Of goodness still: vouchsafe to take Thereof to Time; That all posterity, as we, Who read what the Crepundia be, 'Bove rattling rhyme. For though that rattles, timbrels, toys, Of light expense; Surprise their sense. "Some (says Aubrey) suspected that she was poisoned. When her head was opened, there was found but little brain, which her husband imputed to her drinking of viper-wine; but spiteful women would say 'twas a viper-husband, who was jealous of her." This fact of the little brain is thus alluded to by Owen Feltham : "Yet there are those, striving to salve their own With respect to the insinuation noticed by Aubrey, it is probably a mere calumny. Sir Kenelm was distractedly fond of his lady, and, as he was a great dabbler in chemistry, is said to have attempted to exalt and perpetuate her beauty by various extracts, cosmetics, &c. to some of which, Pennant suggests, she might probably fall a victim: the better opinion, however, was that she died in a fit. Her death took place in 1633, when she was just turned of 32. She left three sons. VOL. IX. F Yet here are no such trifles brought, But here's a song of her descent; And call to the high parliament Of Heaven; where Seraphim take tent Of ordering all: This utter'd by an ancient bard, Who claims, of reverence, to be heard, To chant her 'gree, Is sung as als' her getting up, For such as she. II. THE SONG OF HER DESCENT. I sing the just and uncontroll'd descent That ever nature, or the later air, At either stem, and know the veins of good Run from your roots; tell, testify the grand Meeting of Graces, that so swell'd the flood Of Virtues in her, as, in short, she grew The wonder of her sex, and of your blood. And tell thou, Alde-legh, none can tell more true Thy niece's line, than thou that gav'st thy name Into the kindred, whence thy Adam drew Meschines honour, with the Cestrian fame Of the first Lupus, to the family By Ranulph The rest of this song is lost. III. THE PICTURE OF THE BODY. Sitting, and ready to be drawn, What make these velvets, silks, and lawn, Embroideries, feathers, fringes, lace, Where every limb takes like a face? Send these suspected helps to aid Yet something to the painter's view, Draw first a cloud, all save her neck, And men may think all light rose there. Then let the beams of that disperse The heaven design'd, draw next a spring, Last, draw the circles of this globe, But, painter, see thou do not sell IV. THE PICTURE OF THE MIND. Painter, you're come, but may be gone, • Four rivers branching forth, like seas, And Paradise confining these.] That could never be the case the land may be confined by the rivers, though not these by the land. And this the sacred historian tells us was the situation of Paradise; for confining, therefore, we must read, confin'd in these. WHAL. Whalley has prayed his pible ill, and the poet is a better scriptural geographer than the priest. The river that watered Paradise, branched into four heads immediately upon quitting it. Paradise therefore, was not inclosed by the four rivers; it merely touched them. Could my predecessor be ignorant that the primitive sense of confine, was to border upon? Not that your art I do refuse; You could make shift to paint an eye, No, to express this mind to sense, Sweet Mind, then speak yourself, and say, I call you, Muse, now make it true : A mind so pure, so perfect fine, There, high exalted in the sphere, 3 It moveth all; and makes a flight or soundless pit.] i. e. bottomless, that cannot be fathomed. WHAL. |