleepe among the dead. 152 CASTARA* TO CASTARA, THE TANITY OF AVARICE. Harke ! how the traytor wind doth court The saylors to the maine ; To make their avarice his sport ; A tempest checks the fond disdaine ; They beare a safe though humble port, Wee'Ie sit, my Love, upon the shore^ And while proud billowes rise To warre against the skie, speake ore Our love's so sacred misteries ; And charme the sea to th' calme it had before. PART FIR9T. 153 Where's now my pride to extend my fame Where ever statues are ? And purchase glory to my name In the smooth court or rugged warre ? My lore hath layd the devill, I am tame. Tde rather like the violet grow Vnmarkt i'th' shaded rale, Than on the hill those terrors know Are breath'd forth by an angry gale ; There is more pomp above, more sweete below. Love, thou divine philosopher (While covetous landlords rent, And courtiers dignity preferre) Instructs us to a sweete content ; Greatnesse it selfe doth in itselfe interre. Castara, what is there above The treasures we possesse ? We two are all and one, wee move Like starres in th' orbe of happinesse. All blessings are epitomiz'd in love. 154 CASTARA. TO MY HONOURED FRIEND AND KINSMAN R. ST. ESQUIRE. It shall not grieve me (friend) though what I write Re held no wit at court. If I delight So farre my sullen genius ; as to raise It pleasure ; I have money, wine, and bayes Enough to crowne me poet. Let those wits, Who teach their Muse the art of parasits To win on easie greatnesse ; or the yongue Spruce lawyer, who's all impudence and tongue. Sweat to divulge their fames : thereby the one Gets fees; the other hyre ; I'em best unknowne : Sweet silence I embrace thee, and thee Fate, Which didst my birth so wisely moderate ; PART FIRST. 155 That I by want am neither vilified, Nor yet by riches ilatter'd into pride. Resolve me friend (for it must folly be Or else revenge 'gainst niggard destinie, That makes some poets raile;) AVhy are their rimes So steept in gall ? Why so obrayde the times ? As if no sin call'd downe Heavn's vengeance more Than cause the world leaves some few writers poo re ? Tis true, that Chapman's reverend ashes 41 must Lye rudely mingled with the vulgar dust, 41 Chapman's reverend ashes, George Chapman, the dramatic poet and translator, the friend of Jonson and Sidney, died in 1634, and was buried at St. Giles's in the fields. A monument -was afterwards erected over his grave by Inigo Jones* Granger has spoken slightingly of Chapman's Homer, by which he is chiefly remembered, on the loose authority of Pope — but we have the still higher authority of Dry den, in favour of his puetical fire. His version of Hesiod's Works and Days is ciose, vigorous, and elegant. Of this uncom- monly scarce work, I have exhibited some specimens in the appendix to my translation of Hesiod. 156 CASTARA. Cause carefull heyers the wealthy onely have, To build a glorious trouble o're the grave. Yet doe I not despaire, some one may be So seriously devout to poesie. As to translate his reliques, and finde roome In the warme church, to build him up a tombe- Since Spencer hath a stone; 43 and Drayton's browes* 3 Stand petrified i'th' wall, with laurell bowes Yet girt about ; and nigh wise Henrie's herse, * 2 Spencer hath a stone. Spenser was interred near Chaucer in the great South- cross-aisle of Westminster Abbey, pursuant to his own desire : and a monument raised to him by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. 43 Drayton's hrovoes. The bust of Drayton, in Westminster Abbey, is encircled with a wreath of laurel. Drayton is seldom recollected but by his Poly-Olbion : of which the accuracy is praised by Nicolson ; but a chorographical poem is not very attractive ; and the heavy roll of his rumbling alexandrines fatigues the ear. There is much of fine poetry, however, in his other pieces ; such as " The Barons' Wars," and " England's Hero- ical Epistles." The whole of Drayton's poems are judiciously included by Mr. Chalmers in his copious collection. PART FIRST. 157 Old Chaucer got a marble for his verse. So courteous is Death ; Death poets brings So high a porape, to lodge them with their kings : Yet still they mutiny. If this man please His silly patron with hyperboles ; Or most mysterious non-sence give his brainc But the strapado in some wanton straine; Hee'Ie sweare the state lookes not on men of parts, And, if but mention'd, slight all other arts. Vaine ostentation ! Let us set so just A rate on knowledge, that the world may trust The poet's sentence, and not still aver Each art is to it selfe a flatterer. I write to you, sir, on this theame, because Your soule is cleare, and you observe the lawes Of poesie so justly, that I choose Yours onely the example to my Muse. And till my browner haire be mixt with gray, Without a blush, He tread the sportive way, My Muse directs ; a poet youth may be, But age doth dote without philosophic 158 CASTARA. TO THE WORLD. THE PERFECTION OF LOTE. JL ou who are earth, and cannot rise Above your sence, Boasting the envyed wealth which lyes Bright in your mistris' lips or eyes, Betray a pittyed eloquence. That, which doth joyne our soules, so light And quicke doth more, That, like the eagle in his flight, It doth transcend all humane sight, Lost in the element of love. PART FIRST. 159 You poets reach not this, who sing The praise of dust But kneaded, when by theft you bring The rose and lilly from the spring, T' adorne the wrincklcd face of lust. When we speake love, nor art, nor wit We glosse upon : Our soules engender, and beget Ideas which you counterfeit In your dull propagation. While time seven ages shall disperse, Wcc'Ie talke of love, And when our tongues hold no commerse 9 Our thoughts shall mutually converse ; And yet the blood no rebell prove. And though we be of severall kind, Fit for offence: Yet are we so by love refin'd, From impure drosse we are all mind, Death could not more have conquer'd sencc. 160 CASTARA, How suddenly those flames expire Which scorch our clay ? Promotheus-like 5 when we steale fire From Heaven, 'tis endlesse and intire ;. It may know age, but not decay. fart first; 161 TO THE WINTER. Why dost thou looke so pale, decrepit man ? Why doe thy cheeks curie like the ocean, Into such furrowes? Why dost thou appeare So shaking like an ague to the yeare ? The Sunne is gone. But yet Castara stayes, And will add stature to thy pigmy dayes, Warme moysture to thy veynes; her smile can bring Thee the sweet youth, and beauty of the spring. Hence with thy palsie then, and on thy head Weare flowrie chaplets, as a bridegroome led To th' holy fane. Banish thy aged ruth, That virgins may admire and court thy youth ; And the approaching Sunne, when she shall findu A spring without him, fall, since uselesse, blinde. 162 CASTARA. A VISIT TO CASTARA IN THE NIGHT, 1 was night : when Phoebe, guided by thy raves. Chaste as my zeale, with incense of her praise, I humbly crept to my Castara's shrine. But oh my fond mistake ! for there did shine A noone of beauty, with such lustre crown'd, As showd 'mong th' impious onely night is found. It was her eyes which like two diamonds shin'd, Brightest i'th' dark. Like which could th' Indian find But one among his rocks, he would out vie In brightnesse all the diamonds of the skie. But when her lips did ope, the phoenix nest Breath'd forth her odours ; where might love once feast, Hee'd loath his heauenly serfets : if we dare Affirme, love hath a Heaven without my faire. PART FIRST. 163 TO CASTARA, OF THE CHASTITY OF HIS LOVE. VV hy would you blush Castara, when the name Of Love you heare ? who never felt his flaine, I'th' shade of melancholly night doth stray, A blind Cymmerian 44 banisht from the day. . ** A blind Cimmerian, Homer in the eleventh book of his Odyssey, v. 14, thus describes the city of the Cimmerians : the ship now reach'd the verge Of the deep flowing ocean ; on that shore Arose the city of Cimmerian men ; With mist and darkness wrapt : nor e'er on them The shining sun looks down with darted beams ; Nor when he climbs the starry heavens ; nor when Earthward he turns his chariot from the sky. It is conjectured that the Cymmerians were a people on 164 CASTAHCA. Let's chastly love, Castara, and not soyle This virgin lampe, by powring in the oyle Of impure thoughts. O let us sympathize, And onely talk i'th' language of our eyes, Like two starres in conjunction. But beware, Lest th' angels, who of love compacted are, the western coast of Italy, who lived by plunder* and had their lurking places in caves on the sea-shore. This seems to have been a favorite allusion with our early writers. Spenser in his " Teares of the Muses,'* speaks of Darknesse more than Cymmerians' daily night. So also in Sidney's Arcadia : Book 3 : " Let Cymmerian darkness be my only habitation." In Fletcher's False One ; Act. 2. Sc. 4. We meet with Oh giant-like Ambition ! wedded to Cymmerian darkness ! And Marston in his Scourge of Villany : b, 3, S. 10, has this passage : Dull-spighted Melancholy ! leave my brain ! — To hell ! Cimmerian night ! Which Warton supposes Milton to have had in his eve, when he wrote " Hence loathed Melancholy * * * * * * In dark Cimmerian desart ever dwell. L'Allegro. PART FIRST. 166 Viewing how chastly burnes thy zealous fire, Should snatch thee hence, to joyne thee to their quire. Yet take thy flight ; on Earth for surely we So joyn'd, hi Heaven cannot divided be. 166 CASTARA. THE DESCRIPTION OF CASTARA. Like the yiolet which alone Prospers in some happy shade ; My Castara lives unknowne, To no looser eye betray'd, For shee's to her selfe untrue, Who delights i'th' publicke view. Such is her beauty^ as no arts Have enricht with borrowed grace ; Her high birth no pride imparts. For she blushes in her place. Folly boasts a glorious blood 5 She is noblest, being good. PART FIRST. 167 Cautious, she knew never yet What a wanton courtship meant ; Not speaks loud to boast her wit, In her silence eloquent : Of her self survey she takes. But 'tweene men no difference makes. She obeyes with speedy will Her grave parents' wise commands; And so innocent, that ill She nor acts, nor understands : Women's feet runne still astray, If once to ill they know the way. She sailes by that rocke, the court, Where oft honour splits her mast : And retirednesse thinks the port, Where her fame may anchor cast ; Vertue safely cannot sit, Where vice is enthron'd for wit. She holds that daye's pleasure best, Where sinne waits not on delight: Without maske, or ball, or feast, Sweetly spends a winter's night : 168 CASTARA. O're that darknesse, whence is thrust Prayer, and sleepe oft governs lust. She her throne makes reason elimbe, While wild passions captive lie ; And, each article of time. Her pure thoughts to Heaven flie : All her vowes religious be, And her love she vowes to me. Castava* PART THE SECOND. Vatumque lascivos triumphos Calcat amor, pede conjugali. A WIFE Is ihe sweetest part in the harmony of our being. To the love of which, as the charmes of Nature inchant us, so the law of Grace by speciall priviledge invites us. With- out her, man, if piety not restraine him, is the creator of shine ; or, if an innated cold render him not onely the businesse of the present age, the murderer of posterity. She is so religious, that every day crownes her a martyr, and her zeale neither rebellious nor uncivil!. Shee is so true a friend, her husband may to her communicate even his ambitions, and if successe crowne not expectation, remaine neverthelesse uncontemn'd. Shee i* colleague with him in the empire of prosperity ; and a safe retyring place, when adversity exiles him from the world. Shee is so chaste, she never understood the language lust speakes in ; nor with a smile appiaudes it, although there appeare wit in the metaphore. Shee is faire onely to winne on his affections, nor would she be mistress of the most eloquent beauty, if there were danger, that might persuade the passionate auditory, to the least irregular thought. Shee A WIFE. 17 L is noble by a long descent, but her memory is so evill a herald, shee never boasts the story of her ancestors. Shce is so moderately rich, that the defect of portion doth neither bring penury to his estate, nor the superfluity licence her to riot. Shee is liberall, yet owes not ruine to vanity ; but knowcs charity to be the soule of goodnesse, and vertue without reward often prone to bee her owne destroyer. Shee is much at home, and when she visits, 'tis for mutuall commerce, not for intelligence. Shee can goe to court, and returne no passionate doater on bravery ; and when she has seen the gay things muster up themselves there, she considers them as cobwebs the spider vanity hath spuune. Shee is so generall in her acquaintance, that shee is familiar with all whom fame speakes vertuous ; but thinkes there can bee no friendship but w ith one ; and therefore hath neither shee friend nor private servant. Shee so squares her passion to her husband's fortunes, that, in the country, she lives without a fro ward melancholly, in the towne without a fantastique pride. She is so temperate, she never read the moderne pollicie of glorious surfeits: since she finds nature is no epicure, if art provoke her not by curiositie. Shee is inquisitive only of new ways to please him, and her wit sayles by no other compasse than that of his direction. Shee lookes upon him as conjurors upon the circle, beyond which there is nothing but Death and Hell ; and in him she beleeves Paradicecircumscrib'd. His vertues are her wonder and imitation; and his errors her credulitie thinkes no more frailtie, than makes him descend to the title of man. In a word, shee so lives, 172 A WIFE. that shee may dye, and leave no cloude upon her memory, but have her character nobly mentioned : while the bad wife is flattered into infamy, and buyes pleasure at too deare a rate, if she onely payes for it repentance. part g>econti. TO CASTARA, NOW POSSEST OF HER IN MARRIAGE. lins day is ours. The marriage angell now Sees th' altar, in the odour of our tow, Yeeld a more precious breath, than that which moves The whispering leaves in the Panchayan groves. 45 45 Panchaian groves. This epithet is borrowed from classical usage. In Virgil's second Georgic we meet with Totaque turiferis Panchaia pinguis arenis. v. 139 Panchaia, rich with incense-bearing sands. 174 CASTARA. View how his temples shine, on which he weares A wreath of pearle, made of those precious teares And in his " Gnat," illi, Panchaia tura, Floribus agrestes herbse variantibus adsunt. — 87. The rural turf, enamell'd with its flowers, To him is incense from Panehaian bowers. Tibullus, in allusion to the Roman funeral customs, 're- quests his mistress to mingle with his ashes the drugs of Panchaia. Illic, quas mittit dives Panchaia merces, Eoique Arabes : &c. El. 2. b. 3. Panchaia's odours be their costly feast, With all the pride of Asia's fragrant year ; Give them the treasures of the farthest East, And what is still more precious, give thy tear. Hammond. Pinkerton observes, that " the peculiar boast of Arabia Felix, (of which Panchaia formed a part J is the Amyris opobalsamum ; from which is procured the Balm of Mecca \ the most fragrant and costly of all the gum resins." Geo- graph. v. 2. Arabia, chap. 1. I am tempted to remark that the above paraphrase of Tibullus is turned with a delicacy and neatness, that leave every rival imitator at a distance : yet Johnson's sullen in- sensibility to the plaintive sweetness, and elegant simplicity of Hammond, led him to quote this stanza as an instance of PART SECOND. 175 Thou wepst a virgin, when crossc winds did blow. Our hopes disturbing in their quiet flow. But now Castara, smile! no envious night Dares cnterpose itselfe, t'cclipse the light Of our cleare joyes. For even the laws divine Permit our mutuall love so to entwine, That kings, to ballance true content, shall say ; u Would they were great as we, we blest as they." pedantic writing. Hammond professed to write imitations of Tibullus; and it seems rather unreasonable to coinplain ; that he did only that which he professed to do. 176 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, UPON THE MUTUALL LOTE OF THEIR MAJESTIES, .Did you not see Castara, when the king Met his loy'd queene/ 6 what sweetnesse she did bring 46 Met his lov'd queene. This is an interesting passage, as it no doubt refers to a real incident. There was no need of poetical compliment ; for, however harsh and domineering as a sovereign, in his domestic circle Charles the First was amiable and respectable. " Though full of complaisance to the whole sex," observes Hume, " Charles reserved all his passion for his consort ; to whom he attached himself with unshaken fidelity and con- fidence."' The pictures of Henrietta Maria, b} r Vandyke, which are common, represent her as a woman of handsome ?ART SECOND. 177 T' incountcr his brave heat ; how great a flame, From their brests meeting, on the sudden came ? The Stoike, who all easie passion flies, Could he but heare the language of their eyes, As heresies would from his faith remove The tenets of his sect, and practice love. The barb'rous nations, which supply the Earth With a promiscuous and ignoble birth, Would by this precedent correct their life ; Each wisely choose, and chastely love a wife. Princes' example is a law : then we, If loyall subjects^ must true lovers be. features, with great delicacy of complexion and beauty of shape ; particularly in regard to her hands and arras; and with a keenness of physiognomy natural to a daughter of Henri quatre. J* 178 CASTARA. TO ZEPHIRUS. Whose whispers soft as those which lovers breathe, Castara and my selfe I here bequeath To the calme wind. For Heaven such joyes afford To her and me, that there can be no third : And you, kinde starres, be thriftier of your light ; Her eyes supply your office with more bright And constant lustre. Angels guardians, like The nimbler ship boyes, shall be joy'd to strike Or hoish up saile : nor shall our vessell move By card or compasse, but a heavenly love. The couresie of this most prosperous gale Shall swell our canvas, and wee'le swiftly saile TART SECOND. 179 To some blest port, where ship hath never lane At anchor, whose chaste soile no footprophane Hath ever trod ; where Nature doth dispence Her infant wealth, a beauteous innocence. Pompe, (even a burthen to it self) nor pride, (The magistrate of sinnes) did c're abide On that so sacred earth. Ambition ne're Built, for the sport of ruine, fabrickes there. Thence age and death are exil'd, all offence And fear expell'd, all noyse and faction thence. A silence there so melancholly sweet, That none but whispering turtles ever meet : Thus Paradise did our first parents wooe To harmlesse sweets, at first possest by two. And o're this second wee'le usurpe the throne ; Castara wee'le obey, and rule alone. For the rich vertue of this soyle, I feare, Would be deprav'd, should but a third be there. N 1 180 €ASTARA. " TO CASTARA IN A TRANCE. X orsake me not so soone. Castara stay, And as I breake the prison of my clay, I'le fill the canvas with m' expiring breath. And with thee saile o're the vast maine of Death. Some cherubin thus, as we passe, shall play : u Goe happy twins of love [*' the courteous sea Shall smooth her wrinkled brow ; the winds shall sleep. Or onely whisper musicke to the deepe. Every ungentle rocke shall melt away, The Syrens sing to please, not to betray. Th' indulgent skie shall smile : each starry quire Contend^ which shall afford the brighter fire. While Love, the pilot, steeres his course so even Ne're to cast anchor till we reach at Heaven, PART SECOND. 181 TO DEATH, CASTARA. BEING SICKE. Hence, prophane grim man! nor dare To approach so neere my faire. Marble vaults, and gloomy caves, Church-yards, charncll-houses, graves, Where the living loath to be, Heaven hath design'd to thee. But if needs 'mongst us thou'lt rage, Let thy fury feed on age. Wriuckled browes, and withered thighs., May supply thy sacrifice. Yet, perhaps, as thou flew'st by, A flamed dart, shot from her eye, 182 CASTARA, Sing'd thy wings with wanton fire, Whence th'art forc't to hover nigh her. If Love so mistooke his aime. Gently welcome in the flame : They who loath'd thee, when they see Where thou harbor'st, will love thee. Onely I, such is my fate, Must thee as a rivall hate ; Court her gently, learn to prove Nimble in the thefts of love. Gaze on th' errors of her haire : Touch her lip - but, oh ! beware, Lest too ravenous of thy bliss, Thou shouldst murder with akisse. 47 *? Thou shouldst murder with a kiss. Milton has precisely the same conceit applied to Winter, The whole of the stanza is so beautiful, that it merits quo- tation. O fairest flower ! no sooner blown but blasted; Soft silken primrose fading timelessly, Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst outlasted Bleak Winter's force, that made thy blossom dry ; For he, being am'rous on that lively dye, That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, But kill'd alas ! and then bewaiPd his fatal bliss. Ode on the death of a fair Infant. PART SECOND. 