doubt you shall be much sought unto, for the world thinks I was very rich have a care to the fair pretences of men, for no greater misery can befall you in this life, than to become a prey unto the world, and after to be despised. I speak (God knows) not to dissuade you from marriage, for it will be best for you, both in respect of God and the world. As for me, I am no more yours, nor you mine; death hath cut us asunder, and God hath divided me from the world, and you from me. Remember your poor child for his father's sake, who loved you in his happiest estate. I sued for my life, but God knows it was for you and yours that I desired it for know it, my dear wife, your child is the child of a true man, who in his own respect despiseth death and his misshapen and ugly forms. I cannot write much; God knows how hardly I steal this time when all sleep; and it is also time for me to separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body, which living was denied you, and either lay it in Sherbourne, or Exeter church by my father and mother. I can say no more; time and death call me away. The everlasting God, powerful, infinite, and inscrutable God Almighty, who is goodness itself, the true light and life, keep you and yours, and have mercy upon me, and forgive my persecutors and false accusers, and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, farewell; bless my boy, pray for me, and let my true God hold you both in his arms. Yours that was, but now not mine own, WALTER RAleigh. LADY ELIZABETH CAREY.' Or the history of this lady, nothing satisfactory can be obtained. She wrote a tragedy, entitled "Mariam, the fair Queen of Jewry," written by that learned, virtuous, and truly noble lady, "E. C. 1613." It is written in alternate verse, and with a chorus after the manner of the Greek tragedians. She died probably some time in the reign of James the First. The following is the chorus in Act IV. of Mariam :— ON FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. For who forgives without a further strife, And 'tis a firmer conquest truly said, If we a worthy enemy do find, To yield to worth it must be nobly done; 1 Generally spelled Carew, but incorrectly. But if of baser metal be his mind, In base revenge there is no hono won We say our hearts are great and cannot yield; A noble heart doth teach a virtuous scorn, To scorn to be for benefits forborne, To scorn to lie, to scorn to do a wrong. To scorn to bear an injury in mind, To scorn a free-born heart slave-like to bind. But if for wrongs we needs revenge must have, And let our hate prevail against our mind? Had Mariam scorn'd to leave a due unpaid, Is virtuous pride. Had Mariam thus been proud, SAMUEL DANIEL. 1562-1619. We know but little of the personal history of Samuel Daniei. He was the son of a music master, and was born near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562. In 1579 he entered Oxford, and left it at the end of three years without taking his degree. Towards the close of his life he retired to a farm in his native county, and died in 1619. His most elaborate work is "The History of the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster," which is rather an uninteresting work, for the reason that you see in it more of the correctness of the annalist than the fancy of the poet. Sound morality, prudential wisdom, and occasional touches of the pathetic, delivered in a style of great perspicuity, will be recognised throughout his work; but neither warmth, passion, nor sublimity, nor the most distant trace of enthusiasm, can be found to animate the mass. some of his minor poems, especially his moral epistles, have great merit, abounding in original thought, expressed in clear, simple, and vigorous lan guage. A very discriminating and candid critic says, "We find both in his poetry and prose such a legitimate and rational flow of language, as ap proaches nearer the style of the eighteenth than the sixteenth century, and But of which we may safely assert, that it will never become obsolete. He cer tainly was the Atticus of his day." 1 EQUANIMITY. He that of such a height hath built his mind, Where greatness stands upon as feeble feet He looks upon the mightiest monarchs' wars Who puts it in all colors, all attires, To serve his ends, and make his courses hold. And whilst distraught ambition compasses, Thus, madam, fares that man, that hath prepared A rest for his desires; and sees all things Beneath him; and hath learn'd this book of man, The best of glory with her sufferings: By whom, I see, you labor all you can To plant your heart; and set your thoughts as near Epistle to the Countess of Cumberland. 1 Read-notices of Dantel in Headley's "Beauties of Ancient English Poetry;" in the Retrospective Review vill. 227 and in Drake's Shakspeare, 1. 611. RICHARD THE SECOND, The Morning before his Murder in Pomfret Castle. Or whether nature else hath conference Toss'd here and there his quiet to confound, The morning of that day which was his last, Out at a little grate his eyes he cast Upon those bordering hills and open plain, The more his own, and grieves his soul the more, O happy man, saith he, that lo I see, Other than what he is he would not be, Nor change his state with him that sceptre wields. Thou sitt'st at home safe by thy quiet fire, For pity must have part-envy not all. Thrice happy you that look as from the shore, No interest, no occasion to deplore Other men's travels, while yourselves sit free. How much doth your sweet rest make us the more Whose blinded greatness, ever in turmoil, Still seeking happy life, makes life a toil. Third Book of the Civil Wars GILES FLETCHER. 1588-1623 THIS truly pleasing Christian poet, the brother of Phineas Fletcher, who, m the words of old Antony Wood, "was equally beloved of the Muses and Graces," was born 1588. But very little is known of his life. He has, however, immortalized his name by that beautiful poem entitled, "Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death:" a poem which displays great sweetness, united to harmony of numbers. Headley styles it "rich and picturesque," and Campbell says, that "inferior as he is to Spen ser and Milton, he might be figured, in his happiest moments, as a link of connection in our poetry between those congenial spirits, for he reminds u of both, and evidently gave hints to the latter, in a poem on the same subject with Paradise Regained." REDEMPTION. When I remember Christ our burden bears, I look for joy, but find a sea of tears; I look that we should live, and find Him die; Thus what I look, I cannot find so well; Or, rather, what I find I cannot tell; These banks so narrow are, those streams so highly swell Christ suffers, and in this his tears begin; Suffers for us and our joy springs in this; That we in both might live by that sweet sacrifice. A tree was first the instrument of strife, A tree is now the instrument of life, Though ill that trunk and this fair body suit; That death to Him, this life to us doth give: Sweet Eden was the arbor of delight, Yet in his honey-flowers our poison blew; A man was first the author of our fall, 1 Specimens, vol. ii. p. 306. |