183 Shakspeare, in his Venus and uddonis, has a line which is thought by Newton to have suggested the idea to Milton : He thought to kiss him, and hath kill'd him so. The same occurs in a stanza of " The Purple Island," by Phincas Fletcher : — Thus Orpheus wanne his lost Eurydice; Whom some deaf snake, that could no music heare, Or some blinde neut, that could no beautie see, Thinking to kisse, kill'd with his forked spear. Cant. v. st. 61. This stanza involves a singular contradiction : for the " thinking to kiss" certainly implies that the snake could hear, and that the neut could see. 184 CASTARA, TO CASTARA, INVITING HER TO SLEEPE. oleepe, my Castara! silence doth invite Thy eyes to close up day ; though envious Night Grieves Fate should her the sight of them debarre ; For shee is exil'd, while they open are. Rest in thy peace secure. With drowsie charmes Kinde sleepe bewitcheth thee into her armes ; And finding where Love's chiefest treasure lies. Is like a theefe stole under thy bright eyes. Thy innocence rich as the gaudy quilt Wrought by the Persian hand, thy dreames from guilt Exempted, Heaven with sweete repose doth crowne Each vertue softer than the swan's fam'd downe. As exorcists wild spirits mildly lay, May sleepe thy fever calmly chase away. PART SECOND. 185 VPON CASTARA'S RECOVEUIE. >Siie is rcstor'd to life. Vnthrifty Death, Thy mercy in permitting vitall breath Backe to Castara, hath enlarg'd us all, Whom griefe had martyr'd in her funerall. While others Id the ocean of their teares Had, sinking, wounded the beholders' eares With exclamations : I, without a grone, Had suddenly congeal'd into a stone : There stood a statue, till the general doome Had ruin'd time and memory with her tombe ; While in my heart, which marble, yet still bled, Each lover might this epitaph have read : " Her earth lyes here below; her soul's above ; This wonder speakes her vertue, and my love." 186 CASTARA. TO A FRIEND, INTITING HIM TO A MEETING UPON PROMISE. .May you drinke beare 4S or that adult'rate wine Which makes the zeale of Amsterdam divine, If you make breach of promise. I have now So rich a sacke 5 that even yourselfe will bow T' adore my genius. Of this wine should Prynne Drinke but a plenteous glasse 5 he would beginne 4S May you drink beare. So Herrick, in his " Welcome to sack :" Call me " the son of beer*" PART SECOND. 187 A health to Shakespeare's ghost. 49 But you ma/ bring Some excuse forth, and answer me, the king * 9 A health to Shakspearc's ghost. This is an allusion to William Prynne's " IJistriomastix:" , for the publication of which the author was sentenced by the iniquitous court of star-chamber to pay a fine to the king of five thousand pounds; to be degraded from his profession of the law, and to lose his ears in the pillory. Whitlocke, commenting on the severity of this treatment, remarks that " the book was licensed by Archbishop Abbott's chaplain; but being again?t plays, and a reference in the table of the book to this effect, Women actors notorious ivhores, relating to some women actors mentioned in his book, as he affirm- eth ; it happened that, about six weeks after this, the queen acted a part in a pastoral at Somerset-house ; and then Archbishop Laud and other prelates, whom Pryane had an- gered by some books of his againstArminianism, and against the jurisdiction of bishops, these prelates and their instru- ments, the next day after the queene had acted her pastoral, showed Prynues book against plays to the king; and that place in it, " women actors notorious whores :" and they informed the kiDg and queen, that Prynse had written this book against the queen and her pastoral : whereas it was published six weeks before that pastoral was acted." Prynne wrote, also, a quarto volume against the unseem- liness of love-locks : a name given to one lock, which was 188 CASTARA. To day will giye you audience, or that on Affaires of state you and some serious don Are to resolve ; or else perhaps you'le sin So farre, as to leave word y' are not within. The least of these will make me onely thinke Him subtle, who can in his closet drinke, Drunke even alone, and, thus made wise, create As dangerous plots as the Low Countrey state ; Projecting for such baits, as shall draw ore To Holland all the Herrings from our shore. But y'are too full of candour : and I know Will sooner stones atSalis'bury casements throw, 50 suffered to grow to a greater length than the rest, and to fall over the cheek. Charles the first himself patronised the fashion of love-locks. " This voluminous rhapsodist, says Granger, gave his ■works, in forty volumes folio and quarto, to the society of Lincoln's Inn." 5<) Salisbury's casements. This must have been suggested b\ a circumstance men- tioned by Hume. " It was much remarked, that Sherfield, the recorder of Salisbury, was tried in (he court of the star- cbamber, for having broken, contrary to the Bishop of Salisbury's express injunctions, a painted window of St. PART SrCOND. ]f>0 Or buy up for the silenc'd Lcvits 51 all The rich impropriations, than let pall So pure Canary, and brcake such an oath : Since charity is sinn'd against in both. Conic, therefore, blest even in the Lollard's zcale, Who canst, with conscience safe, 52 'fore hen and veale Say grace in Latine; while I faintly sing A penitentiall verse in oyle and ling. Kdmond's church in that city. He boasted that he had des- trojed those monuments of idolatry; but for this effort of his zeal he was fined five hundred pounds. '* Charles I. ann. 1630. 51 Silenct Levites. The ministers who were silenced, and deprived of their livings, on a refusal to comply with the popish ceremoniei introduced by Laud into the church. ^2 Who canst with conscience safe. A satire on the reformists ; who rigidly objected to saying grace in Latin, as was the custom of the Roman Catholics. The LoJlards also rejected the use of the Romish Penitential. 190 CASTARA. Come, then, and bring with you, prepar'd fop fight, Vnniixt Canary; Heaven send both prove right! This I am sure : my sacke will disengage All humane thoughts, inspire so high a rage ; ThatHypocrene shall henceforth poets lacke, Since more enthusiasmes are in my sacke. Heightned with which, my raptures shall commend How good Castara is, how deare my friend. PART SECOND. 191 TO CASTARA, WHERE TRUE HAPPINESS ABIDES. Castara, whisper in some dead man's care This subtill quaere; and hee'le point out where, By answers negative, true joyes abide. Heele say they flow not on the uncertainc tide Of greatnesse, they can no firme basis have Vpon the tripidation of a wave. Nor lurke they in the caverns of the earth, Whence all the wealthy minerals draw their birth, To covetous man so fatall. Nor i' th' grace Love they to wanton of a brighter face, For th'are above time's battery, and the light Of beauty, age's cloud will soone be night. If among these content, he thus doth prove, Hath no abode ; where dwells it but in love ? 192 eASTARA. TO CASTARA. J orsake with me the Earth, my faire, , And travel nimbly through the aire, Till we have reacht th' admiring skies ; Then lend sight to those heavenly eyes Which, blind themselves, make creatures see: And taking view of all, when we Shall finde a pure and glorious spheare, Wee'le fix like starres for ever there. Nor will we still each other view, Wee'le gaze on lesser starres than you ; See how by their weake influence they The strongest of men's actions sway. In an inferior orbe below Wee'le see Calisto loosely throw 1>ART SECOND. 193 i— i r m ii n. .1. . i . i ., ■ j Ilcr hairc abroad : as she did weare The selfe-same beauty in a Beare, As when she a cold virgin stood, And yet inflam'd love's lustfull blood* Then looke on Lede, whose faire beames, By their reflection, guild those streamcs, Where first unhappy she began To play the wanton with a swan. If each of these loose beauties are Transform'd to a more beauteous starre, By the adulterous lust of love ; Why should" not we, by purer love ? M4 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, UPON THE DEATH OF A LADY. Castara, weepe not, tho' her tombe appeare Sometime thy griefe to answer with a teare : The marble will but wanton with thy woe. Death is the sea, and we like rivers flow To lose our selves in the insatiate maine, Whence rivers may, she ne're returne againe. ^Nor grieve this christall streame so soone did fall Into the ocean ; since shee perfum'd all The banks she past, so that each neighbour field Did sweete flowers, cherish, by her watring, yeeld. Which now adorne her hearse. The violet there On her pale chceke doth the sad livery weare, r/YRT SECOND. 195 Which Heaven's compassion gave her : and since she, 'Cause cloath'd in purple, can no mourner be, As incense to the tombe she gives hftr breath, And fading on her lady waits in death : Such office (he ./Egyptian handmaids did Great Cleopatra, when she dying chid The asp's slow venom, trembling she should be By Fate rob'd even of that blacke victory. The flowers instruct our sorrowcs. Come, then, all Ye beauties, to true beautie's funerall, And with her to increase death's pompe, decay. Since the supporting fabricke of your clay Is falne, how can ye stand ? How can the night Show stars, when Fate puts out the daye's great light? But 'mong the faire, if there live any yd, She's but the fairer Digbie's counterfeit. Come you, who speake your titles. Reade in this Pale booke, how vaine a boast your greatnesse is : What's honour but a hatchment ? What is here 0f Percy left, and Stanly, 53 names most deare 53 Stanly. Venetia Anastatia Stanley ; daughter of Sir Edward Stan- 196 CASTARA. To yertue ! but a crescent tum'd to th' wane, 54 An eagle groaning o're an infant slain ? ley, of Tongue Castle, in Shropshire ; by Lady Lucy Percy, one of the five daughters and co-heirs of Thoma?, seventh Earl of Northumberland. She married Sir Kenelm Digby, the celebrated philosopher, and inventor of the sympathetic powder. At Gothurst, in Buckinghamshire, the seat of the Digby family, is a picture of Lady Venetia, described by Pennant, in his " Journey from Chester to London ;" as " in a Roman habit with curled locks. In one hand a serpent ; the other is on a pair of white doves. She is painted at Windsor in the same emblematic manner ; but in a different dress, and with accompaniments explanatory of the emblems. The doves show her iunocency. The serpent, which she handles with impunity, shows her triumph over the envenomed tongues of the times. We know not the particulars of the story. Lord Clarendon must allude to her exculpation of the charge, whatever it was, when he mentions her as "a lady of extraordinary beauty, and of as extraordinary fame." " Sir Kenelm was so enamoured of her beauty, that he was said to have attempted to exalt her charms, and pre- serve her health, by a variety of whimsical experiments. Among others, that of feeding her with capons fed with the flesh of vipers: and that to improve her complexion, he was perpetually inventing new cosmetics. Probably she tart sr.coxn. 197 Or what availes her, that she once was led, A glorious bride, to valiant Digbie's bed, Since dealh hath them divorc'd ? If then alive There arc, who these sad obsequies survive, And vaunt a proud descent, they onely be Loud heralds to set forth her pedigree* Come all, who glory in your wealth, and view The embleme of your frailty ! How untrue (Tho' flattering like friends) your treasures are Her fate hath taught: who, when what ever rare The either Indies boast, lay richly spread For her to weare, lay on her pillow dead. Come likewise, my Castara, and behold What blessings ancient prophesie foretold, fell a victim to these arts; for she was found dead in bed, May 1st, 1633, in the 33d year of her age." Pennant has given an engraving, from a bust of this lady ; in the dress of the times. It is inscribed Uxorem amare vivam, voluptas ^ -defunctam, religio. A wife, when living, is loved from the sentiment of plea- sure ; when dead, from that of piety. 5* A crescent turnd to tlC wane. The crescent was the badge of the Earls of Northum- berland : the crest of Stanley, Earl of Derby, is an eagle with wings expanded, preying upon an infant in its cradle. 198 CASTAKA, Bestow'd on her in death. She past away So sweetly from the world, as if her clay iLaid onely down to slumber. Then forbeare To let on her blest ashes fall a teare. But if th' art too much woman, softly weepe, Leste griefe disturbe the silence of her sleepe. PART SECOND. 199 TO CASTARA, BEING TO TAKE A JOURNEY. VV hat's death more than departure ? The dead go Like travelling exiles, compelPd to know Those regions they heard mention of: 'tis th' art Of sorrowes sayes, who dye doe but depart. Then weepe thy funerall teares ; Which Heaven, t' adorne The beauteous tresses of the weeping mornc, Will rob me of: and thus my tombe shall be As naked, as it had no obsequie. Know in these lines, sad musicke to thy care, My sad Castara, you the sermon heare Which I preach o're my hearse; and dead I tell My owne life's story, ring but my ownc knell. But when I shall returne, know 'tis thy breath. In sighs divided, rescues me from death. 200 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, WEEPING. Castara ! O you are to prodigal! O' th' treasure of your teares; which, thus let fall, Make no returne : well plac'd, calme peace might bring To the loud wars ; each free a captiv'd king. So the unskilfull Indian those bright jems, Which might adde majestie to diadems, 5 Mong the waves scatters, as if he would store The thanklesse sea, to make our empire poore : Wheu Heaven darts thunder at the wombe of time. Cause with each moment it brings forth a crime, Or else despairing to root out abuse, Would ruine vitious Earth ; be then profuse. Light chas'd rude chaos from the world before, Thy teares, by hindring its returne, worke more. part second; 201 TO CASTARA, UPON A SIGH. I heard a sigh, and something in my eare Did whisper what my soule before did feare, That it was breath'd by thee. May th' easie Spring, Enricht with odours., wanton on the wing Of th' eastcrne wind ; may ne're his beauty fade, If he the treasure of this breath convey'd : 'Twas thine by th' musicke, which th' harmonious breath Of swans is like, propheticke in their death : And th' odour ; for as it the nard expires, Perfuming, phenix-like, his funerall fires. The winds of Paradice send such a gale, To make the lover's vessels calmely saile To his lov'd port. This shall, where it inspires, Increase the chaste, extinguish unchaste fires. 202 CASTARA. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LADY F. MADAM, JL ou saw our loves, and prais'd the mutuall flame : In which as incense to your sacred name Burnes a religious zeale. May we be lost To one another, and our fire be frost, When we omit to pay the tribute due To worth and virtue, and in ihein to you : Who are the soule of women. Others be But beauteous parts o'th' female body : she Who boasts how many nimble Cupids skip Through her bright face, is but an eye or lip ; The other, who in her soft brests can show Warme violets growing in a bank of snow, PART SECOND. 203 And vaunts the lovely wonder, is but skin : Nor is she but a hand, who holds within The ehrystall violl of her wealthy palme, The precious sweating of the eastern e balme. And all these, if you them together take, And joyne with heart, w ill but one body make, To which the soul each vitall motion gives ; You are infus'd into it, and it lives. But should you up to your blest mansion flie, How loath'd an object would the carkasse lie? You are all mind. Castara, when she lookes On you, th' epitome of all, that bookcs Or e're tradition taught ; who gives such praise V r nto your sex, that now even custome sayes He hath a female soule, who ere hath writ Volumes which learning comprehend, and wit. Castara cries to me : " Search out and find The mines of wisdom in her learned mind, And trace her steps to honour: I aspire Enough to worth, while I her worth admire." 204 CAST All A. TO CASTARA, AGAINST OPINIOX. VV hy should we build, Castara, in the aire Of fraile Opinion ? Why admire as faire, What the weake faith of man give us for right ? The juggling world cheats but the weaker sight. What is in greatnesse happy ? As free mirth. As ample pleasures of th' indulgent Earth, We joy who on the ground our mansion finde, As they, who saile, like witches, in the wind Of court applause. What can their powerful spell Over inchan ted man more than compel Him into various formes? Nor serves their charme Themselves to good, but to worke others harme. Tyrant Opinion but depose ; and we Will absolute i' th' happiest empire be. part second; 206 TO CASTARA, VTON BEAUTIE. Castara, sec that dust, the sportive wind So wantons with. 'Tis happ'ly all you'le finde Left of some beauty : and how still it flies, To trouble, as it did in life, our eyes, O empty boast of flesh ! though our heires gild The farre fetch' t Phrigian marble, which shall build A burthen to our ashes, yet will death Betray them to the sport of every breath. Dost thou, poore relique of our frailty, still Swell up with glory r Or is it thy skill To mocke weake mau, whom every wind of praise Into the aire, doth 'bove his center raise ? If so, mocke on ; and tell him that his lust To beautie's madnesse ; for it courts but dust. 206 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, MELANCHOLLY. Were but that sigh a penitential breath That thou art mine, it would blow with it dcathy T' inclose me in my marble, where X'de be Slave to the tyrant wormes, to set thee free. What should we envy ? Though with larger saile Some dance upon the ocean; yet more fraile And faithlesse is that wave, than where we glide Blest in the safety of a private tide. We still have land in ken ; and 'cause our boat Dares not affront the weather, wee'le ne're float Farre from the shore. To daring- them each cloud Is big with thunder ; cwery wind speaks loud ; And rough wild rockes about the shore appeared Yet virtue will find roome to anchor there. PART SECOND. 207 A DIALOGUE, BETWEENE ARArilILL AND CASTARA. ARAPIIILL. Castara, you too fondly court The silken peace with which wc coYcr'd are : Unquiet Time may, for his sport, Up from its iron den rouse sleepy Warre. CASTARA. Then, in the language of the drum, I will instruct my yet affrighted eare : All women shall in me be dumbe, If I but with my Araphill be there. 208 CASTARA, ARAPHILL. If Fate, like an unfaithful gale, Which haying vow'd to th' ship a faire eyent, O' th' sudden rends her hopefull saile, Blow ruine ; will Castara then repent ? CASTARA. Lore shall in that tempestuous showre Her brightest blossome like the black-thorne show : Weake friendship prospers by the powre Of Fortune's sunne : I'le in her winter grow. ARAPHILL. If on my skin the noysorae skar I should o' th' leprosie or canker weare ; Or, if the sulph'rous breath of warre Should blast my youth : should I not be thy feare ? CASTARA. In flesh may sicknesse horror more, But heavenly zeale will be by it refin'd ; For then wee'd like to angels love, Without a sense; embrace each other's mind. PART9EC0ND. 209 ARAPHILL. Were it not impious to repine, 'Gainst rigid Fate I should direct my breath : That two must be, whom Heaven did joyne In such a happy one, disjoin'd by death. CASTARA. That's no divource. Then shall we see The rites in life were types o' th' marriage state : Our souls on Earth contracted be: But they in Heaven their nuptials consumate. 2l0 CASTARA, TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD M. 5 * JM y thoughts are not so rugged, nor doth earth So farre predominate in me, that mirth *& Lord Morley, Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Stanley, son of Sir Edward Stanley, Lord Monieagle, by his first wife Mary, daughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, married Edward Parker, Lord Morley ; whose son William by her was Lord Morley and Monteagle. Alianore, daughter and coheir of Robert Lord Morley, (son of Thomas Lord Morley, by his wife Isabel, daughter and co-heir of Michael de la Pole, duke of Suffolk) brought to William Lord Lovel her husband, the baronies of Morley, Marshall, Hengham, and Rhie. Collinses Peerage, Vol. 7. The epithet happy Brandon, relates to Sir Charles Bian* part sf.coxd: 211 Lookes not as lovely as when our delight First fashion'd wings to addo a nimbler flight To lazie Time : who would, to have survai'd Our varied pleasvres, there have ever staid. And they were harmlesse. For obedience, If frailty yeelds to the wild lavves of sense, We shall but with a sugred venomc meete : No pleasure, if not innocent as sweet. And that's your choyce : who adde the title good To that of noble. For although the blood Of Marshall, Standley, and La Pole doth flow, With happy Brandon's, in your veins ; you owe Your vertue not to them. Man builds alone O' th' ground of honour: for desert's our owne. Be that your ayme. PJe with Castara sit I' th' shade, from heat of businesse. While my wit don, the favourite of Henry 8tji ; who was created Duke of Suffolk for his services at the battle of Flodden. u He " was," says Hume, " the most comely personage of his " time, and the most accomplished in all the exercises, " which were then thought to befit a courtier and a " soldier." . 212 CASTARA, Is neither big with an ambitious ayme To build tall pyramids i' th' court of Fame, For after ages, or to win conceit O' th' present, and grow in opinion great. Rich in ourselves, we envy not tha East Her rockes of diamonds, 66 or her gold the West. Arabia may be happy in the death Of her reviving phenix : in the breath Of cool Favonius, famous be the grove Of Tempe : while we in each other's love. For that let us be fam'd. And when, of all That Nature made us two, the funerall Leaves but a little dust, (which then as wed, Even after death, shall sleepe still in one bed :) 56 Jjer rockes of diamonds* In Peacham's " Period of Mourning," 1613, Vis. \\. we meet with christall lights, that show Against the sunne, like rockes of diamond. G. Fletcher, Christ. 's Vict. st. 61. has " main rockes of M diamond." And the Spirit in Comus thus adjures Sabrina : By fair Ligea's golden comb, Wherewith she sits on diamond rockes, Sleeking her smooth alluring locks. TART SFXOND. 213 The bride and bridegroomc, on the solemne day, Shall with warmc zeale approach our urnc, to pay Their rowes, that Heaven should blisse so far their rites, To show them the fairc paths to our delights. 214 CASTARA. TO A TOMBE. Jlyrant O' re tyrants, thou who onely dost Clip the lascivious beauty without lust : What horrour at thy sight shootes thro' each sence ! How powerfull is thy silent eloquence, Which never flatters ! Thou instruct'st the proud. That their swolne porape is but an empty cloud, Slave to each wind ; the faire, those flowers, they have Fresh in their cheeke, are strewd upon a grave : Thou tell'st the rich, their idoll is but earth : The vainely pleas'd, that syren-like their mirth Betrays to mischiefe, and that onely he Dares welcome death, whose aimes at virtue be. Which yet more zeale doth to Castara move ; What checks me, when the torabe perswades to love ? PA11T SECOND. 216 TO CASTARA, UPON THOUGHT OF AGE AND DEATH, The breath of Time shall blast the ilow'ry spring, Which so perfumes thy cheekc, and with it bring So darke a mist, as shall eclipse the light Of thy faire eyes in an eternal night. Some melancholy chamber of the earth, (For that like Time devours whom it gave birth) Thy beauties shall entombe,, whrle all who ere Loi'd nobly, oner up their sorrowes there. But I, whose griefe no formal limits bound, Beholding the darke caverne of that ground, Will there immure my selfe. And thus I shall Thy mourner be, and my owne funerall. Else by the weeping magicke of my verse. Thou hadst reviv'd to triumph o're thy hearse. 216 GASTARA. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORD P.* My Lord, 1 he reverend man, by magicke of his prayer. Hath charm'd so, that I and your daughter are Contracted into one. The holy lights SmiPd with a cheerful lustre on our rites, And every thing presag'd full happinesse To mutual love, if you'le the omen blesse. Nor grieve, my lord, 'tis perfected. Before Afflicted seas sought refuge on the shore From the angry north wind ; ere the astonisbt spring Heard in the ayre the feather'd people siug ^ . . . ■ * William Lord Porcis, PART SECOND. 217 Ere time had motion, or the Sunne obtainM His province o're the day, this was ordaiu'd. Nor think in her I courted wealth or blood, Or more uncertain hopes : for had I stood On th' highest grouud of Fortune, the world knownc No grcatnesse but what waited on my throne ; And she had onely had that face and mind, I, with my selfe, had th' Earth to her resign'd. In vertuc there's an empire : And so swecte The rule is when it doth with beauty meete, As fellow consul, that of Heaven they Nor Earth partake, who would her disobey. This captiv'd me. And ere I question'd why I ought to love Castara, through my eye This soft obedience stole into my heart. Then found I Love might lend to th' quick-ey'd art Of reason yet a purer sight : for he, Tho' blind, taught her these Indies first to see> In whose possession I at length am blest ; And with my selfe at quiet, here I rest, As all things to my powre subdu'd. To me There's nought beyond this. The whole world is she. 218 CASTARA. HIS MUSE SPEAKS TO HIM. Ihy vowes are heard, and thy Castara's name 7s writ as faire i' th' register of Fame, As th' ancient beauties which translated are By poets up to Heaven : each there a starre. And though imperiall Tiber boast alone Ovid's Corinna, and to Arne is knowne But Petrarch's Laura; while our famous Thames Doth murmur Sydney's Stella to her streames ; Yet hast thou Severne left, and she can bring As many quires of swans as they to sing Thy glorious love : which, living, shall, by ihce The only sovereign of those waters be : Dead, in love's firmament no starre shall shine So nobly faire, so purely chaste as thine. PART SECOND. 219 TO VAIN HOPE. liiou dream of madmen, ever changing gale, Swell with thy wanton breath the gaudy saile Of glorious fooles ! Thou guid'st them who thee court To rocks, to quick-sands, or some faithlesse port* Were I not mad, who, when secure at ease, I might i' th' cabbin passe the raging seas, Would like a franticke ship-boy wildly haste To climbe the giddy top of th' unsafe mast ? Ambition never to her hopes did faine A greatnesse, but I really obtaine In my Castara. Wer't not fondnesse then T' imbrace the shadowes of true blisse ? And wh«a My Paradise all flowers and fruits doth breed, To rob a barren garden for a weed ? 220 CASTARA. TO CASTARA, HOW HAPPY, THOUGH IN AN OBSCURE FORTUNE. Were we by Fate throwne downe below our feare, Could we be poore ? Or question Nature's care In our provision ? She who doth afford A feathered garment fit for every bird, 57 M A feather 'd garment fit for every bird.. This is obviously a paraphrase of the beautiful passage in St. Matthew, ch. vi. Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: jet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are not ye much better than they ? And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lillies of the field ; how they grow: they toil not neither do PART SECOND. 221 And only voyce enough V expressc delight : She who apparels lillies in their white, As if in that she'dc teach man's duller sence, Wh' are highest should be so in innocence : She who in damask doth attire the rose, (And man V himsclfc a mockery to propose, 'Mong whom the humblest iudges grow to sit) She who in purple cloathes the violet : If thus she cares for things even voyd of sencc 5 Shall we suspect in us her providence ? they spin : And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith ? - 222 CAST Alt A. TO CASTARA. \v hat can the freedome of our love enthral I Castara, were we dispossest of all The gifts of Fortune : richer yet than she Can make her slaves, wee'd in each other be. Lore in himself's a world* If we should hare A mansion but in some forsaken cave, Wee'd smooth misfortune, and ourselves think then Retir'd like princes from the noise of men, To breathe a while unflatter'd. Each wild beast That should the silence of our cell infest. With clamour, seeking prey, wee'd fancie were Nought but an avaritious courtier. "Wealth's but opinion. Who thinks others more Of treasures have, than we, is only paore. PART SECOND. 223 ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE EARL OF S* .Bright saint, thy pardon, if my sadder verse Appeare, in sighing o're thy glorious hearse, To en vie Heaven; For fame itselfc now wcarcs Griefe's livery, and onely speaks in teares. And pardon you, Castara, if a while Your memory I banish from my stile : When I have paid his death the tribute due Of sorrow, Pie returne to love and you, * 8 George Earl of S. George Talbot, 9th Earl of Shrewsbury. See the note in the First Part, on the Poem " To the Kight Honourable the Earl of Shrewes." 224 CASTARA. Is there a name like Talbot, which a showre Can force from every eye? And hath even powre To alter nature's course ? How else should all Runne wilde with mourning, and distracted fall ? Th' illiterate vulgar, in a well-tun'd breath, Lament their losse, and learnedly chide death For its bold rape, while the sad poet's song Is yet unheard, as if griefe had no tongue. Th' amaz'd mariner having lost his way In the tempestuous desart of the sea, Lookes up, but finds no starres* They all con. spire To darke themselves, V enlighten this new fire. The learn'd astronomer, with daring eye, Searching to tracke the spheares through which you flie, (Most beauteous soule) doth in his journey fatfe, And blushing says, " The subtlest art is fraile, And but truth's counterfeit." Your flight dolh teach, Fair vertue hath an orbe beyond his reach. But I grow dull with sorrow. Unkinde Fate, To play the tyrant, and subvert the state PART SECOND. 225 Of sctled gooclncssc ! AVho shall henceforth stand A pure example, to en forme the land Of her loose riot ? Who shall counterchecke The wanton pride of greatnessc, and direct / Strayed honour in the true magnificke way ? Whose life shall shew what triumph 'tis t' obey The hard commands of reason ? And how sweet The nuptials are, when wealth and learning meet ? Who will with silent piety confute Atheisticke sophistry, and by the fruite Approve religion's tree ? Who'll teach his blood A virgin law, and dare be great and good ? Who will despise his stiles ? and nobly weigh In judgment's ballance, that his honor'd clay Hath no advantage by them ? Who will live] So innocently pious, as to give The world no scandall ? Who'll himself deny, And to warme passion a colde martyr die ? My griefe distracts me. If my zeal hath said What checks the living, know I serve the dead. The dead, who needs no monumental vaults, With his pale ashes to en torn be his faulis ; W r hose sins beget no libels, whom the poore For benefit, for worth the rich adore : Q 226 CASTARA. Who liv'd a solitary phoenix, free From the commerce with mischief e ; joy'd to be Still gazing heaven-ward, where his thoughts did move Fed with the sacred fire of zealons love. Alone he flourisht, till the fatal houre Did summon him ; when gathering from each flow re Their vertuous odours, from his perfum'd nest He took his flight to everlasting rest. There shine, great lord, and with propitious eyes Looke downe, and smile upon this sacrifice. part sf.covd. 227 MY WORTHY COUSIN, MR. E. C. IN FRAISE OF THE CITY LIFE, IN THE LONG VACATION. 1 like the green plush which your meadows weare: I praise your pregnant fields, which duly beare Their wealthy burden to th' industrious Bore : Nor do I disallow, that who are poore In minde and fortune, thither should retire: But hate that he, who's warme with holy fire Of any knowledge, and 'mong us may feast On neetar'd wit, should turne himselfe V a beast, And graze i' th' country. Why did nature wrong So much her paines, as to give you a tongue And fluent language, if converse you hold With oxen in the stall, and sheepe i'th' fold ? 228 CASTARA. But now it's long vacation, you will say The towne is empty, and who ever may To th' pleasure of his country-home repaire, Flies from th' infection of our London aire. In this your errour. Now's the time alone To live here, when the city dame is gone T' her house at Brandford; for beyond that she Imagines there's no land but Barbary, Where lies her husband's factor : When from hence Rid is the country justice, whose non-sence Corrupted had the language of the inne, Where he and his horse litter'd : we beginne To live in silence, when the noise o'th' bench 1 Nor deafens Westminster, nor corrupt French W'alkes Fleet-street in her gowne. Ruffes of the barre, 58 By the vacation's powre, translated are 59 Ruffes of the bar. The ruff, which of all fantastic modes maintained its possession the longest, was worn, for some time, after the accession of Charles, (the first); but had almost universally given place to the falling band, when Vandyke was in England. — Granger. Evelyn, in his " Numismata," observes, that the bishops and the judges were the last who laid the ruff aside. PART SIX ONI). 229 To cut-worke bands ; and who were busie here, Arc gone to sow sedition in the shire. The aire by this is purg'd, and (he tcrme's strife Thus fled the city : we the civill life Lead happily. When, in the gentle way Of noble mirth, I have the long liv'd day Contracted to a moment, I retire To my Castara, and meet such a fire Of mutual love, that if the city were lnfected ; that would pu rifle the ayre. 230 CASTARA. LOVE'S AxNiNIVERSARIE. TO THE SUNNE. Ikou art return'd (great light) to that blest houre In which I first by marriage, sacred power, loyn'd with Castara hearts : and as the same Thy lustre is, as then, so is our flame; Which had increast, but that by Lore's decree, 'Twas such at first, it ne're could greater be. But tell me, (glorious lampe) in thy surrey Of things below thee, what did not decay By age to weaknesse ? I since that hare scene The rose bud forth and fade, the tree grow greene And wither, and the beauty of the field With winter wrinkled. Eren thy selfe dost yeeld Something to time, and to thy grare fall nigher ; But virtuous love is one sweet endless fire. *»AItT SECOND. 231 AGAINST THEM WHO LAY UNCIIASTITY TO THE SEX OF WOMEN. I hey meet but with unwholesome springs, And summers which infectious are : They heare but when the meremaid sings. And only see the falling starre : AVho ever dare Affirme no woman chaste and faire* Goo, cure your fearers ; and you'le say The Dog-dayes scorch not all the ycare : In copper mines no longer stay, But travel to the west, and there The right ones see, And grant all gold's not a1chimie> 232 CASTARA. What madman, 'cause the glow-worme's flame Is cold, sweares there's no warmth in fire ? 'Cause some make forfeit of their name. And slave themselves to man's desire ; Shall the sex, free From guilt, damn'd to the bondage be I Nor grieve, Castara, though 'twere frailc ; Thy vertue then would brighter shine^ When thy example should prevail, And every woman's faith be thine : And were there none, *Tis majesty to rule alone. TART SECOND. RIGHT HONOURABLE AND EXCELLENTLY LEARNED WILLIAM EARL OF ST."> My Lord, J he laurell doth your reverend temples wreath As aptly now, as when your youth did breath go William Earl of St. William Alexander, Earl of Sterling. Avery eminent poet and statesman in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. His poetry, which, for purity and elegance, is far beyond the generality of the productions of the age in which he lived, recommended him to James, who gave him the grant of Nova Scotia ; where he had projected a plan of making a settlement. He seems to have been no less a favourite with Charles. His works consist chiefiy of sonnets, and of four tragedies in alternate rhyme. GnAyor.7. 234 CASTARA. Those tragicke raptures, which your name shall save From the black edict of a tyrant grave. Nor shall your day ere set, till the Sunne shall From the blind Heavens like a cinder fall ; And all the elements intend their strife, To ruine what they fram'd : then your fame's life. When desp'rate Time lies gasping, shall expire, Attended by the world i' th' general fire, Fame lengthens thus her selfe : and I, to tread Your steps to glory, search among the dead, Where Vertue lies obscur'd, that as I give Life to her tombe, I, spight of time, may lire. Now I resolve, in triumph of my verse. To bring great Talbot from that forren hearse, 61 Which yet doth to her fright his dust enclose : Then to sing Herbert, who so glorious rose, 62 61 that forren hearse, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, the scourge and terror of France, was killed when above eighty \ears of age, in the battle of Bourdeaux, and buried at Rouen in Is'orrnaudy. 62 TVhn so glorious rose. William Herbert, Larl of Pembroke, was a firm ad-* PAHT SECOND. 235 With the fourth Edward, that his faith doth shine Yet in the faith of noblest Pembroke's line. Sometimes my swelling spirits I prepare To speak the mighty Percy, neerest heire, In merits as in blood, to Charles the great : Then Darbie's worth and greatnesse to repeat. Or Morley's honour, or Ttlonteagle's fame, AVhosc valour lives eternized in his name. herent to the house of York ; and in reward of his fidelity and valour, Edward IV. immediately on ascending the throne, called him to his council. 65 Neerest heire % in merits as in blood. See the note in the first part, on the poem to the Ladv E. P. fi * h'i'erniz'd in his name. In 5. Henry Sth. Sir Edward Stanley, knight, a younger son to Thomas, fi.-sl: Earl of Derby, commanding the rear of the P^nglish army, at Flodden-FieM ; in the very heat of that memorable battle, forced t!;e Scots, by the power of his archers, (finding themselves much galled by their arrows) to descend the hill ; which, occasioning them to open their ranks, gave the first iu>pei of that dav's victory. King Henry, in consideration of those his valiant acts, done in that battle, when he won the lull, and vanquished all 236 CASTARA. But while I think to sing these of my blood, And my Castara's, Love's unruly flood Breakes in, and beares away whatever stands Built by my busie fancy on the sands. that opposed ; as also for that his ancestors bore the eagle in their crest, commanded he should be proclaimed Lord of Mount-eagle. — Dugdale's Baronage. 254. 2. PART BVCOND. 237 TO CASTARA, LPON AN EMBRACE. Jjolt the husband oke the vine Thus wreathes to kisse his leavy face ; Their streames thus rivers joyne. And lose themselves in the embrace : But trees want sence when they infold, And waters, when they meet, are cold. Thus turtles bill 5 and grone Their loves into each other's care : Two flames thus burn in one, When their cuil'd heads to Heaven they rearc But birds want soul, though not desire, And flames materiall soone expire. 238 CASTARA. If not prophane, we'll say, When angels close, their joyes are such ; For we no love obey That's bastard to a fleshly touch : Let's close, Castara, then, since thus We pattern angels, and they us. PAUT SECOND. TO TUE HONOUR ABLE (i. TJ* -Let not thy groaes force Eccho from her cave, Or interrupt her weeping o're that wave, Which last Narcissus kist: let no darke grove Be taught to whisper stories of thy love. What tho' the wind be turn'd ? Canst thou not saile By virtue of a cleane contrary gale, 65 The honourable G. T. George Talbot ; JIabington's friend and kinsman. He was one of the three younger sons of John Talbot, of Long- ford : father of John, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury, by Eleanor his wife ; the daughter of Sir Thomas Baskerville, by Elea- nor, daughter and coheir of Richard Habington ; the elder brother of John : who was the founder of Jlendlip, and grandfather of tie poet. 240 CASTARA, Into some other port ? Where thou wilt find It was thy better genius chang'd the wind. To steere thee to some island in the West, For wealth and pleasure that transcends thy East. Though Astrodora, like a sullen starre, Eclipse her selfe ; i' th' sky of beauty are Ten thousand other fires, some bright as she, And who, with milder beames, may shine on thee. Nor yet doth this eclipse beare a portent. That should affright the world, The firmament Enjoys the light it did. a Sunne as cleare, And the young Spring doth like a bride appeare. As fairly wed to the Thessalian grove As e're it was, though she and you not love. And we too, who, like two bright stars, have shin'd I' th' heaven of friendship, are as firmly joyn'd As blood and love first fram'd us ; and to be Lov'd, and thought worthy to be Jov'd, by thee, >Tis to be glorious:; since fame cannot lend An honour, equals that of Talbot's friend. Nor envie me, that my Castara's liame Yeelds me a constant warmth, though first I came TART SECOND. 24l To marriage' happy islands : Seas to thee Will yecld as smooth a way, and winds as free. Which shall conduct thee (if hope may divine) To this delicious port, and make love thine. 242 CASTARA. TO CASTARA. THE REWARD OF INNOCENT LOVE. VV e saw and woo'd each other's eyes. My soule contracted then with thine ; And both burnt in one sacrifice, By which our marriage grew divine. Let wilder youth, whose soule is sense, Prophane the temple of delight, And purchase endlesse penitence, With the stolne pleasure of one night. Time's ever ours, while we despise The sensuall idol of our clay; For though the Sunne doth set and rise, We joy one everlasting day, PART SECOND. 243 Whose light no jealous clouds obscure, While each of us shine innocent : The troubled stream is still impure, With vertuc (lies away content. And though opinion often crre, Wee'le court the modest smile of fame ; For sinne's blacke danger circles her. Who hath infection in her namj. Thus when to one darke silent roome, Death shall our loving coffins thrust: Fame will build columnes on our tombe, And adde a perfume to our dust. 244 CAST A tl A. TO MY NOBLEST FRIEND SIR I. P, KNIGHT, Sir, 1 hough my deare Talbot's fate exact a sad And heavy brow, my verse shall not be clad For him this houre in mourning : I will write To you the glory of a pompous night, Which none, (except sobriety) who wit Or cloathes could boast, but freely did admit I (who still sinne for company) was there, And tasted of the glorious supper, where Meate was the least of wonder ; though the nest O' th' Phoenix rifled seercfd V amaze the feast, And th' ocean left so poore, that it alone Could since vaunt wretched herring and poore John. TART SECOND. 215 Lticullus' surfets were but types of this, And whatsoever riot mentioned is In story, did but the dull zany play To this proud night, which rather wcel'e term day; For th' artificial lights so thicke were set, That the bright Sun seeoi'd (his to counterfeit. But seven (whom whether we should sages call Or deadly sinnes, Pie not dispute) were all Invited to this pompe. And yet I dare Pawne my lov'd Muse, th' Hungarian did prepare Hot halfe that quantity of victual!, when He Iayd his happy siege to Nortiinghen. 05 The mist of the perfumes was brcath'd so thicke, That linx himself, though his sight fam'd so quicke, Had there scarce spyed one sober : for the wealth Of the Canaries was exhaust, the health G 6 He laid his happy siege to JS'orllivghen. The battle of Nordlingen, a city of Bavaria, on the Eger, took place in 1634: when the Swedes, under Duke Bernard, and Gustavus Horn, attempting to relieve Nord- lingen, were defeated by the Imperialists, commanded by the young king of Hungary. See Universal History , Vol. 30. p, 129. 8vo. ed. 246 CASTARA. Of his good majesty to celebrate, Who'le judge them loyall subjects without (hat : Yet they who, some fond priviledgc to maintaine, Would have rebeld, their best freehold, their braine Surrender'd there : and live fifteens did pay To drink his happy life and raigne. O day ! It was thy piety to five ; th' hadst beene Found accessory else to this fond sinne. But I forget to speake each stratagem By which the dishes enter'd, and in them Each luscious miracle ; as if more bookes Had written beene o' th' mystery of cookes, Than the philos'pher's stone. Here we did see All wonders in the kitchen alchimy. But He not leave you there ; before you part You shall have something of another art. A banquet raining down so fast, the good Old partriarch w r ould have thought a general! flood. Heaven open'd, and from thence a mighty showre Of amber comfits its sweete selfe did powro Vpon our heads, and suckets from our eye Like thickend clouds did steale away the sky, >AIIT SECOND. 247 That it was questional whether Heaven were Black. fryers, and each starre a confectioner. But I too long dctaine you at a feast You hap'Iy surfet of; now every guest Is reeld downe to his coach ; I licence crave Sir, but to kissc your hands, and take my leave. 248 CASTARA. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ARCHIBALD EARLE OF AR/~ If your example be obey'd, The serious few will live i' th' silent shade : & Earl of Ar. Archibald, Sth Earl of Arg}le, A man of great learn- ing, singular judgment, and other endowments, which re- commended him so much to the favour of king Charles I. that he constituted him one of the lords of his privy council. During the civil wars in that reign, he joined with the par- liament of Scotland, and shewed himself a zealous assertor of the Presbyterian chHrch-government : and after the death of the king, he contributed much to the dutiful re- ception of king Charles II. into Scotland, anno, 1G50 ; and at the solemnity of his coronation, Jan. 1, 1651, put the crown on his head : but on the restoration, in 1660, he was accused of high-treason, for corresponding and complying with Oliver Cromwell, (the too common fault of the times) PARI SECOND. 2 19 And not indangcr by the wind Or sunshine, the complexion of their mind ; Whose beauty weares so cleare a skin, That it decay es with the least taint of sin. Vice growes by custome, nor dare we Reject it as a slave, where it breathes free, And is no priviledgc deny'd ; Nor if advane'd to higher place envyed. Wherefore your lordship in your selfe (Not lancht farre in the maine, nor nigh the shelfe Of humbler fortune) lives at case, Safe from the rocks o' th' shore, and stormes o' th' seas.f and being found guilty by the parliament, was beheaded at Edinburgh, May 27, 1661. Immediately before his exe- cution, he solemnly declared, that " from his birth to that 44 moment, he was free of any accession to the death of 44 king Charles." Collin s Peerage, vii. 646. This account is, however, controverted by the Rev. William Cole, of Cambridge; " The accounts I have re- 41 ceived of this nobleman generally agree in making him 44 the most violent opposer of king Charles the second, and 44 the greatest friend to Cromwell in the three kingdoms." Malcolm's Letters to and from Mr. Granger. i Hor. Od. 10. 13. 2. ^50 CASTARA. Your soule's a well built city, where There's such munition, that no war breeds feare : No rebels wilde destractions move ; For you the heads have crusht ; Rage, Envy, Love. And therefore you defiance bid To open enmity, or mischiefe hid In fawning hate and supple pride, Who are on every corner for ti fide. Your youth, not rudely led by rage Of blood, is now the story of your age, Which without boast you may averre 'Fore blackest danger, glory did prefer : Glory not purchast by the breath Of sycophants, but by encountring death. Yet wiJdnesse nor the feare of lawes Did make you fight, but justice of the cause. For but mad prodigals they are Of fortitude, who for it selfe love warre* When well made peace had clos'd the eyes Of discord, sloath did not your youth surprise. Your life as well as powre, did awe The bad, and to the good was the best law : Yv r hen most men vertue did pursue In hope by it to grow in fame like you. PART SECOND. 251 Nor when you did to court rcpaire, Did you your manners alter with the ayre. You did your modesty retainc, Your faithfull dealing, the same tongue and brainc: Nor did all the soft llattery there Inchant you so, but still you truth could hcare : And though your roofes were richly guilt, The basis was on no ward's mine built : Nor were your Tassals made a prey, And forc't to curse the coronation day. And though no bravery was knowne To outshine yours, you onely spent your owne. For 'twas the indulgence of Fate, To give y' a moderate minde, and bounteous state : But I, my lord, who have no friend Of fortune, must begin where you doe end. 'Tis dangerous to approach the fire Of action ; nor is't safe, farre to retire. Yet better lost i'th' multitude Of private men, than on the state V intrude, And hazard, for a doubtfull smile, My stocke of fame, and inward peace to spoile. He therefore nigh some murm'riug brooke That wantons through my meddowes, with a bookc, 252 CASTARA. With my Castara, or some friend, My youth, not guilty of ambition, spend. To my owne shade (if fate permit) I'le whisper some soft musique of my wit ; And flatter so my selfe, I'le see By that, strange motion steale into the tree. But still my first and chiefest care Shall be V appease offended Heaven with prayer * Aikd in such mold my thoughts to cast, That each day shall be spent as 'twere my last. How ere it's sweete lust to obey, Vertue, though rugged, is the safest way. PART SECOND. 253 AN ELEGY UPON THE HONOURABLE HENRY CAMBELL, SONNE TO THE EARLE OF All.* It's false arithmaticke to say thy breath Expir'd too soone, or irreligious death Prophan'd thy holy youth. For if thy yeares Be number'd by thy vertues, or our teares, Thou didst the old Methusalem out-live. Though time but twenty years' account can give Of thy abode on Earth, jet every houre Of thy brave youth, by vertuc's wondrous powre, Was lengthen'd to a yeare. Each well-spent day Keepes young the body, but the soule makes gray. * Argylc. 254 CASTARA. Such miracles workes goodnesse : and behind Th'ast left to us such stories of thy minde Fit for example, that when them we read, We en vie Earth the treasures of the dead. Why doe the sinfull riot, and survive The feavers of their surfets ? Why alive Is yet disorder'd greatnesse, and all they Who the loose lawes of their wilde blood obey ? Why lives the gamester, who doth blacke the night With cheats and imprecations ? Why is light Looked on by those whose breath may poyson it: Who sold the vigour of their strength and wit To buy diseases : and thou, who faire truth And vertue didst adore, lost in thy youth ? But Tie not question fate. Heaven doth con- veigh Those first from the darke prison of their clay Who are most fit for Heaven. Thou in warre Hadst ta'ne degrees, those dangers felt, which are The props on which peace safely doth subsist, And through the cannon's blew and horrid mist PART SECOND. 255 Iladsf brought her light : And now wert so com- pleat That naught but death did want to make thee great. Thy death was timely then bright soule to thee, And in thy fate thou sulfcr'dst not. 'Twas we Who dyed, rob'd of thy life : in whose increase Of reall glory, both id warre and peace, Wo all did share : and thou away we feare Didst with thee the whole stocke of honour beare. Each then be his owne mourner. Wee'lc to thec Write hymncs, upon the world an elegie. 228 CASTARA. TO CASTARA. AY hy should we feare to melt away in death ? May we but dye together. When beneath In a coole vault we sleepe, the world will prove Religious, and call it the shrine of love. There, when o' th' wedding eve some beauteous maid, Suspitious of the faith of man, hath paid The tribute of her vowes, o' th' sudden shee Two violets sprouting from the tombe will see; And cry out, " Ye sweet emblems of their zeale Who live below, sprang ye up to reveale The story of our future joyes, how we The faithfull patterns of their love shall be ? If not; hang downe your heads opprest with dew, And I will weepe and wither hence with you." TART SECOND. 25? TO CASTARA, OF WHAT WE WERE BEFORE OUR CREATION. \\ hen Pelion wondring saw that raine, which fell But now from angry Heaven, to heavenward swell : When th' Indian ocean did the wanton play, Mingling its billowes with the Balticke sea, And the whole earth was water : O where then Were we Castara? In the fate of men Lost underneath the waves ? Or to beguile Heaven's justice, lurkt we in Noah's floating isle? We had no being then. This fleshly frame ? Wed to a soule long after, hither came A stranger to it selfc. Those moneths, that were But the last age, no news of us did heare. What pompe is then in us? Who th' other day Were nothing ; and in triumph now, but clay, s 258 CASTARA. TO THE MOMENT LAST PAST. O whither dost thou five ? cannot my tow Intreat thee tarry ? Thou wert here but now, And thou art gone; like ships which plough the sea, And leave no print for man to tracke their way. O unseene wealth ! who thee did husband^ can Out-^ie the jewels of the ocean, The mines of th' earth ! One sigh well spent in thee Had beene a purchase for eternity ! We will not loose thee then. Castara, where Shall we finde out his hidden sepulcher ? And wee'le revive him. Not the cruell stealth Of fate shall rob us of so great a wealth ; Vndone in thrift ! while we besought his stay. Ten of his fellow moments fled away. PART SECOND. 259 TO CASTARA, OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF LOVE, \V here slecpes the north-wind 08 when the south inspires Life in the spring, and gathers into quires 63 Where sleepes the jiorth-ivincl. This elegant little poem was, perhaps, suggested by a passage in Propertius. Lib. 3. El. 4. Me juvat in prima coluisse Helicona juventa : &c. It is my joy, that flush'd with prime of youth I sought the groves of Helicon; and twin'd My hands in dances with the muses' quire: It is my joy, that in the flowing grape My mind is captive held, and evermore The vernal rose in wreaths my brow : when Time Has intercepted love, and white old age Sprinkled my hair, it then may please to learn The ways of Nature : what directing power 260 CASTARA, The scatter'd nightingales ; whose subtle eares Heard first th' harmonious language of the spheares ? Whence hath the stone magneticke force V allure Th' enamourd iron? from a seed impure Or naturali did first the mandrake grow ? What powre i' th' ocean makes it ebbe and flow ? What strange materials is the azure skye Compacted of? of what it's brightest eye The ever flaming Sunne ? what people are In th' unknowne world ? what worlds in every star ? Let curious fancies at this secret rove ; Castara> what we know wee'le practise — love. Tempers the fabric of this universe : How rises and how sets the monthly moon, And with bent horns encreases to its full ; Whence ride the winds above the salt sea-surge ; And the strong East takes with his sudden blast The moving waters : whence perpetual rains Hang in the clouds ; if ere a day will come, That shall o'erturn the piilars of the world ; Or why th' impurpled bow imbibes the shower. PAR* SECOND. 261 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESSE OF C/ 9 Madam, Should the cold Muscovit, whose furrc and stove Can scarse prepare him heate enough for love. But view the wonder of your presence, he Would scorn his winter's sharpest injury : And trace the naked groves, till he found bayse To write the beautious triumphs of your prayse. As a dull poet even he would say, Th' unclouded Sun had never showne them day " 69 Countesse of C. Possibly, the Countess of Carlisle : a celebrated beauty and wit of that time, whom Waller has paneygyrised in hi* poems. 262 CASTARA. Till that bright minute ; that he now admires No more why the coy Spring so soone retires From their unhappy clyme ; it doth pursue The Sun, and he derives his light from you. Hee'd tell you how the fetter'd Baltick sea Is set at freedome, while the yce away Doth melt at your approach ; how by so faire Harmonious beauty, their rude manners are Reduc't to order ; how to them you bring The wealthiest mines below; above, the Spring. Thus would his wonder speake, For he would want Religion to beleeve, there were a saint Within, and all he saw was but the shrine. But I here pay my vowes to the devine Pure essence there inclos'd, which if it were Not hid in a faire cloud 3 but might appeare In its full lustre, would make Nature live In a state equall to her primitive. But sweetly that's obscur'd. Yet through our eye Cannot the splendour of your soule descry In true perfection, by a glimmering light Your language yeelds us, we can guesse how bright IMRT SECOND. The Sunnc within you shines, and curse th' unkind Eclipse, or else our selves for being blinde. How hastily doth Nature build up man To leave him so imperfect ? For he can See nought beyond his sence; she doth controule So farre his sight, he ne're discern'd a soule. For, had yours beene the object of his eye, It had turn'd wonder to idolatry. I 264 CASTARA. THE HARMONY OF LOVE. Amphion, O thou holy shade ! Bring Orpheus up with thee : 70 ?° Bring Orpheus up with thee. The idea of calling up the shades of the minstrels of old is familiar to the readers of Milton. But oh sad virgin ! that thy power Might raise Musseus from his bower; Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as, warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto Vcheek. Il Penseroso. That Orpheus' self may heave the head From golden slumber, on a bed Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear Such strains, as would have won the ear Of Pluto. L'Allegro. FART SECOND. 265r That wonder may you bo(h invade, Hearing love's harmony. You who are soule, not rudely made Vp with materia 11 cares, And lit to reach the musicke of these sphcarcs. Harke ! when Castara's orbs doc move By my first moving eyes. How great the symphony of love! But 'tis the destinies Will not so farre my prayer approve, To bring you hither, here Lcs$ you meete heaven, for Elizium there, 'Tis no dull sublunary flame Burnes in her heart and mine. But some thing more, than hath a name, So subtle and divine, We know not why, nor how it came; Which shall shine bright, till she, And the whole world of love, expire with me. 266 CASTARA. TO MY HONOURED FRIEND SIR ED, P. KNIGHT. 1 ou'd leave the silence in which safe we are, To listen to the noyse of warre; And walke those rugged paths the factious tread ? Who, by the number of the dead, Reckon their glories, and think greatnesse stood Vnsafe, till it was built on blood. Secure i' th' wall our seas and ships provide (Abhorring war's so barb'rous pride, And honour bought with slaughter) in content Let's breathe, though humble, innocent. Folly and madnesse ! Since 'tis ods we ne're See the fresh youth of the next yean* : r ART SECOND. *67 Perhaps not the chast inornc her selfe disclose Againe, t'out-blush th' aemulous rose : Why doth ambition so the mind distrcsse To make us scornc what we possesse, And looke so farre before us, since all we Can hope, is varied misery? Coc find some whispering shade nearc Arne or Poe, And gently 'mong their violets throw Your weary'd limbs, and see if all those faire Enchantments can charme gricfo or care. Our sorrowes still pursue us ; 71 and when you The ruin'd capitol shall view, 71 Our sorrows siill pursue us. The sentiment is from Horace. Od. 1G. lib. 2. Quid terras alio calentes Sole mutamus ? &c. To climates warm'd by other suns In vain the wretched exile runs ; Flies from his country's native skies, But never from himself he Hies. Corroding cares incessant charge His flight, and climb his armed barge : Far fleeter than the tim'rous hind ; Far fleeter than tae driving wind. Dr, Francis. 268 CASTARA. And statues, a dlsorder'd heape ; you can Not cure yet the disease of man, And banish your owne thoughts. Go trarailc where Another Sun and starres appeare, And Jand nottoucht by any covetous fleet. And yet even there your selfe youle meete. Stay here then, and while curious exiles iind New toyes for a fantastinue mind. Enjoy at home what's real!: here the Spring By her aeriall quires doth sing As sweetly to you, as if you were laid Vnder the learn'd Thessalian shade. 7 * So also in od. 1. lib. 3. Sed timor et mirspe Scandunteodem quo dorainns, &c. Pale menaces, and black despair, This haughty lord shall find Overtake his armed gain's speed r Anfl when he mounts the flying steed Sits gloomy care behind. Dr. Francis. 72 The learn d Thessalian shade. The laurel groves, on the banks of the river Peneus, PA11T SECOND. 269 Direct your eyc-sight inward, and you'le find A thousand regions in your mind Vet undiscovered. Travcll them, and be Expert in home cosmographie. This you may doe safe both from rocke and shelfe : Man's a whole world within himselfe. which flowed through the vale of Tempe in Thessaly : the scene of the fabled metamorphosis of Daphne : and there- fore sacred to Apollo, the patron of letters. 270 CASTARA. TO CASTARA. Cjive me a heart, where no impure Disorder'd passions rage ; Which jealousie doth not obscure. Nor vanity t' expence ingage ; Not wooed to madnesse by queint oathes, Or the fine rhetoricke of cloathes ; "Which not the softnesse of the age To vice or folly doth decline ; Give me that heart (Castara) for 'tis thine. Take thou a heart, where no new looke Provokes new appetite ; With no fresh charme of beauty tooke, Or wanton stratagem of wit ; Not idly wandring here and there, Led by an am'rous eye or eare ; Aiming each beautious marke to hit ; PART SECOND. 271 Which vertuc doth to one confine : Take thou that heart, Castara, for 'tis mine. And now my heart is lodg'd with thee, Observe but how it still Doth listen, how thine doth with me ; And guard it well, for else it will Runne hither backe ; not to be where I am, but 'cause thy heart is here. But without discipline, or skill, Our hearts shall freely 'tweene us move ; Should thou or I want hearts, wce'd breathe by love. ' 272 CASTARA. TO CASTARA. OF TRUE DELIGHT. Why doth the eare so tempt the voyce. That cunningly divides the ayre ? Why doth the pallate buy the choyce Delights o' th' sea, to enrich her fare ? As soone as I my eare obey, The eccho's lost even with the breath; And when, the sewer takes away ; I'me left with no more taste than death. Be curious in pursuite of eyes To procreate new loves with thine ; Satiety makes sence despise What superstition thought divine. PART SECOND. 273 QuickC fancy ! how it mockcs delight ! As we conceive, things are not such The glow-worme is as warmc as bright, Till the deceitfull flame we touch. When I have sold my heart to lust, And bought repentance with a kisse ; I find the malice of my dust, That told me Hell contained a blisse. The rose yeelds her sweetc blandishment Lost in the fold of lovers' wreathes ; The violet enchants the scent, When earely in the spring she breathes. But winter comes, and makes each ilowre Shrinke from the pillow where it growes : Or an intruding cold hath powre To scorne the perfume of the rose. Oursences, like false glasses, show Smooth beauty, where browes wrinkled are* And makes the cosen'd fancy glow; Chaste vertue's onely true and fairc. 274 CASTARA. TO MY NOBLEST FRIEND, I. c. ZSQUIRE* SlR, 1 hate the countrie's durt and manners, jet I love the silence ; I embrace the wit And courtship, flowing here in a full tide, But loathe the expence, the vanity and pride. No place each way is happy. Here I hold Commerce with some, who to my eare unfold (After a due oath ministred) the height And greatnesse of each star shines in the state, The brightnesses the eclypse, the influence. With others I commune, who tell me whence The torrent doth of forraigne discord flow : Relate each skirmish, battle, overthrow, PART SIXCTKD. Soone as they happen : and by rote can tell Those Germane townes, even puzzle me to spell. The crosse, or prosperous fate, of princes they Ascribe to rashncsse, cunning, or delay ; And on each action comment, with more skill Than upon Livy, did old Matchaviil. O busie folly ! Why doe I my braine Perplex with the dull pollicies of Spaine, Or quickc designes of France : Why not rcpaire To the pure innocence o' th' country ayre, And neighbour thee, deare friend? Who so dost give Thy thoughts to worth and vertue, that to lire Blest, is to trace thy waves. There might not we Arme against passion with philosophic; And by the aide of leisure, so controule What-ere is earth in us, to grow all soule? Knowledge doth ignorance ingender, when W^e study misteries of other men, And forraigne plots. Doe but in thy owne shade (Thy head upon some ilowry pillow laide, Kinde Nature's huswifery) contemplate all His stratagems, who labours to inthral The world to his great master, and youle finde Ambition mocks it selfe, and grasps the wind. 276 castarA. Not conquest makes us great. Blood is too deare A price for glory : Honour doth appeare To statesmen like a vision in the night. And jugler-like works o' th' deluded sight, Th' unbusied onely wise: for no respect Indangers them to errour ; they affect Truth in her naked beauty, and behold Man with an equall eye, not bright in gold Or tall in title : so much him they weigh As vertue raiseth him above his clay. Thus let us value things : and since we had Time bends us toward death, let's in our mind Create new youth ; and arme against the rude Assaults of age ; that no dull solitude O' th' country dead our thoughts, nor busie care O' th' towne make us not thinke, where now we are And whether we are bound. Time nere forgot His journey, though his steps we numbered not. PART SF.COM). '277 TO CASTARA. WHAT LOYERS WILL SAY WHEN SHE AND HE ARE DEAD, I wonder when w' arc dead, what men will say ; Will not poore orphan lovers weepe The parents of their loves decay, And envy death the treasure of our sleepe ? Will not each trembling virgin bring her fcares To th' holy silence of my vrne ? And chide the marble with her teares, 'Cause she so soone faith's obsequie must mourne ? For had Fate spar'd but Araphill (she'le say) He had the great example stood, And forc't unconstant man obey The law of love's religion, not of blood ? 278 CAStXfcX. And youth, by female perjury betraid. Will to Castara's shrine deplore His injuries, and death obrayd, That woman lives more guilty than before. For while thy breathing purified the ayre, Thy sex (heele say) did onely moie By the chaste influence of a fairc, Whose vertue shin'd in the bright orbe of love, Now woman like a meteor, vapour'd forth, From dunghills, doth amaze our eyes ;- Not shining with a reall worth But subtile her black errours to disguise. This will they talke, Casiara, while our dust In one dark vault shall mingled be : The world will fall a prey to lust, When love is dead ? which hath one fate with me* TART SECOND. 279 TO HIS MUSE, Here*" virgin fix thy pillars, and command They sacred may to after ages stand l:i witness of love's triumph. Yet will we, Casfara, find new worlds in poetry, And conquer them. Not dully following those Tame lovers, who dare cloth their thoughts in prose. But we will henceforth more religious prove, Concealing the high mysteries of love From theprophane. Harmonious Jike the sphearcs Our soules shall move, not reacht by humane eares. That musicke to the angels, this to fame, I here commit. That when their holy ilame True lovers to pure beauties would rehearse, They may invoke the genius of my verse. * An allusion, probably, to the pillars of Hercules : (he boundaries of his labours. The ancient name given to Calpe and Abyla, the two mountains on the opposite coasts of Spain and Africa : now the straits of Gibraltar. Castara* •PART THE THIRD. A FRIEND Is a man. For the free and open discovery of thoughts to woman can not passe without an over licentious famili- arity, or a justly occasion'd suspition : and friendship can neither stand with vice or infamie. He is vertuous, for love begot in sin is a mishapeu monster, and seldome out- lives his birth. He is noble, and inherits the vertues of all his progenitors ; though happily unskiifull to blazon his paternall csate ; so little should nobility serve for story, but when it encourageth to action. He is so va- liant, feare could never be listned to, when she whispered danger; and yet fights not* unlesse religion confirmes the quarrel lawful!. He submits his actions to the govern- ment of vertue, not to the wilde decrees of popular opinion ; and when his conscience is fully satisfied, he cares not how mistake and ignorance interpret him. He hath so much fortitude he can forgive an injurie ; and when hee hath overthrowne his opposer, not insult upon his weaknesse. Hee is an absolute governor; no des^ trover of his passions^ which he employes to the noble A FRIEND. 283 increase of vertue. He is wise, for who hopes to rcape a harvest from the sands, may expect the perfect offices of friendship from a foole. He hath by a liberall educa- tion heene softened to civility ; for that nigged honesty Mime rude men professe, is an indigested chaos ; which may contain the seedes of goodnesse, but it wants forme and order. lie is no flatterer; but when he findes his friend any way imperfect, he freely but gently informes him ; nor yet shall some few errours cancell the bond of friendship ; beca he remembers no endeavours can raise man above his frailety. He is as slow to enter into that title, as he is to forsake it ; a monstrous vice must disoblicge, because an extraordinary vertue did first unite; and when he parts, he doth it without a duell. He is neither effemi- nate, nor a common courtier ; the first is so passionate a doater upon himselfe, hee cannot spare love enough to be justly named friendship ; the latter hath his love so diffusive among the beauties, that man is not considerable. He is not accustomed to any sordid way of gaine, for who is any way mechanicke, will sell his friend, upon more profitable termes. He is bountiful), and thinkes 110 treasure of fortune equal to the preservation of him he loves ; vet not so lavish, as to bay friendship and perhaps afterwards finde himselfe overscene in the pur- chase. He is not exceptious, for jealousie proceeds from weaknesse, and his vertues quit him from suspitions. He freely gives advice, but so little peremptory is his opi* c 284 A FRIEND. nion that he ingeniously submits it to an abler judgement, He is open in expression of his thoughts, and easeth his melancholy by inlargingit; and no sanctuary preserves so safely, as he his friend afflicted. He makes use of no engines of his friendship to extort a secret j but if com- mitted to his charge, his heart receives it, and that and it come both to light together. In life he is the most amia- ble object to the soule, in death the most deplorable. Part €.\)ivt)r i in: funerals of the honourable, my BE9T FRIEND AND KINSMAN, GEORGE TALBOT, ESQUIRE. ELEGIE I. J were malice to thy fame, to weepe alone, And not enforce an universall groane From ruinous man, and make the world complaine : Yet Pie forbid my griefe to be prophane In mention of thy prayse ; Pie speake but truth, Tet write more honour than ere shin'd in youth. 286 CASTARA, I can relate thy businesse here on Earth, Thy mystery of life, thy noblest birth Out-shin'd by nobler vertue : but how farre Th' hast tane thy journey ? bove the highest star, J cannot speake, nor whether thou art in Commission with a throne, or cherubin. Passe on triumphant in thy glorious way, Till thou hast reacht the place assign'd : we may, Without disturbing the harmonious spheares, Bathe here below thy memory in our teares. Ten dayes are past, since a dull wonder seised My active soule : loud stonnes of sighes are rais'd By empty griefes; they, who can utter it, Doe not vent forth their sorrow, but their wit. I stood likeNiobe, without a groane, Congeal'd into that monumentall stone That doth lye over thee : I had no roome For witty griefe, fit onely for thy tombe. And friendship's monument thus had I stood ; But that the flame, I beare thee^ warm'd my blood With a new life. Pie, like a funerall fire, But burne a while to thee, and then expire. PART THIRD. 287 ELEGIE II. 1 albot is dead. J. ike lightning, which no part O' th' body touches, but first strikes the heart, This word hath nmrder'd me. There's not in all The stockc of sorrow any charme can call Death sooner up : For musiquc's in the breath Of thunder, and a sweetnesse even i' th' death That brings with it, if you with this compare All theloude noyses, which torment the ayre. They cure (physitians say) the element Sicke with dull vapours, and to banishment Confine infections ; but this fatall shreeke, Without the least redress, is uiter'd like The last daye's summons, when Earth's trophies lye A scatter'd heape, and time it selfe must djQ t 288 CASTAHA. What now hath life to boast of ? Can I have A thought lesse darke than th' horrour of the grave, Now thou dost dwell below ? Wer't not a fault Past pardon, to raise fancie 'bove thy vault ? Hayle sacred house in which his reliques sleep ! Blest marble give me leave V approach, and weepe These vowes to thee ! for since great Talbot's gone Downe to thy silence, I commerce with none But thy pale people ; and in that confute Mistaken man, that dead men are not mute. Delicious beauty, lend thy flatter'd eare Accustomed to warme whispers, and thou'It hcare How their cold language tels thee, that thy skin Is but a beautious shrine, in which black sin Is idoliz'd ; thy eyes but spheares where lust Hath its loose motion ; and thy end is dust. Great Atlas of the state, descend with me But hither, and this vault shall furnish thee With more avisos, than thy costly spyes, And show how false are all those mysteries Thy sect receives; and though thy pallace swell With envied pride, 'tis here that thou must dwell. It will instruct you, courtier, that your art Of outward smoothnesse and a rugged heart PART Til I III). 289 But chcatcs your selfc, and all those subtill wayes You tread to greatnesse, is a fatall maze Where you yourselfe shall loose; for though you breath Vpward to pride, your center is beneath. And 'twill thy rhetorick, false flesh ! confound, Which flatters my fraile thoughts, no time can wound This unarm'd frame. Here is true eloquence Will teach my soule to triumph over sencc, Which hath its period in a grave, and there Showes what are all our pompous surfets here. Great orator ! deare Talbot ! Still to thee May I an auditor attentive be, And piously maintaine the same commerce We held in life ! and if in my rude verse I to the world may thy sad precepts read, 1 will on Earth interpret for the dead. 290 CASTARA. ELEGIE III. -Let me contemplate thee (faire soule) and though I cannot tracke the way, which thou didst goe In thy ccelestiall journey, and my heart Expansion wants, to thinke what now thou art, How bright and wide thy glories; yet I may Remember thee, as thou wert in thy clay. Best object to my heart ! what vertues be Inherent even to the least thought of thee ! Death, which to th' yig'rous heate of youth brings feare In its leane looke, doth like a prince appeare, Now glorious to my eye, since it possest The wealthie empyre of that happie chest Which harbours thy rich dust ; for how can he Be thought a bank'rout that embraces thee I TART THIRD. 291 Sad midnight whispers with a greedy t »arc I catch from lonely graves, in hope to heare Newes from the dead ; nor can pale visions fright His eye, who since thy deatli feeles no delight In man's acquaintance. "MenVry of thy fate Doth in me a sublimer soule create ; And now my sorrow followes thee, \ tread Thcmilkic way, and see the snowie head Of Atlas farre below, while all the high Swolnc buildings seeme but atoms to my eye. l'me heighten'd by my ruinc ; and while I Wecpe ore the vault where thy sad ashes lye, My soul with thine doth hold commerce above; Where we disceme the stratagems, which love, Hate, and ambition, use, to cozen man ; So fraile that every blast of honour can Swell him above himselfe, each adverse gust Him and his glories shiver into dust. How small secmes greatnesse here ! How not a span His empire, who commands the Ocean ! Both that, which boasts so much it's mighty ore, And th'other, which with pearle hath pav'd its shore. 292 -CASTARA. Nor can it greater seeme, when this great All For which men quarrell so, is but a ball Cast downc into the ayre to sport the starres : And all our generall mines, mortall warres, Depopulated states, caus'd by their sway ; And man's so reverend wisedome but their play. From thee, deare Talbot, living I did learne The arts of life, and by thy light discerne The truth which men dispute : but by thee dead I'me taught, upon the world's gay pride to tread : And that way sooner master it, than he To whom both th' Indies tributary be* PART TIITRD. 293 ELE6IE V. JVIy name, deare friend, even thy expiring breath Did call upon : affirming that thy death Would wound my poor sad heart. Sad i( must be Indeed, lost to all thoughts of mirth in thee. My lord, if I with licence of your teares, (Which your great brother's hearse as diamonds wcares T' enrich death's glory) may butspcake my ownc ; I'le prove it, that no sorrow e're was knowne Iteall as mine. All other mourners kecpe In griefe a method : without forme I wecpe. The sonne (rich in his father's fate) hath eyes Wet just as long as are the obsequies. The widow formerly a ycare doth spend In her so courtly blackes. But for a friend We weepe an age, and more than th' anchorit, hare Our very thoughts confin'd within a grave. 294 CASTARA. Chast love who hadst thy tryumph in my flame, And thou Castara ! who hadst had a name, But for this sorrow, glorious ; now my verse Is lost to you, and onely on Talbot's herse Sadly attends : and till Time's fatal hand Ruines what's left of churches, there shall stand* There to thy selfe, deare Talbot, I'le repeate Thy owne brave story ; tell thy selfe how great Thou wert in thy minde's empire, and how all Who out-live thee, see but the funerall Of glory: and if yet some vertuous be, They but weake apparitions are of thee. So settled were thy thoughts, each action so Discretely ordered, that nor ebbe nor flow Was e're perceiv'd in thee ; each word mature, And every sceane of life from sinne so pure, That scarce in its whole history we can Finde vice enough, to say thou wert but man, Horrour to say thou wert ! Curst that we must Addresse our language to a little dust. And seeke for Talbot there ! Injurious fate, To lay my life's ambition desolate ! Yet thus much comfort have I, that I know Not how it can give such another blow. PART THIRD. 295 ELEGIE V Oiiast as the nun's first tow, as faircly bright As when by death her soul shines in full light Freed from th' eclipse of Earth, each word that came From thee (dearc Talbot) did beget a (lame T' enkindle vertue : which so fairc by thee Became, man, that blind mole, her face did see. But now to our eye she's lost ; and if she dwell Yet on the Earth, she's confin'd in the cell Of some cold hermit, who so keeps her there, As if of her the old man jealous were : Nor ever showes her beauty, but to some Carthusian, who even by his vow, is dumber. %96 CASTARA. So 'raid the jce of the farre northern sea, A starre about the articke circle may Than ours yeeld clearer light ; yet that but shall Serve at the frozen pilot's funerall. Thou (brightest constellation) to this maine Which all Ave sinners trafhque on, didst daigne The bounty of thy fire, which with so cleare And constant beanies did our frayle vessels steer e That safely we, what storm so e're bore sway, Past o're the rugged Alpes of th' angry sea. But now we sayle at randome. Every rocke The folly doth of our ambition mocke. And splits our hopes : to every syren's breath We listen, and even court the face of death, If painted o're by pleasure: every wave, If't hath delight, w' embrace, though 't prove a grave. So ruinous is the defect of thee, To th' undone world in gen'rall : but to me Who liv'd one life with thine, drew but one breath, Possest with the same mind and thoughts, 'twas death. And now by fate, I but my selfe survive, To keepe his mem'ry, and my gricfes alire, PART THIRD. 1<)7 Where shall I then begin to weepc ? No grove Silent and darke, but is prophan'd by love : With his warme whispers, and faint idle fcares, His busie hopes, loud sighes, and caselesse teares Each care is so enchanted, that no breath Is listened to, which mockes report of death. Tic turne my griefe then inward, and deplore My ruine to my selfe, repeating ore The story of his virtues, until I Not write, but am my selfe his elcgie. 298 CASTARA. ELEGIE VI. Ooe stop the swift-wing'd moments in their flight To their yet unknowne coast, goe hinder night From its approach on day, and force day rise From the faire east of some bright beautie's eyes : Else vaunt not the proud miracle of Terse. It hath no power. For mine from his blacke herse Redeemes not Talbot, who cold as the breath Of winter, coffin'd lyes ; silent as death, Stealing on th' anch'rit, who eyen wants an eare To breathe into his soft expiring prayer. For had thy life bcene by thy vertues spun Out to a length, thou hadst ouUliv'd the Sunne, PART THIRD. 290 And clos'd tbe world's great eye : or were not all Our wonders fiction, from thy funerall Thou hadst received new life, and liv'd to be The conqueror o're death, inspired by me. But all we poets glory in, is vaine And empty triumph: Art cannot regainc One poore hourc lost, nor reskew a small flyc By a foole's finger destinate to dye. Live then in thy true life (great soule) for set At liberty by death, thou owest no debt T' exacting Nature : live, freed from the sport Of time and fortune, in yand' starry court A glorious potentate, while we below But fashion wayes to mitigate our woe. We follow campes, and to our hopes propose Th' insulting victor ; not rememb'ring those Dismembred trunkes, who gave him victory By a loath'd fate ; we covetous merchants be, And to our aymes pretend treasure and sway, Forgetfull of the treasons of the sea. The shootings of a wounded conscience We patiently sustain e, to serve our sence With a short pleasure ; so we empire gaine And rule the fate of btisiuessc \ the sad paine 300 CASTARA. Of action we contemne, and the affright Which with pale visions still attends our night. Our joyes false apparitions, but our feares Are certaine prophecies : and till our ears Reach that cselestiall musique, which thine now So cheerefully receive, we must allow No comfort to our griefes : from which to be Exempted, is in death to follow thee. fAKT THIRD. ."50 I KLEGIK VII. J here is no peace in sinne. TEfernall warr Doth rage 'mong vices. But all vertues are Friends 'mong themselves, and choisest accents be Harsh ccchos of their hea>enly harmonic. While thou didst live, we did that union finde In the so faire republick of thy mind, Where discord never swel'd. And as we dare Affirme, those goodly structures temples are, Where well-tuo'd quires strike zeale into the earc; The musique of thy soule made us say, there God had his altars ; every breath a spice, And each religions act a sacrifice. Bute! a ath that demolish't. All our eye Of chee now sees ; doth like a cittie lye 230 CASTARA. Ras'd by the cannon. Where is then that flame That added warmth and beauty to thy frame ? Fled heaven- ward to repaire, with its pure fire ? The losses of some raaim'd seraphick quire ? Or hovers it beneath, the world V uphold From generall mine, and expel that cold Dull humour weakens it ? If so it be, My sorrow yet must prayse Fate's charity. But thy example (if kinde Heaven had daign'd Frailty that favour) had mankind regain'd To his first purity. For that the wit Of vice might not except 'gainst th' anchorit As too, too strict ; thou didst uncioyster'd live : Teaching the soule by what preservative She may from sinnes contagion live secure, Though all the ayre she suckt in were impure. In this darke mist of errour, with a cleare Vnspotted light thy vertue did appearc T' obrayd corrupted man. How could the rage Of untam'd lust have scorcht decrepit age 9 Had it seene thy chast youth ? Who could the wealth Of time have spent in riot, or his health By surfeits forfeited, if he had seene What temperance had in thy dyet beene ? PART THIKD. What glorious foolc had vaunted honours bought By gold or practise, or by rapin brought From his fore-fathers, had lie understood How Talbot valued ootids own great blood? Had politicians scene him scorning more The unsafe pompc of greatnesse, than the poore Thatcht roofes of shepheards, where th' unruly wind (A gentler storme than pride) uncheckt doth find Still free admittance : their pale labours had Beetle to be good, not to be great and bad. But he is lost in a blind vault, and we Must not admire, though sinncs now frequent be And uncontroTd : since those faire tables, where The law was writ, by death now broken are, By d^ath extinguisht is that star, whose light Did shine so faithful 1, that each ship sayl'd ri^ht Which steer'd by that. Nor marvell then if wc (That failing) lost in this world's tempest be. But to what orbe so c're thou dost retyre, Far from our ken, 'tis blest, while by thy lire Enlighten'd. And since thou must never here Be scene againe, may I o're take thee there ! 304 CASTARA. ELEGIE VIII. i^oAST not the rev'rend Vatican, nor all The cunning pompe of the Escuriall : Though there both th' Indies met in each small room, Th' are short in treasure of this precious tombe. Here is th' epitome of wealth; this chest Is Nature's chief exchequer ; hence the East, When it is purified by th' gcnerall fire, Shall see these now pale ashes sparkle higher Than all the gems she vants : transcending far In fragrant lustre 73 the bright morning star. 13 Fragrant lustre. Perhaps from Ausonius. Twere doubtful if the blossoms of the rose Had robb'd the morning, or the morning those. PART THIRD. 305 'Tis true, they now sccmc darke : but rather we Have by a cataract lost sight, than he, Though dead, his glory. So to us blacke night Brings darknesse, when the sunne retains his light. Thou eclips'd dust ! expecting brcakc of day 'From the thicke mists about thy tombe, I'lc pay, Like the just larke, the tribute of my verse : I will invite thee from thy envious herse To rise, and 'bout the world thy bcames to spread, That we may see there's brightnesse in the dead. My zeale deludes me not. What perfumes come From th' happy vault ? In her sweet martyrdom* The nard breathes never so, nor so the rose, When the enamour'd Spring by kissing blowei Soft blushes on her cheeke, nor th' early East, Vying with Parad^ce, i' th' phoenix nest. These gentle perfumes usher in the day, Which from the night of his discolour'd clay Brcakes on the sudden : for a soule so bright Of force must to her earth contribute light. In dew, in tint the same, the star and flower ; For both confess the queen of beaut\'s power : Perchance their sweets the same : but this nvre nigh Exhales it* breath, aud that iinbelon the ?ky. X 306 CASTARA. But if w* are so far blind we cannot see The wonder of this truth, yet let us be. Not infidels : nor like dull atheists give Our selves so long to lust 5 till we believe T* allay the griefe of sinne) that we shall fall To a loath'd nothing in our funerall. The bad man's death is horror ; but the just Keepes something of his glory in his dust. Castara* PART THE FOURTH. A HOLY xMAN Is onely happie. For infelicity and sinne were borne twinnes ; or rather like some prodigie with two bodies, both draw and expire the same breath. Catholique faith is the foundation on which he erects religion ; knowing it a ruinous madnesse to build in the ayre of a private spirit, or on the sands of any new schisme. His impietie is not io bold to bring divinity downe to the mistake of reason, ©r to deny those misteries his apprehension reacheth not. His obedience moves still by direction of the magistrate : and, should conscience informe him that the command is unjust, he judgeth it neverthelesse high treason by re- bellion to make good his tenets ; as it were the basest cowardize, by dissimulation of religion, to preserve tem- porall respects. Hee knowes humane pollicie but a crooked rule of action : and therefore by a distrust of his own knowledge attaines it: confounding with supernatu- ral! illumination, the opinionated judgment of the wise. A HOLY MAN', 309 In prosperity he gratefully admiras the bounty of the Almighty giver, a:id useth, not abuseth plenty: but in adversity he remaines unshaken, and like some eminent mountaine hath his head above the clouds. For his Iiap- pinesse is not, meteor-like, exhaled frum the vapours of this world ; but shines a fixt stane, which, when by mi>- fortune it appears to fall, onely casts away the sliraie matter. Poverty he neither feares nor covets, but cheere- fully entertaines; imagining it the fire which tries vertue : nor how tyrannically soever it usurpe on him, doth he pay to it a sigh or wrinckle ; for he who sutlers want without reluctancie, may be poore not miserable. He sees the covetous prosper by usury, yet waxetli not leane with cnvie : ami when the posteritie of the impious flou- rish, he questiones not the divine justice ; for temporall rewards distinguish not ever the merits of men : and who hath beene of councel with the ./Cternall ? Fame he weighes not, but esteemes a smoake, yet such as carries with it the sweetest odour, and riseth usually from the sacrifice of our best actions. Pride he disdaines, when he findes it swelling in himselfe ; but easily forgiveth it in another : Nor can any man's errour in life make him sinne in censure, since seldome the folly we condemne is so culpable as the severity of our judgement. He doth not malice the over-spreading growth of his aequalls : but pitties, not despiseth the fall of any man : esteeming yet no storme of fortune dangerous, but what is rais'd through ©ur owne demerit.. When he lookes on other's vices, he 310 A HOLY MAN". values not himselfe virtuous by comparison, but examines his owne defects, and findes matter enough at home for reprehension. In conversation his carriage is neither plausible to flattery, nor reserved to rigour : but so de- meanes himselfe as created for societie. In solitude he remembers his Letter part is angelical!; and therefore his minde practiseth the best discourse without assistance of inferiour organs. Lust is the basiliske he fives, a serpent of the most destroying venome : for it blasts all plants with the breath, and carries the most murdering artillery in the eye. He is ever merry, but still modest : not dissolved into undecent laughter, or tickled with wit scurrilous or injurious. He cunningly searcheth into the vertues of others, and liberally commends them : but buries the vices of the imperfect in a charitable silence, whose manners he reformes not by invectives but example. In prayer he is frequent, not apparent : yet as he labours not the opinion, so he feares not the scandall of being thought good. He every day travailes his meditations up to Heaven, and never findes himself wearied with the journey ; but when the necessities of nature returne him downe to Earth, he esteemes it a place he is condemned to. Devotion is his mistresse on which he is passionately enamour'd : for he hath found the most soveraigne anti- dote against sinne, aud the onely balsome powerful to cure those wounds hee hath receavM through frailety. To live he knowes a benefit, and the contempt of it ingratitude, and therefore loves, but not doates on life. Death how K HOLY MAN. 311 deformed soever an aspect it weares, he is not frighted with: since it not annihilates, but uncloudes the soule. lie therefore stands every moment prepared to dye : and though he freely yeelds up himselfe, when age or sick- nesse summon him ; yet he with more alacritie puts off his earth, when the profession of faith crownes him a martyr. part Jrouttk DOMINE LABIA MEA APERIFS; .Noe monument of me remaine, My mem'orie rust In the same marble with my dust, Ere I the spreading laurell gaine, By writing wanton or prophane. Ye glorious wonders of the skies, Shine still, bright starres, Th' Almightie's mystick characters ! I'le not your beautious lights surprize^ T' illuminate a woman's eyes. DAVID* 314 CAST All A. Nor, to perfume her veines, will I, In each one set The purple of the violet : The untoucht flowre may grow and dye Safe from my fancie's injurie. Open my lippes, great God ! and then He soare above The humble flight of carnall love : Vpward to thee He force my pen, And trace no path of vulgar men. For what can our unbounded soules Worthy to be Their object finde, excepting thee ? Where can I fixe ? since time controules Our pride, whose motion all things roules. Should I my selfe ingratiate T' a prince's smile, How soone may death my hopes beguile ? And should I farme the proudest state, I'me tennant to uncertaine fate. PART FOUUTU. 315 If I court gold, will it not rust ? And if my love Toward a female beauty move, How will that surfet of our lust Distast us, when resolv'd to dust? But thou, yEternall banquet ! where For ever we May feede without satietie ! "Who harmonie art to the eare! Who art, while all things else appeare ! While up to thee I shoote my flame. Thou dost dispence A holy death, that murders sence ; And makes me scorne all pompes, that ayme At other triumphes than thy name. It crownes mc with a victory So heavenly, ail That's earth from me away doth fall ; And I, from my corruption free. Grow in my vowes even part of thee. 316 CASTARA. VERSA EST IN LUCTUM CYTHARA ME A. IOB. JLove ! I no orgies sing Whereby thy mercies to invoke : Nor from the East rich perfumes bring To cloude thy altars with the precious smoake. Nor while I did frequent Those fanes by lovers rais'd to thee> Did I loose heathenish rifes invent. To force a blush from injur'd chastitie. Religious was the charme I used, affection to intice : And thought none burnt more bright or warme ; Yet chaste as winter was the sacrifice. PART FOURTH. 317 But now I thee bequeath To the soft silken youths at court : Who may their witty passions breath, To raise their mistrcssc' smile, or make her sport, They'le smooth thee into rime, Such as shall catch the wanton care : And win opinion with the time, To make them a high sayle of honour beare. And may a powerful! smile Cherish their flatteries of wit! While I my life of fame beguile, And under my owne vine uncourted sit. For I have seen the pine, . Famed for its travels ore the sea, Broken with stormes and age decline, And in some creek unpittied rot away. I have scene canlars fall, And in their roome a mnshrome grow : I have secne comets, threatning all, Vanish themselves : I have seene princes so. 318 CASTARA. Vaine triviall dust ! weake man ! Where is that vertue of thy breath, That others save or ruine can, When thou thy selfe art cal'd t' account by Death ? When I consider thee, The scorne of Time, and sport of Fate ; How can I turne to joliitie My ill-strung harpe, and court the delicate ? How can I but disdaine The emptie fallacies of mirth ; And in my midnight thoughts retaine, How high so ere I spread^ my root's in earth ? — Fond youth ! too long I play'd The wanton with a false delight ; Which when I toucht, I found a shade; That onely wrought on th' errour of my sight. Then since pride doth betray The soule to flatter'd ignorance : I from the world will steale away. And by humility my thoughts advance. PAUT FOURTH. 319 PERDAM SAP1ENTIAM SAPIENTLM. TO THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD WINDSOR. 47 My Lord, -T orgive my cnvie to the world, while I Commend these sober thoughts, perswade you fly The glorious troubles of the court. For though The vale lyes open to each overflow, ?* The Lord Windsor. Thomas, sixth Lord Windsor. He was rear-admiral in thai fleet, sent by king James to bring prince Charles out of Spain. At which time he nobly entertained on ship- board the grandees of that court; hid equipage and expeuces standing him in no less than =£15,000. A person of a most free and generous spirit, much accomplished with learning, 320 CASTARA. And in the humble shade we gather ill And aguish ayres ; yet lightnings oftner kill O' th' naked heights of mountaines, whereon we May haye more prospect, not securitie. For when, with losse of breath, we have orecome Some steepe ascent of power, and forc'd a roome On the so envi'd hill, how doe our hearts Pant with the labour, and how many arts More subtle must we practise, to defend Our pride from sliding, than we did V ascend ? How doth successe delude the mysteries, And all th' involv'd designements of the wise ? How doth that power, our pollitickes call chance, Racke them, till they confesse the ignorance Of humane wit ? Which, when 'tis fortified So strong with reason, that it doth deride All adverse force, o' th' sudden findes its head Intangled in a spider's slender thread. especially antiquities, and sundry useful observations by bii (ravels through France, Italy, and other foreign parts. He married Catherine, daughter to Edward, Earl of Worcester ; (Lord Privy seal,) and died without issue, Dec. 6. 1642. Collins s Peerage? VoU iv. PART FOURTH. 32 [ Coclestiall Providence ! how thou dost mocke The boast of earthly wisdome ! On some rocke When man hath rcar'd a structure, with such art It doth disdaine to tremble at the dart Of thunder, or to shrinke, oppos'd by all The angry winds, it of it selfe doth fall, Ev'n in a calme so gentle, that no ayre Breaths loud enough to stirre a virgin's Iiaire! But, misery of judgement! Though past time, Instruct us by th' ill fortune of their crimes, And show us how we may secure our state From pittied ruine, by another's fate; Yet we, contemning all such sad advice, Pursue to build, though on a precipice. But you (my lord) prevented by foresight To engage your selfe to such an unsafe height, And in your selfe both great and rich enough, Refused V expose your vessell to the rough Vncertaine sea of businesse : whence even they, Who make the best returne, are fore'd to say : " The wealth we by our worldly traffiquc gaine Weighs light, if ballanc'd with the feare or paine." 322 CASTARA. PAUCITATEM DIERUM MEORUM NUNCIA MIHI. I BAVIB. Tell me, O great All-knowing God ! What period Hast thou unto my dayes assign'd ? Like some old leafelesse tree, shall I Wither away, or violently Fall by the axe, by lightning, or the wind : Heere, where I first drew vitall breath, Shall I meete death ? And finde in the same vault a roome Where my fore-fathers' ashes sleepe ? Or shall I dye, where none shall weepe My timelesse fate, and my cold earth intombe r PART FOURTH. 323 Shall I 'gainst the swift Parthians fight. And in their flight Receive my death r Or shall I see That envied peace, in which we are Triumphant yet, disturb'd by warre, And perish by th' invading enemie ? Astrologers, who calculate Vncertaine fate, Aflirme my scheme doth not presage Any abridgement of my dayes : And the physitian gravely sayes, I may enjoy a reverent length of age. But they are jugglers, and by slight Of art the sight Of faith delude : and in their schoole They onely practise how to make A mistery of each mistake, And teach strange words credulity to foole, For thou, who first didst motion give., Whereby things live, And time hath being, to conceale 324 CASTARA. Future events didst thinke it fit ; To checke th' ambition of our wit, And keepe in awe the curious search of zeale. Therefore, so I prepar'd still be, My God, for thee, O'th' sudden on my spirits may Some killing apoplexie seize. Or let me by a dull disease, Or weakened by a feeble age, decay. And so I in thy favour dye, No memorie For me a well-wrought tombe prepare: For if my soule be 'mong the blest, Though my poore ashes want a chest, I shall forgive the trespasse of my heire. PART FOURTH. 325 NON NOBIS DOMINE. DAVID. JN o marble statue, nor high Aspiring pyramid, be rais'd To lose its head within the skie : What claim have I to memory ? God, be thou onely prais'd ! Thou in a moment canst defeate The mighty conquests of the proude. And blast the laurels of the great : Thou canst make brightest glorie set 0> th' sudden in a cloude. 326 CASTARA. How can the feeble workes of art Hold out 'gainst the assault of stormes ? Or how can brasse to him impart Sence of surviving fame, whose heart Is now resolv'd to wormes ? Blinde folly of triumphing pride ! iEternitie why buildst thou here? Dost thou not see the highest tide Its humbled streame in th' ocean hide, And nere the same appeare ? That tide which did its banckes ore-flow. As sent abroad by th' angry sea To levell vastest buildings low. And all our trophes overthrow, Ebbes like a theefe away. And thou, who to preserve thy name, Leav'st statues in some conquer'd land j How will posterity scorne fame, When th' idoll shall receive a maime, And loose a foot or hand ? PART FOURTH. 3Z7 How wilt thou hate thy warrcs, when he, Who onely for his hire did raise Thy counterfct in stone, with thee Shall stand competitor, and be Perhaps thought worthier praise? No laurell wreath about my brow ! To thee, my God, all praise, whose law The conquer'd doth and conqueror bow ! For both dissolve to ayre, if thou Thy influence but withdraw. 328 CASTARA. SOLUM MIHI SUPEREST SEPULCHRUM, IOB, W elcome, thou safe retreate ! Where th' injured man may fortifie ^Gainst the invasions of the great : Where the leane slave, who th' ore doth plye ? Soft as his admirall may lye. Great statist ! 'tis your doome, Though your designes swell high and wide, To be contracted in a tombe ! 75 75 To be contracted in a tomb. This ode is in the spirit of Horace. Od. 18. lib.2» Tu secanda rcarmora, &c. PART FOURTH. And all your happie cares provide But for your heire authorized pride. Nor shall your shade delight I'th' pon.pc of your proud obsequies : And should the present flattcrie write A glorious epitaph, the wise Will say, " The poet's wit here lyes." But you, with thoughtless pride elate, Unconscious of impending fate, Command the pillar'd dome to rise, When lo ! thy tomb forgotten lies. Dr. Francis, Extructus in altum Divitiis, &c. Od. 3. lib. 2. You must, my Dellius, yield to fate, And to your heir these high-pil'd treasures leave., Id. JEqua. tellus Pauperi recluditur, &c. — Od. 18. lib. 2. For earth impartial entertains Her various sons ; and in her breast Princes and beggars equal rest. Id. 330 CASTARA, How reconciPd to fate Will grow the aged villager, When he shall see your funerall state ! Since death will him as warme inter As you in your gay sepulchre* The great decree of God Makes every path of mortals lead To this darke common period : For what by wayes so ere we tread, We end our journey 'mong the dead. Even I, while humble zeale Makes fancie a sad truth indite, Insensible away doe steale : And when 1'me lost in death's cold night. Who will remember, now I writer PART FOURTH. 331 ET FUGIT VELLT UMBRA. IOB. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD KINTYRE.™ My Lord, J hat shadow your faire body made, So full of sport, it still the mimick playde. ™ The Lord Kintyre, James, son of Archibald, 7th Earl of Argvle, by his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis, was created Lord Kintyre by James VI. in 1622; and by King Charle> I. dignified with the title of Earl of Irvine; by letters patent, bearing date 1642. Collins. 332 CASTARA. Ev'n as you mov'd and look'd, but yesterday So huge in stature, night had stolne away : And this is th' emblem of our life : to please And flatter which, we sayle ore broken seas, Vnfaithfull in their rockes and tides ; we dare All the sicke humours of a forraine ayre, And mine so deepe in earth, as we would trie To unlocke Hell, should gold there hoarded lie- But when we have built up an aedlfice T' outwrastle time, we have but built on ice : For firme however all our structures be, Polisht with smoothest Indian ivory, Rais'd high on marble, our unthankfull heire Will scarce retaine in memory, that we w r eree Tracke thro' the ay re the footsteps of the wind, And search the print of ships saiPd by ; then finde Where all the glories of those monarchs be, Who bore such sway in the worlds infancie. Time hath devour'd them all: and scarce can Fame Give an account, that ere they had a name. How can he, then, who doth the world controle, And strikes a terrour now in either pole, PART FOURTH. 333 Th' insulting Turke, secure himself, that he Shall not be lost to dull posterity ? And though the superstition of those times, Which defied kings to warrant their owne crimes, Translated Caesar to a starre ; yet they, Who every region of the skic survay, In their ccclestiall travaile, that bright coast Could nere discover, which containes his ghost. And after death to make that awe survive Which subjects owe their princes yet alive, Though they build pallaces of brasse and jet, And keepe them living in a counterfet, The curious looker on soone passes by, And findes the tombe a sicknesse to his eye. Neither, when once the soule is gone, doth all The solemne triumph of the funerall Adde to her glory, or her paine release : Then all the pride of warre, and wealth of peace For which we toil'd, from us abstracted be, And onely serve to swell the history. These are sad thoughts (my lord) and such a*: fright The easie soule, made tender with delight. 334 CASTARA. Who thinkes that he hath forfetted that houre, Which addes not to his pleasure or his powre. But by the friendship which your lordship daignes Your servant, I have found your judgement raignes Above all passion in you : and that sence Could never yet demolish that strong fence Which vertue guards you with : by which you are Triumphant in the best, the inward warre. PART FOURTH. 335 NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCJENTIAM. DAVID, When I survay the bright Coelestiall spheare : So rich with jewels hung, that night Doth like an Ethiop bride 77 appeare: My soule her wings doth spread, And heaven-ward flies. W Like an Mthiop bride. Perhaps suggested by Shakspeare — Romeo and Juliet : A.l, S. 5, Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of Night Like a rich jewel in an yEthiop's ear, 336 CASTARA. The Almighty's mysteries to read In the large volumes of the skies. For the bright firmament Shootes forth no flame So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Contracts its light Into so small a character, RemoY'd far from our humane sight. But if we stedfast looke We shall discerne In it, as in some holy booke, How man may heavenly knowledge learne. It tells the conqueror, That farre-stretcht powre. Which his proud dangers traffique for, Is but the triumph of an houre. That, from the farthest North ? Some nation may PART FOURTH. 337 Yet undiscovered issue forth, And ore his new got conquest sway, Some nation, yd shut in With hils of ice, May be let out to scourge his sinne, Till they shall equall him in vice. And then they likewise shall Their ruine have ; For as your selves your empires fall, And every kingdom hath a grave. Thus those coelestiall fires, Though seeming mute, The fallacie of our desires, And all the pride of life, confute. For they have watch t since first The world had birth : And found sinne in it sclfe accurst, And nothing permanent on Earth. 338 PART FOURTH. ET ALTA A L6NGE COGNOSCIT. DAVID. 1 o the cold humble hermitage (Not tenanted but by discoloured age. Or youth enfeebled by long prayer, And tame with fasts) th' Almighty doth repaire. But from the lofty gilded roofe, Stain'd with some pagan fiction, keepes aloofe. Nor the gay landlord daignes to know, Whose buildings are like monsters but for show. Ambition ! wither wilt thee climbe, Knowing thy art the mockery of time? Which, by examples, tells the high Rich structures, they must, as their owners, dye : PART FOURTH. .'I.'JD And, while they stand, their tennants are Detraction, Flatt'ry, Wantonnesse, and Care, Pride, Ernie, Arrogance, and Doubt, Surfet, and Ease sfill tortured by the gout. O rather may I patient dwell In th' injuries of an ill covered cell ! 'Gainst whose too wcake defence the haile, The angry winds, and frequent shovvres prevail;* : Where the swift measures of the day Shall be distinguish t onely as I pray : And some starres solitary light Be the sole taper to the tedious night ! The neighboring fouutaine (not accurst Like wine with madnesse) shall allay my thirst ; And the wilde fruites of Nature give Dyet enough, to let me feele I live. You wantons! who impoverish seas, And th' ay re dispeople, your proud taste to please ! A greedy tyrant you obey, Who varies still its tribute with the day. What interest doth all the vaine Cunning of surfet to your sences gaine ; Since it obscure the spirit must, And bow the Hesh to sleepc, disease or lust? 340 PART FOURTH. While who, forgetting rest and fare, Watcheth the fall and rising of each starre. Ponders how bright the orbes doe move. And thence how much more bright the Heav'ns above, Where on the heads of cherubins Th' Almightie sits, disdaining our bold sinnes : Who, while on th' Earth we groveling lye, Dare in our pride of building tempt the skie. , PART FOURTH. 341 VNIVERSUM STATUM EJUS VERSASTI IN INFIRMITATE EJUS. DAVID. 4 My soule ! when thou and I Shall on our frighted death-bed lie, ' 8 Flatman, a now neglected poet of Charles the Second's time, has an ode on this subject ; which, as his poems are become scarce, I shall transcribe : and which merits preser- vation from its natural simplicity. Oh the sad day, When friends shall shake their heads, and say Of miserable me, 342 PART FOURTH. Each moment watching when pale Death Shall snatch away our latest breath. Hark how he groans ! look how he pants for breath ! See how he struggles with the pangs of death ! When they shall say of these poor eyes How hollow and how dim they be ! Mark how his breast doth swell and rise Against his potent enemy ! When some old friend shall step to my bed-side. Touch my chill face, and thence shall gently slide ; And, when his next companions say, " How doth he do ? What hopes ?" shall turn away ; Answering only with a lift-up hand, " Who can his fate withstand !" Then shall a gasp or two do more Than ere my Rhetoricke could before ; Persuade the peevish world to trouble me no more. Rochester says of Flatman ; Nor that slow drudge in swift Pindaric strain^, Jlatman ; who Cowley imitates with pains ; And rides a jaded Muse, whipt with loose rein«. Bat pindarics and pastorals were the rage of the times : and FJatman's were, probably, as good as those of his neighbours. He was, certainly, a favorite among the wits and poets of his •lay : and notwithstanding the contempt into which he has fallen, some of his pieces have merit. Pope, who distinguish- ed excellence, wherever found, had Flatman in view, when PA'RT FOURTH. 343 And 'Iwocne two long joy n'd lovers force An endlesse sad divorce : How wilt thou then, that art My rationall and nobler part, Distort thy thoughts ? How wilt thou try To draw from weake philosophic Some strength ; and flatter thy poore stato. 'Cause 'tis the common fate ? How will thy spirits pant And tremble, when they feele the want he wrote "The dying Christian to his soul:" but, perhaps, ashamed of his prototype, confessed only to Sappho and Adrian. When on my sick bed I languish Full of sorrow ; full of anguish : Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying, Panting, groaning, speechless, dying, My soul just now about to take her flight To the dark regions of eternal night. Flat man. Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying, Oh ! the pain, the bliss of'dying. Pops 344 PART FOURTH* Of th' usual organs, and that all The vitall powers begin to fall ? When 'tis decreed, that thou must goe. Yet whether, who can know ? How fond and idle then will seeme the niisteries of men ? How like some dull ill-acted part The subtlest of proud humaueart ? How shallow ev'n the deepest sea, When thus we ebbe away ? But how shall I (that is, My fainting earth) looke pale at this ? Disjointed on the racke of pain. How shall I murmur, how complaine ? And craving all the ayde of skill, Finde none but what must kill ? Which way so ere my griefe Doth throw my sight to court releefe^ I shall but meete despaire, for all Will prophesie my funerall : The very silence of the roome Will represent a tombe. PART FOLRTII. 345 And while my children's teares, My wivc's vaine hopes, but certaine feares. And councells of divines advance Death in each dolefull circumstance : I shall even a sad mourner be At my owne obsequie. For by examples I Must know that others' sorrowes dye Soone as our selves, and none survive To keepe our memories alive. Even our fals tombes, as loath to say We once had life, decay. 346 PART FOURTH. LAUDATE DOMIXUM DE C(ELIS. DAYID. You spirits ! who have throwne away That enveous weight of clay, Which your coelestiall flight denyed : Who by your glorious troopes supply The winged hierarchie, So broken in theangells' pride! O you ! whom your Creator's sight Inebriates with delight ! Sing forth the triumphs of his name. All you enamor'd soules ! agree TAltT FOURTH. 347 a 7 ■ - — ■ - ■ : ij j In a loud symphonic, To gWe expression to your flame. To him, his ownc great workes relate, Who daign'd to elevate You 'bovc the frailtie of your birth : "Where you stand safe from that rude warrc, With which we troubled are By the rebellion of our earth. While a corrupted ay re beneath Here in this world we breath, Each houre some passion us assailcs : Now lust casts wild-tire in the blood, Or, that it may seeme good. It selfe in wit or beauty vailcs. Then envie circles us with hate, And layes a siege so streight, No heavenly succour enters in : But, if revenge admittance finde, For ever hath the mind Made forfeit of itselfe to sinne. 348 PART FOURTH. Assaulted thus, how dare we raise Our mindes to thinke his praise, Who is asternall and immens ? How dare we force our feeble wit To speak him infinite., So farre above the search of sence ? O you ! who are immaculate, His name may celebrate In your soules' bright expansion : You whom your vertues did unite To his perpetual light, That even with him, you now shine one. While we, who V earth contract our hearts. And only studie arts To shorten the sad length of time : In place of joyes bring humble feares : For hymnes, repentant teares : And a new sigh for every crime. PART FOURTH. 349 QUI QUASI FLOS EGREDITUR. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, THE LADY CAT. T. Faire madam ! You May see what's man in yond' bright rose Though it the wealth of Nature owes, It is opprest, and bends with dew. Which showes, though fate May promise still to warme our lippes, 350 PART FOURTH. And keepe our eyes from an ecclips, It will our pride with teares abate. Poore silly fiowre ! Though in thy beauty thou presume, And breath which doth the spring perfume ; Thou may'st be cropt this very houre. And though it may Then thy good fortune be, to rest O'th pillow of some ladie's brest ; Thou'lt wither, and be throwne away. For 'tis thy doome However, that there shall appeare No memory that thou grew'st heere, Ere the tempestuous winter come. But flesh is loath By meditation to fore see How loath'd a nothing it must be : Proud in the triumphes of its growth. PART FOURTH. 351 And tamely can Behold this mighty world decay , And weareby th' age of time away : Yet not discourse the fall of man. But, madam, these Are thoughts to cure sicke humane pride ; And med'eines are in vaine applyed To bodies far 'bovc all disease. For you so live As th' angels, in one perfect state ; Safe from the ruines of our fate, By virtue's great preservative. And though we see Beautie enough to warme each heart $ Yet you, by a chaste chimicke art 5 Calcine fraile love to pietie. 352 PART FOURTH. QUID GLORIARIS IN MALICIA t DAVID. bwELL no more, proud man, so high ! For enthron'd where ere you sit, Rais'd by fortune, sinne, and wit, In a vault thou dust must lye. He, who's lifted up by vice, Hath aneighb'ring precipice Dazeliug his distorted eye* Shallow is that unsafe sea Over which you spread your saile : And the barke you trust to, fraile As the winds it must obey. PART FOURTH. 353 Mischiefe, while it prospers, brings : Favour from the smile of kings, Vselcss soone, is throwne away. Profit, though sinne it extort, Princes, even accounted good, Courting greatnessc, ncre withstood, Since it empire doth support : But, when death makes them repent, They condemne the instrument, And arc thought religious for't. Pitch'd downe from that height you beare, How distracted will you lye ; When your flattering clients flye As your fate infectious were ! When, of all th' obsequious throng That mov'd by your eye and tongue, None shall in the storme appcare ? When that abject insolence (Which submits to the more great, And disdaines the weaker state, As misfortune were offence) A a 354 PART FOURTtt. Shall at court be judged a crime Though in practise, and the time Purchase wit at your expence. Each small tempest shakes the proud ; Whose large branches rainely sprout >Bove the measure of the roote : But let stormes speake nere so loud 9 And th' astonisht day benight; Yet the just shines in a light Faire as noone without a cloud. PART FOURTH. 355 DELS DEUS MEUS. DAVID. Where is that foole philosophic, That beldam reason, and that beast dull sencc ; Great God ! when I consider thee 3 Omnipotent, aeternal, and imens ? Vnmov'd thou didst behold the pride Of th' angels, when they to defection fell ; And, without passion, didst provide, To punish treason, rackes and death in hell. Thy word created this great all, I'th' lower part whereof we wage such warres A a 2 356 FART FOURTH. The upper bright and sphaericall By purer bodies tenanted, the starres. And though sixe days it thee did please To build this frame ; the seventh for rest t' assigne : Yet was it not thy paine or ease, But to teach man the quantities of time. This world so mighty and so faire, So 'bove the reach of all dimension. If to thee God we should compare, Is not the slenderest atome to the Sun, What then am I, poore nothing, man! That elevate my voyce and speake of thee? Since no imagination can Distinguish part of thy immensitie ? What am I who dare call thee God ! And raise my fancie to discourse thy power : To whom dust is the period ; Who am not sure to farme this very houre? For how know I the latest sand In my fraile glasse of life, doth not now fall I And, while I thus astonisht stand, I but prepare for my owne funerall ? Death doth with man no order keepe ; PART FOURTH. 357 It reckons not by the cxpence of ycares ; But makes the queene and beggar wcepe, And nere distinguishes betwecne their teares. He, who the victory doth gaine, Falls, as he him pursues, who from him flyes, And is by too good fortune slainc. The lover in his amorous courtship dyes : 79 The states-man suddenly expires, While he for others ruinc doth prepare : And the gay lady, while sh' admires Her pride, and curies in wanton nets her haire. No state of man is fortified 'Gainst the assault of th' universall doome : But who th' Almighty feare, deride Pale Death, and meet with triumph in the tombe. "< 9 The lover in his amorous courlship dyes. These lines remind us of some figures in Holbein's groupes of the Danee of Death. Plates from this pauiting might have been ^een by Habington. 558 PART FOURTH. QUONIAM EGO IN FLAGELLA PARATUS SUM. DAVID. -T ix me on some bleake precipice. Where I ten thousand yeares may stand : Made now a statue of ice, 80 Then by the summer scorcht and tan'd: so Made now a statue of ice. Habington seems to have had in his mind the legendary hell of the monks: which supposed a transition from the ex- treme of heat to that of cold. Dr. Newton thinks the idea founded on a passage in Job, as it stands in the Latin vulgate ; 24. 19. Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium : " let him PART FOURTH. Place me alone in some fraile boate 'Mid th' horrours of an angry sea : u pass to excessive heat from waters of snow." But the des- cription of Milton, they feel, by turns, the bitter change Of fierce extremes ; extremes by change more fierce ; From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft etherial warmth, May have been suggested by Shakspeare : Measure for Measure, A. 3, S. 1. the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice : and again, in Othello, A. 5, Sc. 2. Blow me about in winds ; Wash me in steep-down gulphs of liquid fire. Mr. Todd, the erudite annotator of Milton, quotes the same circumstance in Dante Inf. C. 3. V. 86. I' vegno, per menarviall 'altra riva Nelle tenebre eterne, in caldo e'n gielo. It occurs also in " songs and sonnets of Lord Surrey and others :" Tormented all with fire ; and boyle in lead again ; Then cast in frozen pits To freeze : 360 PART FOURTH. Where I, while time shall move, may floate, Despairing either land or day : Or under earth my youth confine To th' night and silence of a cell : Where scorpions may my limbes entwine, O God ! So thou forgive me Hell. iEternitie ! when I thinke thee, (Which never any end must have, Nor knew'st begining) and fore-see Hell is design'd for sinne a grave ; My frighted flesh trembles to dust, My blood ebbes fearefully away : Both guilty, that they did to lust And vanity, my youth betray. My eyes, which from each beautious sight Drew, spiders-like, blacke venome in ; And in Heywood's " Hierarchic of Angels :" And sufferd, as they sinn'd, in wrath, inpp' Of frosts > of fires. PART FOURTH. 361 Close, like the marigold at night, Opprest with dew to bath my sin. i My cares shut up that easie dore, Which did proud fallacies admit : And vow to hear no follies more ; Deafc to the charmes of sin and wit , My hands (which when they toucht some fain Imagined such an excellence, As th* ermine's skin ungentle were) Contract themselves, and loose all sence. But you bold sinner ! still pursue Your valiant wickedncsse, and brave Th Almighty iustice : hee'le subdue, And make you cowards in the grave. Then, when he as your judge appeares, In vain you'le tremble and lament, And hope to soften him with teares, To no advantage penitent. j62 part fourth. Theu will you scorne those treasures, which So fiercely now you doate upon : Then curse those pleasures did bewitch You to this sad illusion. The neigh'ring mountaines, which you shall Wooe, to oppresse you with their weight, Disdainefull will deny to fall, By a sad death to ease your fate. In vaine some midnight storme at sea To swallow you, you will desire : In vaine upon the wheele youle pray Broken with torments to expire. Death, at the sight of which you start, In a mad fury then you'le court : Yet hate th' expressions of your heart. Which onely shall be sigh'd for sport. No sorrow then sh all enter in With pitty the great judges eares : This moment's ours. Once dead, his sin Man cannot expiate with teares. PART FOURTH. 363 MILITIA EST VITA IIOMINIS. TO SIR HEN. PER. Sir, Were it your appetite of glory, (which In noblest times did bravest soules bewitch To fall in love with danger), that now drawes You to the fate of warre ; it claimes applause : And every worthy hand would plucke a bough From the best spreading bay, to shade your brow, 364 PART FOURTH. Since you, unforc'd, part from your ladie's bed Warme with the purest love 5 to lay your head Perhaps on some rude turfe, and sadly feele The night's eold dampes, wrapt in a sheete of Steele. You leave your well grown woods, and meadows, which Our Severnedoth with fruitfull streames enrich ; Your woods, where we see such large heards of deere ; Your meades,whereon such goodly flockes appeare ; You leave your castle, safe both for defence ? And sweetly wanton with magnificence : With all the cost and. cunning beautified That addes to state, where nothing wants but pride. These charmes might hare bin pow'rfull to haye staid Great mindes resolv'd for action, and betraid You to a glorious ease : since to the warre Men by desire of prey invited are, "Whome either shine or want makes desperate, Or else disdaine of their own narrow fate. But you, nor hope of fame or a release Of the most sober goverment in peace. PART FOURTH. 365 Did to the hazard of the armic bring : Oncly a pure devotion to the king, In whose just cause whoever fights, must be Triumphant : since even death is victory. And what is life, that we to wither it To a weeke wrinckled age, should torture wit To find out Nature's secretes : what doth length Of time deserve, if we want heate and strength ? When a brave quarrell doth to armes provoke, Why should we fearc to venter this thin smoke, This em p tie shadow, life ? this, which the wise As the foole's idoll, soberly dispise ? Why should we not throw willingly away A game we cannot save, now that we may Gain honour by the gift? since, haply, when We onely shall be statue of men, And our owne monuments, peace will deny Our wretched age so brave a cause to dye. But these are thoughts: And action tisdoth give A soule to courage, and make virtue live : Which doth not dwell upon the valiant tongue Of bold philosophie ; but in the strong 366 PART FOURTH. Vndaunted spirit, which encounters those Sad dangers, we to fancie scarce propose. Yet 'tis the true and highest fortitude To keepe our inward enemies subdued : Not to permit our passions over sway Our actions, nor our wanton flesh betray The souls' chaste empire : for however we To th' outward shew may gaine a victory And proudly triumph, if to conquour sinne We combate not, we are at warre within, TART FOURTH. 307 VIAS TUAS DOMINE DEMONSTRA MIHI. ▼ there have I wandered ? In what way Horrid as night, Increast by storm, did I delight? Though my sad soule did often say T'was death and madnesse so to stray. On that false ground I joy'd to tread Which seem'd most faire, Though every path had a new snare, And every turning still did lead. To the darke region of the dead. 368 PART FOURTH. But with thesurfet of delight I am so tyred 5 That now I loath what I admired ; And my distasted appetite So 'bliors the meate, it hates the sight* For should we naked sinne descry, Not beautified By th ? ayde of wantonnesse and pride^. Like somemishapen birth 'twould ]je A torment to th' affrighted eye. But cloath'd in beauty and respect. Even ore the wise How powerful! doth it tyrannize : ^Vhose monstrous form should they detract They famine sooner would afreet. And since those shadowes which opresse My sight begin To clear, and show the shape of sialic^ A scorpion sooner be my guest. And warme his venome in my brest. PART FOURTH. 360 May I, before I grow so vile By sinnc agen, He throwne oiF as a scorne to men ! May th' angry world decree, V exsile Me to some yet unpeopled isle. Where, while I straggle, and in vainc Labour to findc Some creature that shall have a mindo, What justice have I to complaine, If I thy inward grace rctaine ? My God, if thou shalt not exclude Thy comfort thence, What place can seeme to troubled seuce So melancholly, darke, and rude, To be esteem'd a solitude? Cast me upon some naked shore, Where I may tracke Onely the print of some sad wracke ; If thou be there, though the seas roarc, I shall no gentler calme implore* Bb 370 PART FOURTH. Should the Cynimerians, whom no ray- Doth ere enlight, But gaine thy grace, th' hare lost their night: Not sinners at high noone, but they 'Mong their blind cloudes have found the day. PART FOURTH. 371 ET EXJLLTAVIT HUfolLEJ. How checrefully th' unpartiall Sunne Gilds with his beames The narrow streames O'th' brooke, which silently doth runne Without a name ? And yet disdaines to lend his flames To the wide channell of the Thames ? The largest mountaines barren lye, 81 And lightning feare^ Though they appeare si Hor. od. x. b. 2. the lightening flies. And mountain summits feel the flash. Bb2 372 PART FOURTH. To bid defiance to the skie ; Which in onehoure W'have seene the opening earth devoure, When in their height they proudest were* But th ? humble man heaves up his head Like some rich vale, Whose fruites nere faile, With flowres, with come, and Tines ore-spread: Nor doth complaine Ore-flowed by an ill season'd raine 3 Or batter'd by a storme of haile. Like a tall barke treasure fraught. He the seas cleere Doth quiet steere : But when they are V a tempest wrought : More gallantly He spreads his saile, and doth more higp* By swelling of the waves, appeare. For the Almighty joyes to force The glorious tide Of humane pride rART FOURTH. 373 To th' lowest ebbc ; lhatore his course (Which rudely bore Downe what oppos'd it heretofore) His feeblest encmie may stride, But from his ill-thatcht roofe he bring* The cottager, 82 And doth prcferrc Him to th' adored state of kings : He bids that hand, Which labour hath made rough and tan'd The all commanding scepter beare. Let then the mighty cease to boast Their boundlesse sway : Since in their sea Few sayle, but by some storme are lost. Let them themselves Beware for they are their owne shelves : Man still himselfe hath cast away. 82 Samuel, book 1. c. 2. " He lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set him among princes." 374 PART FOURTH. DOMINUS DOMINANTIUM. bvpREAME Divinitie ! Who yet Could eyer finde By the bold scrutinie of wit, The treasurie where thou lock'st up the wind : What majesty of princes can A tempest awe ; When the distracted Ocean Swells to sedition, and obeys no law ? PART FOURTH. 375 How wretched doth the tyrant stand Without a boast? When his rich fleete, even touching land, He by some storme in his owne port sees lost ? Vaine pompe of life ! what narrow bound Ambition Is circled with ? How false a ground Hath humane pride, to build its triumphs on ? And Nature ! how dost thou delude Our search, to know When the same windes, which here intrude, On us with frosts and onely winter blow, Breath temprate on th' adjoyning earth, And gently bring To the glad field a fruitfull birth, With all the treasures of a wanton spring. How diversly death doth assaile ; How sporting kill ! While one is scorcht up in the vale, The other is congeal'd o'th' neighboring hill. 376 PART FOURTH. While he with heates doth dying glow, Above he sees The other, hedg'd in with his snow, And envies him his ice 5 although he freeze. Proud folly of pretending art. Be ever dumbe, And humble thy aspiring heart, When thou findest glorious reason overcome. And you astrologers, whose eye Survays the starres, And offer thence to prophesie Successe in peace, and the event of warrcs. Throw downe your eyes upon that dust You proudly tread ! And know to that resolve you must ! That is the scheme where all their fate may read,, PART FOURTH. 377 COGITABO PRO PECCATO MEO. In what darkc silent grove, Profan'd by no unholy lore, Where witty melancholy ncre Did carve the trees or wound the ayrc, Shall I religious leisure winne, To weepe away my sinne ? How fondly have I spent My youthe's unvalued treasure, lent To traffique for coelestiall joyes ; My unripe ycares, pursuing toyes, Iudging things best that were most gay. Fled unobserv'd away. 378 PART FOURTH. Growne elder, I admired Our poets, as from Hearen inspired ; What obeliskes decreed I fit For Spencer's art, and Sydnye's wit ! But, waxing sober, soone I found Fame but an idle sound. Then I my blood obey'd, And each bright face an idoll made: Verse, in an humble sacrifice, I offer'd to my mistresse' eyes : But I no sooner grace did win, But met the devill within. But, growne more polliticke, 1 tooke account of each state tricke : Observ'd each motion ; judg'd him wise, Who had a conscience fit to rise : Whom soone I found but forme and rule, And the more serious foole. But now, my soule, prepare To ponder what and where we are ; fART FOURTH. 379 How fraile is life, how vaine a breath Opinion, how uncertaine death : How onely a poore stone shall beare Witncssc, that once we were. How a shrill trumpet shall Vs to the barre as traytors call : Then shall we see, too late, that pride Hath hope with flattery bely'd ; And that the mighty in command Pale cowards there must stand. 380 PART FOURTH. REC0GITAB0 TIBI OMNES ANNOS MIOS. ISTAY. J. ime ! where didst thou those yeares inter Which I have seene decease ? My soule's at war ; and truth bids her Finde out their hidden sepulcher. To give her troubles peace. Pregnant with flowers, doth not the spring Like a late bride appeare ? Whose fether'd musicke onely bring Caresses, and no requiem sing On the departed yeare ? PART FOURTH. 381 The earth, like some rich wanton hcire, Whose parents coftin'd lye, Forgets it once lookt pale and bare, And doth for vanities prepare, As the spring nere should dye* The present hourc, flattered by all, Reflects not on the last; But I, like a sad factor, shall T' account my life each moment call, And onely weepe the past. My mcm'ry trackes each severall way, Since reason did begin Over my actions her first sway : And teacheth me, that each new day- Did onely vary sin. Poore banckrout conscience ! 8J where are those Rich houres, but farm'd to thee ? S3 Poor banckrout conscience. An expression borrowed, perhaps, from Shakspeare : Romee and Juliet: A. 3. S. 2. Oh ! break iny heart ! poor bankrupt ! break at once. 382 PART FOURTH. How carelessely I some did lose, And other to my lust dispose. As no rent day should be ? I have infected with impure Disorders my past yeares ; But ile to penitence inure Those that succeed. There is no cure fl Nor antidote, but teares. PART FOURTH. 383 CUPIO DISSOLVI. P1ULE. I he soule, which doth with God unite, Those gayities how doth she slight Which ore opinion sway! Like sacred virgin wax, 84 which shines On altars or on martyrs' shrines, How doth she burne away ! 84 Like sacred virgin wax. Allusive to the massive tapers placed before the altars and 384 PART FOURTH. How violent are her throwes, till she From enyious earth delivered be, Which doth her flight restraine ? shrines in Roman Catholic churches. Habington, like Pope, is fond of alluding to the pomps of his religion. When he speaks, in a former poem, of the Almighty repairing to a hermitage, and keeping aloof from " the lofty, gilded roof, stain'd with some pagan fiction," he evidently points, not at a church, but at a splendid mansion ; of which the ceilings,, particularly in Habington's time, were frequently painted with stories from the pagan mythology. The gilded or painted roof, sanctified by religion, must have been associated with his earliest prepossessions, and devotional feelings. In the same poem, the image of the Almighty " sitting on the heads of the Cherubins" was, probably, copied from a painting on the walls of some Roman chapel ; when, in a former ode, " the marriage angel sees th' altar, in th' odour of their vow, breathe precious breath," the smoke of incense was certainly in his mind : his frequent allusions to the angelical hierarchy spring from the same impressions of pictured emblems ; and his fancy seems, always, to rest with pleasure on tapers, altars, and shrines. The ceremonials of the Romish church are, in fact, naturally attractive to a poetical imagination : and even Milton, the champion of a naked simplicity of worship, forgets the religionist in the poet : and as Warton well observes, is insensibly drawn aside to " the studious cloys- ters pale :" " the high embotced roof'" " the storied windows richly dig/it ;" the u pealing organ'" and the u full-voiced quire* r PART FOURTH. 385 How doth she doatc on whips and rackes, On fires, and the so dreaded axe, And every murd'ring paine ! How soone she leaves the pride of wealth, The flatteries of youth and health, And fame's more precious breath ; And every gaudy circumstance, That doth the pompe of life advance, At the approach of death ? The cunning of astrologers Observes each motion of the starres, Placing all knowledge there : And lovers in their mistresse' eyes Contract those wonders of the skies, And seekc no higher sphere. The wandring pilot sweatcs to find The causes that produce the wind, Still gazing on the pole ; The politician scornes all art, But what doth pride and power impart, And swells the ambitious soule. c c 386 PART FOURTH. But he, whome heavenly fire doth warme, And 'gainst these powerfull follies arme, Doth soberly disdaine All these fond humane misteries 5 As the deceitfull and unwise Distempers of our braine. He as a burden beares his clay ? Yet vainely throwesit not away On every idle cause : But, with the same untroubled eye. Can or resolve to live or dye, Regardlesse of th' applause. My God ! If 'tis thy great decree That this must the last moment be Wherein I breath this ayre ; My heart obeyes, joy'd to retreate From the false favours of the great, And treachery of thefaire. When thou shalt please this soule V enthrowne Above impure corruption, What should I grieve or feare, PART FOURTH. 387 To think this breathlesse body must Become a loathsome heape of dust, And nere again appcare ? For in the fire when ore is tryed, And by that torment purified, Doe Ave deplore the losse? And, when thou shalt my soule refine. That it thereby may purer shine, Shall I grieve for the drosse? Citulat 3lito# ♦ Part I.— The Mistress. 1» x\. Sacrifice - - • 49 2. To Casta ra praying - - - 52 3. To roses in the bosome of Castara - 53 4. To Castara, a vow - - - 57 5. To Castara, of his being in love - 59 6. To my honoured Friend, Mr. E. P. - 62 7. To Castara - - - -65 8. To Castara, softly singing to herselfe - 6S 9. To a Wanton - - - -73 10. To the honourable my much honoured friend R. B. Esquire - - 7G 11. To Castara, iuquiring why I loved her - 31 TITULAR INDKJl. 12. To Castara, looking upon him - 85 13. To the right honourable the Countesse of Ar .... 87 14. Upon Castara's frowne or smile - 89 15. In Castara, all fortunes - - 9V 16. Upon thought Castara may die - 92 17. Time to the moments, on sight of Castara 94 18. To a friend, inquiring her name, whom he loved - - - - 95 19. A dialogue between Hope and Feare - 97 20. To Cupid, upon a dimple in Castara's cheeke - # - - 99 SI. Upon Cupid's death and burial! in Cas- tara's cheeke - 101 22. To Fame - - - - 103 23. A dialogue betweene Araphill and Castara 104 24. To Castara, intending a journey into the countrey - - - 108 25. Upon Castara's departure - - 109 26. To Castara, upon a trembling kisse at departure - - - 110 27. On Castara, looking backe at her de- parting - - - - 112 28. Upon Castara's absence - - 114 TITULAR 1NDLX. 29. To Castara, complaining her absence in the country - - - 116 SO. To Thames - - - 117 31. To the right honourable the Earle of Shrewes - - - - 118 32. To Cupid, wishing a speedy passage to Castara - - - - 120 33. To Castara, of Loye - - 121 34. To the Spring, upon the uncertainty of Castara's abode - 122 35. To Reason, upon Castara's absence - 123 36. An answere to Castara's question - 124 37. To Castara upon the disguising his af- fection - 125 38. To the honourable my honoured kins- man Mr. G. T. - - 126 39. Eccho to Narcissus, in praise of Castara's discreete love - 128 40. To Castara being debarred her presence 125 41. To Seymors, the house in which Castara lived - - - - 131 42. To the dew, in hope to see Castara walk- ing - - - - 132 43. To Castara .... 134 TITULAR ItfDEX. 44. To Castara venturing to walke too farre in the neighbouring wood - - 135 45. Upon Castara's departure - - 136 46. A dialogue betweene Night and Araphil 138 47. To the right honourable the Lady E. P. 141 48. To Castara, departing upon the approach of Night - - - -145 49. An apparition - - - - 146 50. To the honourable Mr. Wm. E. - 147 51. To Castara, vanity of avarice - - 152 52. To my honoured friend and kinsman R. St. Esquire - - - 154 53. To the World ; the perfection of Love - 158 54. To the Winter - - - - 161 55. Upon a visit to Castara in the Night - 162 56. To Castara, of the Chastity of his Love - 163 57. The description of Castara - - 166 Part 2.— The Wife. 1. To Castara, now possest of her in mar- riage - - - - 173 2. To Castara, upon the mutual love of their majesties - 176 3. To Zephirus - - - .178 TlTn.AR. INDIA'. 4. To Castara, in a trance - - 1 80 5. To Death, Castara being sicke - - 1S1 6. To Castara, inviting licr to sleep - IS i 7. Upon Castara's recovery - - 185 8. To a friend, inviting him to a meeting up- on promise - - - 186 9. To Castara, where true happinesse abides 191 10. To Castara - - - - 102 11. To Castara, upon the death of a Lady - 194 12. To Castara, being to take a journey - 199 13. To Castara, weeping - 200 14. To Castara, upon a sigh - - 201 15. To the right honourable the Lady F. - 202 16. To Castara, against opinion - - 204 17. To Castara, upon beautie - - 205 18. To Castara, melancholly - - 206 19. A dialogue between Araphill and Castara 207 20. To the right honourable Henry Lord M. 210 21. To a tomb - - - - 214 22. To Castara, upon thought of age, and death - - - - 215 23. To the right honourable, the Lord P. - 216 24. His muse speakes to him - - 218 25. To vain hope - - - - 219 TITULAR INDEX. 26. To Castara, bow happy , though in an obscure fortune - - - 220 27. To Castara - 222 28. On the death of the right honourable George Earle of S. - - - 223 29. To my worthy cousin Mr. E. C. in praise of the city life, in the long vacation .... 227 SO. Love's aniversarie. To the Sunne - 230 31. Against them, who lay unchastitie to the sex of women - - - 231 32. Te the right honourable and excellently learned, William Earle of St. * 233 33. To Castara, upon an embrace - - 237 34. To the honourable G. T. - - 239 35. To Castara, the reward of innocent love - 242 36. To my noblest friend Sir I. P., knight - 244 37. To the right honourable Archibald, earl of Ar - - . 248 38. An Elegy upon the honourable Henry Cambell sonne to the Earl of Ar - 253 39. To Castara .... 228 40. To Castara, of what we were before our creation - 257 TITULAR INDEX. 41. To the moment hist past - 258 42. To ( tara, of the knowledge of love - 259 43. To the right honourable the Countesse of C. - 261 44. The hai 'inofty of Love - 264 45. To my honoured friend Sir Ed. P. kn ight 46. To Cast aim - - 266 47. To Castara, of true delight - 272 48. To my noblest friend i. C. Esquire - 274 49. To Castara, what lovers will say ? w hen she and he are dead - 277 50. To his muse - Pari III.— The Friend. - 279 1. Elegie 1 - 285 2. Elegie 2 - 287 m Elegie 3 - 290 4. Elegie 4 - 293 4. Elegie 5 . - 295 6. Elegie 6 - 298 7. Elegie 7 - 301 8. Eelgie 8 - 304 TITULAR INDEX. Part IV.— The Holy Man. 1. Domine, labia mea aperies - - 313 2. Versa est in luctum cythara mea ~ 316 3. Perdam sapientiam sapientum - - 319 4. Paucitatem dierum meorum nuncia mihi - 322 5. Non nobis, Domine - 325 6. Solum mihi superest sepulchrum - 328 7. Et fugit velut umbra - - - 331 8. ^Nox nocti indicat scientiam - - 335 9. v Et alta a longe cognoscit - ~ 338 10. Umrersum statum ejus yersasti in infirmi- tate ejus - - - 341 11. Laudate dominum de coelis - - 346 12. Qui quasi flos egreditur - - 349 13./Qaidgloriaris in malicia ? - ' - 352 14. Deus, Deus meus - 355 15. Quoriiamego in flagella paratus sum - 358 16. Militia est vita hominis - 363 17. Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi - 367 18. Et exaltavit humiles - - - 371 19. Do minus Dominantium - 374 20. Cogitabo pro peccato meo - - 377 21. Recogi&vbo tibi omnes annos meos - 380 22. Cupic dissolvi - 383 SUlpJjafcctiral Sfnfccjt, A MPIIION ! oh thou holy shade . 264 By those chaste lamps, which yeeid a >\\o\it light - - - -5? Banish'd from you, I charg'd the nimble wind 1 L 2 ( J Blest temple hail 5 where the chaste altar st an • i 3 1 Bright dew. v A the field adorn - 132 Bright Saint, thy pardon, if my sadder verse - 223 'Bout th' husband oke the vine - -2 Boast not the reverend Vatican, no: - 304 Check e thy forward thought .now - 97 Cupid's dead ; who would not dye - - 101 Castara, whisper in some dead man"- eaie - 1!J1 Castara. weep not, though her tombe appeare - 194 Castara. ALPHABETICAL INDEX. Castara, see that dust, the sportive wind - 205 Castara, you too fondly court - - 207 Chaste as the Nun's first vow, as fairly bright - 295 Doe not their prophane orgies heare - 65 Dost not thou, Castara, read - - 104 Dare not too farre, Castara, for the shade - 135 Did you not see, Castara, when the king - 176 Fond love himself hopes to disguise - 05 Fly on thy swiftest wing ambitious Fame - 103 Faire mistresse of the earth, with garlands crown'd - - - 122 Forsake me not so soone ; Castara, stay - 180 Forsake with me the earth, my faire - 192 Forgive my envy to the world, while I - 319 Fain, Madam, you - - -^355 Fix me oa some bleake precipice - - 358 Give me a heart, where no impure - - 266 Gee stop the swift-winged moments in their flight - - - .298 How fancie mockes me 3 by th' effect I prove - 121 A :.VU 1BCTIC VL INDEX. He, who is good, is happy : let the loude - 147 Harke ! how the traitor wind doth court - 152 Hence, prophape grim man, nor dare - 181 Hero, virgin, fix thy pillars and command 279 ilow cheerfully th' un partial sun - - 371 f saw Casta ra pray, and fiom the skie - 5S In \aino, faire sorceresse, thy eves speake charmes ... 7. c j If she should dye, as well suspect we may - 92 I am engag'd to sorrow, and my heart - 109 It shall not grieve me, friend, though what 1 write .. - -154 I heard a sigh, and something in my eare - 201 I like the greene plush, which your meadows weare - - 227 If your example be obey'd - -248 1 hate the countrey's dirt and manners, yet - 274 I wonder, when w' are dead, what men will say - , . 277 In what darke silent grove - - 377 Let the chaste Phoenix from the flowery East - 49 Learned shade of Tycho Brache. who to us - 89 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. Looke backe, Castara, from thy eye -112 Let silence close thy troubled eyes - - 138 Like the violet, which alone * - 166 Let not thy grones force Eccho from her ca\e - 239 Let me contemplate thee, faire soule, and though - - -290 Love, I no orgies sing - - - 316 My Muse* great lord, when last you heard her sing - - ~ 118 More welcome my Castara than was light - 146 May you drinke beare ; or that adulterate wine 186 My thoughts are not so rugged, nor doth earth 210 My name, deare friend, ey'n thy expiring breath 293 My soule, when thou and I 341 Not still i' th ? shine of kings ; thou dost retire 62 Nimble boy in thy warme flight - - 99 Nor monument of me remaine - - 313 Noe marble statue, nor high - - 325 Oh whither dost thou fly ? cannot my tow - 258 Pronounce rae guilty of a blacker crime - 125 68 tree Sleepe my ( i d to life ; anthrifty Death' - I Should t\ !l no more, m 3 so high - - 3b2 Suprcame Divinitie ! who yet - - .. isfix me with that flaming dart - 85 Th' Arabian wind, w ; iose breathing gently blows 110 'Tis madnesse to give physicke to the dead - 114 The lesser people of the aire conspire - 116 Thanks, Cupid, but the coach of Venus mores 120 'Tis I Casrara, who, when thou wert gone - 124 Thrice hath the pale-faced empress of the night 126 'Twas night; when Phoebe, guided by thy ray es 162 This day is ours; the marriage angel now - 173 Tyrant o're Tyrants, thou, Mho onely dost - 214 The breath of Time shall blast the flowery spring - - - 215 The reverend man, by magi eke of his prayer - 516 Thy rows are heard, and thy Castara's name - 218 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. Thou dreame of madmen, ever changing gale 219 Thou art return'd, greate light, to that blest houre ... 230 They meet but with unwholesome springs - 231 The laurel doth your reverenc temples wreath 233 Though my deare Talbot's fate exact a sad - 244 ? Tis false arathmaticke to say thy breath - 253 'Twere malice to thy fame to weep alone - 285 Talbot is dead ; like lightening, which no part 287 There is no peace in sinne : eternall war - 301 Tell me, oh greate all-knowing God - 322 That shadowe your faire body made - 331 To the cold humble hermitage - - 338 Time, where didst thou those years inter - 380 The soule, which doth with God unite - 383 Vowes are vaine : no suppliant breath - 136 Where am I ? not in heaven ; for oh ! I feele 59 While you dare trust the loudest tongue of fame 76 Why doth the stubborne iron prove - - 81 Wing'd with delight, yet such as still doth beare - - - 87 Why haste you hence, Castara, can the earth - 108 ALPHABKTICAL INDEX. With your calme precepts goo, and lay a storme ... 123 What shouldo we feare, Castara ? ihc cooleaire I 45 Why dost thou lookc so pale, decrepit man ? - 161 Why would you blush, Castara, When the name ... 163 Whose whispers, soft as those which lovers breathe - - - 178 What's death, more then departure : the dead £oe - - - 139 Why should we build, Castara, in the aire : - 204 Where but that sigh a penitentiall breath - 206 Were we, by fate, throwne down below our feare - - - 220 What can the freedom of our love enthrall - 222 We saw, and woo'd each others' eyes - 242 Why should we feare to melt away in death - 228 WhenPeiion wondering saw that rain which fell 257 Where sleepes the North winde, when the South inspires - - 259 Why doth the eare so tempt the voyce - 272 Welcome thou safe retreate - - 238 When I survey the bright - - 335 Where is that foole Philosophic alp: .t, ixd3X. Were it your appetite of glory, which - 353 Where have I wander d in what way - 367 Ye blushing virgins happse are - - S3 Ye glorious wits ! who iinde than Parian stcne 93 You, younger children of your father, stay - 94 Your judgment's cleare ; not wrinkled by the time - - - 14! You, who are earth, and cannot rise - 158 You saw our loves, and prais'd themutuall flame 202 You'd leave i e, in which safe we are - 241 You spirits ! who have throwne away - 3 40 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: March 2009 FreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724) 779-2111 '■' I \.-\